Chapter 40

After school, my girlfriends come into my office. Dahlia asks, “What do you have planned?”

“To start with, we are going kayaking. It has been a while, and it is something that we all enjoy.”

“Do we have to? It’s our Valentine’s date. Shouldn’t it be romantic,” complains Moira.

Dahlia cuts her off, “Our last date was at Royal Roads. We can’t always do what you and I want. Sometimes we have to do something more Carol’s tastes.”

Moira refutes, “But it is Valentine’s.”

I put a stop to the complaining by saying, “Yes, it is Valentine’s. How can we have a romantic date if one of us decides to start it by complaining and generally turning the mood sour? I love you, Moira, but I have to think of everybody. Besides, you like kayaking. The entire date doesn’t have to be romantic as long as we are together.”

“Ohhh, alright,” she says unconvincingly.

I pick up three large plastic bags and hand them to the girls, saying, “Here is your first present. I figured you wouldn’t want to be cold, and I want you safe. Now go get changed, and I will meet you where we store the new kayaks.”

The girls each look in their bags. They aren’t overwhelmed like they were with last year’s Valentine’s gift, but they are all pleased, and one by one, they hug me, kiss me and leave for the change room.

The bags each contain a one-piece swimsuit, wetsuit, and top of the line kayak lifejacket. Until now, we have only used regular lifejackets with kayaks, which makes kayaking uncomfortable. They also make it difficult to paddle properly. The jackets I just gave them are only temporary. I have a new one being designed that is also a safety harness. We need a better lifejacket if we are to circumnavigate the globe, something that will lash us to our Kayaks but have a quick release in case something happens to the kayak. In a storm, if you go on the deck of the kayak to fix something and get knocked off, you need to be tied to the kayak, or the wind can push the kayak away from you, and you will never get back to it.

I don’t head to the change room. I just slip off my pants. I have swim trunks on underneath. I leave my t-shirt on, grab my lifejacket and head out to select the kayaks we will use.

The girls come out together. It is Carol that asks, “Where is your wetsuit?”

“I don’t need one.”

Amazed that I would say such a thing, Moira states, “But, the water is freezing.”

“I know none of you have experienced anything like it, but where I grew up, it would be -40 for a month or two. We would get something called a chinook. Chinooks cause the temperature to increase fast, so in the morning, it could be -40, and by lunch, -20C. When that happened, all the boys in the village would meet at one of our outdoor hockey rinks and play. Only the goaltenders wore pads. Shorts and skates were the only things worn by all. It would be shirts vs skins.”

It isn’t the first time I have the girls stunned into silence.

“If you think that is bad. You know how there is a polar bear swim in Thetis Lake every year. We used to have one too. The difference is, we needed to start early in the morning so we could cut the ice with a bunch of chainsaws. You girls have no clue what cold is.”

Dahlia points out, “Ya, but you have lived here for better than a year. Shouldn’t you have gotten used to our climate by now.”

“I don’t know why, but when I moved here in my first life, it took over 19 years before my body started to acclimate. The weather up north is both colder in the winter and warmer in the summer than it is here. In that life, I had had hypothermia and third-degree frostbite twice each. Frostbite kills fat cells and changes your body in other ways that make you more susceptible to cold. Since this body never had bad frostbite, I’m more immune to cold now than when I moved here in the other timeline. I could swim in the lake all day without getting cold.”

Carol exclaims, “You’re crazy!”

As we carry the kayaks to the water, I tell the girls, “We are going to start kayaking regularly. This year I want us in six cycle races. Next year I want it to be four cycle and three kayak races.”

Moira isn’t pleased and asks, “What on earth for?”

“You know I have secret plans for all of you that you want to be part of. Just accept that this is for you.”

Moira is half-joking when she complains, “What did I get myself into when I agreed to date you?”

We have a blast kayaking. Afterwards, the girls get our guards to drive them to Moira’s. Carol’s home is a man cave, and we don’t have enough room for all three girls, four including Blair, to get ready at our place. I head home to change and wait.

When I am ready, I notice the limo and SUV escorts are in the driveway, waiting. I grab the gifts that I have ready and head out to the limo. The first stop is to pick up Kevin.

I knock on the door, and it is Declan, Kevin’s Dad, my head of sales, that answers the door. “Hi, Trent. Kevin is just finishing getting ready.”

“I figured as much. TV room then?”

“Good idea. I’ve been meaning to talk with you?”

I can see he is nervous and is hesitant to speak.”

“No need to be nervous. I’m sure we can work it out.”

“It’s just, you reorganized the companies, and now, the company in charge of the sales department isn’t going to have its headquarters on the continent. What are your plans for me? Do I even have a job?”

“I’m sorry. With everything that has been happening, I suppose I have neglected to inform a few people of how it will affect them. You can relax. You know all the companies are still sister companies that help each other and that the sales team all falls under the one company but in reality works for all three. That means there will be a sales division at each of the company headquarters. That includes here since we are the overall headquarters.”

Hearing this releases most of his tension, and he relaxes.

“At least I won’t have to move, and I still have a job.”

“Your job won’t change much. You will just have a different boss. I don’t have control over what will happen, but Jean-Paul has been mandated to either give you the job of Vice President of the Canadian Sales Division or President of the Canadian Sales Division. Either way, you will still live here and will be Kevin’s boss. the only real change is that it will be harder for Kevin to advance and become your boss, but that is still the plan.”

“I should have known that you would have it figured out. I was just too afraid of the answer to ask.”

I can hear Kevin come down the stairs. He enters the TV room and asks, “Are you ready to go?”

“The question is, are you ready?”

“What do you mean?”

“This is your first Valentine’s with Blair. Did you get her a present?”

“This is my first Valentine’s with a girlfriend ever. I didn’t know I needed one.”

“It’s a good thing you have friends like me then, isn’t it.”

I pull out a small jewelry box from my pocket and hand it to him.

“Put it in the inside pocket of your jacket and give it to Blair when I give the gifts to my girls. Where is the corsage?”

He turns red in embarrassment.

“Don’t worry. I was told the colour of Blair’s’ dress, so I picked one up when I got the rest. Just don’t be disappointed that it is the same as what I got my girlfriends.”

“DAD, why didn’t you tell me any of this stuff.”

“I didn’t think it was important for your first time. I didn’t do any of that for your mother.”

She yells from the kitchen, “Why do you think it took so long for you to get another date, and all you got was a peck on the cheek when you dropped me off?”

She comes out of the kitchen, fussing over her son.

I interrupt, “We should probably get going. What time is curfew?”

His mother answers, “He doesn’t have one. Just make sure you don’t stay out too late. A pro-d day isn’t a holiday. He is working tomorrow.” Straightening Kevin’s tie, she says, “Be sure to take pictures. It isn’t every day my boy has a valentine.”

Kevin is a bit embarrassed, but we get away, and his blush fades.

We get to Moira’s and her Dad answers the door, wearing the biggest shit-eating grin you have ever seen. You can see the dollar signs in his eyes as he thinks of all my money he will spend. Little does he know I have guarded against that, and even if Moira and I live the rest of our lives together, he will receive less than any of the other parents.

The only reason I don’t make a scene is so I don’t upset Moira and the rest of the girls.

I was halfway expecting Carol to meet us at the door. I suppose that Dahlia wants to make a grand entrance having all four girls come down the stairs together.

Mrs. P yells from upstairs, “They will be down in a minute.”

I don’t want to sit down and have a conversation with this asshole, so I walk into the kitchen and get Kevin and myself a glass of water. Surprisingly, it is only a minute when I hear Dahlia ask from the top of the stairs, “Are you ready?”

“Just a sec,” I reply and shoo Kevin back to the entrance so we can see the stairs. “Ok, go ahead.”

The stairs are wide enough to send two girls at a time. Moira and Blair come first. As always, I am well pleased with the dress she picked out. She makes it look magnificent. Blair wears the same dress only in blue instead of red. It is low cut but not obscene. The skirt is just above the floor so you can see the shoes, but there is a long slit up the side, so occasionally a flash of their leg shows. It is sexy without being slutty, making it classy.

I comment, “You girls sure do make those dresses look good.”

Ken states, “Ya, those dresses sure make you look good.”

If it were 2030, Blair would have ripped his head off, having taken it as an insult. In the future, most people were snowflakes. Kevin means well with his compliment, but in the future, people twisted such a compliment to mean the girls were ugly, but the dresses covered it up.

As Dahlia and Carol come down the stairs, I say, “Wow, I don’t know how it is possible, but you girls look even more stunning than normal.”

Kevin and Blair are too busy with their puppy love to notice anything going on around them. Mr. P wants pictures but doesn’t care for the other girls in them. He only wants pics of Moira and me. Mrs. P is disgusted, and to a lesser extent, so are all the girls.

On the way out to the car, I say, “Don’t worry, we will get good pictures at the dance. They hired a photographer again.”

Kevin opens the one door and I the other, Once the girls are seated we follow suit. As soon as the car starts moving, I pull the three wrapped presents from my pockets, saying, “Kevin and I got everybody the same thing, so I would appreciate it if you all opened them at the same time.”

Kevin hands his to Blair. Before opening it, she leans over and hugs him in thanks.

As the girls open their presents, I admit, “Dahlia, Moira, I know I gave Dahlia two and Moira one already, but I figured that you would like a collection of lockets. I know that girly things aren’t always Carol’s thing, but I wanted her to have at least one.”

The girls all make comments like saying they are beautiful. Each one indicates that their hearts have melted, and I have done my job. Blair pounces on Kevin to assault his tonsils. It is comical because he is so much smaller than she is.

My girls are used to such things, so I get a hug and peck on the cheek from each of them. The lockets are all the same and on identical chains, but there are slightly different pictures in each. I wanted something that would suit each girl.

Next are the corsages. I hand Blair’s to Kevin, and he blushes. I assume that he doesn’t know how to put it on, so I grab Dahlia’s and show him. I figured she would be the least offended if I slipped and showed a bit too much boob. I know she would enjoy it.

“It’s simple. The trick is to make it look like you aren’t trying to cop a feel as you stick your hand in her dress and cop a feel.”

I put my hand in the top of Dahlia’s dress to prevent the pin from pricking her. When I do it, I deliberately and obviously rub her tit in a way that I know she likes.

“It is also to make sure she doesn’t get pricked with the pin. Then you bring up the corsage and pin it in place. If you are good, you can get away with copping another feel as you pull your hand out of her dress.”

This time I bring the back of my hand to the front of her tit and trap her nipple between two fingers as I pull my hand out, tugging on her nipple.

Kevin states, “I think I will keep to the beginner version.” He pins the corsage on his girlfriend but keeps it G rated. I then pin the other two girls with theirs.