Chapter 194: Dinner With the Wests

Sunday, May 8, 2005 (Continued)

I won't describe this small dinner party in detail. It went well, and for the most part was very predictable (e.g., Katie predictably apologized for the dinner not being up to yesterday's standard. We predictably insisted her dinner was wonderful, etc.). I'll mention some of the good parts of the evening.

Early on Carson and I were chatting in the living room. To make conversation, he asked me, "How's that business idea of yours coming along?"

I didn't want to steal Ava's thunder when she told her parents about my wealth later, but I didn't want to lie either, so I used a flat voice to say, "Oh, that's ended. I don't have any plans to spend any more time in that area."

"That's a pity."

"I wouldn't say it was a pity. It was an interesting experience, and beneficial in several ways. I learned some good lessons from it. I'd have done things differently had I known in advance."

"That's good. You're young yet. There's plenty of time for work after you've finished your education."

"Yes. I don't know how long that'll take though. To listen to Prof and Vanessa, they want me to get several degrees. But speaking of education reminds me to ask you about my leaving here for a few hours in what you'd consider the middle of the night. I only sleep for four hours a night, then I get up to go studying on the computers I have at Julia's place. I'll come back here about the time you're all waking up..."

That started quite a long conversation, with several explanations required. The business issue was forgotten.

Over dessert, I said, "Ava, now might be a good time to ask your parents for permission for what we intend to do next weekend."

Katie and Carson were alerted by Ava's happy laugh, her "Neat!", and all of our increased attentions.

With a very big grin, Ava said, "It's Julia and Mark's anniversary this weekend." Ava turned to Julia, "It's actually on the weekend, isn't it?"

"Yes. The 14th, which is Saturday."

"Thanks. So for their anniversary Mark's rented a private jet to fly half a dozen of their friends to LA to go shopping on Rodeo Drive. They're going to a Justin Timberlake concert Saturday night, staying in a luxury hotel and flying back Sunday." Turning back to Julia, Ava said, "There was something else I've forgotten?"

Julia suggested, "The cash for shopping?"

"Yes, that was it, {giggle}. Mark's also throwing in $10,000 cash for us to go shopping with. Julia would like me to help her spend Mark's money, so can I go to LA with them next weekend please, {giggle}?"

The Wests weren't as much fun as I'd hoped, as all that happened was that Katie asked, "What's the explanation, Ava?"

"{Giggle}. Mark's rich Mom! He skipped school for most of the last week, went to LA and earned $6.5 million. He's a MILLIONAIRE! Isn't he incredible!

Neither parent believed Ava. Carson looked at me, saying, "What's the point of this nonsense?"

I answered, "Ava left out one fact she thought was irrelevant, but you might find significant. Prof and I went to LA together last Tuesday. We worked on this together, and Prof saw me earn the money. It might be a good idea for you to call him for confirmation."

"I think I'll take you up on that."

They had a phone in the kitchen, so it didn't take long for Carson to get through to Prof.

While he was doing so, Ava told me, "I didn't know Prof was with you. I don't think anyone told me that. Or if they did, it got blown out of my head by all the excitement."

I said, "Now that I think about it, I think you're right. We just said I'd earned it, and you believed us. Sorry I implied you'd forgotten it."

"You've..." Ava was cut off by her father getting Prof on the line.

Carson's side of the conversation follows:

"Mark just told us an unbelievable story about earning a large sum of money?"

"He told us $6.5 million."

Carson turned to Katie, exclaiming "Prof says it's true!"

Raising the phone, he asked, "How does a 15-year old boy earn $6.5 million?"

Carson mostly listened for a couple of minutes, looking stunned. Then, "You're absolutely positive?"

Several seconds of listening later, Carson said, "I'm absolutely astonished. I'll tell Katie. Thanks, Prof."

Carson hung up, then said, "I think I need a drink."

He looked shaky, but Ava leaped to her feet saying, "I'll get you one Dad. Whiskey?"

"Ahh, maybe I'd better not, dear. I'm not supposed to drink alcohol now. On second thought, to hell with it. A whiskey would be great, thanks Ava. Just a single."

Ava asked, "Mom, do you want anything?"

"No thanks." Katie looked at Carson as he regained his seat, asking him, "It's true?"

"Every word. Prof and Vanessa invested $50,000, as did Mark's family. Prof and Mark went to LA on Tuesday. Prof fronted Mark because Mark's too young to enter into contracts, and Mark turned the $100,000 into several million dollars. Prof says they've taken most of the profits already, and the majority of the money is already in his and Mark's personal accounts. He also passed on a message from Vanessa, reminding us that she'd told us that Mark was an overachiever. Somehow that phrase doesn't do you justice, Mark."

Ava put her father's drink down in front of him. He looked at it without comprehension for a few seconds, and then realized what it was. He took a sip (Ava's parents weren't the 'down the hatch' types), during which I noticed his hand was shaking noticeably.

Katie said, "You've really got $6.5 million?"

"Give or take a few hundred thousand, yes. The final numbers aren't in yet, but it'll be very close to that. That's before tax. Unfortunately I have to give the Government over $2 million of it. That sucks big time!"

"You've earned more in a few days than Carson and I have earned in our entire lives! How on Earth does a 15-year old boy earn $6.5 million in one week?"

"Four days," corrected Ava. "He got lazy, {giggle}. So can I go shopping in LA with them this weekend?"

I said, "I think your parents need a little longer to come to grips with this yet, Ava."

^-- I much preferred not to talk day trading with the Wests, in case they knew something about it. I had an impressively complicated spiel prepared, but it was better to avoid it if I could. So I used something Prof had once said, "In all honesty, you wouldn't understand. I don't mean to belittle you in any way, but I was doing stuff that I'm pretty sure hasn't been done before. The trip itself only took four days, but Prof and I spent some time working on my idea for a few weeks before the trip, and Prof could never get his head around it. He did more than just front me because I was underage, but he could only operate in one corner of what went on." It was vaguely true, but not really.

Ava said, "Mom, I haven't told you the best part yet. Mark's buying a $2.5 million house! Julia, her mom and Mark's mom have been busy all day yesterday and today looking at houses. They're looking for a house big enough for both their families to live in..." Ava went on to describe our plan, including the semi-detached wing for Mark, Julia, Carol, and Ava when she wasn't staying with her parents.

Talking about a new house got all the females excited, and there was quite a discussion on the topic. In the course of which Julia said a small thing which caught my attention. A sentence of hers contained, " ... about $2.5 million."

#2: <The budget is $2 to $2.5 million. It is not, "ABOUT $2.5 million." That'd probably end up being 2.6, 2.7 or even higher. If we spend 2.5 we'll only have 0.9 left for renovations, furnishings and everything else like shopping trips to LA and new cars. We're already getting damned worried about running out of money, so I very much do NOT want to let Julia keep thinking "ABOUT $2.5 million." I suggest we correct her.>

#3, #4: <Agreed.>

I said, "Julia, the budget for buying the house is $2 to $2.5 million, not 'ABOUT $2.5 million, ' the way you just said."

"Sure," agreed Julia, suspiciously thoughtlessly.

"Were you listening to me, Julia? BETWEEN 2 and 2.5 is NOT the same thing as ABOUT 2.5."

Julia answered casually, "It's more or less the same."

That was self-contradictory statement, but this was no time to be pointing out logical absurdities. I came at it a different way, "The largest check I will write is $2.5 million. If you try to buy a property that costs more than that, you're responsible for any excess, because you're not getting it from me!"

"Oh, you're serious."

"Have you been misled by all the other times I've thrown millions of dollars around casually?"

A contrite Julia said, "I'm sorry, Mark. I wasn't listening." Then a second later she added, "Umm, I hate to say this, but it's not quite as simple as that. The renovation costs complicate things. My understanding was that the $2 to $2.5 million budget excluded renovation costs. If we had a choice between a $2.5 million property that needed $200,000 of renovations, or a $2.6 million property that needed no renovations, we'd be better off getting the $2.6 million property. We should have a budget that includes renovations, but that's tricky because we can't do any better than take wild guesses at what each property's renovations could cost, not until we get an architect in, and they cost money and take time..."

I said, "Buy NEITHER of those properties! Find one that costs $2.1 million and needs $200,000 of renovations. So what if it doesn't end up as fancy as the others! My problem isn't in making the budget clear enough so you know exactly the maximum amount you can spend, but your attitude of trying to spend as much as you possibly can on everything. I would FAR rather have a few hundred thousand left over from our budget, than spend every last penny of it because you wanted us to crap in gold-plated toilets."

In a VERY meek, child-like manner, Julia climbed into my lap and hugged me, saying, "I LOVE it when you act so masterfully." She squeezed me again, then, "I'm sorry I was getting carried away. I know you and Dad went though a great deal to earn that money, and I should be more careful about spending it."

I decided to be less than magnanimous in victory, "DAMN right! Prof and I do NOT want to repeat last week." Aware that the Wests were listening, I added, "It was incredibly hard and worrying..."

#3: <Apart from the day we spent fishing, but I know what you mean.>

" ... In the middle of it I was even worried that Prof was going to have a heart attack because of how hard it was. If you'd been there, Julia, you'd be a damn sight more cautious about spending as much as possible now."

"I'm sorry."

Ava exclaimed, "Boy! I've never seen Mark tell you off like that before Julia."

Katie warned, "Ava! Hush."

Julia said, "It's all right, Katie. I'm proud of Mark when he stands up for himself so well. Not so proud of myself for causing it, but I'll live. It's very good that Mark put his foot down so firmly. He was totally right, and I knew it in advance too. I just got carried away." Julia reverted to hugging me silently.

After a few seconds, Carson asked, "So it was hard work, Mark?"

"VERY hard. There were things going on in all directions, some of which I didn't understand. There was a great deal of money involved, far too many ways we could screw-up, and it was all happening very quickly. It was a VERY unenjoyable experience! I sort of misled you earlier, when I said my business had ended. It HAS ended, but I allowed you to keep the impression that it failed because Ava wanted the fun of breaking the news to you. But I was totally truthful when I said, 'I learned some good lessons, and I'd have done things differently.' I learned that making large amounts of money that way is a HELL of a lot harder than I expected. So much so that Prof and I aren't going to repeat that business. If we ever need any more money, I'll think of an easier way of getting it."

"It must have been very hard indeed then, if you're willing to walk away from a way of making millions of dollars."

"I'm not 'walking away from it', I'm RUNNING, haha. I think I could find other ways to make money, if I needed to. You saw me play soccer, so you know professional soccer would be a possibility. It wouldn't be my first choice, but it's an example of what I mean. I sincerely hope I can avoid having to make more money for the next few years. It's a pain I could do without."

Carson laughed, "Every adult thinks the same thing."

After a few more minutes of inconsequential conversation on this topic, Ava reminded her parents, "So can I please go to Rodeo Drive with Mark and Julia next weekend, to help them spend Mark's money?"

There were the predictable objections:

• "It'll cost too much to take Ava as well." I answered with, "It costs NOTHING to take Ava. I've rented the whole plane, so all the seats are mine whether or not I put a person in them. And Ava will be staying in our room in the hotel, so there's no extra cost there either."

• "Wouldn't you rather be alone for your anniversary?" Answer, "No. We're inviting other friends already. Ava is the friend we'd most like to come. Julia can't be expected to be able to go shopping on Rodeo Drive by herself; she needs help!"

• Safety was mentioned. With my fingers crossed that I was telling the truth, I explained it wasn't a problem. "We're staying in a top quality hotel for a single night, I don't imagine that Rodeo Drive can be a dangerous street, except to bank balances! We'll be in a group the whole time, and I pity anyone who tries to cause any of the girls trouble with me looking after them."

Consent was eventually given, with the usual admonishments and cautions from the parents, and the usual assurances and promises from us.

Julia added, "By the way, we're keeping Mark's wealth secret for a few days, until we come back from Rodeo Drive. Would you please not tell anyone until then?"

They both agreed.

A few minutes of conversation later, I asked Ava's parents, "I was talking to Vanessa a while ago, and she was saying that when all their kids are independent, she and Prof want to visit Italy. That's been their dream for quite a few years, from what I could gather. What about you two, have you got a dream trip planned?"

They looked a little uncomfortable. Katie said, "We don't have time for a trip."

"How long can a trip take: one week, two weeks? Surely you could take a couple of weeks off work?"

More hesitation, and now the girls were also starting to look a little worried about my pushing the subject.

I moved faster, saying, "At Julia's place a couple of weeks ago - at the dinner party when we first met - you said you were trying to pass on as much money as you could to Ava. With my ability to make money, that's no longer much of an issue. It's not reasonable for you to spend all your time at work rather than with each other on a dream trip, so book yourself on your trip as soon as you possibly can, and I'll give Ava whatever amount of money you spend on your trip, up to $10,000 say. That way your trip isn't disadvantaging Ava at all."

Julia was sitting up all excited, smiling from ear to ear and even clapping for joy a couple of times. "That's SO lovely..."

"We couldn't possibly accept. It's very generous of you, but we've just heard you tell Julia to conserve your money..."

I already had my counter to this objection worked out. "I'm confident that my yelling at Julia just saved me AT LEAST two or three hundred thousand dollars. If I yelled at her again I could probably save another hundred thou'. Not to mention that I can EASILY reduce the budget if I want to - I'm sure I'd manage to enjoy living in a house that cost only a 'meager' $2 million. Spending $10,000 on your trip is an insignificant drop in the bucket compared to how much money I just saved."

[Speaking of house budgets, Julia totally accepted that she'd been in the wrong. She understood that she'd been trying to spend as much as she possibly could, and almost certainly would've spent even more if I hadn't put my foot down. Plus, she did have a very good idea of how hard it'd been for Prof and me to earn that money, so she should've been more cautious with it. Thus, when we did buy our new house, she made sure it was within my STRICTLY enforced $2 to $2.5 million budget. What we spent wasn't a dollar over budget, because it was EXACTLY $2.5 million! Which I considered to be a considerable victory. Imagine what would have happened if I hadn't put my foot down! Or maybe we were in budget because Julia was on the other side of the world at the time.]

I added, "Another point is that I'm giving Julia the same amount for her shopping spree on Rodeo Drive, and it'll only last her a few hours there," Obviously it'd last longer than that, but it made for a good story. I pressed on before Katie could contradict me. "Whereas it will bring you pleasure for a heck of a lot longer than a few hours. You two NEED to spend time together, doing something that you'd love to do, rather than working as long as you possibly can. That'd be a CRIME. I can too easily imagine my parents in your situation, and I would be horrified if they were intending to sacrifice their remaining time together for something as unimportant as money."

"We can't let you spend that much money on us. You don't even know us..."

"I'm not spending the money on you; I'm giving it to Ava. That seems like I'm splitting logical hairs, but the obvious truth of the matter is that I wouldn't be offering it to you if you weren't Ava's parents. As much as anything, I'm creating a good memory for Ava, that she'll have for the rest of her life. As you can see, she very much wants you to do this." Ava was already urging her parents to accept, girls being extraordinarily unhesitant to spend their boyfriend's money. Julia and even Carol were in on the act now, when they weren't busy praising me.

Katie and Carson were still hesitant. I had a cute idea.

#4: <NOT 50%! 10% is enough. It still makes the same point, without encouraging them to be profligate.>

#2: <Okay.>

I said, "You drive a hard bargain, so I'll up my offer. I'll reimburse your trip's cost - up to $10,000 - plus 10% MORE than it costs. In other words, if you don't go on this trip, Ava will be financially disadvantaged. As good parents, you wouldn't be so irresponsible as to disadvantage your daughter, would you?"

Everyone kept pouring the pressure on, and they eventually weakened. They didn't actually agree, instead stopping about halfway there, saying, "Thank you very much, but we need to think about it."

I'd been receiving a lot of praise, a large part of which was undeserved, as the idea had been entirely Vanessa's. I hadn't wanted to distract the conversation by mentioning Vanessa's role until after the 'battle' was over. Now that we'd probably gotten as far as we could this evening, I was about to mention it, when I had a better idea.

I got up and walked to their phone, watched by everyone. I dialed Julia's home number then asked to speak to Vanessa. When she came on the line I said, "Vanessa, we've just had a drawn out argument with Katie and Carson over your idea that I reimburse Ava for their going on a trip together soon. I've never met people so reluctant to spend someone else's money. It's a pity your daughter isn't more like that." I stuck out my tongue and smiled at Julia, so she knew I was mostly joking. "For some reason they object to taking orders from a 15-year old boy, so can I please ask you to make sure they get themselves organized and away on this trip. I've got no real idea of what's involved in organizing something like this, but I'm sure you do, and can tell if they're stalling. If they do stall, could you please yell at them, or kick their butts, or whatever it is you do to get uncooperative adults to behave sensibly."

Vanessa laughingly agreed, then asked to speak to Katie.

I held the phone up, saying, "Katie, Vanessa would like to talk with you, please. You'd better do what she says, because she's scary when she doesn't get her way."

Katie's side of the conversation wasn't particularly interesting. Katie didn't know what they'd do or when, telling Vanessa, "I need to talk with Carson, Mark's only just sprung it on us." There were some, "Yes, okays" and similar agreements, which had to be a good sign. Also the occasional reference to me, such as, "Yes, he's a VERY unusual boy."

When Katie hung up, she told her husband, "Vanessa's going to call tomorrow morning to discuss what we've decided overnight. Looks like we have to plan a trip."

"Good," agreed Carson, "I like the sound of that much better than working." To me he said, "Thank you, Mark. We'll take care of this ourselves without accepting your money."

"In that case I'll just assume you spent $10,000 and I'll give $11,000 to Ava. I think I'll wait until after she comes back from Rodeo Drive though, otherwise it might be wasted."

Julia leaped to immediately correct my mistake, "Buying good quality clothes is NEVER a waste. Second, you don't want people to see you with a poorly dressed girlfriend. Third, it's immoral to go to Rodeo Drive and not shop. You wouldn't want Ava to behave immorally would you? Oops, I take that back. Fourth, think of the great memories you'd be giving Ava. It's nice that you're helping her parents, but this is SHOPPING that we're talking about, haha."

Ava asked her parents, "Where are you going to go? Have you got ideas, like Julia's parents to Italy?"

"Yes we have, but we'll discuss them tonight and let you know tomorrow morning."

We discussed the issue for another couple of minutes, mostly everyone praising me, and me trying to deflect it onto Vanessa: "As you heard me say to Vanessa, it was her idea originally. I'm just passing it on." I got a raspberry for that.

Katie said, "I guess I should buy you a large plate now, Mark." For whatever reason, Katie hadn't gotten around to going to the store that Vanessa had recommended a couple of weeks ago, so I'd been eating my dinner on normal-sized crockery.

In a serious-sounding voice, I said, "I think you need to do considerably more than that!"

I gave her just long enough to get worried, then held up my normal-sized dessert bowl, "A large bowl too please. This is my third helping of dessert, and I'm worried that people will be starting to think I'm a pig."

The teenagers did the dishes while Katie and Carson were sat in chairs nearby and told to supervise.

At an opportune moment I raised a subject that I knew was of concern to Ava's parents, "Carson, yesterday you got a bit of a shock about the number of girlfriends I had. I thought you might want to discuss it tonight?"

"Yes, but I was intending to have quiet word with you about it."

"There's no need for it to be private, and there are some reasons for it not to be: it was actually Julia's idea so she can explain it better than I can, plus Julia and Ava are my main girlfriends so they have an important interest in the conversation."

"Okay, we can discuss it now if you wish. Although I must admit that it's hard to be critical about you now, after what we learned about you over dinner, and your generosity to us."

Julia butted in, as I knew she would sooner or later (my money had been on sooner). "Exactly! That's what happened to me too. I told you that the 14th is Mark's and my anniversary. It's not the anniversary of our first date - that was April 1st - so can you guess what it is the anniversary of?"

They had no guesses, not even the obvious "first time we had sex" option. So I filled the silence by telling them, "It was a day well worth celebrating for the rest of our lives: it was the first time Julia's mother served me dinner on a big plate." I got some good laughs for that.

Julia said, "I have a slightly different reason. I've had two relationships with Mark. The first lasted from a few days before April 1, included our first date on April 1, and then died on April 14. That was the relationship in which I thought Mark was my boyfriend and then my Mr. Right, as I got to know him better over that time. During that time I thought we might be partners.

^-- "On April 14 I realized that Mark's potential was SO much greater than mine would ever be. I don't just mean slightly greater, but off-the-scale greater. If you need a reminder of his potential, remember that even at the age of fifteen he can earn several million dollars in four days. What's he going to be capable of when he's an adult?" That point hit home very successfully. "The idea of our being in any sort of partnership was preposterous because partners have to be roughly equal, and it was also selfish because I didn't deserve someone as fantastic as Mark and I'd be holding him back. April 14 was the start of my second relationship with Mark, when I devoted my life to helping him achieve his awesome potential. Not only do I not mind his having multiple girlfriends, I want him to, because he can learn many useful lessons about life and people by doing so. Plus he can have fun, which given how much studying he does, is perfectly fine with me.

^-- "In case you somehow think I'm being taken advantage of, let me tell you that I'm having the time of my life. I've got a mission I think is incredibly important, I'm making great friendships, I get to do fun things like help to buy two million dollar houses and go shopping on Rodeo Drive with a pocket full of cash, and I get to spend most of my time with Mark, a guy I'd never be able to hang on to normally. My life is perfect, and it keeps getting better."

I said, "Julia didn't explain the magnitude of the help she's giving me. She left out that I was terribly insecure and shy when we started dating, and that she's brought me a long way out of my shell. Not all the way out yet, but far better than I used to be."

Katie said, "It's hard to see how you could have been shy and insecure in the first place."

"I certainly was. I was socially and physically inept when I was younger. My greatest accomplishment was to be barely intellectually average. I even had an ugly, pimply face. Then everything started coming together wonderfully well for me in late-adolescence, about a year and a half ago. My abilities improved so much so that I went from inept to genius in almost everything, but my lack of self-confidence was so ingrained that I didn't push myself forward. Julia came along and provided the push. Julia is very, very good at being pushy, haha. That's one of the reasons she's enjoying her life so much these days: she's got both the opportunity and justification to push someone around, haha."

Julia attacked me with her wet dish-towel, so I quickly added, "She has opportunity, justification AND my thanks. She's improving my life enormously. Just - ouch! - not at the moment."

While Julia was punishing me, Carol took over, "Julia, Ava and I are all having fun sharing our different relationships with Mark, plus we can all see how fast Mark's confidence is improving. Mine too. It's great for me to be in the center of this and see dozens of 16-year old girls behave so stupidly. I never thought I'd look down at girls three years older than me, but they really don't understand what's going on. Mark's popularity also rubs off on me, making me popular with the girls in my own grade. I also used to be shy, similar to Mark, but a lot less now."

Katie said, "What about you Ava? Shyness was never your problem, so what do you get out of Mark having several girlfriends?"

Ava answered, "He had Julia as his main girlfriend, plus lots of other wannabe girlfriends when I made my commitment to him, so I knew what the story was when I joined. Julia made VERY sure I knew what I was joining in advance so I wouldn't get any bad surprises. I haven't either; it's been far better than I expected. But I guess I personally don't get much from Mark's having other girlfriends. I enjoy helping Mark and Julia with them, arranging meetings or spreading information, or whatever else I can do to help. Occasionally I'll have sex with Mark and another girl, but not..."

"Ava!"

"Haha Mom, I knew you'd do that. I keep telling you that you need to get used to me being bisexual. Julia and I are lovers and you know that sometimes Julia, Mark and I go to bed together, so we like group sex. You should have known that sex would be one of the answers when you asked me what I got out of Mark having other girlfriends?"

#1: <Pretty good logic for a girl.>

#3: <Ava's also a very direct and straightforward girl, so maybe she's in touch with her masculine side?>

#4: <I was rather hoping she didn't have one of those.>

#1: <Here's an interesting thought: what would have happened if in one of our déjà vu merges, the Mark Anderson in the other dimension was actually a MARY Anderson; a female. That hasn't happen yet, but I wonder whether it's possible.>

#4: <Interesting, but in our whole life - all four of them - we've never had déjà vu with a girl. Surely that would feel very different from a normal déjà vu.>