Chapter 26

Saturday, I relaxed. I took a walk around the park; had a nice lunch, watched some TV, read some of my book, and took a nap. My only work was thinking about the program that I was working on. I called Todd and told him that I was at the Ritz near the park. He talked to his mom, and she said that she'd just pick me up, so I didn't have to pay for a cab.

They came by around ten on Sunday, and we drove to school. I had one bag, but Todd brought home laundry, and had received some presents. When he made a second trip to the car, Cheryl his mom mentioned that she was looking forward to the party.

"I should have a car by then. If you want, I can drive down for the weekend."

"That would solve a lot of potential problems. Call me, so we can make plans, as the date gets closer."

Todd came back, and he started to put his stuff away. His mom said goodbye, and headed for her car. I started on schoolwork, for a while, and then went over for a swim. I was walking back to the dorm when I saw a woman, and Pauline walking out of the dorm. Pauline introduced me to Linda Perry, Laura's mother. She said it was nice to meet me, and then they left to drive back to Boston. Laura was baking cookies at my apartment when I walked in.

"Tell me what you told my grandmother?"

"That I knew you from school, and that I wanted cookies."

"She looked at me funny all day yesterday."

I just shrugged, and went to take a shower. When I came out, Tiffany and I ran in to each other. She jumped up, wrapped her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck. "Thank you, thank you."

"I used you, but I paid you for it. The thanks are mine."

"What do you mean?"

"Originally, I wanted a fifty-fifty split. But, the brokerage firm was paying for most of the hard costs. They were paying for all the main frames, the live feeds from the exchanges, the live feed for the currency rates, and the people to run and manage the department. All of those services take time and money that I didn't want to pay for. We also wanted to have representation to keep others from copying our work. I knew that your father could have talked us down to a seventy-thirty split, and been able to justify it. If I pushed it, I could have gone somewhere else and received the fifty-fifty split. I couldn't bribe your dad with a kickback without him getting in trouble, so I hired his daughter. You'll receive two percent while Adam and I'll split forty. That gave your dad a reason to not push, as hard as he could, and we got more work from his firms legal department, for the extra ten percent we gave up; eight to them and two to you."

"You can use me like that any time you want to. My dad said that your program blew their minds away. It performed greater than all expectations. And the other firms haven't been able to beat your program to a single trade."

"We still found areas that we could have done better. So Adam and I are working on giving you a raise by finding more ways to trade, and make money."

Laura said, "I'm baking cookies. Will I receive a cut?"

"Not on this deal, but we can have a cookie cook book program. What kind are we having today?"

"It will be white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. I don't ever spend that much on nuts, but my Nana said to buy whatever I wanted for you. Tell me about how you met her, and how my name came up?"

"Tell me about what she told you, because I can make up a better story than her."

"She said that you met in the bar. You aren't old enough to drink at a bar."

"That might be true, but we in fact met at the bar. I felt tired, as Tiffany can tell you, because we were working around the clock in New York. When we got to Boston, the only thing I wanted to do was find a bed, and go to sleep. So when I arrived I went directly to the hotel, and checked in. I didn't stay with Adam, or bother Todd, because I wanted peace and quiet. I crashed, and didn't wake up until ten that night. By the time I made it down to the restaurant for some food, it had closed. Because I wasn't old enough to drink, I went inside the bar, and ordered a coke with lime. They didn't give me a hard time. I also had some oysters and shrimp. As I was sitting there, I noticed your grandmother sitting there. Some sleazy looking guy with the comb over and a big gold chain was hitting on her."

"When I saw that her drink was getting low, I bought her a refill, because mine was too. She came over to thank me, and make sure that she was not near Mr. Slime-ball. She asked about my school, and she told me that you came here, as well. When she told me her favorite granddaughter's name, I told her that her granddaughter gave great head, and she should have great respect for you. Maybe that's why she looked at you, so funny; she was hoping you'd give her lessons."

"Fuck you."

"You and Tiffany both, this sounds like fun. Poor Todd; all by himself."

"I have to watch the cookies."

"And I have to wash my hair. Maybe you could take care of your roommate?"

"From hero to zero in seconds."

Todd said, "She'll still give us some cookies when they're done, and I'm aware that she brought a gallon of milk. We should fire up the bong."

My week fell right back in to its normal routine. I worked out, studied, practiced, and slept. On Saturday, they held a bigger meet at our pool. When I walked in, I felt surprised to see Katherine, Julie's sister, swimming for Phillips. Somewhere, I'd heard that she was enrolling at Emerson. So I walked over and said hello.

"I didn't think that you'd remember me. Julie and Mom both said to tell you hi."

"For some reason I thought you were coming to Emerson. I was looking forward to it. I stood waiting on the front steps with flowers, for three days. They kept telling me that you hadn't signed up, but I wouldn't believe them."

It was like one of those moments that you see on TV. Just imagine the scene. Everything else is a blur except for the beautiful blonde who has the sapphire blue eyes, and who melted your heart. As I looked at her, it appeared that she was having those same feelings.

She said, "Julie said that I was making a big mistake. I'm starting to have second thoughts myself. My two best friends from home went to Phillips, and they convinced me to go there."

"Tell them that if you all transferred to Emerson that you could still stay together. We could be together, as well. If not, the drive isn't that far."

"For now, we should think about swimming, and think about that other stuff later."

"After seeing you, I'll be thinking about both."

"Me too. Good luck today."

"You too."

Her friend guided her off, so she didn't run in to anything. As I just stood there, one of my teammates walked by, and asked if I was all right. I broke out of my dream long enough to find a seat in the stands, but I didn't sit long. This was a big meet with five teams. Although Coach Wilson wanted me to swim two events, I wasn't so certain. The butterfly and the 500 m freestyle were only one race apart. So she then asked me to swim the hundred meter individual medley. I agreed to that, so with that decision made, I'd be swimming in the sixth and the sixteenth events. Katherine would be swimming in the nineteenth race, the hundred-meter backstroke.

I just didn't have the speed, for the shorter race, so I finished fourth. That still wasn't bad, but it made me want to prove myself in the later race. For some reason, I found my eyes drawn over to see Katherine. Her blonde hair fell down to her shoulder blades, and her eyes were hypnotic. I couldn't decide if I liked her pretty smile better than her full soft looking lips, or if one simply made the other look so much better. The shape of her body was just perfect, for a fifteen-year-old girl with the promise of more, as she continued to fill out.

The five hundred came up soon enough, and just before the starter told us to take our marks, the stands got quite except I heard Katherine call out, "Come on Nick."

That was all it took. I was wearing my board shorts like normal, and hadn't shaved my body, but I blew away the old school record by close to two seconds. I won the event by over five seconds. My first action when I surfaced was to take a big breath. The second thing was to look for the blonde beauty. She was standing, and had her hands up. I smiled at her, and she was smiling back at me.

Her race was three events after mine. So while I was getting out of the pool, she was coming down to prepare for her race. I made an effort to catch her. "Thanks for the yell, I swam for you. I want you to win, swim hard."

"Thanks, I'll try."

I watched her while I dried off, and when she peeled the warm-up suit down her legs and off her shoulders, I had to catch my breath. The race suit held her body like a second skin. It was fabulous.

I was in the stands concentrating, as she took a few strokes to prepare for her race. The backstroke starts in the water, as they push off the wall in a backward dive to start the race. As she pulled her body up to prepare for the start, I called out, "Come on Katherine." She didn't win, but she finished third, and had her best time ever.

There were only three races after hers, and one of those finished by the time she'd dried and got dressed. I went to her, and told her that she'd done great. "I have something planned, for the next four weekends, but I don't have anything the following weekend. Will you be my Valentine?"

"We're having a dance that weekend. Will you be my date?"

"Sure. Can I have your phone number, so I don't die in between?"

She gave it to me, and I gave her mine. She had to find a pen and paper, but I had hers etched in my brain. I wanted to kiss her, but their coach was already trying to pack them up, so they could head back to their school. Tiffany came over, and said, "You look like a boy that just fell in love. That's Julie's little sister isn't it?"

"Yes, I've never been in love before, but if this is what it feels like I think that I should do it more often."

"You have more pussy than any guy I know, and now you want to settle down?"

"I don't know. We'll have to figure it out when we are together again in a month."

"Well at least I still have a month."

At that point, we walked back to the dorm together. Later, she stopped by to fuck me. She must've told the other girls about my new love because they seemed more deliberate with their actions after that. Sunday morning was the start of a tremendous amount of hard work. My parents would be in town on Friday, I had some swim meets, a ski trip, and the party with Todd's mom, Cheryl. I spent every free moment of time either studying for school, or working on the arbitrage program.

Friday after class, my mom and dad were waiting for me in the commons when I got off the elevator. We kissed and hugged before taking my books up to my room. We had a meet that afternoon, but it was at our pool. It was only against one other team from over in Vermont. Todd came in and said hi, but he then left to see a friend, and eat some food before the meet.

Dad asked about the program to see if it had worked out. I told him the numbers, and that we were making some changes. They could improve those numbers until the competition caught up. When he heard that I should make ten million during the upcoming year after taxes, I could see in his face that the news blew him away.

"You seem to have this software stuff on a roll. I met with some of the executives from IBM while I was in New York, and they want to come out with a personal computer. They see that it's the way of the future, but that not everyone is, as smart as you are. They want to have a system that's easy to understand and that the general public can use."

"Can you give me the names and contact information, and I'll talk to Adam about what we can do."

"If what you previously accomplished can make millions, this opportunity could be worth billions. I'm a shareholder in IBM, so it would help me too. All ships float on a rising tide."

"I'll call him tomorrow."

We went down for the meet, but I only swam in the five-hundred meter freestyle. Coach wanted all the kids that didn't have a previous chance to swim in the big meets to have their chance in the pool. So I sat and cheered them on, and then won my race. I didn't break my recent record-setting time, but I still won by a few lengths. After a shower and change of clothes, Mom and Dad planned to take me to dinner.

We walked out to the school parking lot. As we walked between the parked cars, I wondered what car was theirs until they stopped in front of a new Jeep CJ7 Laredo with the removable hard top and an AM/FM radio. It was the first year that they offered the radio, and I was glad to have it. I loved it. I didn't know what they had planned, but the Jeep surprised me, and I thanked them both.

They walked around it with me, and pointed out the features and extras. It had the chrome package and extra fog lights. Mom said that she wanted to buy me a BMW 3 Series, but with the mountains and the snow in New Hampshire, she'd feel safer with me in a Jeep. When Dad tossed me the keys, I had to help Mom in to the back seat. She teased me by wiggling her butt, as I helped her in the car, and then gave me a panty shot, as she moved to sit in the back seat.

Dad and Mom were both impressed with my driving, as I took the five speed manual transmission up through the gears. I was safe and aware of the cars near me, and the rules of the road. We went to dinner, and then I dropped them at their hotel, where they had a rental car from the airport. They said that they'd come by in the morning.

It was only ten when I got back, so I called Adam. "Hey partner, what's the good word?"

"I've been in touch with Mike. He told me that several companies took the time to track which trades beat them out of their arbitrage orders. They're all coming back to Patterson. They think that we're cheating, and are calling for an investigation. We might have to go to court, or sit with someone to give them a deposition. But the trades are up, and so are profits, so there are no complaints on our end."

"That's good to hear. I have a great opportunity, but it sounds huge, and we don't have much time."

"What is it?"

"My parents are in town for my birthday, and I got a new Jeep by the way."

"Cool."

"Anyway, Dad is a big stock holder in IBM. It seems he helped them through the details of setting up their factory in Japan. He met with some executives down in New York, and they want to grow the personal computer space. They're looking for software to make it easier for the public user to use. I don't have the skills, or the time to work on it, but it will be a huge deal."

"That will be a huge undertaking. I recently met this guy over at Harvard. He is getting involved in something like that. When we were at a meeting together, we started to talk about the different things we were working on."

"If you can somehow find us a spot in the middle of it, I can make the introductions. We can fund the project, and he can lead the development. If we could acquire forty, or fifty percent of the business, then we could retire before we graduate."

"I'll talk to him, and offer all the money he needs, for a percentage of the business. With you setting up the meeting and your dad's endorsement, I think that twenty-five to fifty percent would be fair."

"Try to settle at forty-two percent. We can use Tiffany's money. She'll be pissed that she has to live off of her allowance, for another year, or two, but the payoff will make her have an orgasm from just looking at the check."

"As long as I can watch."

"Easy now Adam. By the way, I have a big swim meet coming up this weekend. Then I have to come to Boston for a party at the end of the month. The first big ski club trip is the following weekend, and then I have a date with Julie's sister for Valentine's Day. I'll skip classes during the week if I need to, but if you took the next month to make sure that things are in order, I can set up a demo, or a meeting the third week in February. That would work for me. Our next big meet is the last weekend in February."

"Bill Gates is the guy from Harvard, so I'll call him now. He's either coding, or playing computer games, I'm sure."

"I trust you Adam. Use the company money, as you need to, but the more I think about this project, it could be huge."

"It's only money, and for some strange reason, we keep making it."

I hung up, but sleep came to me slowly, as my mind kept running numbers with too many zeroes.

Adam called at eight, just, as I was finishing my Erg workout. He said, "Hey Nick, I spoke to Bill. He wants this to happen, and for the demo, he knows of a program that will enable him to meet the goal in time. From what he knows, it's a working prototype, but it needs some changes. He said that he's confident that he can make it work, and he wants to buy it, and start working on it today."

"I thought that this was his work."

"He says that this is just the basic framework, and he has a lot to do to make it what he knows will blow them away. He's wicked smart, and we kicked it back and forth all night. We ended up at forty-two percent, because I like to watch."

"I'll tell Tiffany today. What's it going to take on our end?"

"The deal is that we give him a hundred grand today. He'll use that to buy the basic software framework, and then he'll use the rest to pay some guys to help him code. Next, will be the meeting that you'll set up in late February, or early March. When we sign the deal, we'll fund the company at a million a month, for a year, so we can blow the doors off the production process. I'm going to take next semester off to make sure of our investment and help him out with the project."

"So, if I hear you correctly, it will take around twelve million to start this up. Then we'll need to wait to see how much more he needs us to invest. Mom and Dad should arrive soon. They have to leave tonight to go to DC for Regan's inauguration. This new thing is really getting me excited."

"This will be so cool if it works out. This little business of ours is growing up nicely, so far."

"I'll call you sometime this week. Make sure you sleep well, so you can make good decisions with my money."

"Will do. Thanks Nick."

After I finished a quick shower, I went out with my parents. We had a great breakfast. After eating, they took me shopping for some other stuff. I told Dad that I'd invested in the software that we wanted to show to IBM. It was now even more important for him to set up that meeting. We needed to give them a demo in either late February, or early March. Throughout the day, we kept discussing it. When we finally returned to my apartment, he placed a call to the CEO and set up the meeting. He called Rhonda and told her that I'd be out of school for the first week in March. During that time, I'd be taking care of some family business in New York. I already knew that I could sign myself out, but it was still easier to have some parental approval.

To make sure that I kept ahead in my schoolwork, I spent the rest of my birthday and all day Sunday studying. I felt so focused, I didn't even take my new Jeep out for a ride. My world brightened when I saw Katherine at the swim meet. It took place at a school in northern Massachusetts. We both had to take the bus to and from the meet, which only gave us a short time to talk and see each other. I told her that I now had a car and that I could now come over to the dance. During the meet, I won my event, but I didn't set any records.

The rest of the week was work. We had a dual meet on Thursday, and then, on Friday after class I signed myself out, and drove my new Jeep to Boston. I met with Adam, and he introduced me to Bill Gates. We talked for a while, and I confirmed the meeting and the firm endorsement from Dad and the CEO. This was ours to lose, because I'd gotten us to the top of the list. They understood this, and said that they'd be ready.