Chapter 3: S. L. U. T.

Alice found Cookie crying inside the gazebo. She went and cosseted the young college senior, putting her arms around the girl and pulling her to her half-nude body. Cookie only wore her bikini bottoms, too. Something was very wrong in her life to incite the crying jag.

“What’s wrong baby,” Alice asked as she rocked back and forth.

“Alan called me a slut,” she got out between sobs. “I ran away. We were on the front porch of the Phi Theta Rho house. I drove out here because I knew he’d think I was still on campus. I swam in the pool, but then got all teary.”

Alice smiled, “But I love you. I don’t think you’re that kind of slut. I think you’re MY kind of slut. You’re so nice and you have to adjust your thinking to what I sometimes call ‘Circle Thought’. Don’t you want to hear what that is?”

Cookie choked out, “Yeah, please.”

Alice pulled her into a hug again. “Slut. S. L. U. T. S is for sexuality. You are a woman who knows she is a sexual and attractive being. You know how to enjoy your body by sharing it with others you love and enjoy having others make love to you. How many others and who they are is up to you and no one else’s opinion matters. There is no judgment in the Circle about not enough or too many. Hell, some of us have done gangbangs just for fun to enjoy our lovers and friends and fucked a dozen guys or more in one evening session. I’ve done that. I even did it on film for one of my porn videos.”

Cookie looked up at Alice and sniffed, “Really?”

Alice nodded and went on, “L in the word slut is for loving. You are a loving person. You’ve already expressed your love for others in the Circle and we all know you’re extending that love to others as you get to know them. We can feel your caring, your empathy, and your compassion and desire to help each person achieve and surpass their potential. We want that for you too. We love you.

“U is for understanding. You are not content to drift and let the world slowly unfold in front of you. You want to know right NOW, how it works and how to make it better. You conceived of and are now taking the Circle 101 course, and Dave told me you were the most attentive person in the room. You suggested a revolutionary plan that will change the Circle and our homes in many ways; that’s great. You quest after understanding. Further, you want to understand the people you are developing relationships with. You know you need that understanding to be able to love them in the way that they’ll appreciate most.

“Lastly, T is for tolerance. You know that no one is perfect, but you are learning to cut them the slack they need to develop individually and achieve their potential. You are forgiving. You have a sense of grace towards others.

“Put them all together and they spell ‘SLUT’. I’m glad I’m one, and you should be, too. Don’t get too upset by people calling you names, especially if they’re using judgment criteria outside the gates of the Circle.”

Cookie sniffed, “I guess I’m not being very tolerant of what Alan said, am I? I didn’t even give him a chance to explain. His comment came out of no place.”

Alice kissed Cookie’s temple. “You might want to give him a chance to explain. He’s also very interested in the Circle and professes to have many of the prerequisite attitudes and points of appreciation that we do. Why don’t you ask him?”

Cookie straightened up and took a large but shuddery breath. “Thank you, I will.”

Alice pulled her out, “Come and let me get you a drink. I suggest wine, but I don’t want to get you loopy before you drive or talk to Alan.”

“Wine is good. I don’t drink to excess. Been there; done that; have the bad memory and stained clothing to prove it. Did it at my first fraternity party when I was a freshman. I thought death would have been a better alternative to how I ended up the next morning.”

Alice walked Cookie out to the bar, went behind the unit, and retrieved an already open bottle of Chardonnay from the bar refrigerator. She poured them both drinks. Alice got Cookie talking about some of her courses and about attending graduate school at the university.

Cookie told her about learning some of the architectural software products in one course, and how she could even use her laptop and do all the homework rather than have a large computer screen the way seasoned architects did. She also talked about how Jack Anders had taken her as a fledgling architect under his wing, and had declared himself to be her mentor and sponsor, an important aspect of her career as she moved forward since she needed real experience to ultimately get her license.

After about an hour at the bar, a couple of others arrived, including Christie, freshly back from a Friday afternoon study group session.

Close behind the new arrivals came Alan looking morose and on the verge of tears. Alice noticed Cookie stiffen. She said to her, “Seek to understand, be tolerant, and remain loving.” Cookie nodded.

Alan came up, “Honey, I’m so sorry ... I didn’t mean for what I said to impact you like that. I never got my full statement out. It was something I learned here.”

Cookie said, “I didn’t like being called a slut that way. I applied the usual standard used around campus to what you were calling me.”

Alan shook his head, “That’s not what I was meaning.” He gestured to Christie who was sitting two chairs over. “I learned a different meaning for the term. I was trying to remember all the parts when you bolted from the porch. I was so shocked I froze. When I ran after you, you were long gone. I went to your apartment, but you weren’t there. I thought maybe you’d come here.”

Christie came closer to the group.

Cookie said, “And what did you intend to say?”

“I wanted to say that hanging around the Circle would turn you into a slut; someone sensitive about their sexuality, someone who’s loving, a person that seeks to understand before reacting; and someone that is tolerant of others and the situations that unfold.”

Christie immediately spoke, “We did talk about that a couple of weeks ago. It was right before Alan wanted to get you involved in the Circle.”

Cookie broke out sobbing again, “I’m such a poor excuse for a slut!” She wailed, and Alice hugged her again, except with a smile. This drama was just a case of bad communications.

Alan was fierce in his apologies, saying repeatedly that he was not applying the campus standard of the term and that he loved her. “I want the best for you. Please forgive me. I couldn’t remember all the definitions until after you ran away and I was looking for you. I have so much I want to talk to you about, especially after we heard all the stuff in the Circle 101 class. I wanted to form a study group about it all and have you be part of it, if you have time.”

Cookie sniffed. “I’ve badly misjudged you. I need work. I want to be the girlfriend you would hope for.”

“Oh, Baby; you are so far beyond my greatest fantasy for a girlfriend that I can’t even describe how great you are except to use those terms. Words are inadequate. That’s where I was going with what I was trying to say to you. I love you. I really love you. I’m so happy you’re also interested in Circle membership. I hope you’ll forgive me and work with me and the others from campus to eventually become members. We’ll certainly help you.”

Cookie sniffed again, “I will. I do. I want to be in your study group, please. I didn’t handle this well, and I need to learn how to do that. It’s just that I’ve never been in love or been having a lot of sex or a whole lot of other things. Now, all that is suddenly happening fast and furiously.” She held her arms up to Alan, and he immediately moved between them and hugged Cookie and kissed her.

Alice gave a gesture to Christie, and the two shifted away from the couple, leaving them alone to that section of the bar.

Dave was uncertain what to expect the following morning when he went into work. Nikky had not stayed over at the Circle the night before, and she greeted him with a warm hug and kiss to start the day. She had set up about ten meetings for the day with most of them aimed at rapidly expanding the manufacturing capability.

Nikky said, “I did manage to get you some money that’ll help you expand faster.”

“Huh? Whoa! What’d you do?”

“I talked to Mark Worthington with an idea I had, and then chatted up Wendy Hayden, Senior VP, Investment Analytics Division, Bank of America. She committed five-hundred big bucks to help spur development. It’s a loan. For that, BOA wants to manage the IPO when it comes, and Mark was happy about that tradeoff. They also gain a guaranteed two percent stake in the whole shebang plus what they buy beyond that at the IPO, but all that’s variable depending on how much of their money we actually use.”

“How the hell do you know Wendy Hayden?”

Nikky laughed, “I met her last year at the Worthington New Year’s Party. She’s going to be at this year’s Halloween party, too, and asked that you specifically talk to her again. You two have met, although you didn’t interact all that much.”

“Interact?”

“Fuck!”

“Oh, but we did. Five hundred big bucks? Thousand?”

“No, are you kidding. I got her up to half-a-billion dollars. It went into our coffers last night. We got a letter of credit, with the actually pages being FedExed overnight. I forged your name to the signature card. JR’s on it, too, as I am.”

“You forged my name?” Dave balked.

“Yeah, I practiced. I can do an exact replica of your signature any time. I can do my mother’s and father’s too, although I never really took advantage of that capability.”

“Jeeze. OK, let’s get the meetings underway. I feel the urge to spend somebody else’s money.”

As Dave went into his conference room there were eight people there, including JR. She winked at him, but maintained utmost professionalism otherwise. She’d brought in some friends from Phoenix who had done a rapid build of an Intel plant a few years earlier.

By the end of the day, Dave felt he had committed a large chunk of the half-billion from BOA, but he also had four new plants underway with ‘Rush! Rush! Rush!’ being the order of the day.

A secondary result was that Dave would be flying to consummate real estate deals in Phoenix, St. Paul, Wheeling, and Portland. He still had a hundred million or so to use for a plant somewhere in China.

As they were debriefing the last meeting, JR summarized the actions regarding the real estate transactions. “We’ll fly out on Sunday night to the Arizona. I’ll go with you. I’ve already made arrangements with Nikky, so all you have to do is show-up at your Circle Airport with your luggage at five o’clock in the morning. We get into Phoenix about eight o’clock their time zone.”

“Did Nikky handle the hotel?”

“Yes. Just so you aren’t shocked too much, you and I are sharing a room.”