Meeting Her Pt. 07: The Convention

Except, it was another case where "wrongs" could combine with something we could not see (because we were dumb) to make a "right." Call it synergy.

I got a text message from Isabel and had to leave. Rick had his daughter to see to. It seemed that even men at career-level success must leap to obey the ladies.

-

Chapter 11. Late Night Strategy

Tuesday January 12, after 10:30 PM

Tuesday Isabel called a late meeting in her suite. It really was not unusual, except for what was.

First off, Nancy and I planned to leave the convention tomorrow, so we could do naked things in privacy. But both Rob and Isabel talked us out of that idea. Ever since the first session broke up there was a lot of talk about Nancy's presentation, it was in the lead for the conference award by a big margin. Everybody was wondering if she was incognito and was really a new star PhD coming out of a prestigious school. They said that calling on Jenson was a give-away, it proved she was extraordinary and plugged in. But nobody knew her from a PhD program in the states. That was because she was never officially IN the PhD program at Jenson's former school, she was technically in the MBA program even if she took PhD classes. Silly rules. Plus, Jenson was only visiting there one year, he was more associated with two other schools who never heard of Nancy. The speculation next went to the UK or Down Under, which had a few really big names.

(The names of all students in PhD programs at all US business schools were easy to find for academics, there are not that many. Foreign programs are not so easy. Plus, many important faculty like Jenson knew students personally from seminars and conferences. In this case, Jenson was not talking.)

Even without those last 5 minutes stomping the rodent (everybody knew him) and Jenson's endorsement, Nancy's presentation would have been in the lead for the $2,000 Accounting and Finance area prize, but the way she finished put her over the top and made her the early lead for the grand award of $5,000 plus extras. The extras were actually more valuable for both of us.

It was assumed that I guided the research, I was well known as a new hired gun. The schedule was designed so that the first day had the strongest papers by the best authors, and with the buzz about Nancy things looked very good.

But (this is silly rule) to get any award we both had to be there for the Thursday dinner. Rob said that we would be approached tomorrow to confirm our table at the dinner.

The presentation award carried a lot of prestige, and the "extra" was an automatic submission for a top 10 journal, so clearly it was worthwhile for us to stay and suffer the Thursday night dinner. Maybe we could have the pike again. I'd ask.

But I would miss the sex with Nancy, she had a tantric and yoga book of positions that we were going to try with proper stretching.

Nancy did not have a clue about any of this so she was stunned by all that was said. She might be published in a journal within the year! That, in turn, twigged something Jenson said to me. Their might be an older path, overgrown and hidden in legend, but leading to the magic she needed.

Isabel suggested that since I was going to stay I could give her a lift home Thursday. She did not really need her people around, it was excessive. She had been childish to ask her Daddy when he was helpless. Tomorrow morning she would send her cops and her PA back to Hillside in her Daddy's precious limo, they would all be happier for it. My combat Hummer was a safer ride anyways. She would "work the dais group" for resumes as well as helping Rob.

With fewer people on-site Rob and his work-wife June would move into Isabel's suite at breakfast tomorrow, a suite was a huge improvement over their room for doing the interviews. Isabel would keep her room in the suite, but she said she "might not sleep there," giving Rob and June even more freedom and saving the university a bundle in the bargain.

It is so nice when co-workers can share beds.

-

Nancy wondered about the whole accreditation thing, as Staff she was insulated from it but the announcement tonight made a big deal of it.

The basic rule was that a large majority of the departments in the college had to have a percentage (informally 70%) of people "showing signs of life" (informally: publishing more than 2 quality articles in the last 5 years). Teaching and service were nice, but they DID NOT count because, after all, we were a university. (Note: this is true. Believe it.) The actual computations were complicated and silly, with departments split up between staff, deferred retirees, faculty and graduate faculty. The Dean's office was supposedly a separate unit, except they always got a pass. Each department was considered as well as the whole college.

We only had Econ/Stats hitting par, and all their productive folks were always driven off after five years by the trio of fossilized old farts who dominated the tenured committee and wouldn't keep anybody. The Ober Chair (Accounting and Finance) and the Mad Dog of Hades (Management) actively discouraged publishing by their faculty. By June, one of those two would find his ass without a chair to sit in, but only Isabel and I knew that. Marketing took a hands-off approach and was borderline, but they were small and the chair was on notice, so they might see how the wind blows and tack accordingly.

For now Hillside was on secret double probation. But with what was in the pipeline some of us were optimistic. Still, I could not do it myself, we needed to beat 70%, that was the rule.

Nancy did not realize how bad it really was, the venerable Dean explained in broad terms last year, but he only talked about accounting.

Circling back to Rob, Econ/Stats had a unique problem. The 5 tenured faculty were the 3 old guys (all Economics Historians) who had been there at least 22 years, plus there was Rob (who taught both econ and stats) and Josh, who was the stats ace. Everybody who came up for tenure was turned down by a 3-2 vote because their publications "lacked perspective" which was another way of saying they were not in top Economics History journals, which were only perused by dinosaurs. Relevant economists used greek symbols in writing which made the dinosaurs upset. The old guys also refused to acknowledge publications in statistics, which they called the intellectual equivalent of writing poetry in German as a hobby: something difficult but hardly worth the effort to read.

The accreditation people took the opposite view, that publications in economics history did not count as research unless there was a testable hypothesis. There never was, all of history is the refined opinion of those still around.

The obvious solution was to move the dinosaurs to the History department in Liberal studies. That had been considered previously, but it was a hard sell and had to be done carefully, and in the meantime some good people would look for jobs elsewhere. The other view was that the school could wait until the dinosaurs died out. The asteroid was coming, but not fast enough, and if something drastic wasn't done soon the three dinosaurs would kill the school before they faded into dust. The big sticking point was the small number of students enrolled in upper level econ history courses - which were viewed as worthless but easy grades until the poor students could not get jobs after graduation and could not see why. The students had to get through the business core courses, so they claimed they deserved a business degree - it was a valid point, except they got the worst grades in those core courses. Isabel and Rob were both talking to critical folks at the convention about a solution.

There was one solution, but only the Dean could do it, and he would have to retire afterward. You see, the Chair had to use reasonable factors in setting schedules, even for unreasonable faculty, that was the job. But a Dean could revise schedules without cause and at a time that was too late for appeals. If he put the dinosaurs in the intro econ classes, and they retired in protest (or asked to move to Liberal Arts), the problem would go away. He wasn't ready to take that step yet.

Sometimes one needs a fresh view of a subject, and in this case Nancy asked the question. "Why not combine Stats and Production into one department? Call it 'Quantitative Tools' or something. Porter could chair, giving Rob a needed break for a few years."

I knew why she made that suggestion, and it was a clever bank shot for her, taking out Porter who she thought was an obstacle to Nancy teaching Advanced Cost. Nancy's choice of accounting actually made that something that was set to happen next Fall, but she didn't know it yet.

I had discussed something similar with Rob in August. Rob is a sharp guy, he and I saw a better version of this plan as win for the college. It was already under way and the first step would be announced Friday, when nobody was around.

-

As we headed back to my room we talked about sleeping arrangements for Tuesday night. My bed was good for 2, but not 3, so somebody was going to have to watch.

Nancy suggested that because I was very nice to her kitty Monday night I should be extra nice to Isabel tonight, she would watch from the other bed.

There were some problems with that. One was that my balls were out of creme because Nancy and Isabel had each gotten plenty during the last 24 hours. Second, Isabel had been without warm female companionship for more than 5 years, and I was sure that Nancy would be delightful for her. Isabel licked her lips and agreed. Third, Nancy's plan again put Nancy's pleasure last, with today being her big day she should accept a little extra niceness on behalf of the university - like a Dean licking her pussy again and again all night.

Isabel agreed with this as well. "You and I have been so close, but we have not done anything in bed, just the two of us. Well, lately I have been getting some very specific urges for your sweetness, and I bet you have been getting them as well." Nancy smiled and shook her head that she agreed that yes, she had thought about doing things with Isabel, except that Isabel was married.

Now she knew better. In fact, she had proven that today, when she made the move from my cock to joining Isabel.

"Well, this morning was a snack, a very tasty snack in fact, but now I want to go crazy on you, starting with some sugar right now." We were in the hallway, almost to the room when Isabel grabbed Nancy and kissed her, a very passionate kiss from my angle, while a hand slipping into Nancy's top to enjoy some nipple play.

Nancy was shocked at doing anything in public, but honestly very few people in the hotel knew her, so it was not like they were kissing in the Quad. When they broke the kiss it seemed that Isabel and Nancy had crossed a border in terms of intimacy.

I wanted to keep the plans for the other nights open, I especially wondered if Rick Jenson might figure in somehow. If he could deal with his young daughter (she was between 13 and 16) we might arrange something. I had already shared one woman with him, so I knew he was open to such games. I also knew he would talk to Nancy privately sometime, and there was some mutual attraction there.

When we got to the room Isabel asked me to join them in the shower. She had a long day and was sure that both of them would find my help useful. I was not willing to test my balls just yet, but I can be helpful in the shower.

Once we got in the shower the mood was basically playful. There was lot of kissing, and we washed each other by soaping our bodies and rubbing against one another. To make it interesting each of us took a turn in the center with the other two rubbing of that person front and back. Then the one in the center would turn around and we all did it again. My cock rubbed on both bellies. Soapy hands found their way to breasts and buns, but there was no direct contact with the delicate parts, except the time that Isabel asked me to carefully slip two friendly fingers up her butt while she kissed Nancy.

We each dried ourselves, it was after midnight and had been a long day (for Isabel) or two (Nancy and I) so getting into bed quickly became a priority.

I took one bed, they took the other, but outside of two attractive women kissing and caressing there was not much to see, everybody was basically "sexed out" for now and needed to sleep. So we all slept.

-

It was still dark when the two of them got it on. Nancy convinced Isabel to lay back and accept what she was doing, pleasured Isabel all kinds on ways. I could not see, and I was not going to turn on the lights, but I could hear pretty good.

Nancy started out with hot kisses all over Isabel's face. "Such a pretty woman, you deserve the best," Nancy whispered. "I can try to please you." There were more kissing noises, very wet and passionate.

When Nancy moved down to Isabel's breasts she spent a long time licking and sucking and making her Dean a little crazy until she moved down farther. Isabel was juicy enough that I could clearly hear the wet sounds of Nancy licking her pussy. She focused her tongue on the clit area, I heard Isabel moan "two fingers" and "Oh... three fingers" as Nancy started to pussy play penetration games while licking. That got Isabel a little crazy as she humped against Nancy's mouth to the beat of Nancy's fingers inside her.

Isabel tried to stay silent but her gasps and moans and little "oh..." sounds were unavoidable.

The sounds got louder until I heard a gasp followed by a deep moan of a stifled climax from the other bed. I guess Nancy was pretty good at licking Isabel happy. This whole business ended about 4:00 in the morning, there were still a few hours before anybody got up so I guess we all went back to sleep.

-

Isabel was up and out before 7 in the morning, she had to change in her own room, then get her people on the way and work out the day's schedule with June, Rob's work wife, who turned out to be very capable. June and Rob arranged the schedule so Isabel spent one hour out of every three resting in bed, alone. They also made sure that Isabel saw the best people, where she could make a difference.

June was a mother so she was able to insist on Isabel's rest.

On the administrative side, Rob told Isabel where some extra "Hillside" charm might help our chances for the presentation award. Lobbying by the presenters was frowned upon, and influencing the judges was unacceptable, but having an established "presence" for the school at the top was always a plus for the judges, and Dean Isabel Brumhuld was an obvious positive presence to anyone she spent 15 minutes talking to.

-

When Isabel left the room Wednesday morning she gave me a kiss and said I should probably take her spot with Nancy. That worked out well, Nancy was not in the mood for sex, she just wanted to stay under the warm covers and was not about to leave her warm bed. She was very affectionate and appreciated somebody so willing to give her the body warmth she wanted without playing.

While Isabel was fully scheduled for the day, Nancy and I had very little planned, and in fact Rob advised us to lay low. That was the big problem with the convention success, we both had a great deal of dead time but because we had not planned for it we had no papers or notes or even technical journals to work with. Even as collaborators we worked alone, writing things out. We always talked from a detailed paper, sitting in a room talking research only worked for a little while, and it might have chewed up more time than it saved when we looked at our notes later.

After yesterday, fooling around felt a little like cheating on Isabel. She spent two of her rest periods with us, she wanted "rest with company" but since the idea was to rebuild energy that meant cuddles and gentle attention to nipples instead of a climax with passion. She really wanted to cuddle with both of us, and as long as it was just cuddling with kisses and whispers and lots of love that worked well.

About 10 Nancy got up and out of the room to visit the textbook displays. She didn't see too much. At Noon she did the same. But both times she discovered that everybody wanted to talk to her. Some were pitching a research idea for collaboration. (They were sincere, but implied there could be "benefits" involved - who starts there?) Others were just going for a target of opportunity, given the 19 to 1 male to female ratio, and Nancy's standing as the youngest hottie of legal age attending as faculty. Both were non-stop when she was alone in public and it got tired real fast. After that she insisted on company when she ventured out.

-

In the early afternoon we met up with Rick and his daughter and learned how they came to be here at this resort. Rick presented some work at a seminar at one school Monday and was scheduled at another school (250 miles away) Thursday late night and Friday. He wondered what to do in between - flying home was a drag, but so was staying over. Then he got the email about Nancy's presentation and decided to drive here in between, it was close to a direct line. His daughter was still off from school (a university-affiliated high school) and wanted to come along, so it worked perfectly for a father-takes-daughter-to-work trip.

Nancy went for coffee with Rick. I drove them to a nearby place because at the convention Rick attracted too many people who "just wanted a few words with him." His daughter Brianna tagged along, she and I visited the music store down the block so Nancy and Rick could talk alone. The sign actually said "Record Store" but there was only one display of used records. They had an old Transcriptors Vestigal turntable/arm if you were interested in hearing some of the ancient vinyl.

Rick tried a few different ways to probe Nancy about what it would take to do a dissertation and get a PhD. He was thinking of prestige schools, but they all would require her to spend at least two years on campus. He push her a bit, he had to be sure. It was not going to happen. She knew that she needed the degree to keep teaching at Hillside, but she also knew that her not being at Hillside now was not for her. In 5 years it would be too late.

Rick was not frustrated with her, he just needed to know her limits, and after the long sales talk now he did. He told her that he would look for another way if she produced some solo work. That might happen, she would keep it in mind.

-

As for me, it turned out Brianna was a fan of '80s rock so we got along great. She also thought my H-1 Hummer was the coolest vehicle she had ever been in, although she could not see how anybody could make-out in it, the central console is a beast. Also, because of the "save the planet" thing, she could never be seen in such a vehicle in her university home town, it would be a public eco-sin. But it was a cool ride, "sometimes sin feels good," she said.

Brianna had seen Nancy do her presentation and was impressed to meet her, but she kept a coolness until Rick mentioned that Nancy was a "past, and hopefully future" student of his. That was when she warmed up, Nancy was not a rival.

At the record store I asked Brianna what was up with that. She admitted that, up close, she had a problem warming up to some young women in academia. "Look, I know my folks have an arrangement about... well... people. But I feel funny talking with a woman my dad has been... you know... with. But I also know his rule about 'no present or future students' so I figured Nancy was okay to be friends with."

I thought that Brianna was very wise and declined to mention that her dad and I were once ball-to-balls making a busty natural redhead scream in pleasure.

She gave me a speculative look. "As I think of it, Dad's articles are all solo, with no co-authors, so I don't know if he has a rule for them. He told me you are a 'hired gun' with 10 co-authors before you got your PhD, the exact opposite of him. 'Wire Paladin, San Francisco' and all that. I know you were hired at Hillside to co-author articles, so I kind of have to wonder about the ethics... Do you sleep with your co-authors? Maybe I should mention that I am thinking of academia for a profession."