Chapter 18: The Case Wraps

Shortly after Austin disconnected his call with Stephanie and Jackie his computer beeped again. It was Tricia, the VP of Human Resources. Austin’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the caller’s name. He answered the call.

“Good morning, Tricia,” he said trying to sound as normal as possible.

“Hi, Austin. I’m sure you saw the email about Rachel. I wanted to follow-up directly with you because you reported to Rachel. Are you OK? Do you need anything?”

Austin said that he was doing fine, given the circumstances, and that he did not need anything at present.

“OK, that’s great to hear. If you need to take some time away from the office, feel free to take the rest of the week off without using your vacation.”

Austin started to again say he was fine and could continue working. Tricia interrupted, and responded in a lower, conspiratorial voice. “You didn’t hear this from me, but I’m pretty sure the Morders deal is canceled. Taking time off may be good a thing.”

All Austin can think to say is, “Is that so?”

Tricia said, “Yeah, I don’t know any details, but I was on a call with Jackson before he sent the email about Rachel. He was mad. The guy at Morders, I think his name is Sam, was supposed to sign something and have it delivered first thing this morning. It’s not here yet, and Jackson cannot reach anyone at Morders that is working on the deal. Jackson has always felt like this was a too-good-to-be-true deal and had his reservations from the moment it was accepted. He’s seriously considering dropping our offer and pulling out of the deal completely. I wouldn’t be surprised if you get a call from him directly later this morning.”

Sure enough, Jackson called Austin shortly after the call with HR. The message was exactly what Tricia thought. The Morders deal was on shaky ground and probably benched. Austin was encouraged to take the week off. Austin asked about Stephanie and Jackie. Jackson said he would be calling both of them directly.

By lunchtime on Monday Austin, Jackie, and Stephanie were on another cell phone conference call.

“This is very odd,” said Jackie.

“What are we supposed to do? Not only this week, but what’s going on long term?”

Austin was usually reserved with his speculative thoughts, but this time offered what he was thinking.

“Honestly,” he said, “I think the deal will be terminated, and this team is going to be disbanded. We are probably going to be moved into new roles and there won’t be an M&A team under Rachel.”

There was a long pause as the two women digested Austin’s hypothesis.

Finally Stephanie spoke. “New teams? New roles? And not out of the company? As in you don’t think they know about our history?”

Austin confirmed that he thought the small team Rachel built was likely a one-off, maybe even a proof-of-concept. Other VPs already had their own means of evaluating possible acquisitions and this team would not grow to be a company-wide M&A team like Rachel dreamed.

“I guess that’s good news? We’ll still have jobs?” questioned Jackie.

“Yeah, I think it is,” said Stephanie in answer to Jackie. “We may not be on the same team, but we’ll have jobs and probably go back to roles similar to what we had before we moved to Rachel’s team.”

The three agreed to stay in touch over the next few days as they heard any new news, but otherwise planned on keeping a low profile.

It was Wednesday morning when Rachel was released from the hospital. She texted Austin, Stephanie, and Jackie.

“Out of hospital. Under doctor’s orders not to speak. Will connect with you later.”

The three responded with their best wishes, but then started a separate thread to speculate on what was going on and why she wasn’t being more forthcoming. Unlike before, their speculations were short-lived and the messages petered out within a few hours.

Tonya knew Austin was feeling unsettled so she surprised him on Thursday morning by telling him she got Carolyn to sit the next night and they were going out on a date.

Austin busied himself with odds and ends around the house on Thursday, and then ran errands around town most of Friday. He got back home Friday afternoon in time to shower and dress for his date with Tonya.

Carolyn arrived right on time, letting Tonya and Austin head out for their 7:00 PM dinner reservation. They arrived early and took seats at the bar and ordered drinks. The unknown future Austin faced at work still weighed heavily on his mind. Tonya ordered him a drink, and when he finished it, another. He finally started to relax.

When the two were shown their table, Austin pulled out a chair for Tonya and then dropped a napkin in her lap. She leaned over to tighten the strap on her shoe, giving Austin a clear view down the front of her dress. Her small lacy bra did little to cover her breasts and Austin lingered over her for a second admiring the view.

They enjoyed a steak dinner with a Caesar salad, potatoes, and asparagus. Tonya conveniently dropped her silverware or napkin on several occasions which required her to bend over the table and repeatedly expose herself to Austin. Each time he just grinned like a schoolboy looking at his first Playboy.

When they left the restaurant they walked a few blocks to a nearby movie theater. On the walk Tonya let her hand wander and she slapped, rubbed, or outright groped Austin. He laughed at each touch and responded with his own grabbing of Tonya’s butt or breast.

If Carolyn asked what movie they saw when they returned home, they would have been lucky to give more than just the title. They sat in the back and made out like teenagers. When Austin brought Tonya to orgasm he thought they would get kicked out. The teenagers two rows in front of them were oblivious, but the parental escort at the end of the row had a good idea of what was happening and turned to give them dirty looks on several occasions.

At the house, with Carolyn escorted home and the kids in bed, the adults continued their make-out session in the bedroom. Unencumbered by the need to stay quiet in the movie theater Austin licked, sucked, and fucked his wife to several more boisterous orgasms. She eagerly reciprocated and gave her husband’s dick a three-cum night.

Finally sated, the two fell asleep in each other’s arms and slept soundly until awoken in the morning by the twins.

On Monday the threesome found an invitation to a meeting with HR first thing in the morning. It was cryptically titled.

“Good morning,” said Tricia when everyone had joined the meeting. The three offered their own muted greetings.

“OK,” Tricia continued, “last week was crazy, but things have settled down. First, the Morders deal is officially canceled. You’ll be hearing from Jackson later. And second, Rachel has resigned from the company.”

There were shocked expressions and comments. Everyone seemed to ask at once what happened.

“Sorry, I cannot say anything else on either topic, other than last Friday was officially Rachel’s last day.”

Austin, Jackie, and Stephanie stopped talking and waited for Tricia to continue.

“Rachel’s other three teams are being moved to different organizations. However, your team is being disbanded. The good news is that the three of you are all very highly regarded, and as such, are being moved to a new team with a promotion.”

There was silence on the phone as Tricia paused.

Tricia explained that Jackie was going to return to QA, but this time as a manager with a pathway to director if she wanted. Stephanie was going back to her project management role, but this time she was offered a director position to give the team more leadership with hands-on experience.

“And Austin,” Tricia said, “you were a bit harder to place. Your previous work was impeccable, and you could clearly return and do a good job. You also did a great job with this role. In the end, we want to offer you another manager role, but this time of a development team. We know it’s not your strongest suit, but we also know with the experience you will be well-rounded for a director role, if not a VP, in a few years.”

“Woo hoo,” hollered Jackie. “Go for it, Austin!”

Austin nodded his head. “OK, I never imagined I’d end up in a management role, let alone under consideration, or groomed, for something higher.”