Chapter 22

Thursday morning--Tylea and Lee.

Everyone slept in on Thursday morning and well past the breakfast serving time for the hotel's restaurant schedule. Tylea, Lee, Marta, and Jack received calls from Melinda, Deuce Hartwell's PA, and were picked up around eleven thirty for a lunch date with their paramour clients at a local restaurant.

"I hope that you folks have enjoyed yourselves so far this week," Hartwell said to the four college students. "I mean, despite all the excitement on Tuesday. Believe me, we rarely, if ever, have an event like that. But it is the very possibility of such a thing that causes us to keep well-trained security folks around."

Marta had been slightly disturbed by the violent events of Tuesday and she was obviously still a bit miffed when she said, "I don't see how your security helped much on Tuesday. I mean, you--and by that I mean Pizza Grande--puts girls--okay, guys as well--in positions like that lady, Madison, was in just about every night. How do you justify staying in this kind of business?"

Marta suddenly realized that she was raising her voice slightly and displaying a hostile attitude toward her paramour clients. Embarrassed now at her outburst, she reached for her iced tea and looked down at her plate.

Hartwell went from surprise to mild irritation, and then he sighed as he put his own glass down and looked at Marta with an expression of understanding. He said, "I can understand your feelings about that, Marta. I really can. Every time we have an incident that requires our security folks to get involved actively, it threatens our business, our reputations..." as he saw the anger in the eyes of Marta, and now discomfort in the expressions of the other three college students, he said firmly, "but most of all it threatens the well-being of my girls and guys. You kids might think that we are only in this for the money, and that is partly right; hell, it is mostly right.

"But," Hartwell continued, "we are also in it for the women and the men who need to make a living, and who enjoy living a little on the adventurous side, and who can get to do both by being part of our operation.

"Look," Deuce spread both his hands as he went on, "we have things like what happened Tuesday occur occasionally; but believe it or not, our stats on those types of incidents are WAY lower than those of simple everyday people working in and around the Metropolitan Boston Area and have to endure urban crime doing something as simple as walking from the parking lots to their apartment buildings." As the four students began to lose a bit of their emotional edginess at hearing this, he continued.

"And those stats are lower for us primarily because we DO care enough about our people to send security along. And considering the business we are in, the expense for the extra security is nothing compared to our own feelings of well-being and knowing that we are taking care of our folks."

As the youngsters around the table began to relax a bit, Hartwell began to grin and added, "And, believe me, business is MORE than good enough to offset the cost of good security folks."

Lee could only grin as Hartwell said this. 'Man, this guy is a real capitalist, but at least he doesn't treat his people like shit to make his money.' As he thought about this, Lee remembered, at the Call Center in the wee hours of Wednesday morning after the attack, seeing and hearing Deuce tell Melinda to make sure that they pulled out all the stops to ensure that Madison got whatever she needed while in the hospital. He had said that Pizza Grande would be more than willing to cover all of her medical and hospitalization expenses, even the cost of the ambulance; and they would pay for Bob's care as well. The guy really did have a heart that was not entirely mercenary.

The Sigma Lambda Tau students were dropped off at their hotel for the afternoon. They were told to be ready to go out to a relaxed dinner and to plan on spending their last evening in some one-on-one time with their paramour clients. Jack could not help but think, 'I hope we are eating someplace that does NOT serve pizza, ' before he began to get slightly erect in anticipation of spending some more time in the pleasant company of, and between the legs of, his redheaded MILF paramour client for the week, Jeannie Rails.

Jeannie had proven to be very adventurous sexually the other night. Jack had not broached the subject, but he could only hope that Jeannie's husband was as open and accepting about her nocturnal activities as she had let on. Jack did not want to have to face the north end of a shotgun in the hands of an irate husband.

Carl and Madison were holding hands across the bedrail when the opening of the door to Madison's room got their attention. Both were surprised to see Jan Pittman and Richard 'Mo' Morris enter. Carl was pleased to see Jan, but he was a bit unsettled at Mo's presence.

Mo had not been pleased at Carl's resigning as a Senior VP at J.A.M. Aluminum. And he had been downright angry at Carl's divorcing Madison, supposedly over her decision to become a legacy member of the Executive Pussy On Demand program within the company. Needless to say, their last conversation almost a year before had been anything but pleasant.

Feeling the tension between the two men, Jan said, "Come on, you two; we are all trying to cheer up Madison at this point. Put away your daggers."

Mo raised his eyebrows so much it looked like they were trying to reach his slightly thinning gray hair. "Sweetie," he said to Jan, "I know why we are here. I am just surprised to find Carl here. How are you doing these days, Carl?" With that, he extended his hand politely but tentatively.

Mo still had not smiled yet. But when Carl surprised Mo by taking his offered handshake and smiling at him, Mo let his hard expression slip into neutral at least.

"Mo," said Carl, "believe it or not, it really is good to see you. I know that we parted company last time on less-than-pleasant terms. But time seems to heal all wounds; at least on my side."

While Jan was comforting Madison, Carl indicated that the two men should move toward the far end of the room and try to have a private conversation.

Carl sighed and said to the older man, "Mo, I am truly sorry about some of the things that were said when I left the company. I guess I had my head up my ass when I left. It was ghosts from the past that had me haunted.

"And after being away from Maddy, and now this incident, and talking to her for the past day-and-a-half, I have finally been able to exorcise my demons concerning my past and my mom and dad. And I want to apologize to you for how I acted when I left."

Mo actually smiled now--he was known as a man who rarely smiled around the plant. But his real affection for Madison, and even Carl, caused him to smile at the younger man as he responded. "Carl, I forgave you for our business argument shortly after you walked out of the office. Hell, I would not be much of a businessman if I let every negative aspect of business affect me for long.

"What really gave me a case of the ass about what happened was your treatment of the woman who has loved you ever since she was in college." Mo saw Carl's face register a mix of shame and surprise.

"You did not even know us until I came to work for J.A.M. What do you know about our early time together?" asked Carl, now curious.

"I never told you, because I did not want you to think that I did not have complete faith in your business skills. But I was friends with your father, Old Carl, before I ever met you." Seeing Carl suddenly pull away slightly, physically and emotionally, Mo continued.

"Don't get all in a huff, now." Mo reached out gently to touch Carl's shoulder as he continued. "Your dad and mine were good friends, and I was introduced to Old Carl when I was still rising in the hierarchy at J.A.M and learning the ropes. Old Carl told me about you, just after my father had passed away and left me in charge at J.A.M. Aluminum. He also told me about your pending graduation from Wharton, and about your being engaged to a wonderful Bryn Mawr girl, Madison.

"Old Carl had been a really good friend of my father, and when I became president of the company with my father's passing, he stayed in touch. Naturally, I was a bit skeptical when he sent me a copy of your résumé and your transcripts from college and from business school. But I decided to take a chance.

"And I am still very glad to this day that I did," Mo said with a sincere expression as he looked directly in the eye of the younger man who so resembled his deceased his father. "You were a very good department manager and proved to be very much on the fast track to a Junior Vice President's position. My only worry was about that stick you seemed to have up your ass concerning sex when the offer came up; and that it included the requirement for your wife to participate in the EPOD program."

Seeing the somewhat wry expression on Carl's face instead of indignation, Mo realized that it was okay to continue. "Carl, I know about your late mother's early influence on you. I also know how it caused the rift between you and your father. I was hoping that, over time, you would lose a bit of the stuffiness back then. You never did, though. That disappointed your father and me, but I am telling you the God's honest truth when I say that I was NEVER disappointed with your business performance." He squeezed the younger man's shoulder gently one time as he continued.

"My only really big disappointment, however, like I said earlier, was with how you dumped on that poor girl who did nothing to you but love you with all her heart. I know that you did not approve of her returning to the Executive Pussy On Demand program when you got the Senior VP position and after Jan convinced me to open it up to the legacy wives of Senior VPs, but did you have to kick her to the curb over it?"

Seeing the older man getting a bit riled, Carl responded, "Mo. Believe me; I have tried to kick my own ass almost daily since doing that; after all, it caused me to end up without her." Carl went on to describe how he had misunderstood a conversation that he had overheard between Madison and his late father. He told how he had fallen into a period of depression, during which he had believed that Madison had only been a gift to him from his father; how he had mistakenly believed that she had just been one of his father's concubines; and basically, how he had not communicated well enough with his own wife to allow them to work through any issues that they may have had, sexual or otherwise.

"Mo, I have finally awakened to the truth over the past year. I still love Maddy with all my heart. I know that things can never be exactly like they were; but, after talking to her here, I have decided that we are going to do everything we can possibly do to try to heal together emotionally while she heals physically." Carl was actually smiling now at the thought of Madison and the potential of their being back together somehow in the near future.

Mo surprised Carl by saying, "I guess you may just have a heart more like that of your father than your mother after all." Seeing Carl nod and smile, Mo could not help but try to tease the younger man a bit, now that the tension between them had abated. "You know that your father is the one who convinced my father over beer one night to start the Executive Pussy On Demand program, right?"

Carl was only momentarily taken aback. Then he grinned and said, "Actually, Mo, I am not surprised at all by that. He really was a randy old devil. And would it surprise you to know that I have now become 'Old Carl' as far as his foundation and businesses are concerned?"