Adult Situations Ch. 45-46

Chapter 46 -- First Acquisition

Phil Rothman and I spent the day going over the information we had on four companies that Kim Stanley suggested we look at as acquisitions. We went through their websites and their product offerings together, and then the D&B and other information we could get on them, all of it online.

Jean, our joint AA now, brought us lunch and made sure we had drinks, napkins, and other comfort items for our desktop meal. She'd also drop off some information about one of the companies. She was thorough, and I even wondered how she got some of the confidential financials.

After she left us alone again, Phil said to me, "She's in love with you, it appears."

I just nodded that I was aware of that fact. As an afterthought, I added, "She's been in love with you since you two met."

"And I was too dumb to do anything about it. Besides, my wife would have had my head on a platter. I'm beyond that now. My concerns have gotten very personal and very close. Please excuse me if I seem self-centered at times."

"Phil, don't sweat it. You're doing amazingly well for someone knowing what's coming in the next few months."

"I found a book entitled 'Final Exit'. It's a 'how to' guide for painless suicide. I had my wife read it, too. When things get a little bit worse, I'll say goodbye to my friends and colleagues, and then you won't see me anymore."

"A bit extreme?"

"Not really. ALS is a horrible way to die. Eventually, you're a vegetable with people doing things to keep you alive because we're on autopilot. The world does not understand the concept of euthanasia. You're inside but can't communicate outward, and gradually and very slowly the rest of your body dies until you're just alive in your brain suffering the remaining pain and you're having trouble breathing. I'd probably scream continuously at that point but I wouldn't have the ability. If somebody helps me die, they are put in jail for murder instead of given an award as a good Samaritan. No, self-deliverance is the way to go. I have several techniques that I'm lining up to try in case the first one doesn't work. I don't want to have things be messy for them, in any case. No gun shots, for instance."

"Your family?"

"They've agreed to be away and we will have had our teary goodbyes before they leave. They understand my resolve on this. I figure in about three or four months, so you might put that in your timetable. The meds are extending things, but they don't stop the progression, only slow it some and mitigate the symptoms. I'm starting to feel some of the pain, too."

Phil now used a walker to get around. Everyone in the company knew that he was dying in a terrible way. He was driven to work, and seemed to hobble around with the small device. He also had a wheelchair at work that he'd started using around the office. His trips to the other offices or upstairs had stopped. He seemed to have to force his speech patterns occasionally. His limbs and shoulders displayed noticeable twitches now and then. The disease was winning the battle his body was fighting.

Phil had become a good friend and mentor to me. I still wasn't sure that I deserved or had all the abilities to take over his business, but I was sure trying to please the nice man. Just thinking about his situation brought tears to my eyes.

We'd found ten staff members that wanted to relocate to Sarasota and remain with the company. Their relocation was in process. That would bring the contingent in that city up into the teens.

Alice O'Rourke had found us office space in a building just off Interstate 75, so it was a fast commute from almost any direction. The quarters were nice and bright, even the interior offices overlooked a sunny atrium in the core of the building. Alice has set aside a nice corner office for me, so I had a view towards the east out one window and a view of the atrium out the other. I showed Phil pictures and a video of the site, and he approved.

Phil broke off our meeting early so he could ride home. He was fatigued and getting spastic as some of his meds wore off. Jean and I helped him out when his wife came with the car. I suggested to her that she might want to get a van with wheelchair access. She nodded grimly at me -- a nice woman taxed to her limits with her husband's terrible disease.

I made a call to Ralph Jenkins, the man in charge of Jenkin's Networking in Durham, North Carolina. Jean was beside me to take notes and slip me a note if she saw something I was missing. After introducing myself and my affiliation, I bluntly asked whether he was interested in selling his company.

Jenkin's response was, "How much?"

I knew we could put a deal together. After some talk, I booked an appointment to visit him the following week for a partial day. His response was, "Bring your checkbook." He sounded almost eager to sell.

I had been of a mind to ingest the four companies that Kim suggested pretty much all at once, but she steered me well clear of that idea. She told me, "One at a time and small bites. Absorb and integrate, and then move on to the next."

Ralph Jenkin's business, stamped with his own name, was almost twice the size of Cyber Solutions, but one reason was that they also did a lot of wiring and cabling that CS didn't do. His father had been an electrician and did a lot of the wiring for new buildings. When he retired, he passed that part of things on to his son, and sold off the rest. I was not interested in that part of the business either. It was easily separated out and sold separately.

Jenkin's and I had a deal by the end of the day we spent together. I needed to do due diligence, but we had the fundamentals ironed out. He'd handle selling off the wiring part of his business since he knew the local competitors that might like to add on.

I flew back to SRQ that afternoon. I spent an hour with Kim outlining what we'd agreed. She was pleased, and pledged some of her own people to do the due diligence part of the purchase. We made a to-do list regarding the takeover, and suddenly I had my first major acquisition underway.

Seeing Jenkin's and negotiating had been a huge stretch for me. Recall, that I went into tech because I wouldn't have to deal with people, with confrontations, with arguments or deals, or with office politics. I'd confronted all of those and more in the course of the deal. I got a big boost in my self-confidence and wanted to do it again, but I knew I also had to work to integrate JN into CS -- our abbreviations for Jenkin's Networking into Cyber Solutions.

Kim and I made love. Maybe it was my reward, but she told me she'd found the man she knew I was: strong, able to deal and cope, and a powerhouse at negotiations.

I went back to my own house, and ended the evening with my wife and fiancée. We were loving and snuggly. I felt like a king.

I spent Friday at the Sarasota office. It seemed I was talking to Jean up in Atlanta every hour. I decided that I wanted some kind of video link that was always open with her. She liked that idea, and didn't think it would be invasive. She took on setting that up, too.

We had a smaller party than a few weeks earlier the next night. I think there were about thirty-two people present. O.M.G., thirty-two! Ross and Cory barbecued. I had a nice talk with Elynn about evaluating a business. That was one of her specialties for my dad's company.

Of course, I was distracted mightily because Elynn was nearly topless. Well, she was and wasn't. She wore her bikini bottoms and a small leather vest but it was unbuttoned and the sides constantly swung open to reveal one or the other of her sexy knockers. The vest was an alluring addition to her wardrobe. I loved her breasts. I could stare at them for hours. They were more fun, however, to play with orally and by touch.

We progressed down that avenue eventually, and she was my first partner of the evening.

After dinner, Elynn suggested that the two of us swim. The informal 'rule' of the house was that swimming had to be naked -- day or night. The exception was when workers were present or else somebody not in our group of sexual misfits.

Elynn and I went into the pool together, and I even used the stairs rather than careening out of control in a cannonball near the deep end. In the pool, we just started to make out and that led me to pick up her lithe but top-heavy body, set her on the edge of the pool, and to start to plunge my tongue into her velvet tunnel as I sucked up all her flavor molecules.

Elynn said very encouraging things. My favorites from her boiled down to a couple of imperatives: "Eat me" and "Fuck me". I did both, verifying the details with her as I went along with questions: "Like this?" "Am I in the right place?" "Oh, you like that?"

Our nude bodies plunged into each other with abandon. She was without doubt the highlight of my day. Our kisses sizzled and crackled in the moist night air.

"In me," she commanded. "In me, now!"

Standing in the shallows, I plunged into her with every millimeter I could deliver. Every bit was given with love. I felt her warmth surround me all over as her legs and arms pulled me ever deeper into her body, into her soul, and into her spirit. We were the epitome of love. We were love personified. There was no separation, we were one.

Somehow, we spent the whole evening together. Once was not enough for us.

Later, Crystal and Carol joined us in bed and we slumbered together.

* * * * *

I hadn't been away from home on a weekend for ages, and certainly not since I'd fallen in love with Crystal and then Carol, and then the others. For the first time, I wasn't 'home' and it was Saturday.

I was in the office -- in Atlanta -- finishing up a six-day work week, and I had plans to work on Sunday. Two of my staff had just left our meeting, and I had another meeting in an hour or so. It was fundamentally a regular business day even though it was Saturday.

I went down the hall to the Command Center, and watched as some of the staff monitored network traffic for our various clients. This was a far cry from hanging out in my one-man 'cave' in the Sarasota Business Center. I must have lost track of time. Jean found me and we walked back to my office together. She could tell that I was distracted.

Sunday, I'd drive up to Durham. Monday was the official passing of the baton from Jenkin's to me. I'd have six other senior staff with me. We were changing the name of our new subsidiary, too. They were being absorbed into Cyber Solutions, so everyone would need to get used to the new name, new management, and even our culture. How could I help make fifty people feel better about what was about to happen in their lives?

Jean had already left, but I had a few things to sort out before I left the office. I was the only one in the building. I finished up about an hour later, and drove to her house, parked my rental car, and went inside.

I was surprised to find another couple there with Jean. The three were enjoying a glass of wine, and Jean met me and thrust a white wine over ice into my hands -- my standard, unsophisticated cocktail.

"Dave, this is Connie Mason and husband Bob. They're neighbors in the apartments here. Our paths keep crossing, we've flirted a little, so I thought I'd ask them to dinner with us. We're having chicken and beef stir fry with a few Oriental side dishes."

I broke out of my business mode, and switched to social mode. "Great. I guess Jean has told you a bit about me, how about you?"

Bob shook his head. "No, actually. All I know is that you're her new boss. She told me her old boss was very ill, and you were being groomed as his successor. That's about it."

I thought, well at least I get to see how they react to my overall marital situation. I did the work situation first. I talked about my interest in computer network security and how that had led to me forming my own company coming out of college, and then being tapped to take over the leadership role for Cyber Solutions. I also mentioned setting up a branch office in Sarasota, near my permanent home.

Bob said, "What about the social side of your life? Are you all business or do you have hobbies? Were you raised in Sarasota?"

"Yes, I was raised down there in Sarasota, plus my family is there now. My father lives next door with my stepmother. She's also my wife's sister. I also have a fiancée, and then Jean functions here in Atlanta as both my admin assistant, who I can't live without, and my 'away' wife, who I also can't live without."

I knew there'd be a long silence after I finished that explanation, and I wasn't disappointed. I casually sipped my wine and watched Bob and Connie's faces. Jean was puttering around the kitchen, but she'd heard every word and was just shy of laughing her head off at her friends' reaction.

Connie finally said, slowly, "Let me play that back to be sure I understand. You're married. You also have a fiancée, and separately from those two women, you have Jean, who you consider a 'wife'. You work together, too."

I nodded, "Yes, you heard all that correctly. My wife is Crystal and my fiancée is Carol. They've met Jean and think she's wonderful as my Georgia Peach of a Wife."

Jean set down some hors d'oeuvres on the coffee table in front of us. She said, "He also has some other women that may as well be his wives or fiancées. Three of them live also live with him."

Connie slowly repeated the phrase with a touch of awe, "Three of them?"

I said, "Yes, Tara -- a senior flight attendant for Atlantic Airlines, Heather -- a nursing student in her first year, and Elynn -- an investment analyst for my father's firm. Those women live with me along with a guy named Cory, but I have other women that I also love including my sister-in-law and even their mother."

Bob said cautiously, "Love, as in have a physical relationship with?"

"Precisely. Crystal and I have an open marriage -- it's open with everyone, actually." Even as I made the statement, I felt my body start to respond to Connie in a physical way. I wondered how the evening would go.

Jean said, "They're all are the nicest people. Every one of them would give you the shirt off their back if you merely asked. I should add that they're also good looking and smart." She laughed, "Kind of like that Lake Woebegone place some comedian used to talk about on the radio."

Somehow, I got to describing Crystal and Carol's business -- Crystal Blue Photography. I skirted around the 'private porn' side of that, as well as the growing side of commercial adult videos that went on the Internet by one site or another.

I also recounted the discussion about having a Constellation of Friends. Connie and Bob were fascinated by that concept, and even asked for a pencil and paper to make some notes.

Bob said, "I want to think about my constellation and people's role in it. This is really cool."

Over dinner, I had the feeling that I was being studied. If I'd turned suddenly and said 'Boo' to either Bob or Connie, they would have had a heart attack. I played it pretty straight.

I helped clear the table. In the kitchen, Jean whispered to me, "Do you like them? I think they 'play' and I was trying to make your Saturday night a worthwhile sexual experience even though you're in Atlanta."

I didn't say anything, but I noted the remark. I studied the two of them as I went back for more used plates and cutlery.

Over dessert and coffee, Bob said, "How do you manage so many... relationships?"

I chuckled, "They manage me, as much as I try to manage them. For one, I never lie, I do what I say I'll do, I'm reliable to a fault, I'm open and transparent, and yes, I was a boy scout when I was younger. I think women sense that. Everyone knows that I don't have any hidden agendas."

Connie said, "All right, do you like me? Now, I get the truth."

"Yes, I do -- a great deal."

"Elaborate, please," Connie asked, looking pleased that she'd put me on the spot.

"Well, you are very pretty and what I call homespun. You're the girl next door that all the boys wanted for nefarious purposes. Yes, you're sexy. I feel a resonance with you, too -- like we sense each other's wants and needs on multiple levels. I feel with have many touch points in mind, body, and spirit.."

After a silence, Bob said, "You used the term 'Love' to describe many of your relationships earlier. Really?"

"I did and do. Most people believe you can only love one person. That's such a limiting concept. I think people can love an infinite number of people if they allow themselves that option."

"Are you implying a sexual relationship in that statement?"

"Of course. Love without sex is limiting, and operating on a low bandwidth. Avenues of communication and expression are cut off. Things that you'd like to do with somebody, you restrain yourself from doing. That doesn't seem right, but we all do it.

"Sex without love can be fun, but it's not earth-shattering or mind-blowing the way love with sex can be -- or sex with love, however you say it."

Connie said, "So, if I proposed having sex with you, you'd turn me down?"

I laughed, "I didn't say that, and I'm not dumb. I know we'd both enjoy the experience greatly. I think we'd also start to build a relationship that would mean that our interactions on that plane would only get better and better over time. Ask Jean."

Jean said, "He's right. I knew more about Dave than he knew about me because I'd done a lot of research on him before he was anointed to takeover CS. I was already predisposed to a sexual relationship with the man because I knew how he functioned and thought. We did get together, but over time my infatuation has turned to love and I know he loves me. We have such a great relationship now."

Bob probed with a grin, "Open?"

Jean said, "You mean, do we share with others? The answer is yes. I've been to Sarasota, have met his many friends, and been with many of them -- both men and women."

Connie said to Jean with some degree of amazement, "You're bisexual?"

"I guess that I am. I didn't know that until Sarasota. I got inspired by Dave's wife and friends. They're very touchy-feely and oral -- Dave, too -- before, during, and after intercourse. It's pure delight. I'd been with a few men before that trip, but I came back realizing that I'd really just discovered sex and love on a whole different level or plane of existence. It was fabulous. The Saturday evening parties at Dave's home are a wonder."

"And everyone participates?"

Jean said to me, "Tell Connie and Bob what your wife is doing right now?"

I glanced at my watch. "Well, she's probably nude with one or two of our male friends on a chaise on our patio, and they're making out and going to make love if they haven't already. I can go into more detail. We've often watched each other make love with others."

Bob said cautiously, "And, if we wanted to explore with the two of you... our sexuality and deepen our relationship... I mean... we've talking about maybe doing something like that... but the opportunity was never there... you know what I mean?" He seemed extremely nervous.

Jean stood and moved around the coffee table to where Bob sat in her living room arm chair. She plopped down in his lap, took his face in both hands, and planted a kiss on his lips that made the air crackle and the water in the sink boil. He kissed back after his initial surprise.

I watched Connie. She was mesmerized by what the couple were doing. I could see her thinking, too. She looked at me and I held my arms up to her. If she wanted this, she'd have to prove it by coming to me. I didn't want to be the aggressor.

I heard Jean ask Bob, "Are you ready to see your wife with another man?"