Chapter 11

I did wake up sometime later as Becky crawled into bed. I pulled her close and we kissed for several minutes, then I cuddled up behind her and drifted off again. In the morning I woke up and after a shower went out into the main area. It was kind of cute, seeing Lisa and Frannie cuddled up, with Frannie behind Lisa, her hand around Lisa’s waist and resting on her belly. I started the coffee and heard them both get up. Lisa went to the bathroom first, then came out a little red.

“Pete, it’s not what it looked like.”

“Lisa, relax, this is me, remember? I have cuddled with you like that before, and I know for a fact nothing happened then. Becky crawled in with me last night, and nothing happened then either, but we woke up similarly. You should know, I do not equate cuddling with being intimate with somebody.”

Frannie came out as I said that and nodded. “We likely only ended up like that because I am bigger than you are Lisa. I love when Pete cuddled me, but it would feel weird cuddling up like that with somebody bigger than me. You are smaller, so I cuddled with you. And I like it, you give good cuddle.”

Lisa smiled and said she did also. Frannie went out to get breakfast, and when I tried to hand her some money she told me to put it away. “Pete, I am getting to stay in a suite, eat nice buffets provided by room service, do you think I’m taking your money too? You been hanging out with the grunts too much, buddy. They are making your brain soft.”

Mandy came out a bit later, looking like hell. She came up and gave me a big hug, and sighed. I looked at Lisa, but she turned away. I caressed her back, asking what was wrong. Well, I got an ear full. Seems Jack and her got into an argument, and eventually he just grabbed his bag and stormed out. I sighed, and said “Money?” She nodded and said he still thought she deserved more, and we were taking advantage of her generosity.

“Well, guess I should just toss out those screen treatments then. I was putting that off, but both my dad and Brad told me he was wanting way to much. He was asking for half, where both told me that even a quarter was too large a chunk, as he was only writing a script off of my treatment, then shopping it around. If that was all I wanted, I could hire a ton of scriptwriters for a flat $500, and they would want nothing else. Is that the last we will see of Jack?”

Mandy nodded. “At least the last I will see of him. I told him if he walked out the door to forget about me, and he did. So that’s that.”

We both hugged her, and I told her to go in and wake up Becky and talk to her if she wanted. She nodded, and Lisa joined her. I knocked on Holly’s door, and when she answered I told her what happened and she sighed, then went to join them, then I repeated it with Peggy. I was making another pot of coffee after pouring Mike a cup when Dan came out, his hair still wet. Then Frannie came back and passed out plastic platters from Rotten Ronnie’s with breakfast on them. I looked and pulled one out and put some of my eggs on it, and took Holly’s sausage. Dan smiled as I did that, and passed over to me his own sausage after cutting off a small piece from one and taking a bite.

Only then did Frannie curse, and admitted she forgot. “It’s OK Fran, Holly would never have said a thing and not minded. Neither would I. That is why Pete does things like this for her though. And I will enjoy it, we have no pork in the house, and I really miss it sometimes. And yes, until Holly I was practicing, but still would break the kosher rules on occasion. But that ended when I realized she is much more serious about it than I am, and I accept that.” She asked where everybody else was, and she went to join the rest of the girls. I heard laughter when she opened the door, so that was a good sign.

About ten minutes later Most of the girls came out, each to their own rooms, and Frannie and Lisa grabbed their suitcases. Lisa joined Becky, Frannie joined Peggy. We guys just looked at each other and laughed.

Then I laughed even harder when almost exactly thirty minutes later I heard Holly yell out if they were ready, and got three responses they were.

I could not believe they brought them! Holly and Mandy were in their “Marine Girlfriend” shirts, and Becky, Peggy, Lisa, and Frannie were all “Marine” shirts. We all laughed, and they formed a group hug together, giggling. I then had to explain to the guys that it had been a joke from the convention when I was home on leave.

“Oh no it was not Peter! Honey, I love you now, but at that time we were his girlfriends. You should have seen the looks on everybody’s face on the convention floor!”

“Oh, that’s for sure. Especially when they insisted on wearing those, each of them holding onto one of Lisa’s arms as she wore the Marine one! I think half the eyes on the floor bugged out when they would walk by like that.”

We were all laughing as we ate, and discussed what was going to happen next. I admitted that I was considering heading home. “I got a lot of work ahead of me now, and not much time to do it in. And after yesterday, I’m kinda all gamed out I think. But please, you all stay. This room is paid until Monday, so enjoy it. In fact, I am going to call Brad and tell him to have Keith and Jan come up and use it, that will save them some money.”

“Oh, they are leaving today also Pete. I thought you knew, they want to spend the rest of the weekend with their daughter, and I agree.”

I laughed and smiled. “Thanks, Holly. Well, then Frannie and Lisa, you two use it. And tell Fred he can use the couch. Or dad and Dee, it just seems a waste to not see it used.” Becky smiled and nodded. So once we finished breakfast we all headed down and walked the floor. Dad laughed when he saw what the girls were wearing, and hugged all of them.

“Lord, I remember those shirts! You all created quite a stir last time with those. You trying to shock everybody again?” We all laughed, and I told him that Becky and I were taking off soon. He understood the reason and said he had seen Fred in one of the tournament rooms. I hunted him down as the girls all went to the vendor room, and found him playing Oubliette. The judge looked hard at me, but I told Fred we were going, and he was welcome to stop by the shop at any time. We hugged, and I slipped out.

I was a bit surprised when I got to the vendor room, and Mandy and the girls were breaking down her stall. I asked her if she wanted to, and she nodded. “Pete, yesterday was long, and it wore me out, then last night. I’m going home also, I just can’t work today. But I will come by tonight and we can all talk. OK?” I gave her a big hug, and a long soft kiss. “Of course baby, any time. It can be 3 in the morning, and if you need me I will be there for you.”

I helped her load up Scout, then we got all the music stuff in the van. I saw that Keith’s car was not in the lot, so I guess he left already. Becky and I drove off, as Mandy and Holly were still talking in the parking lot.

We got the van unloaded, and I drove it back to dad’s to change cars. When I got back, Becky had a good chunk of the stuff priced already and in the cabinets. We talked as I sorted out the stuff in the boxes. And when I told her how much most of it cost, she was surprised. We were roughly doubling the prices. But she also understood that I got good prices for bulk, and a lot we would end up sitting on for a while until it sold. I finished up as she put all the music stuff back where it belonged, and she played a bit as she adjusted the volumes back where she wanted them. We were just finishing up when Mandy pulled in. We both gave her a big hug, and she said the cases looked great now that there were games and stuff in them. I then took her hand, and the three of us went into the office.

I had her sit in the middle of the couch, and Becky and I both sat on either side of her. And as I thought, it was about the money. “Pete, it’s like Jack obsesses over money! I just don’t get it. When we got into the room he started talking again how you were taking advantage of me, just as you were trying to do with him. Hell, if not for you I would probably be flipping burgers somewhere and not have enough to buy a new car in a few days. Heck, I do not even think he really realizes we were staying in that nice room because of you.”

“And you, Mandy. Brad did not even blink when I insisted you get one also, and he agreed. He recognizes your talent and ability. If I was still in Japan now and had mailed this to him, do you doubt that he would have put you up and paid for you to be at the presentation even without me there? Even if it was only 45 minutes and all you did was sign copies?”

“Well, no. Actually, I don’t. And I have done those before when I do art for other writers as well as for you. He paid me to drive to San Francisco last year for one, and that is what I did. He just presented it, told a bit about it, I talked about the art, and then signed a thousand copies or so. But that is because of you.”

“No Mandy, that is because of you. Holly only gets the star treatment because this was a Kaos adventure. If not for that, she would have been on the couch as you and I slept in the suites. You were right there with me because of your skills, because of your talent.”

“Mandy, you showed me yourself how sharp you are. I gave you some clues, and you put together a great cost analysis, including risk and benefits, in only a few seconds. Hell, if Jack was right we could have just paid you a flat rate for the art and commission for selling them for us. Would you have taken that?”

“Hell yes, Becky! You are my friends, and it’s exciting to be a part of this.”

“And at that point, you would have made maybe one or two grand. And be happy I bet. That’s the thing, you have put in a lot of work. That project you started of love is going to make you even more money, both as box art and as a poster. Can you see me ever going ‘Oh Mandy, you are making that to pay off a bet you made with me, so part of it is mine.’ Can you imagine me doing that?”

“Never, no more than Pete here demanding I pay him when I sell a drawing I made for one of his adventures.”

I sighed. “I think Jack is suckered into thinking money is everything. Well, we will see where he is in five or ten years. He is already smoking a lot. And he did not like it when I told him he could not smoke in the suite. He said smoking is allowed, and I told him it was, but not in our suite. And if he wanted to smoke he could get his own. Hell, I do not mind a bit that you invited him for a second Mandy, but that was our suite, not his.”

She chuckled. “Well, at least I got one good night out of it. But my love life has been for shit lately.” We both hugged her, and she rested her head on Becky’s shoulder.

“First Tina, she gave me the ‘We can’t see each other’ talk a few weeks ago. And hell, I was not even trying to get into her panties, just having some fun kissing and cuddling. The first night at the hotel I expected, and it was more than I expected you might say, it was not worth all the drama the next night.”

Becky then grinned at me, I had told her about the conversation that I had with Peggy as they all got the food and drinks. “So tell me, I’ve heard reports of the ‘Foot Long Dodger Dog’, are they true?”

Mandy turned bright red and giggled, then nodded. “Yeah, you might say that. Let’s just say that his girth is rather unimpressive, on the slender side actually. But the length is incredible. His cock was by far the longest I have ever seen or touched, it actually hurt a bit inside of me, how he pushed on things deep inside. And I could only get so much in my mouth, I had to use hands on the rest. But, he was actually not all that good in the use I have to admit. I came, but it was just not the same.”

She sighed and took Becky’s hand in hers. “If I say something here and now, will you get upset?” Becky shook her head and said not at all. “Well, Pete is almost perfect I think. Average in length, average in girth, but he uses it perfectly. Jack was like just slip it in and just go. Pete changes things a lot, even moves his hips in that way that drove me crazy. Pete was exciting and amazing, Jack, he was good, but also dull I guess.

“I know what you mean Mandy, and I feel the same way. It sounds like what I experienced before, and now. Baby, how was it you said it that one day? Oh, yeah, Most guys just fuck, Pete makes love. And sex to him is one of the best games ever, and when if done right both people win.”

I nodded and rested my hand on theirs. “Exactly, and you both know how much I love games. It is like a board game, we both are the board and pieces at the same time. And if done right, both win. But it is not the winning that is important, it is that both people enjoyed playing the game.”

“Mandy, you told me about Tina the other night, that’s over?”

“Oh Becky, it was never really anything to begin with. She’s a straight girl, who wanted to experiment safely. Pete long ago had me pegged right. I’m like 90% straight, but that other 10% liked to explore sometimes. But she was fun to cuddle with and kiss, that is something I miss a lot. And she did end it kindly, we are still friends. But to be honest, I am pretty sure I am done with girls now. If I just wanna go out on a date and kiss and cuddle then go home and use my toy, I can do that with a guy. At least with him there is always the chance more will happen someday.”

“Well, I’m kind of a jealous woman, but if you feel the need I can leave you and Pete to kiss and cuddle if you want.” She looked at me as she said that, and I could tell it was serious when she said it.

“Thanks, but no Becky. Cuddle, that I will take. Like the other night, that was great and I needed it. But I will never again kiss Pete like I used to, that is behind us both now. But thank you, even though maybe you should have told me that in private, or asked Pete before you offered me his lips.”

We all laughed, and the conversation went to other things. Finally, we decided to lock up and head home, and Becky insisted that Mandy join us. Mandy volunteered to get dinner, and as she was gone Becky called Rosie and told her a bit of what happened. “We plan on letting her unwind with us tonight, we will keep her safe, and call you when she leaves.”

She smiled at me, and I had a feeling it was another wine cooler night. Mandy returned 30 minutes later with Armenian food. It was quite good, mostly kabobs. And there was a lot of it, so we ate like pigs. Then we all curled up on the couch and Becky asked me to play my Japan tapes. Mandy had not seen these, and we spent a nice evening, and she was amazed at the shots of our last facility at Kadena. “How big is that place Pete?”

“Hmm, several thousand square feet. It used to be a chow hall, and we got them to leave the soda fountains in. People who come to play have to buy a cup, but the soda is free. It pretty much pays for the syrup, they figure if it breaks even that is good enough. And they sell a lot of game stuff now, probably as much as Skip sells if not more.”

We then moved to my travel video, and she loved seeing all the things in the video she had only seen in photographs before. “Oh, I gotta borrow this sometime, this looks lovely. But the palm trees look funny.” I explained to her that she was used to the date palms we see everywhere in the Valley, from the Middle East. Whereas these were coconut palms, similar but from the Pacific and Asia.

Finally, it was getting late, and as expected Mandy had put away quite a few wine coolers. Becky however cut her off at five, and sent her to take a shower. We hugged and kissed while Mandy was in the shower, and Becky told me to go ahead and go to bed. “She is not trashed tonight, so I want to talk to her for a bit more, but we will be in later.” I nodded and we spent a few more minutes caressing tongues before I went into the bedroom. I stripped to my underwear, then slid into bed.

I was half-asleep when they came in, and I saw Mandy in her shirt and panties. This one was shorter, so there was a small gap where I could see a small strip of her belly. Both girls slid in next to me, and I kissed them both gently as they held me, and soon we were all back asleep again.

At least the next morning Mandy did not have a hangover. We made sure she got a buzz, but slowly over the evening, not slamming down six in just over an hour like before. Her and I chatted in the kitchen as I made french toast. And I will admit, I admired her bottom when she was setting the table, only covered in green panties.

Finally, it was my turn and I took a fast shower as Mandy finished cooking. As we sat around the table eating Becky asked what we were going to do that day. Since we had put a sign in the door of the shop saying we would be closed until Tuesday, I suggested we just enjoy it. Of course, that meant after we were all dressed we got into the truck and went to see what stores we could find open. We were driving through Burbank when Mandy yelled out “Boy, this makes me feel like I’m in Junior High again! Pete driving me and his girlfriend in a Scout. Maybe you should drop me off at home when it gets dark, and you two could go to the Japanese Garden!” I busted up laughing, then had to explain to Becky what had at one time been my favorite make-out spot, and one the cops had never discovered.

“Thanks for the idea Mandy,” Becky said back. “But a house is much nicer, truth be told.” Becky had three pages she had ripped from the yellow pages at a phone booth, and the third one was actually open. We pulled in and checked, but nothing we needed. Some used laser printers, but almost as much as a new one.

We stopped for lunch at Rico’s, and Mandy was blown away by the burritos we were served. It was almost 3 and we were all the way out in Glendale when we pulled into this place deep inside of an industrial park. They sold new and used office equipment. We went inside and headed to the far side where the used equipment was. Once again, a variety of laser printers, most of them the old LaserJet we already had. A guy came up to help us as we were looking at the new ones, Becky concentrating on the speed and page capacity. I asked him if he had a LaserJet 2000, and he shook his head. And I told him I was looking for a large-capacity high-speed laser printer as the one we had just did not meet our needs anymore. He smiled and said he might just have exactly what we needed.

We were taken back to the used section, and I laughed. “Sorry, we are not looking for a photocopier, we are looking for a laser printer.” He just looked at me, and asked in a serious tone “What’s the difference?” Hmm, good point.

“This is the Canon NP-9030 Laser Copier. It has been out for about five years now, we have two others in the back. Thirty pages per minute, twenty-five document sorting tray, and a built-in duplexing tray so you can print to both sides of a page at once. However, it is also a 400 dpi digital scanner. On the panel here you can enlarge, reduce, and even edit a document. Hey Harv, bring me that ORC kit, will you? OK, well, it is interesting because you can hook many of them together in a kind of network. See this port on the back? You hook them together through a special hub, and you can scan a document in one place, and print it in another. Tell me, can you work with TIFF files?”

I looked to Becky, who thought. “I think so, I used that a few times to grab scanned images. But mostly I work directly from Ventura Publisher.”

“OK, great, this will work with that. Oh, thanks Harv. OK, this is made by a company called Optical Recording Corporation out of Canada, the guys that own most of the copyrights for CDs. Well, they have a bunch of things they do, one of them is this.” He pulled out of the box, a standard ISA computer card. “One thing Canon did not do, is take this far enough. ORC uses these in their company, and one of their engineers made this. What you see in this copier is literally a scanner combined with a laser printer. That is why you can scan in one place, and print here. But the idea is you use Canon scanners, networked to Canon copiers like this. This guy basically hacked his way into that, and lets you turn your computer into a device on that network.”

I listened, fascinated. I actually understood where he was going with this. “In short, you put this card in your computer, and once it is configured, this copier thinks it is the Multiple Control Unit, the kind of mini-server that runs that network. There is software included to work in Windows or DOS, to convert what you want to print and send it to the copier, and away it goes. With the card, you can scan here and save it to your computer, or print from the computer. And the copier thinks it is getting commands from a scanner and away it goes.”

I looked at it again and asked if it came with a document feeder. He shook his head. “As advanced as these were, Canon kinda blew it. With an attachment, you can even staple together your finished documents, but they did not include a document feeder. That is why we are getting these in now in trade. A lot of places are upgrading to those that do the same thing, but less work because they have the feeders. But for your needs, this would be one of the baddest laser printers you could ever imagine.”

He turned it on and showed some of the functions. And it was slick, you could take two pages in a pamphlet, scan them once, then print them as two full-page documents, even duplexed onto both sides of the same sheet of paper. It enlarged it inside. Or put on a two page book, and scan and print on a single page, still clear and readable. I pulled out the documentation on the card, and in the back it even said it supported both GEM and Windows as well as DOS. And when it described how to use the additional functions of the copier, I realized what was in front of us was a basic model, and asked to see the other ones.

Once again into a warehouse, one was as he described. It sat on a large rolling pedestal, and attached to the right side was a large bin, which he said could hold 2,000 pages. On the other side was a bulge which he said was the staple unit, then after that a series of trays. He said this was the 25 tray model, they did not have any 50 tray ones in at the moment.

We looked it over, and I asked Becky if we really needed the staple unit. She thought a moment, then nodded. “Not for this project, but maybe for others in the future. Tell me, how does this staple?”

He told us it could be in any corner, or two along the side. I asked him how much for that one with the card for the computer, and he came back with his manager, and after some back and forth we got them to $10,000. He pointed out that half of that price was for the card, that they had bought new so really could not adjust, but he was giving us a deal on the copier. I smiled, and said “That includes delivery, right?” He laughed, then nodded, saying he could also throw in the delivery.

And while we were there, we made his jaw drop by ordering forty cases of paper before we paid and left. Mandy was still in shock, but Becky and I grinned. “You guys just spent almost everything you made on that thing!”

I nodded. “But it is half of what we expected to pay, and it also gives us a copier. And if we need to expand more, we could even go as far as buying say four of them, and each would print a different adventure at the same time. But that guy was right, Canon kinda blew it. It was cutting edge, five years ago. If they had really done the work to let people hook their computers to them and use them as a printer, and scan to them themselves from the start they could still sell these. Or add a document feeder. They really stretched, but they did not stretch the capabilities far enough. Well, it’s our gain really. But now I’m thinking I release the original concept, $10 adventures, no signing, no fancy binding, no numbering.”

“And an image on each side, only using half the paper. Give me a week or so, and I bet I can have that thing doing somersaults baby.”

We were all feeling good, so we drove to the place we knew near Downtown Burbank where the waiters dressed like characters from movies. Mandy laughed when I pulled in, and Becky looked puzzled. But she laughed when Snake Pliskin took us to our table, then Veronica Lake took our drink order. Becky thought it was “wicked”, and we all had a lot of fun.

After eating we went home, and Mandy called home to let her mom know she was fine, we had been out shopping all day. And after looking at us and asking if she was going to be home tonight Becky shouted out “No, Rosie! She is sleeping over again, she has not yet but I intend of having her drink too much to drive again to celebrate!” We could hear Rosie laughing from where we sat, and Becky told me to go get more coolers. I kissed them both and headed out. Eight packs of coolers and a bottle of Canadian Whiskey later I came in, and they put everything away. They each grabbed a cooler, and I poured some whiskey over ice.

“Thanks you guys, I really needed this today. And you are both right, we need to go big on this. This holiday started as the most stressful, and is now ending as the most relaxed. So Becky, are you really serious about quitting Sears?”

“Ask me in thee to six months. Pete, I’m already thinking we might need to go bigger by then. I can see us outgrowing the shop we have now, but in six months we can move. What do you say?”

We talked for five hours, and I admitted I did not want to move. I liked the location, and liked our neighbors. But she was already thinking of going to a place almost five times bigger. And part of it setting up a print shop, and not only printing our stuff but doing work for others. I said it had potential, we would see what things were like at the end of the year. Mandy nodded, saying she would be on her internship by then, and would only have time for more basic work aside from that.

But we were all excited, we were going to play the Pantages! The same stage that presented Cats, Amadeus, and Phantom of the Opera was going to feature us! Granted, this was only a one night showing we were paying for, but that was awesome. And once again once we were half in the bag when we all slipped into bed, and caressing each of their backs we drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Mandy hugged us both and gave us a kiss and headed home, and Becky got ready for work as I went to open the shop. At 10:30 the copier was delivered, and a corner of the storage room once again filled with boxes of paper. I got the card installed, and got it to send information back and forth, even printing out a copy of Chaos in the Capitol, which I had been in the middle of revising. And it was working just as advertised, as a really fast laser printer, that could do more.

Just a really big one that was almost the size of one of those rolling big-screen TV sets and cost as much as a car. I sold some more systems and wrote down a note of what to bring over from the garage the next day. Dee and Georgie came by before lunch, and she was shocked at what we bought, and how much we paid for it. But she nodded when I handed her my tests from earlier, including a bound copy that was already stapled.

“Yes, you are right, I just did not expect you guys to move this fast.” I told her it was a good unit, and the fact it is a copier that hooks to the computer made it even better. “The only thing that sucks is that it can only print from one computer. I have been trying to get it to print a document sent from another computer, but it does not work that way. I was hoping we could sell the laser printer, but I guess we are still stuck with that for a while.”

She spent most of the day working on articles, and at 3 Cliff came in and set a computer down in front of me. “Tell me Pete, how many faxes have you two gotten since you moved in?” I told him none unless Dee requested one. “That’s what I thought. Here, I did this up over the weekend. Right now it’s largely a clone of my BBS, but you can hook it up to the fax line and use it there. And yes, I actually do get business from it.”

We hooked it up, and Cliff included two monitors. I looked as it fired up, and an amber monochrome fired up to the BBS software, the EGA one to a DOS prompt. “That’s DESQView. Multitasks DOS, so you can do two things at once.” He hit a few buttons, and suddenly the BBS was on the big monitor and DOS on the smaller one. I ran through the software as he described how it all worked. “The beauty is that you can work on changing and updating it, as somebody is online. So you do not have to shut down as you add new features or change something. You are already adding MODEMs to all your computers, so you should have a BBS.” I nodded, he did have a point there. And he put in a lot of software that users could download, that would be a big attraction. I asked him how much that would cost me, and he just waved. “Dude, my sales have actually gone up the last three months. A lot of people used to kind of walk in, look around, then walk out. You and Becky helped me tons, you really made my place look great, and my sales show it. This last quarter was my biggest in five years. And I am spending less time in the back playing games and more doing paying work. Just let me use your printer from time to time, and I will count us even.”