Chapter 9: Matt's Past Catches Up

The next morning, Ryan slept until around 10:00. When he woke, he showered, groomed and dressed with a shirt and tie. Today he had promised to go in to his company’s headquarters for the afternoon and attend to some business matters. There were articles and contracts that needed his signature, briefings from senior managers on the real estate market and its effects on the Sheaffer Group’s holdings, and some new investment opportunities to consider. He was introduced to Paul Vincent, a young vice president who had been assigned to be Ryan’s liaison to the company and keep him informed and involved when needed, and to Allison Adams, Paul’s executive assistant who would also be a primary contact for Ryan at the corporate offices. They had lunch with him in the executive lounge, and showed him to his very well-appointed corner office (which did double as a meeting room for the highest level veeps most of the time since Ryan was likely to only make an appearance there once or twice a month). He enjoyed them, as well as all the attention from the very important people in his dad’s company who now needed to include him in some of their dealings.

While Ryan was out of the house pretending to be a corporate executive for the day, his friends had other responsibilities. The new pool service that Kerri was supposed to orient yesterday had had a scheduling conflict, and asked to come this afternoon, and she had nearly forgotten. She and Matt had woken up around 10 am, had sex, and gone back to sleep, and would have still been in bed except that Jenna came looking for Matt and woke them. Jenna told Matt to get cleaned up and grab some lunch, because she wanted him to go with her this afternoon. They were meeting with an agent for an outfit that operated smaller-sized luxury cruise boats, to examine cruise options in the Caribbean that Ryan was interested in.

On the way, they stopped for gas, and Matt ran in to the food mart to get some bottled water. Coming out of the store, he didn’t notice the man in a nearby car who recognized him and stared at him while making an urgent cell phone call.

Jenna and Matt marveled at the fantastic cruise options available with this small-ship company! These luxurious cruise ships carried 100-150 passengers, and visited more remote bays and islands than the big ships could get to ... plus, you could get on and off so much easier than when you were in line with 3000 other people. Jenna had been on a big cruise before, and Ryan had been on a few different ones, and this looked like a fabulous improvement on this style of vacation. Maybe there was less glitzy on-board performing entertainment, and no wave pools or rock climbing walls, but the overall experience looked a lot more appealing and relaxing. Of course, Matt had never done anything like either kind of cruise, and it all looked top notch to him.