Chapter 29

Sally and Sarah had only been in their office at C. Wood’s Real Estate a few minutes when Cynthia knocked on the door and said “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” replied both.

Sarah added, “We hope you had a nice weekend.”

“Well sort of, it seems someone gave me a proposal to look over,” she replied with a smile. “Actually, I went over it several times, but I did have some fun. You all did a great job of laying out the benefits and their relative costs.”

“Thank you.”

“While you were neutral, I am not too keen with just updating our current network. My preference is the one that replaces all of our network hardware. My hesitancy is the time it takes to shift all the offices over to it. Could it be done over a weekend? Say a Friday through Tuesday morning, although I would prefer to be back in operation on Monday morning.”

“How soon do you want to do the switch over?” asked Sarah.

“Up and running two weeks from today, would be fantastic,” replied Cynthia with a smile.

“I gather from your smile that your comment is tongue in cheek.”

“Yes to a large extent. A better response on my part would be how soon without driving the costs out of sight.”

“For the hardware, presuming we don’t have supply issues,” said Sally, “it should be possible to switch over to the new system four weeks from now. Software is likely the same unless there is an unexpected surprise. It isn’t often a software surprise delays an implementation but often enough. We are familiar with one firm who could handle the whole project then provide you with technical support. Alternatively, we could be the project managers and put it out for bid. Putting it out for bid carries more risks in timely completion. It also extends the length of time before it is up and running.”

“Who would you choose? And how soon could you have a hard number for the cost?”

“N&R Security Services. We could probably have a fairly firm cost by Wednesday afternoon.”

“I didn’t realize they did network.”

“Yes. They do. Network security is a big part of their business. They also do technical and maintenance support for systems they install.”

“Okay. Pull together a firm total cost for them doing the project. I’ll make a decision, once I see the total, on which direction to go.”

“Fine. When do you want us to give the presentation to staff?”

“Wednesday would be a good day as each office has a staff meeting on that day. I’ll have Margaret make arrangements for an off-site conference facility, tentatively for next Wednesday. Then presuming we decide to go ahead when I see the final numbers Wednesday, we can inform the agents of the company wide staff meeting. I’ll have Margret make arrangements for temps answer phones.”

“We’ll work toward those dates,” said Sarah.

“I won’t be in the office much this week. So, if you need me let Margaret know and let her know when you have the total cost.”

“Okay.”

Cynthia glanced at the clock, “Oh I need to be going. Again, nice job on the proposal.”

After Cynthia left Sally said, “If N&R does this project, we’ll need to drive separately.”

“I don’t see that as a problem. We need to call Nancy to find out if they can do it.”

Sally smiled, “I already looked at the schedule. It definitely can be done the fourth weekend from now. If we miss, then we will need to do some juggling. Our time consuming issue is going to be configuring the servers and laptops.”

Tuesday evening Sally and Sarah were a little later than usual getting back to the estate. When they walked in the door Nancy said, “We were beginning to wonder about you two. Dinner is ready.”

“Good. I’m starved,” replied Sarah. “Let me shed these clothes first and I’m ready.”

When they sat down to dinner Bob said, “Did you get all the pricing you needed?”

“Yes,” replied Sarah. “We have all the quotes and have placed conditional orders for nearly everything. Why?”

“Think, she will approve it?”

“Yes,” replied Sarah with a smile. “We are at about 70% of a quote she received several months ago for a less suitable system. Well it was less suitable in our opinion. They didn’t go with the other system for several reasons. The biggest issue was that it would have meant a drastic change in procedures.”

“What delivery times did you get?”

“Middle to end of next week. All of it will be delivered here.”

“Good we’ll have two weeks to configure it. Sally I take it you will be here.”

“Yes. Probably on Thursday. It depends on how things go tomorrow. Next Wednesday, I’ll go to the presentation. Sarah starts orientation classes the following week.”

“Are you doing a weekend install?” asked Joyce.

“Yes,” replied Sally then seeing Joyce’s expression added, “Why?”

“Our prom is in two weeks. We heard today that they are having difficulty finding enough chaperons.”

“Who is we?” asked Nancy.

“The prom committee. If there aren’t sufficient chaperons then it’s possible they will cancel the event.”

“So you were planning on asking us,” said Nancy.

“Well actually Adam and I were going to ask Sarah, Sally, Terry and Rusty. With you and Dad being on call, we weren’t sure you could do it.”

Sally, Terry and Rusty nodded to Sarah who then said, “How do we arrange to be chaperons?”

“I think we just give the office your names. Adam and I were going to play up your ties to N&R Security.”

Sarah looked at her three friends then said, “Go ahead give them our names.”

“If you need more chaperons,” said Julia, “you can include us.”

“That goes for us as well,” said Bob. “We can make arrangements to have someone here.”

“Thanks.”

“Guess, we need to go shopping this weekend,” said Terry. “I don’t have anything nearly nice enough for a prom.”

“Should I wear a tux?” asked Rusty.

“If I remember right last year’s chaperons wore nice dresses or suits,” replied Adam. “We really appreciate you agreeing to do this.”

“Well this way I get to go to a prom,” replied Sarah with Rusty nodding as well.

“You didn’t go,” responded Joyce.

“Nope. I decided to save the money for college. Besides I was taller than nearly all the boys in my class. Although if Rusty had asked me, I would have gone.”

“If we were then, who we are today, I wholeheartedly agree,” responded Rusty. “In between then and now both of us have had unique experiences that have redefined us. Every minute I am with Sarah, I am thankful that our paths crossed. Sally and Terry add to that thankfulness and complete one segment of the family we have gathered around this table.”

“So you feel it too,” said Sally.

“Feel what?” asked Adam.

“The comfort of being with people who care about you,” replied Joyce. “Those who would do everything they could to help you be the best you can be.”

“Oh ... I guess I thought all families were like this.”

“From the indications I get from girls in my class, we have great parents, no make that outstanding parents. They care about us and even though they work a lot they still have time for us. That is not true for many.”

“Is it really that bad?” asked Nancy.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” replied Joyce. “I have some really neat and bright classmates who appear to not have a pleasant home life and get very minimal support from their parents. In terms of numbers, I guess it is only a few but...”

“Joyce,” said Sally, “being their friend is the best thing you can do for them.”

“Some people should not have children,” said Terry.

“Some of my friends are adopted and I think there are several adopted children in their families.”

“Now that is interesting.”

“Tonight is exercise night,” said Sally, “and it is getting close to that time.”

Later as they were freshening up before going to bed Sarah said, “Terry, you’ve been very quiet this evening.”

“I guess. I can’t shake the comment Joyce made about the adopted children. It just seems so odd.”

“Agreed.”

“So what do you have planned for tomorrow?”

“We will likely be talking to Nancy, Rusty and you a lot tomorrow as I suspect Cynthia will decide to go forward with the project.”

“Sarah, I agree with your conclusion,” said Sally. “With that in mind, after our presentation next week to the agents, we need to change the way we work together.”

“We sort of touched on that the other day and I agree. You are much more of a system’s person than I am while I am more familiar with the implementation aspect. So if we share the effort along those lines, I think we will be fine.”

“Bed time,” said Terry as she moved toward their bed.

“I forgot to ask at dinner,” said Sarah, “but are we still planning to go to Alice’s this weekend?”

“Suits me,” said Terry. “It would be a nice break.”

“Why don’t we pick you up at work?” asked Rusty.

“I am not sure about leaving a car there over the weekend.”

“I am sure we can get you a ride to work Friday morning.”

“That’s a good idea,” said Sally. “This maybe the last opportunity for several weeks. Two weeks from Saturday is the prom. Two weekends later will be the system install followed by a very busy week and possibly the weekend.”

Sarah and Sally cuddled up to Rusty and Terry spooned behind Sarah. Terry said, “This is so nice. I love you all very much.”

“We love you.”

It was late Sunday evening when they entered the estate. Sarah said, “This has been a really nice weekend.”

“Alice’s club is a very interesting place,” said Terry. “I think this has been a weekend well worth the effort, although when the alarm rings I may have a different opinion.”

“This is not much later than our usual bed time,” said Sally.

“Yea, but I’m about to drop. I think I had more orgasms this weekend than I’ve had in my whole life.”

“Are you complaining?”

“Absolutely not. Although they could become addictive.”

“Some have that problem,” said Sarah. “It was Liz’s intent to addict me to sexual pleasure then use me as her meal ticket.”

“I think,” said Rusty, “it would take a lot of conditioning to achieve that, if it is even possible.”

“We need to think about dresses for the prom,” said Sarah. “Considering our build and height we may have trouble finding something.”

“Good point,” replied Sally. “I don’t think there is enough time to special order.”

“If we can’t find any,” said Terry, “why don’t we make them? I can sew. Can either of you?”

“I can,” replied Sarah, “but it has been a long time. I think Nancy sews.”

“I haven’t sewn since high school,” responded Sally.

“So what are you thinking?” asked Sarah.

“Let’s go looking tomorrow and maybe Wednesday after work. While we are looking, put our style preference before whether they have or can get our size. Then on Thursday make a decision. If we have to make our dresses then we buy one we like along with fabric and use the one we buy as our pattern.”

“So you’ve done this before.”

“When I had to dress for work, I had to modify nearly everything I bought.”

“I didn’t have to go that far,” said Sarah, “but I did tend to buy clothes a little on the large size then take them up as necessary.”

“I guess, I’m lucky,” said Sally. “I usually went to tall woman’s shops.”

“For me, it’s the combination of cup size and height,” responded Sarah.

“For me, it was the fact I often needed to carry,” responded Terry. “Based on our shopping trip a couple of weeks ago, my challenge now will be the same as Sarah’s plus the carry issue.”

As they entered their suite Sarah said, “Rusty, we would like for you to go with us.”

“I can do that. I wasn’t sure you wanted me along. We might want to ask Joyce to go with us as well as Nancy.”

“Good idea. We can ask them at breakfast.”

When Sarah, Sally, Terry and Rusty entered the dining room for breakfast Joyce said, “So how was Alice, Judy and the twins?”

“Great,” replied Sarah. “She is very pleased with the changes we made to their security system. All of them said to say hello and to try to visit soon.”