Chapter 3

"Beverly," I said as I walked into the kitchen, "thank you so much for opening my eyes! I just had a wonderful conversation with Lynn and now she knows just how I feel about her and she knows that somehow her dad could never quite get around to having that conversation with me."

"Is she alright now then Mark?" Beverly asked.

"Yes. She's better than alright! I haven't heard her so happy in a long time."

"Well Mark, let me tell you — a handsome man like yourself telling a woman she's beautiful works wonders for her spirits!"

We talked for a bit and then I said "Beverly, show me the master bedroom."

Really, the whole house was good sized and well built. I think Dave had said it was roughly 5200 square feet of finished space plus the garage and the unfinished part of the basement. All in all it was a very big home.

The master bedroom was quite large and had two walk in closets as well as an enormous master bathroom with an attached shower room and a hot tub. Originally the home had seven bedrooms but Dave had joined three second floor rooms on the East side of the house into a single master suite and it was quite impressive.

"How'd Dave do all of this on a policeman's salary Beverly?"

"Well my parents left me with a small inheritance. When the local economy wasn't doing very well this house and the houses on either side came up for sale and we used my inheritance to pay for all three in cash. Dave's income was enough to handle everything else and we've been renting the two other homes out ever since. Each of the two rentals brings in about $2500 a month in addition to what he'd been earning."

I was starting to get a few ideas about what to do in the future and I decided to keep them to myself for a few days until I could check up on a few things. So I dropped the subject entirely and asked "Would you like to take a shower with me and then maybe a soak in the hot tub?"

"I'd love to Mark!" Beverly said with a smile.

Dave had given her to me. Lynn had sent me down here expecting sex to be part of my activities and Beverly was a very willing participant. After all of the blow jobs I figured I should be able to go for quite a while before shooting what I was certain must be the last sperm my balls contained.

I managed to fuck her pussy and her ass bringing her several orgasms before I had a mighty one of my own that pretty much wiped me out for the night. We slept spooned up next to each other with my cock resting in the crack of her ass.

I woke up the next morning to a most pleasant sensation. Beverly was giving me a blowjob for my wakeup call. "You said you wanted to get up by seven this morning right?" she asked after swallowing a load of cum.

"Yes. I need to get up and around and make a few phone calls this morning."

"May I help you bathe?" Beverly asked.

"That sounds delightful but I'm afraid I'd want to do more than just bathe and then I'd not get started on time this morning," I replied with a smile.

"I'll just take a quick shower and then eat breakfast. Would you mind making breakfast first and then cleaning up yourself?" I asked.

"I'll go start breakfast now then," Beverly said smiling as she walked out of the room in her birthday suit.

I really did move as quickly as I could through my morning absolutions. I wanted to make a phone call to my boss before things got too busy in his office. In the twelve years I'd been working for the firm I'd moved up into the position of junior partner. What I wanted to know was if the firm might have any expansion plans that involved St. Louis. Bill had approached me at one time in the not so distant past asking me if I would be willing to relocate and start a new office as a way to become a full partner. When I talked to Lynn about the idea she seemed quite positive and reminded me that generally a teacher could find work almost anywhere. When I told this to Bill he informed me that it could happen some time in the near future since the five full partners and the two senior partners were considering expansion.

I lucked out and reached Bill on his cell phone while he was still on the train.

"Good Morning Bill! This is Mark. How are you this morning?"

"I'm fine. Is everything okay with you Mark? I mean it isn't like you to call in while you're on vacation."

"Normally that would be true, but recently I've been thinking quite a lot about what you've talked with me about regarding expansion and related partnership opportunities. Listen Bill, I won't beat around the bush. I'd like to know if St. Louis is on the expansion roadmap anytime in the near future. We have family here and it would make the move that much easier for Lynn and the kids."

"Well Mark, you may have just struck gold there old buddy! We've been talking this past two weeks a lot about where we'd like to go next and all of us have pretty much decided that we want to expand here in the Midwest before we try going national. St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Cincinnati are the top three on our list for where to open offices in the next three months.

"Now, I'll need to talk to the other partners about this today, but since we already slotted you to startup a new office and you're interested in particular in one of the cities we were targeting — I'd say you have a fairly good chance at getting St. Louis," Bill told me.

"Well it certainly would be an interesting opportunity for me and I would appreciate the chance Bill."

"Well thanks for telling me that Mark. Anytime you ask someone to relocate you know your asking them to pull up their family and move them away from the friends and surroundings they're familiar with. We know it's a lot to ask — especially since none of us are willing to do it!" Bill said with a laugh.

"On the other hand, knowing that you have family in one of our target cities is a plus for us and we wouldn't really have known that without your volunteering the information — so thanks again Mark."

I gave Bill the phone number here in St. Louis and he promised to call me as soon as a definitive answer was available.

I used Beverly's phone and yellow pages to search for a suitable location we might use for the new office. After numerous phone calls I found three sites with descriptions and locations looked promising and made follow-up calls to get more information. For each property I asked what the annual lease rate would be as well as information regarding the prior year's utility costs and any other fees that we would be required to pay. I was building up a spreadsheet of information concerning costs.

On another page of the spreadsheet I began detailing what types of positions we would need to fill in our first year. Next I spent some time on talking with various recruiting agencies trying to get a feel for what types of wages the positions would merit here in St. Louis. I used this information to compute an annual staff salary and factored in an additional 50 percent to cover benefits and other related expenses. I added another 20 percent to cover the purchase of computers and office furniture for each staff member.

I was aiming to have a reasonable estimate of what it would cost to run things before I heard back from Bill. I wanted to hear what the partners would give me for a budget and see how it stacked up to what I might realistically expect. Costs can vary a lot from city to city and they have been working with only a Chicago point of reference for a long time. I was never involved in this aspect of our finances in Chicago, so I needed to have the groundwork in place myself for St. Louis in order to see if I was being given a reasonable budget amount.