Spotlights Ch. 04

"No," agreed David: "Not in any sense." Sam gave him a look.

"I thought something like that must have happened," Jenny said: "So here is my question. Sam: Would you have granted the loan extension if Peter had been the one to ask?"

"No ...."

"No ... but you hesitate. Absolute truth, Sam, for the sake of our friendship...."

"No ... not at first, but I would probably have advised granting it eventually."

"Thank you for your honesty, Sam, you confirm my theory. If I understand your motivation properly, then we can get the agreement we want."

Samantha smiled but looked defiant. Both the men encouraged Jenny to explain but she excused herself for a few minutes while she fetched the long footstool from the lounge with a large cushion and, pushing her dining chair away to one side, replaced it with the footstool, on which she knelt. Feeling more comfortable, she continued:

"It's all about sex," she said. "Sure, there is honour, decency, conflict and profit in business but, for Sam, it is surely about fun and I think that the root of fun for her is sexual."

"Do you mean, Jenny, that Sam substitutes ruining business rivals for libidinous affairs with them?" asked David. "That sounds rather Freudian."

"My theory is not so reductive, David; but to explain it, I need to tell you something about my relationship with Peter."

"Peter is my husband and also my Master. I am his wife and also his slave. He is my dominant: I, his submissive. In fact, I am too submissive: Peter often needs to rein me in to keep me balanced."

"You'll have noticed that I am not sitting comfortably. This is because Peter had to punish me yesterday. The need I have for submission and correction is why I will not agree to Sam's compromise offer in which Peter works for us. This is because I need to look up to my Master. To control me, I need him to be stronger and better than me. I need to admire and to trust him because when I surrender, it must be to someone who deserves it. When I fall, I need safe arms to catch me. If I owned the company Peter worked for, if I was his boss, then he could not be my Master."

"Why not?" David was fascinated.

"Suppose I needed to be punished but he was lenient: the suspicion would lurk in my mind that he held back because I pay his wages. Or I would be in continuous fear that he would over-compensate and treat me worse than I deserve. In neither case could I give him unconditional control and surrender completely to him."

"This is how it is between Peter and me, Sam; and I suspect something similar is true for you and David. You are David's submissive, aren't you, Sam?"

"Clever Jenny," Samantha said.

"In fact, you are more submissive than me, I think: I am Peter's sex-slave and in one or two small things also his domestic slave, but I do not think you have any limits at all."

"Go on," Samantha said.

"I also think your submission to David relates to your aggression in business. I think that what you do in business is what I sometimes do to Peter when I want him to punish me: I push him; I test him; I make him control me. In your case, you push your business rivals and I think that's what makes business fun for you. Money is just a way of keeping count: the real contest is finding a man who will stand up to you."

"I do like to see what a man is made of," admitted Samantha.

"So the reason you would eventually have granted the loan to Peter but not to the others is that you pushed them and they collapsed. It was like pushing against an open door. My Peter would have pushed back, though, and when you'd had your fun, you would have enjoyed giving in to him."

"I might have," said Samantha, licking her lips.

"This explains why your relationship with Culpepper's got off on the wrong foot when you saw Helen. I assume Horace sent Helen to see you with minimal preparation but a short skirt because he thought you were a man. I bet he also told her to leave her glasses in the office. No wonder she seemed incompetent. Though you are not an idiot feminist, you were offended by such an obvious technique. There was no contest in it."

"Then Malcolm was sent, who is a very nice young man but no one would describe him as 'masterful'. You chewed him up and spat him out. Lastly, you met the genial Horace. He patronized you, put his hand on your knee and explained what a gentleman's agreements is; and I suspect you played along at first, pretending to be charmed, then you cut his anchors, giving him a lecture on the old boy's network or something."

"He patted my hand, not my knee, and my lecture on the glass ceiling was so good I almost believed it myself; but you are essentially correct."

"What you wanted was to meet someone equal or better than you, someone to master you. Someone like my Peter. So the answer is simple: you've had your fun putting the wind up Culpepper's, but now Peter is here to ask for himself."

"A brilliant analysis, Jenny, and a good solution," David said. "Sam: are you willing to agree to Jenny's plan if it is Peter who asks you?"

"Certainly not," Samantha replied, smiling.

David was instantly deflated: "Oh, well. It was a nice try, Jenny," he said; "and, like my own effort, doomed to failure."

"Jenny's not finished yet, David," Samantha said.

"I am sorry, Jenny. I did not understand. I thought your solution was to have Peter do the asking."

"Not quite, David. The problem is not a merely commercial agreement: it is a personal one. My plan requires Sam to loan money to Peter to take over Culpepper's, and for that she needs to understand his character. It is not enough that Peter does the asking: How Peter asks is the key."

"You'll have to explain that to me," said Peter, "as well as to David."

Kneeling up with her shoulders back, looking straight at Samantha, who met her gaze with confident ease, Jenny said:

"This is how to get Sam to accept my compromise plan, Peter: you should tie up the bitch and whip her until she agrees."

David clapped his hands, shouting 'Capital!' Samantha pretended to be outraged, exclaiming "Jenny, really!" But Peter leant back in his chair and smiled, a box in his mind now ticked.

**********

'Spotlights' continues in chapter 5.