Chapter 157

The highlight of Saturday night was the beginning of the long promised and awaited "Date Night". The concept spread quickly and soon everyone had decided to go out in twos, threes and fours to something of interest to the group.

Some of the pairings were natural. Walt and Mary invited Katey to join them for a game at Dodgers Stadium. Sean, Rachelle and Meredith planned an evening of dinner and dancing.

Adam wasn't a bit surprised when Beth and Jason decided to spend Saturday at the Museum of Natural History before going out to a quiet dinner. He had seen that one coming for days. Leslie and Tyanna invited Lucy to join them for a ballet performance. Anya and Katya were going to a Russian restaurant and then to a foreign film festival.

The rest of the lower house drew cards for partners. Allie and Shelly each drew jacks and decided a shopping trip and a movie was called for. Adam and Sarah drew queens and decided go-kart racing and a batting cage would be a good date. The kings went to Trinity and Karlie. Both were avid mini golfers and decided to see how many courses they could hit. Erin and Rebecca drew aces and picked a beach volleyball match.

Adam figured the natural pairings would leave Cameron and Timm in pretty high demand – in case the evening extended into the night. He was wrong.

In fact, the women went to such lengths to avoid appearing greedy that the guys were left to the last two to arrive at the houses – Veronica and Elena. Neither of the women appeared disappointed and Timm and Cameron certainly weren't upset.

Both Timm and Veronica were old enough to get into some of the better clubs in Los Angeles (which insisted the occupants be 21 years old unless they were a reality TV star or an heiress or something). They decided to have a simple dinner and then go clubbing.

Cameron and Elena planned a visit to Hollywood to take in the sites and then go to a concert. Cameron said he had lived in Los Angeles his whole life but had never been to Hollywood. Elena was excited about going to see Rodeo Drive.

It was after 11 p.m. when everyone returned. Allie and Shelly were the last ones back but they were laughing and giggling like crazy.

"We saw the worst movie!" Allie said. Then Shelly explained the film in excruciating detail. Adam wondered – but wisely didn't ask – why she felt the need to fill them in on a movie that was horrible.

"The volleyball game was cool," Erin said. "You know a lot of women's sports are lezzie fests so we fit right in."

Rebecca simply rolled her eyes. She had determined during the course of the evening that Adam's presence was having an adverse effect on Erin's tact. Still, she laughed when Erin related the story of the player whose bikini wound up almost at her knees when she dove to dig a spike.

"I enjoyed our movie," Anya offered. "The restaurant was delicious. I let Katya pick the menu. It was amazing!"

"I'm happy to watch movie I understand," Katya replied with a grin. American television shows required a bit of explanation from time to time because of the slang terms that predominated in the language.

"I killed on the course – again," Karlie said smugly. "It was no contest. Trinity talks a good game but talk is all it is. Isn't that right, Trinity?"

Trinity closed her eyes tightly for a moment before answering.

"Yes, Mistress Karlie," she said. Karlie dissolved in laughter.

"That was her bet," she explained. "She seemed to think my prowess was overstated. So she wanted to play for slave rights for the rest of the weekend. Guess who'll be doing my undies by hand tomorrow."

"Sweet!" Shelly said. "Can I borrow her for a few minutes? I have a few things that really need to be hand washed."

Karlie smiled sadly.

"Sorry, Shelly," she said. "I really am. You know I don't usually mind when you play with my things. But we decided early on that this would be non-sexual and non-transferrable."

"What fun is that?" Allie asked with a laugh. "How were the go-karts?"

"Adam cheats!" Sarah said. She did her best to look sad but smiled anyway. "He completely cut me off the last lap. He almost spun me out."

"It's called drafting and bumping," Adam said. "You should watch more racing with me. I just got underneath her a little and gave her a love tap. It's not my fault she can't drive."

"Hey, that sounds like fun!" Rebecca said. "Why don't you do that to all of us tonight? You know, get underneath us and give us a love tap."

The girls broke down in giggles again and it was a smiling group that wandered downstairs to the bedroom – Anya and Katya in tow.

Adam somehow found himself beneath each of them at some point during the evening and early morning and did his best until they tapped him out.

Sunday saw most of the group preparing for the final exams in their summer courses. Erin, Anya, Katya and Adam went out to a number of locations to shoot sets for the new additions to "Sweet Things."

The last place they visited was a deserted beach that Adam was sure was private property. There was no sign in sight, however, so he went along with the plan.

He took about 200 pictures of all the women in apparel that ranged from swimsuit to birthday suit. Then he took 50 more pictures of them walking hand in hand down the beach as the sun set behind them.

He barely made it back to the house for the Subarctic meeting.

As it was, there was little to discuss and most of the talk centered on the upcoming trip to Las Vegas and the various dates from the night before. The only real news came from the newly contracted business manager who gave an update on profits and expenditures from the varying businesses.

Only Carter Creations had shown no profit – which earned Walt some good-natured ribbing. But the other companies were showing earnings between good (Five Friends Casting) to astounding (Petal Technologies).

The tax-abatement plan was approved and would take effect in the next business year. If projections held true, within a year, Subarctic Enterprises would be a billion dollar corporation.

Even Adam gulped at the magnitude of that.

Outside of the business plan, Walt and Erin took center stage. Steve Rayburn, the local man who sold the second house to the group, was suffering from the normal problems faced by small, start-up business – too little capital to survive any downturn in business. Walt recommended a low-term, long-range loan or an offer to invest.

"I don't see much profit in it," Matt Tolliver, the newly-hired business manager, cut in.

Sean sighed.

"Not everything with this company is about profit," he said. He knew he had to cut off Adam, who would have told the guy it wasn't his fucking money so shut the hell up. As it was, Adam still got a word in.

"I accept your business acumen but I reject your advice," Adam said. "A business like Steve Rayburn's might not show a great deal of profit on the financial ledger but it provides a needed service to the community. If you plan to stick around this company, you'll need to understand that we put a large emphasis on making life better for our employees and for good people who might need a little boost to see them through hard times regardless of the cost to us."

"And Steve definitely falls into that category," Walt said. "His main problem is that he works in a low-income area and he refuses to hold a customer's car until payment is made. Most of the folks need their cars to get back-and-forth to work or get their kids to school. He's trying to do better but he's not going to survive the rest of the year without help."

"I move we instruct Walt to begin negotiations with Steve Rayburn to determine if a loan or outright investment works best for him," Mary said.

The business manager pursed his lips but stayed silent.

Walt sat down and Erin asked to be recognized.

"Walt stole a bit of my thunder," she said with a smile. "But Jack Simms, a/k/a Renaldo, is in the same boat. His problem isn't a lack of customers or slow payment. His issue is that he really needs some new equipment and no bank will touch him because he is so new. He also really needs to hire someone to help him out but that is a matter for him to decide."

"Will you apply for the job?" Rachelle asked.

"No, I'm actually busier than he is," Erin said with a smile. "In a month or two, I'll be asking to discuss opening a studio in the office complex. I think I could make it work with just the clients I already have. That is if Adam doesn't steal them. He's doing really well with the camera."

"I have had some marvelous subjects," Adam said with a smile. Everyone laughed but he was mostly serious. It's hard to take a bad picture of a half-naked (or completely naked) beautiful woman.

"Uh, I might be out of line again," Matt said. "But do I have this correct? You want to offer assistance to a company that you will compete with in a few months?"

Erin tilted her head slightly, and then nodded.

"Why?" Matt asked before he could stop himself.

"Actually, it is not direct competition," Sarah answered for the group. "Jack works mostly contract jobs with studios but he is branching out to include artistic portraits. Erin would do mostly portrait and candid photography. But there is enough room in that realm for two companies to succeed – especially in L.A. Jack is a good person and he was helpful to us when we were nobodies. We don't forget that."

Matt had only a couple of years of experience but he knew this was not how a business usually operated. He wondered why he had been hired because the group routinely rejected his ideas. He had told them it was ludicrous to keep so much cash unbudgeted. He had been appalled that the group had placed almost half of its net worth into an educational trust. When he first read about Subarctic Enterprises, he had dreams of just what he could do with an investment portfolio of $500 million.

He figured he could take the $500 million, make some shrewd but potentially risky investments and turn it into a $2 billion with a couple of years. That idea was quickly, but firmly, squashed. In fact, Matt Tolliver had to have three signatures to go forward with any plans – signatures that were not forthcoming unless he could explain (in detail) how his proposals would help not only the company's bottom line but provide a service to its employees or the community at large.

It was only then that he realized this group wasn't really interested in growing substantially. It wasn't until he saw the financial ledger that he realized the company was set up like no other he'd ever seen. The group wasn't interested in putting anyone out of business. In fact, they seemed more interested in helping weaker companies stay in business.

The majority of the group's projects required little or no capital investment. Instead the corporate board had determined the money was best spent for the benefit of their current and future employees. The board members were content to draw their minimal salaries, continue their educations and grow their subsidiaries at a modest pace.

Still, he realized he had just told them they were seeing a net profit in excess of $70,000 a month after only a few months in existence. That didn't count the massive interest payments the banks were paying on the trusts and the tax indemnity it had acquired. So it must be working.

Matt shook his head and couldn't help but smile. This flew in the face of every concept his MBA had taught him. But it did meet the most important business concept: Don't argue with success.

"So, can we offer Jack a little help?" Erin asked.

"Talk to him and see how he reacts," Sean suggested. "Let him know we're not looking to buy him out or anything like that. Just let him know we're willing to offer him low-interest financing on new equipment if he's interested."

"Thanks, guys, he's really been a huge help to me." Erin said. "Oh, by the way, Adam, he says he's willing to offer you some hands-on instruction if you need it."

The group dissolved into giggles as the meeting was adjourned.

"Coming to Vegas with us?" Adam asked Celina afterward.

"Looking forward to it," she said, before switching topics. "You guys hired a real wiener to look after the accounting."

"He'll come around, I think," Adam said. "Sean said this guy was the most normal of any of them. Most of them seemed to think they would be running the operation instead of offering suggestions."

"He asked me out," Celina said. "Two minutes after I introduced myself, he asked me to dinner."

"Are you going?" Adam wondered.

"God, no," Celina said. "He probably still has a nightlight in his bedroom. Besides, I'm holding out for bigger and better things."

Adam almost jumped out of his skin when she reached out and ran her hand along his package.