Chapter 96

Allie was still pissed at Adam. He knew that. Part of it was because he hadn't taken her side on the issue. Another part was because he had raised his voice to her – despite the fact that she had screamed at him at the top of her lungs moments before.

But the biggest reason was because she suspected he was right and she was wrong. She liked Mary. She liked Mary a lot. She found a kindred spirit in her abrasive attitude and off-color comments. Like Adam, Allie didn't know what she might do for a quarter of a billion dollars. It was easy to say she wouldn't do something if the issue stayed abstract.

And it pissed Allie off royally that Adam might be right. Adam recognized the reasons for Allie's anger but he didn't have to accept them. He grabbed her by the arms and spun her around as she walked past him then hoisted her upward with his arms around her butt.

When he lifted her up to face level, he kissed her – first on the nose and then softly on the lips.

"I love you," he said, looking squarely into her eyes. "I don't want something silly like this to come between us. I'm sorry I yelled at you last night. I hope you didn't feel threatened by my actions."

Allie couldn't help but smile at Adam. She loved the way he sometimes hoisted her around like a rag doll. It reminded her of the better parts of her life when her father would hold her hands and let her climb up his legs and chest to his shoulders – climbing Daddy Mountain was what she called it. Allie's father was shorter than Adam by half a foot. She laughed aloud when she thought she could probably climb Adam Mountain even though she was an adult.

"I love you, too," Allie said, leaning forward to kiss Adam again. "I wasn't mad at you and I'm sorry for yelling, too. It just really bothered me, you know. It still bothers me."

"I know it," Adam said. "It bothers me, too, just as much as it does you. I know you said you were OK last night but I can see you're still upset with me."

"Not at you," Allie said. "Class helped a lot, actually. Once I got the anger out of my system I started to see things a little more clearly. I was upset at what you asked me to do and I was upset because I wasn't sure I could do what you wanted me to. I was further upset when I realized I was wrong."

She gave her patented impish grin. Allie was still clad in her robe (Adam knew it had a name but he didn't remember it) and a pair of white cotton pants. He could feel the sweat seeping through the layers of clothing. Her face was red from exertion and her hair was loose and matted. But Allie was still adorable.

"Well, it takes time to get used to being wrong," Adam joked. "Once you get as good at it as I am, it won't even faze you."

"Do we have time to roll around some before we shower and go to the bank?" Allie asked. Proximity to Adam always got her motor running and his arms around her butt pulling her tightly to him didn't help.

"If you don't mind a rather large audience," Sarah answered from behind them. "Please put down the pixie and step away from her. This is your last warning."

"You have lousy timing," Allie said as Adam lowered her back to her feet. His T-shirt and shorts were wet with Allie's sweat.

"I think I should shower with you," Adam said, glancing down. Sarah walked over and pinched Adam's butt.

"I told you to step away from the pixie," she said. "Besides, it's my turn."

Adam was prepared to have Sarah jump into his arms this time – as opposed to the day before. Adam found his arms around a new bottom and his eyes level with a new set of boobs.

"I love you," he repeated.

"I know and you should," Sarah said. She initiated the kiss this time. "I'm loveable. But I love you, too."

"You are loveable," Adam agreed. "How was swimming?"

"Tiring!" Sarah said. "Jesus, Erin works her ass off. Well, not really. She has a nice one still. But she works hard. She does the breaststroke for her team."

"Hey, I can do that," Adam said with a smile. "Well, not right now. My hands are full."

Sarah rolled her eyes but inside she was relieved. The girls had promised not to gang up on Adam but they had broken that vow the night before. They didn't listen to a word he said but instead increased their volume until they were talking over him. It wasn't until hours later that his words sunk in. Sarah was not a small girl. She stood 5-7 and weighed a curvy 125 pounds. She had never known a guy who could lift her without effort until she met Adam and she certainly had never known someone into whose arms she could jump - at least not without landing on her ass. She dipped forward and kissed him again.

"Did you call Celina?" she asked.

Adam nodded. It was obvious that Sarah still had a swimsuit on beneath her clothes. Adam's arms had gone from salty sweat to chlorination. Like Allie, Sarah's hair was a mess and pulled back in a ponytail. She wore a pair of cutoff sweatpants and a T-shirt, both wet and clinging to her. But she was gorgeous.

"Did you mention the agent thing?" Sarah wondered.

Again Adam nodded. Sarah waited for more.

"Well?" she asked.

"She is already a registered agent," Adam told her. "She said she would be happy to be the nominal head of Five Friends Casting in whatever incarnation it evolves. I didn't talk to her about particulars but I can when I meet with her this afternoon."

"You're meeting with her?" Allie asked. She had spied a potential shower partner in Sarah and didn't want to miss the chance.

"I think I need to," Adam said. "I want to make sure we're covered legally if we have to push Mary out. I want to know the exact steps we need to take. If she has to be served or be allowed to present a defense or whatever."

"So now you think that will happen?" Sarah asked. She was confused. The night before Adam seemed intent upon keeping everyone together.

"Well, uh, yeah," Adam admitted. "I honestly didn't think you four would be willing to step back and let things go. No offense meant. I know you said you would try but I didn't really think you planned to try too hard."

"We didn't," Allie said. "At least we didn't last night. But you made sense. Walt is going to be the hardest to convince."

"Walt understands," Adam said. "I still need to get Celina's take on things. She is picking me up after class so it might be late when I get back."

"I don't think I like you hanging out with her alone," Shelly said. She had wandered in after going over to collect Karlie – and it turned out, Trinity. "I've seen the looks you give her when you think I won't notice."

"The looks he gives her?" Allie asked. "You should be more worried about the looks she gives him."

Adam couldn't tell if they were joking or not so he said nothing.

"Hey, Amazon, you're in my spot," Shelly said. Sarah slipped forward to kiss Adam again before wiggling to get him to let her down. Shelly immediately assumed the spot. Like Sarah, Shelly still had a swimsuit on beneath what she wore. Unlike Sarah, Shelly had on only a towel – which she dispensed with before holding her arms out for Adam to lift her. Shelly's hair hung in strands around her sweet, angelic face and she wore a red one-piece swimsuit to reminded Adam of the old lifeguard outfits from TV. Her perky nipples pushed out from the material and Adam could feel the warmth from her pussy on his stomach where his shirt had risen with Shelly's ascent.

He kissed her softly and she snuggled up to him with her head on his shoulder. There was no place in the world that Shelly felt better than where she was right then. It only got better when Adam spoke.

"I love you," he said. Although there wasn't a micron between them, Shelly tried to get closer.

"I love you," she said softly. "Sorry I was so nasty last night."

"I understand," Adam said. "I was angry, too."

"It wasn't about just last night," Shelly said. "This has been brewing for awhile. Mary has been on my nerves for a month. She has constantly tried to live my life for me – like she thinks I'm too stupid to do it myself."

"She cares about you," Adam tried.

"She wanted to control me like Eric did," Shelly responded. "She wants to make my decisions and to question any decision I make on my own. I was tired of it. I have avoided being alone with her since we got back from Vegas. I already knew she was going to grill me about why I chose to do a scene there. So my frustration with her sort of boiled over. I think she showed she can't make a good decision for herself, let alone for me. Now I just feel sorry for her."

"I do, too," Adam agreed. "Do you feel sorry enough for her to be nice to her?"

"Yeah," Shelly said, after a moment's thought. "I do. You know, it wasn't about the money. I mean, part of it was. Mostly it was about how cavalierly she treated our friendships and her relationship with Walt. That is really what got me."

"I think it was that way for everyone," Adam said. "Sure, the money was part of it. But honestly, that amount is too big for me to even fathom."

"Yeah, if I can't live on $30 million I need to figure out how," Shelly laughed.

"Well, the split would be more like $25 million," Adam said. "Mike gets 10 percent plus Celina will get a chunk of it."

"Well, then I should be mad," Shelly continued with a laugh, "because no one could live on $25 million. But I started to think a little more about why the offer was made. Not about the company that wants to buy Polar Power but why we even have a product like that. Mary deserves the lion's share of the proceeds."

"But that starts a bad precedent," Adam said. "When Subarctic starts to make movies does Sarah deserve more than you for writing the script and working with Five Friends? We agreed from the outset that we would split proceeds evenly. That's why we started Subarctic. The proceeds from the movie side will be split nine ways just like the proceeds from the tech side will. If we all want to chip in extra for someone, I'm not opposed to it. But I don't think it can be a corporate decision. Do you follow?"

"I follow," Shelly said. "But I still understand better where Mary is coming from. Now put me down. I think Trinity wants a ride."

"To where?" Adam wondered, thinking she needed to go somewhere via car.

"On you, numb nuts," Karlie giggled as she walked past Adam and slapped him on the arm lightly. "And I'm on deck after her but I need to pee before Allie, Sarah and Shelly take up the bathroom for the next two hours."

Adam got out of lifting Trinity up to straddle his chest. She settled for a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Allie and Adam had no trouble opening up an escrow account to be released to Steve Rayburn upon completion of a property inspection and a transfer of deed. It took only 35 minutes because Celina had already faxed over a copy of the paperwork. Then Adam tracked down the bank department that handled credit card transactions. That took almost as long as transferring the money had.

Finally, in a back office three floors above the main lobby, Adam and Allie found Travis Dillworth. His office led Adam to believe Peoples Bank had little faith in Mr. Dillworth's abilities. A few minutes of his time told them if Peoples Bank thought lowly of Travis Dillworth, they were missing the boat entirely. The man was sharp.

"The only way you would see this amount of transactions would be from an adult web site," he said as he perused the numbers Adam had acquired from Mary's foray into Cassie and Rita's web sites. "Is that what we're talking about?"

"We are," Adam admitted. "In fact, we're talking about a series of them, perhaps as many as a dozen. I don't expect all of them to perform to this standard but I expect them all to come with 20 percent of those numbers."

"Really?" Travis asked, glancing up. His eyes narrowed when they crossed Allie's face and he smiled suddenly. "Is this from your web site, Ms. uh, how should I address you? Do you prefer Ms. Malibu when dealing professionally?"

"Allie is fine," she replied. "But no, although mine will be one of the others Adam doesn't expect to perform as well as these."

Travis laughed along with Allie. "I think Adam will be pleasantly surprised then," Travis responded. "That's it! I'm sorry. I just figured out why Adam looked so familiar. I hope you don't think badly of me, but, well, I enjoyed both of your performances from 'Frisky First-Timers'."

The man blushed slightly.

"Well, since we did the scenes, we couldn't very well think badly of you," Allie said. "Frankly, I'm a bit surprised. Most professionals wouldn't admit to viewing things like that."

"And I normally wouldn't either," Travis admitted. "But those were different somehow. I'm married, you know. My wife even watched them."

Allie gestured her head toward Adam.

"There is the difference," she said. "He takes a very different approach and it spills over to everyone on the set. If you liked what Daystar – that's the studio – did, you should check out 'Interludes' from Dazzle and a scene of his from 'Naughty Newbies' on Goldwall. He is really good."

"I could see that," Travis said. "I'm not gay, by the way. But I have been looking at those things for, God, since I was 12 or 13 years old. That was one of the few I've found that I felt the need to share – not only with my wife but with a couple of friends who are having some difficulties with their spouses in that area. I'll have you know, it helped a lot. I'll be sure to pass along the others to them – after I watch them, of course."