Loosening Up Bk. 07 Ch. 21-25

Exactly at nine o'clock, Jenny knocked on the doorframe to his office. Dave looked up from his morning reading pile. She announced, "The applicant for the CFO position is here. You're the first on the interview schedule."

Dave waved across the room, "Bring him in."

A familiar voice said, "I am not a 'him' -- you of all people should know that by now. In fact, I'd love to get fucked by you right now on your big desk. Hmmm. Big desk, big cock. I wonder if there's some psychological connection there? I know you're not over compensating."

Dave's jaw dropped open.

Alice strode into Dave's office and went up to her husband and gave him a friendly kiss on his lips.

Dave had started to sputter, "You ... you ... you ..."

Alice interrupted, "Yes, me. I'm the applicant for the CFO position in EneRG. I've already been interviewed for the position by a number of people, but you have to decide whether you can work with me. I've talked to Mark, Owen, Wendy Hayden, JR, Nikky, and several others at the bank. I've also talked to Roy and Dori since they will be seriously impacted at KM if I were to leave. This is kind of hush-hush."

"Why didn't you say something?"

Alice laughed, "I honestly didn't think it would get this far, but it has. I'm the only contender after several other contenders were eliminated or dropped out for various reasons."

"Shit."

"I take it, that's a negative vote."

"NO!" Dave said loudly as he looked into her eyes. "It's just that here I am again the last to know about something really significant in my business AND my family that has been going on and I didn't know about it."

Alice tried to reassure him, "This all started about a week ago, at least from my perspective. Owen and I flew the Cessna 182 up to The Meadows a week ago Saturday to talk to Mark and that started the ball rolling. Wendy was there for the weekend and joined us. I talked to the others during the week, mostly in the evenings. We kind of arbitrarily decided to keep it from you just so I could see the look on your face when I walked into your office this morning for my interview. It was worth our precautions." She grinned.

Dave kept shaking his head, "I still can't believe it. Last I heard, even a few days ago, you were very happy with your job at Knightsbridge. What happened?"

Alice chuckled, "I am happy, but I got head hunted by two of my lovers. I had talked to Roy about moving up, but he has no plans for retiring. He'll never become CEO, and he's locked in for about the next decade unless he does something rash, which is unlikely. Moreover, the company is so mature that many of the tough issues a CFO would have to deal with are long behind us. Things are kind of boring. I need some excitement -- like EneRG Excitement!"

Dave gestured to his sofa and the two sat. "If you do this, all our income will be dependent on this company. We do have mouths to feed if something were to happen to EneRG."

"I'm not worried. I've been studying batteries all week and getting a rapid education about the industry. I think EneRG has a winning plan, technology, and business. I read your business plan. JR told me about the licensing deals you're about the set up. Did you know I've been involved in some of the same kinds of deals for Knightsbridge? I can be very helpful. Also, Wendy told me about her expectations for the IPO. On the founders stock you have alone, we'll be rich."

"What if we disagree on some plan of action? Will it hurt our marriage?"

Alice chuckled, "We're smart and we won't let it. If neither of us will cave in on some point, we can go to Owen, Mark, or Wendy for help and outside opinions. Further, you're the CEO. You can always overrule me. Lastly, as you know if you reviewed my job offer I get some founders stock prior to the IPO that I'm free to sell after that, so that should help our cash flow." She smiled.

Dave posed, "And you think we could be unbiased enough to do this? It'd mean that you, me, and JR would basically be running the company. Eventually, maybe Maury Turner, my new VP of manufacturing may be a key player on the executive team."

Alice nodded, "Definitely. Look how well we've done with the Circle."

"A much smaller endeavor, but we've been very harmonious about everything. All of us have."

Dave got up and went to his desk. He retrieved the piece of paper regarding the financial and benefits offer he could offer to the new CFO. He brought it back to his wife and passed her the page.

Alice scanned the page, "I accept. The salary is a little less, but as I was told the stock and stock options are very attractive. As listed, those are a little more than Mark described. Very nice benefit package, too."

"What now?"

"Where's my new office? I'm also told you have a couple of bean counters already on the payroll. I should meet my new staff."

Dave got up and they headed for the other offices, stopping long enough to inform Jenny and Nikky about the latest employee of EneRG. Since they were already in the know, they waved and laughed.

The Gulfstream 650LR lumbered through the sky on final approach at Circle Airport two weeks after Alice started. Dave, Nikky, JR, Larry, Leslie, and Alice were each seated opposite one of the oversize windows in the plane watching the familiar landscape slip below as it got lower and lower on the approach.

Alice mentally went through the checklist for the plane that she knew the two pilots were using up front. She needed to get back in the cockpit again so she kept her currency on her type rating, but that wouldn't happen until the birth of her second child. She patted her swelling mid-section.

The wheels touched down, reverse thrusters were applied, and the plane came to a comfortable stop well over a thousand feet from the far end of the runway.

Dave chuckled and thought, 'Cheated death one time. Not today Satan.'

They unloaded their luggage, creating a pile on the tarmac in front of the hangar. The temperature had climbed back to the high eighties. This was the warmest place they'd been on the ten-day trip. Overall, they had six new agreements in place in Germany, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, and at home in America.

The best news was that production in the three foreign sites would be underway within the month. Already, shipments of ore containing Thallium were underway to the foreign locations in special shipping containers that were also accompanied by armed guards.

Larry and Leslie had left their cars beside the hangar, so loaded up their luggage and were gone out the back gate a few minutes after landing. The other four, all Circle members, each got a golf cart, loaded their luggage, and drove up the slope to the newly enlarged core. The new construction had created a small parking lot for the golf carts between several of the new homes, rather than the random scheme people had used previously.

Dave dropped his bags in his house and headed to the patio in shorts and a t-shirt. The cocktail hour was just starting, and he could put in an hour or two working the bar and re-seeing his friends and lovers. He was surprised at how much he missed everyone after the two-week trip.

As Dave appeared on the patio there was the blur of a redhead racing across the patio and into his arms.

"Tatiana! Hello." Dave laughed as she lavished kisses on his face and neck.

"I missed you so," she crooned in her Russian accent. "I so glad you back. Next time you go, you take me, right?"

"And I missed you. Are you all right? How're things at the university?"

She pulled away slightly and nodded enthusiastically, "They are the best. All the paperwork for my residency has been submitted to the State Department. Jason, Robyn, and Professor Reagan were big help. I applied for permanent visa and green card all at once. University wrote in support that I am unique in world in field of robotics and they want to capture me to work here. They help build a good case. I am embarrassed because the words in the application were so flattering and made me out to be an angel. Robyn is very optimistic. She also knows somebody in Washington she thinks can help with just a phone call or two. That call happens next week."

By the time Tatiana finished her explanation she was nearly jumping up and down with excitement.

Dave hugged her, "I hope this works out for you. How are you fitting in with the others in the computer science department?"

Tatiana laughed, "They love me. I am Russian 'dish'. I am 'hot'. The students they lust after me, apparently. This was not the case in St. Petersburg. Maybe it was too cold there and I wore too many clothes, so I hid my body. Here, I try to loosen up, so I wearing very nice but sexy clothes -- short skirts, heels, and blouses that let people know I have breasts."

"And you know all this how?"

"Oh, Professor Steve told me. He admitted today that he liked me more than just as professional colleague. This poses a dilemma for me that I need to talk to you about."

Dave chuckled, "I can guess."

Tatiana lightly hit his arm. "You are insightful in these areas. I want Alice to be with us, too, so there is woman's perspective."

Dave pointed as Alice appeared from the doorway from their house and headed towards the bar. She wore her monokini and a baseball cap with her hair pulled through the back in the modified ponytail. Her pregnancy was more obvious without clothes. Tatiana ran to greet her with kisses and hugs.

At the bar, Dave got each of them a glass of white wine, and a sparkling water for Alice. Tatiana explained to Alice about her visa submission, and then brought up the Professor Steve issue.

"Professor Steve Reagan is so nice and so handsome. I really like him in many ways. He likes me in many ways, and today he told me as more than just a colleague. He asked me out to dinner and maybe a movie -- an American date. I demurred saying I had to get my 'feet on the ground' some more. He seemed to know that saying -- an idiom."

Alice laughed, "Do you like him enough to go out with him?"

"Yes, but doesn't it complicate our working relationship?"

Alice shrugged, "Dave and I just started to work together. You don't have to let it get complicated. You create boundaries. Also, set it up so other colleagues evaluate your performance and he has no input to it."

Tatiana said, "I feel all tingly working near him, especially here." She put her hand over her barely clad pussy. Dave had been totally distracted since both women were topless. Tatiana was 'hot'.

She went on, "I also worry about impact of date with him on my integration into the Circle. The Circle is very important to me -- VERY!"

Alice teased, "Is he a liberal thinker? Do you think he would fit in here with the others?"

"Oh," Tatiana exclaimed. "I hadn't thought of that as a solution. You would like him. All the women would."

Alice teased, "I would like making love with him, yes?"

"Yes, and I think I would also."

"Maybe for a first date, you invite him here for drinks and dinner, and to meet some of your friends. Does he know where you live?"

"No, only that I stay with close friends. I tell him that we had exhibition booths across the aisle from each other in Las Vegas, but I did not tell him that we met for the first time then. I think he figures it out."

Tatiana thought for several minutes as they sipped their wines and greeted others arriving for a beer or glass of wine.

Tatiana finally said, "I will ask him for tomorrow or next weekend. He was very eager and gave me his number in case I change my mind about tomorrow. Maybe I will go on date."

Steve Reagan stood tall and Dave guessed there might be some military background in his earlier life. He was a solid man, maybe even the kind who played football when he was younger, but as a quarterback or running back, and not a hefty lineman. The man was in his mid-forties, had salt-and-pepper wavy hair, a very pleasant disposition, and a winsome smile. He apparently liked some kind of outdoor activity because his skin had a significant tan, but in Florida that was often hard to gage.

The man was personable and cordial, yet Dave identified certain geek-like tendencies in the man. He walked with a slight uncertainty and shuffle despite his bearing; he sported a pen in his shirt pocket as well as a pair of reading glasses; he seemed slightly nervous and shy meeting people as Tatiana introduced her newfound friends.

Despite meeting thirty or forty of the Circle members at the bar, Steve Reagan remembered everyone's name, immediately using their name in conversation. Dave knew the technique; it was a surefire way to remember someone's name longer than five seconds.

Steve Reagan was a full professor in the computer science department. Dave got to talk to him longer than many others as he stood at the bar with Tatiana acting as his hostess for the evening.

Reagan had been in ROTC when he was an engineering student, and postponed his military service until after he got his Ph.D. degree. He then went in for four years and spent much of that time in the Army's Robotics Laboratory building on work he'd done for his doctoral thesis regarding how the military could best leverage robots in field combat situations.

His work for the Army for the most part was open research that became public. Reagan got a couple of dozen erudite and refereed papers from the work, enough that when he graduated he easily qualified for the rank of associate professor. He joined the university staff, and after some additional distinguished work and a heavy teaching load of both undergrads and graduate students became a full professor.

Reagan had a precise way of speaking, carefully qualifying statements here and there to avoid hyperbole or understatement. He clearly thought with numbers at the ready: 'I had four ideas that ...', 'I remember last December 12th ...', 'We had fourteen of us in the department when ...'

Tatiana politely stopped him from getting to the boring stage about his work translating natural language recognition into mechanical responses with an artificial intelligence substrate. Dave was fascinated, but even his eyes glazed over here and there during Reagan's recounting as he got lost in the lingo. Dave chuckled; the Geek Meter was reading about a 9.5 out of 10 at that point.

At dinner, Dave and Alice joined Steve and Tatiana at the table nearest the outside bar. The weather was warm and the sky starlit. The candles on the tables gave the whole dinner a more intimate and romantic atmosphere. To avoid shocking the man, Alice had conceded to wearing a decorative top, and had gotten most of the other women similarly clad.

Steve asked Dave the differences between the Circle Cohousing and a homeowners' association. The question was a good one, and Dave struggled with the response. The history of the Circle slowly emerged in the discussion; however, Dave kept to the sanitized and PG-13 description of the events leading up to the Circle's formation.

Tatiana promised to show Steve one of the scrapbooks about the Circle and it's members after dinner. She winked at Dave as she made her remark.

At one point Owen stopped by the table and asked Dave how the trip to China, Japan, Korea, and Europe had gone. He'd read the emails reporting on the progress but was fishing for anything deeper. Dave gave the two-minute response and Owen seemed happy. He joked, "I'll send you a bill for the aircraft and crew," and then waved and walked away.

Tatiana explained to Steve, "Dave and Alice were part of a contingent of people that flew overseas to license companies to start production of the batteries that EneRG produces in limited quantities here. They used Owen's plane."

Steve asked, "Owen?"

Tatiana explained, "Owen Bennett. I would have introduced you but he was obviously just stopping by the chat with Dave for a minute or two." Dave had learned that she'd spent a night with him just before his return to the states.

"We have a new engineering building on campus that the Bennett Foundation built. I wonder if they're related."

Dave chuckled, "They are. Owen Bennett donated that building. He runs the foundation with one of my wives -- his wife actually. He also owns the jet. It's in a hangar just about five-hundred yards in that direction." He pointed towards the airport.

Steve carefully digested all that information. "And he just happened to be here tonight?"

Tatiana grinned, "No, he lives in that house right over there." She pointed. "He's one of the Circle members. He's also one of the major investors in Dave's company."

Steve said, "EneRG, right?"

Dave responded, "Right. I think you have a couple of our prototype batteries in your university's robotics lab so you can avoid long extension cords and the like."

Tatiana nodded. "That's what Ariel and Kapor are using on their robotic platform. Dave donated the batteries so we could use and test them. They're wonderful."

Steve nodded, "Oh, yes. I remember. I met JR during that arrangement."

After a pause, Steve said, "I'm confused. Alice, you're Dave's wife and work with him at EneRG, but he referred to his wife as working for the Bennett Foundation. Do you do both?"

Alice chortled, "No, I'm the new CFO at EneRG. My sister is one of Dave's other wives and also recently married Owen, so she has two husbands. I'm Owen's other wife, as well."

Steve's eyes flared, "So, errr ... Dave has two wives?"

Dave offered, "Matter of fact, I have six wives. You've met four of them so far tonight, I believe."

"I have?"

"Yes. Alice, Julie, Pam, and Heather you met. Cricket is sitting at the other table; she's the short blonde in the navy blue t-shirt. Scarlett is my other wife; she's sitting with several others two tables over. She's the sultry looking blonde in the white scoop neck top and white shorts."

Steve studied each of the women. He commented, "Cricket is an unusual name for a person. The only other time I've heard that name it was for an author of several popular books."

"Yes, that's her."

Steve's head jerked back to Cricket. He then shifted to Scarlett. "You wife Scarlett looks very similar to a movie star in some romantic film I recently saw."

"Yes, that's her."

"The actress?"

"Yes."

"What's she doing here?" Steve gawked at the actress.

Dave, Alice, and Tatiana all laughed. The question could be taken as an affront along the lines of 'What's a girl like you doing in a nice place like this?'

Tatiana responded, "She loves her family and wants to spend time with them. They're important to her, and she is to them."

"And Cricket?"

"Same answer, if that was meant to refer to the same question."

Dave hailed Cricket and she came over and joined them. Dave introduced Reagan to her. He obviously suffered a sudden case of hero-worship as he about lost his ability to speak.

Steve got out, "You write?"

Cricket had this experience before, "Yes. I love to write. I wroteRoad Trip andCrystal Clear, and they're both movies that my friend Scarlett starred in. Now, I'm working on a sequel of sorts entitledCrystal Palaces, at least that's the working title. And, yes, I'm sort of cashing in on the franchise of the previous characters. I have four other books in process, too."

"So ... so ... so ... nice to meet you," Steve finally got out. He seemed devoid of further questions so Cricket went back to her other friends.

The group talked some more, mostly about Cricket's work. About ten minutes later, the desserts were served along with coffee carafes. The bus staff cleared away the dinner dishes as people ate.

Scarlett carried her sherbet dish and coffee mug and came and joined Dave and Alice, and thus Tatiana and Steve. As she sat, Dave asked, "Where's Rose?"