Loosening Up Bk. 06 Ch. 21-25

Scarlett was very quiet.

Dave asked, "Are you still there?"

"Oh, yes. Sorry, I was just thinking about how to respond to this. Did it say that we were married?"

Dave scanned the article again. "Here's the relevant paragraph. After we hang up, I'll try to send you a downloaded version of the whole article. The quote is, 'Several well-known luminaries belong to the group and appear to full participate. These include local billionaire and philanthropist Owen Bennett, and movie star Scarlett Johansson. Johansson reportedly has a long-term relationship in one of the 'poly' marriages in the group.' The word poly has quotes around it."

"Well, that doesn't leave a lot of maneuvering room, does it?"

"When in trouble, tell the truth," Dave teased. "I expect I'll start getting calls as well, but for now I can skip all this until probably tomorrow night when I will have to cope. Maybe I'll get Erin to act as my press agent and narrow things down to one relevant interview. Don't you have one of those?"

"The studio does and they cover me. I should call and alert them after we hang up. Send that article to me as soon as you can. I'm sure they'll want a copy."

"Seriously, if the question is asked in the right way, you might just say something like, 'That's pretty close to what's going on' or 'I guess the secret is out of the bag' or something equally vague. They kind of get their question answered, but don't get into a dialogue with you about what's actually going on."

Scarlett asked, "What if they want the name of the man I'm in a 'poly' relationship with?"

"I have broad shoulders. You could tell them or just describe me as a sweet, positively brilliant, and intensely modest individual." Dave laughed and so did Scarlett, defusing some of the tension the situation had created.

Dave went on, "I was going to wait for a different call to tell you something else. I'm resigning my position at the utility at the end of the coming week. Derek is fine with what's happening. Mark Worthington tapped me to come to work for him in a new subsidiary that'll be a separate company that I'll head up. It's very entrepreneurial and state of the art. All I can say is that its products will be revolutionary. I'm on the bleeding edge."

Scarlett congratulated him on the change. She said, "If you need money as a float until you start to earn something, please let me know."

Dave laughed. "Mark is paying me a million bucks up front as a signing bonus. If this pans out the way it sounds, I may end up making more than you do."

"Geeze, really. I think I get paid outrageously, but I take it."

"So will I. I happen to think you earn it. Now, back to the original purpose of my call, you're going to have to really earn it by not letting it set you back at all. I do recall something some of our marketing gurus told me, and that is there's no such thing as 'bad publicity'. If it gets your name out there and is controversial, it'll stimulate people to buy your product or buy you, in your case, come to see your movies. I bet youRoad Trip will get a huge boost at the box office, and maybe in book sales. You'll perhaps be uncomfortable talking about the Circle and your relationship with it, but you'll make more money because of it."

Scarlett chuckled, "I just don't want to do anything to hurt anybody back there."

"The feeling is mutual. I think if someone asks me if you and I are in a relationship, I should say 'Yes' and leave it at that. Anything further is between the two of us."

"I might say the same thing," she said.

"One other thing, could you tell Cricket what's going on. I'll copy her on the email with the article so she can see what's up with her own eyes."

Scarlett sighed, "We knew this would get out somehow. Do you know what the main source of the article was?"

"Not yet, but I have a couple of guesses."

"I love you. I have to go back to work. We're working on the weekend because the weather is so good here in Dublin -- relatively."

"I love you, too. I'll email or call you frequently if anything changes."

Dave said tentatively, "I want to call the company 'EneRG'. Fundamentally, we're packaging energy for consumers to put to use in all sorts of applications. Further, if you take only the capital letters, you have the word 'Erg' and that is a small unit of work or energy. I have some other names, but that's my first choice. I ran it by Nikky, Nat Sterling, and my wives that that was their pick, too."

Mark smiled, "I like it. You can do a lot under that banner besides the Lithium-Thallium batteries. Run with it. Well, you accomplished your first task. Now, all you have to do is deliver on the other hundred or so I gave you." He laughed.

"Oh, yeah, something about manufacturing, marketing, logistics, generating a trillion dollars in revenue, and so on. I'm on it. By the end of the week, boss."

Mark got serious, "Don't kill yourself. I hired you because you're a live wire, so to speak. If you die young or get sick because of working crazy hours, you won't do any of us any good. I expect you to get out of work BEFORE dinner, and also have lots of SEX with all your wives and other lovers in the Circle. Keep balance in your life."

Dave leaned forward, "I'm sure glad you didn't have any issues with that news article about the Circle, or the follow-ups."

"I like that you eventually got mentioned in connection with Scarlett. It shows we've got some innovative and unusual people working for the company. I mostly buy into the opinion that there's no such thing as bad publicity. In six months, everyone will remember the reference to you, but won't remember why."

Dave nodded, "You know, despite all the industrial secrecy the Thallium battery is going to become public knowledge very soon. I haven't talked to the marketing people yet, this being my first day, but I think I'd rather see us announce and be in control, than have something leak with erroneous information or specs that make us have to walk back on something else we've said."

Mark thought a moment gazing up at the ceiling in his high altitude office. "You're right, of course. Talk to JR and see what she wants to do. If you like and agree with her ideas, go do it. Make it happen. Just let Melanie or Sheila know so one of them can keep me informed about what's happening."

Dave said, "I also found a facility in Bradenton that I think might be a good 'ground zero' location for our first manufacturing facility. It'll need a couple of million to rehab the place so we can use it as our first manufacturing site. The place was an old bakery. It's about forty-thousand square feet."

"Stick to the budget and do it."

Dave nodded and left Mark's office.

Nikky was waiting in the outer room for her boss. "Everything OK?" she asked.

"Yes. He liked EneRG and also going public. How about we stop by the General Counsel's office and see about locking in the name."

Nikky laughed, "Everyone will think your selling energy drinks or candy bars, but I think the name is the right one and it'll scoop out any other lines of thought."

An hour later, Dave and Nikky sat talking with Jean Randolf, otherwise known as JR the newly named head of marketing for the battery project, Tom Powers -- the previous head of the project, and Larry Wainwright, JR's number two.

JR was a late thirty-something brunette with a no-nonsense attitude and a laser focus on marketing and company profitability. In some ways, Dave thought she was sexy, but he liked powerful women. The two had an instant rapport as soon as they'd met earlier that morning.

Tom was an older man, pushing his mid-fifties. He'd headed a number of technology-based projects for Mark since they'd met about seven years earlier. He had married the 'Other Julie' as Dave referred to her -- a young woman in Mark Worthington's extended family who'd been hired as the group's nanny much the way Maddy had been brought on for the Circle. The couple had two children, but lived close to Mark and the others in that family. They were also enlightened enough to share themselves in an open marriage.

Larry exemplified a fresh out MBA. He'd graduated from a college outside Boston named Babson College, worked for a couple of years for a software house, and then gone to get his MBA at the University of North Carolina. He specialized in marketing, and had gotten into Worthington Industries about a year earlier when JR and several others had come to campus to interview.

Dave said, "We need to get a jump on the leaks that WILL occur regarding the battery project. I'd like to get an announcement out before the end of the week about what's coming with high density batteries, including ours."

Tom said, "The patents won't be issued for another three months at a minimum."

"Dave nodded, "We don't have to get specific, or even talk about what they're underlying technology is, but we sure want to talk about what their capabilities will be. I'd like to see companies lined up at our door wanting to use them in their products. Isn't that what marketing is all about, making customers want what you have to sell them?"

JR laughed, "It was when I went to school. We also have a targeted list of companies we want to sell to, including Apple, Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia."

Dave acknowledged her comment. "We should go after them, too. Separately, who we want to reach are companies making products that are tied to the electric grid. We want their products off the grid and working on our batteries. And, more than those, we want to see products develop that couldn't exist without our batteries, and that are useless if they attach to the grid."

Larry asked, "Examples?"

Dave said, "Of the latter, I was thinking of wearables at the moment, but there may be all sorts of other things. You already have some tests going with the local robotics professor. There have got to be thousands of applications. We should try to list them and then prioritize them based on our ability to deliver to them."

Two things that interested Dave happened as the meeting broke up. Tom left immediately and headed back to his own office. He had commented about taking over some of the operational things that Mark had been involved with.

First, JR asked if he had a moment, and the way she asked make it clear she wanted to say something in private. Dave took a wild guess bout what it was and then waited to see whether he was correct. The second was that Larry followed Nikky out the door like a puppy that had just met its new best friend and wasn't going to let her out of his sight.

Dave sat back down where he'd been in the meeting and looked at JR to pickup the conversation.

JR blushed, and this indicated to Dave that his guess about the topic was correct. She asked, "Was the newspaper article accurate or bullshit?"

Dave chuckled; he'd been correct. "Amazingly accurate. So were the follow-up articles about Scarlett and me."

"You're really kind of married to six women, and one of them is Scarlett Johansson- the actress and celebrity?"

Dave nodded, "I am. I consider myself one of the luckiest men in the world. My wives are all beautiful, smart, and for some reason they love me back."

JR said, "But the article made it sound like despite that domestic arrangement you can enjoy any others that you want in your Circle."

"I can," he said softly, "and I usually do. I'm not a flake or weirdo. I just think differently about relationships compared to most of society; everyone in the Circle does. I happen to live in a world that is a fantasy to most men, but then the women tell me the same thing. Also, what many take as my promiscuity, or that of my friends, is just who I am or who we are as seen through their ideas of social norms. I don't like those norms, so I've left them behind. I adhere to them outside the gates of our Circle compound, and I know how to behave. Inside those gates, we all use different yardsticks to measure our behavior."

JR nodded, "And the underlying assumptions? Are you swingers or something else?"

Dave smiled, "Something else. We believe you can love and be in love with more than one person. Once you understand that principle many other attributes of our Circle follow."

"Such as?" JR asked.

"We're non-exclusive, non-possessive, non-judgmental, non-pretentious, and we don't get jealous. We are egalitarian, spiritual but not religious, exhibitionists, and very social. Those are the high points. If you want to see what it's like, I invite you to visit. Why don't you and your husband come out on Saturday, even join us for dinner."

JR laughed. "I think I will. By the way, I am single but not dating."

Dave teased, "And you wouldn't be interested in the slightest?"

JR laughed harder. "I'll see you Saturday sometime after lunch."

As Dave came back to his temporary office, the woman who was serving as his temporary secretary snapped to attention. "Mr. Prentiss, there are three members of the press in the lobby asking for an interview with you."

Dave paused. The only reason they would be there was that they'd tracked him down after Scarlett's statements to the paparazzi in Dublin and London last week about her relationship with him.

"Deborah, please tell them that I am not to be disturbed either during business hours or while I am at home. I will gladly meet with the press off-site providing they set it up at a neutral site, such as one of the local hotels. I don't want individual meetings. I'll do them all together at one time -- a press conference. You set it up."

Deborah looked horrified that she'd been given a difficult task for which she had no experience, but Dave went past her desk into his office.

The next day, Deborah stood at his office door after another long meeting had ended. "A representative from the press talked to me again today. He was one of the men that had been here yesterday. They want to know if you would agree to do your press conference tomorrow at six o'clock at the Westin Hotel downtown?"

"I do. Just find out where I'm supposed to go after I get to the hotel."

"It'll be on the sixth floor in the Coral Bay meeting room. There will be a podium and microphones so you won't have to shout. The man that called said he expected about thirty or forty journalists to attend. They'll be seated. I assumed you'd want to stand behind the podium. I told them you'd do up to an hour, max."

"Thank you. Could you let Erin Steckler know about the meeting and ask her to accompany me? Her name and contact information is on the list I gave you. This is not about work, but about my family and lifestyle."

"Yes, sir."

"Deborah, please don't call me 'sir'. I am Dave or David if you prefer, but I am not sir unless you are a submissive, which I don't believe you are."

Deborah looked horrified. "Oh, no; yes, si ... Dave. I will. I'm not -- I don't think." She turned to leave, but had blushed up a scarlet color.

"Deborah stop!" She did.

Dave went on, "I am NOT embarrassed about how I live. You don't need to be either. I'm sorry I teased you. I do have a humorous streak that shows up in strange ways. In my previous job most of the people I worked with knew my lifestyle and knew I had multiple wives. There is nothing you can't ask me about any of that. I do not proselytize or try to convert others to my way of life or thinking. I do expect people to think for themselves. I don't bite. I'm not contagious. What I do and how I live need not have any impact on your own life. I do not like, HOWEVER, are people who dance around full of curiosity and questions that make them look at me in a peculiar way but they don't say anything or ask anything. I do like to operate with a high degree of informality, flexibility, and openness. If you are the least bit uncomfortable, I'm sure we can get you reassigned."

Deborah sighed, "I understand. I don't want to work for anybody but you, sir ... I mean Dave."

Dave speculated, "You read the articles about my Circle and my family in the newspaper."

Deborah nodded. "Yes."

"And the idea that I consort with a movie star boggles your mind?"

"Yes."

"And the idea that I have six wives also bothers you?"

"Bother isn't the right word. Go back to 'boggle'." She flashed him a grin.

Dave smirked, "And are you afraid that I might do something sexual in the office?"

Deborah stiffened.

Dave couldn't help himself; he laughed. "I promise I won't attack you -- ever, in any way in any place and at any time. By your standards, I may live a loose life, but it is MY life, and I do not put that on anybody else or force my way on them."

Deborah shook her head, "I didn't think you would, but ... the articles seemed to amplify the sexual part of the Circle so much. I guess I am curious."

Dave spoke, "Americans treat sex in strange ways, especially depending on the religion you were raised under. I think we're warped to sweep that basic part of our lives under the rug. My family and extended family are very open about it. It's not a secret. We talk about it, share techniques, try new things, and do loving things to please our partners. Don't YOU get bent out of shape about any of that."

"Thank you."

"Why don't you attend my press conference tomorrow? You might learn a little more about me and the Circle. I'm also sure they want to ask me a lot of questions about Scarlett and my other wives. You can be a source of information here at EneRG about me, too. I am an open book to my friends. Maybe you can become the hub of the rumor mill in this area."

Dave snuck out of work at five-thirty together with Nikky. Deborah had already left work. They drove home using back roads; mindful of whether they were being followed.

At the main gate to the Circle, there was a security car blocking the road. A uniformed guard came up to their car and asked for ID from both of them. Dave was surprised but cooperated. The gate opened and they drove in after he'd cleared them from a list of names he had on a clipboard and moved his car. Dave wondered who had called in the militia.

On the patio, most of the Circle members were already there. The atmosphere was a little more somber than usual.

Ty came up to Dave, "I took the liberty of adding the security on the gates. They'll be there 24/7 for the next week. The news articles have really piqued people's interest in us. We had a gate crasher this morning. Some obnoxious woman who weighed about four hundred pounds drove up and broke the gate arm with her car, then drove all around. Dev intercepted her because the alarm went off when the gate got breeched. There's a guard on the back gate, too."

Dave sighed, "It might get worse before it gets better. Scarlett is flying home from Paris in two days -- home, meaning here. More importantly, I've been prevailed upon to do a press conference tomorrow afternoon. The lead reporter thinks about thirty others will show up. If you want to come and see it, just let me know."

Ty shook his head. "I think you're more sensitive about some of this stuff than I am. We all like our privacy, but I'm cool with whatever happens."

Dave felt a little nervous when he arrived at the Westin Hotel and found the right room. Instead of thirty reporters, there were more like sixty. From what Dave saw, about ten of them were linked to television cameras that had been set up in the back of the room. The podium was full of microphones and some recorders. Erin waved to him from across the room.

Deborah had arrived with him. She directed him to a man named Ed Saulter, who she'd talked with briefly over the past two days. Saulter was pleasant and with the Tampa Times. He gave Dave a business card, and explained about how he thought the formalities would go. Amazingly, he didn't press any of his own questions.