You and Me Against the World

"All right, extremely efficiently. Without you working with us we would not work as efficiently as we do, and you save us a considerable amount of money. I don't know about these two, but I would be willing to cut you in on our cost efficiencies, say 30%." The other two nodded their agreement.

"No guys, I can't accept that, after all I'm only doing my job."

"Look," Robert said. "You may think that you're just doing your job, but you've gone over and above the call of duty so to speak. If one of our employees had come up with a system that had the potential to save us a significant amount of money, we would consider an adequate form of remuneration for his efforts. All that Milton is suggesting is that the same principle should apply to you. Would you accept an ex-gracia payment commensurate with the cost savings?"

"I'll think about it, okay?"

"He'll accept." Judith said on my behalf.

"And another thing, I think that the Builders should chip in as well, after all you've saved them a lot as well. I'll have a chat to my guys this afternoon."

I was about to protest but Judith kicked me in the shins to stop me. "We'll work on setting up our business, stuff like a Business Name, design of stationery, furniture and fittings, IT gear. We'll have to start looking for an office as soon as the decision is made to give up our current jobs." She caught the expression on my face. "You didn't honestly think that I was going to stay at Hallston's after you'd left, and watch the business go in ever decreasing circles until it disappears up its own fundament, did you? No mate, you go, I go, understand?" I caught the glances that were exchanged between the three Architects. I might be slow at times, but I got the distinct impression that they thought that there was more to me and Judith than we had let on.

"You two, is there something that we should know about?"

"When there is we'll let you know."

"But you won't rule out the possibilities then?"

I was waiting for the kick to tell me to shut up, but it didn't come. Does this mean that she is under the impression that there is more to this? "We shall see what we shall see, but we won't rule anything out."

"Great! That means that we won't have to keep trying to set you up with some woman at our barbecues."

This was getting too much for me. They were trying to set me up? The bastards. I looked at my watch. "It's time that we were getting back to work." I said to Judith, tapping my watch-face.

"I'm your boss and genetic superior, allow me to decide when it's time."

"How long did you say that you've known each other?" Geoff asked.

Judith got in ahead of me. "We've worked together for the past couple of years, but we've only got to know each other, really know each other since last night."

"I knew it." Geoff said. "I could see something different in Richard. You got laid last night, didn't you?"

"Yes he did, and let me tell you, he's no slouch in the cot either."

"Well I for one say good luck to the two of you and we look forward to working directly with you."

"What the hell happened there?" I asked Judith as we left the restaurant.

"What happened Richard, was the beginning of the realisation of your dream. You and I going are to take on the world, you'd better hang on to your hat, because it could be a bumpy ride."

"In what way?"

"You don't honestly think that Hallston's are going to take the loss of their star player lightly do you?"

"They don't even know that I exist, so why should it bother them? I would have thought that they would be glad to see the back of me."

"Not when they get the monthly performance data after we leave. I predict that, if they haven't already done it, that will trigger them scurrying off to the Lawyers to see if they can take out an injunction preventing us from going in to business in opposition to them, especially as we're taking their best and most consistent clients with us."

"But if there is no formal arrangement between Hallston's and them, how can they claim that we were stealing their clients?"

"They will think that they can because they probably don't realise that there is no formal arrangement, and if they try it we can counter with a suit for restraint of trade."

"This isn't something that's come to you in the past twenty-four hours is it?"

"No, I've been thinking about it for some time." We had arrived back at work, we still hadn't picked up her car, so further discussion on the topic had to be shelved for some time and we had to behave as if nothing was going on between us.

At just after 4:00 I got a call from Geoff. "Richard, I think I've found the perfect office for you, It's in our building, up on the third floor, when can you come and have a look at it?"

"Why do I get the impression that you're more anxious about this happening than I am?"

"Because we've wanted you to do this for ages. Now when can you come over to have a look at it?"

"How about after work this evening, will that be too late?"

"No, that's fine. I'll let the building manager know that I might have found a new tenant for him. He'll be pleased because it has only just today become vacant, so he won't have to advertise it through an agent."

"I'll let Judith know, we'll see you later."

During the tea break Judith came in just after me, that gave the other staff time to leave me alone. "Geoff has found us an office in his building, he wants us to go over and check it out after work, will that be a problem for you?"

"No, why should it be? I get to be with you again, and we're getting even closer to getting out of this place. Have you given any thought to our business name?"

"I thought that Chapman Sedgwick sort of rolls of the tongue nicely, and that Chapman is closer to the top of the directory listings than Sedgwick. What do you think about that?"

"I thought that Sedgwick and Associates sounded good, after all, you're the head honcho."

"I have to disagree with you on that one. You my dear (did I just call her that?) are the driving force of this enterprise. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to insist on my idea."

"Well, if you insist." I was surprised that she gave in so easily. This is a first for me. It is the first time that I have insisted on having my own way with a woman, normally I'm that scared of upsetting them that I bow to their decision.

Geoff met us at the front door of his office building and took us up to the third floor. It wasn't a huge space as offices go, but then there would only be the two of us initially. "Well, what do you think?"

"I like it. What about the services, phone lines and data cabling, you know, the usual stuff?"

"That's all here, plus you have your own mini-kitchen, there won't be any banquets or anything like that, and toilet facilities. What more could you ask for?"

"What sort of rent are we looking at?"

"As a favour to me for finding a tenant so quickly, the agent has arranged for the first six months to be rent free, and after that he's open to negotiations."

"What? I can't believe it. My experience with landlords is that they're a mob of tight arses, give you nothing and take you nowhere."

"How dare you talk about your best friend like that."

"What?"

"Why do you keep saying that? Yes, I own the building. The previous tenant was kicked out yesterday for non-payment of rent, he was never going to make it, he had all of the business acumen of a newt. Well, are you going to take it?"

I looked at Judith, she looked at me, smiled at me and nodded. Chapman Sedgwick now had an office. Things were moving ahead in leaps and bounds.

I had almost arrived home when I got the distinct feeling that I had forgotten something. "Have I forgotten something?" I asked Judith.

"We haven't picked up my car yet." I slammed on the brakes and hit my indicator to turn around. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To get your car."

"We can pick it up in the morning."

We completely forgot it, again. In our defence we were running very late. Neither of us seemed to be able to find the motivation to get out of bed. As it was we skipped breakfast.

We got to Judith's house before we remembered her car. "I'll fix this." Judith said. She had a whiteboard stuck on her fridge door, so she wrote in big letters; 'PICK UP CAR'. We didn't need the sign because just as we were thinking of giving her bed a bit of a workout there was a knock on her door. It was the police wanting to see if everything was okay because the owner of the restaurant that we'd gone to that first night had noticed her car was still in the car park. "He was concerned because you were with a man that they hadn't seen before, and it was way out of character for you to leave the car there without notifying them that everything was under control."

"Yes, everything is very much under control, it's just that I have been extremely busy over the past couple of days and haven't had time to collect it. I'll pick it up tomorrow without fail."

"It would be a good idea to let the restaurant people know if you intend to leave it there for any length of time in future." He said.

"I will, and thank you."

"Don't thank me, thank them, they must care for you to take the trouble to check up on you. You might even think about leaving your phone number with them so that they don't have to bother us in future."

"I'll do that next time I'm in there."

Geoff designed the office fit-out in the usual way, with a slight difference. We were trialling a new system that I'd been working on with my computer guru. All walls and partitions were measured with a laser measure that stored the dimensions, including the heights. These plans were downloaded onto my computer, and the sizing programme that I had installed, printed out cut sizes for all of the framing timbers, timber and glass panels and doors. These were sent to the timber and hardware suppliers to be cut, and the materials were delivered the next day. The following day one of his contractors came in and assembled the lot. We went around that evening and were suitably impressed, everything had fitted. It was now time for a full scale trial.

An IT contractor came in the following day and set up for phone and data cabling and the Telco installed the Wi-Fi modem. We were wired for business, it was now time to bite the bullet and resign from my present job.

My formal resignation, citing 'personal reasons' had barely hit the Chairman's desk when he was on the phone. "Why are you leaving?"

"It is a personal matter that I am not prepared to discuss at this time." Fat chance I would discuss anything personal with him, he had never shown the slightest interest in me in the whole time I'd been there. "I have given a week's notice and would appreciate it if you have all monies and entitlements calculated and deposited in my account before I leave."

"In return, we would appreciate it if you left all the details of your regular clients with us so that Hallston's can continue to do business with them."

"Very well, I have to warn you that there is no formal arrangements with them and they have indicated that they may shop around for an alternate Quantity Surveyor."

"Have they indicated this to you?"

"Yes."

"But why, are they dis-satisfied with the service that they've received from us in the past?"

"Not to my knowledge. I would suggest that you should take that up with them personally."

Judith's resignation really set a cat amongst the pigeons. "What is happening here? First Richard has resigned, and now you."

"It's a personal matter that I'm not prepared to discuss."

"Does this personal matter involve Richard, have you two had problems?"

"On the contrary, I have found working with him to have been a wonderful experience, one that I would wish could continue."

"I suppose that we will have to advertise for replacements for both the positions."

"I suggest that you should do that as soon as possible."

"Richard has intimated that his regular clients may not wish to continue using Hallston's, do you know anything about this?"

"I suggest that this is a matter that you should discuss with them. To the best of my knowledge they are happy with the service that Richard has provided for them."

It hit the fan the next day. "Judith, would you come to my office, and bring Richard with you."

We were met by the full board. The Chairman was angry. "What are you two up to?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I have had interesting conversations with Bridewell's, Jones and Farquhar, and Milton Robertson, and they have all told me the same thing, that they no longer wish to do business with Hallston's and reserve the right to take their business elsewhere, would you hazard a guess where they are taking their business?"

"Don't tell me, let me guess, would it be Chapman Sedgwick by any chance?"

"You know damn well that it is. Now listen to me the both of you, I forbid this, there's a law against poaching business from your previous employer, and if what we've been told is true, then we'll see the pair of you in court."

"You should seek legal advice before you leap into litigation, we didn't choose them, it was them that chose us. It was the three of them that came to us with the suggestion that if we set up our own business they would transfer their business to us. It is their prerogative and they are simply exercising that prerogative. I must admit that I hadn't contemplated this move until it was put to me. The reason that they gave was that there was a very strong working relationship between us and they wanted to formalise that. There was no formal provider/client relationship between Hallston's and them, all dealings that they had with this company, after a disastrous episode involving one of your young hot-shot graduates, has been directly and exclusively with me. If they wish to continue that relationship then I am not going to stand in their way."

"We'll see about that. I think that it will be best for the both of you to clear out your desks and leave today."

"Very well, we will leave as soon as possible."

"And you will leave all outstanding projects that you are working on for those Architects, they are the property of this company."

"There are no current projects."

"But, when we checked yesterday, there was one for Bridewell's and one for Milton Robertson on the books."

"They have both been completed and results forwarded to them."

"That's impossible, you've only had them for two days, and there is no way that you could complete them in that time."

"There is, and I did."

"If you have developed a system that can achieve that sort of result, then that is the property of this company."

"I think not. If you want to test that in court, be my guest." I was confident that they would not proceed, and even more confident that, if they did, they would be unsuccessful.

We packed our gear and left the office, followed by the puzzled stares of the other staff.

By pooling our resources we managed to get the furniture in place and a new computer system installed and running, including a plan printer. The paint was dry and everything was in readiness for us to move in. We moved everything that we had brought with us from Hallston's into the new accommodation on Thursday, locked the doors, left the keys with Geoff and took ourselves off for a couple of days of fun and frivolity before beginning this new phase in our lives.

It was a quiet little B & B on the coast overlooking a sandy beach with headlands at each end. There was a hotel that served up good meals in its Dining Room and had an excellent wine list. We walked and talked along the beach for hours, the sand between our toes, the wind and spray in our hair, what there was of it in my case, the sounds of seagulls in our ears. Between times we had breakfast provided, lunch was at a small fish café on the foreshore and dinner at the hotel, followed by bed, a large comfortable bed, and a bed designed for the sort of action that we indulged in.

It was during the quiet time following our individual and simultaneous orgasms that the decision was made that we should marry. "While I don't think that it's imperative, I would love us to get married. Judith, will you marry me?"

"Richard, of course I will. I have been luxuriating in just being with you for the past couple of days and thinking to myself that it can't get much better than this, and you go and prove me wrong. It has just got better." She climbed on top of me and kissed me. "We must look a treat, me with my less than perfect boobs swaying in the breeze, you with the light glistening off your head, we're a couple of silly old farts acting like teenagers who've sneaked off for a dirty weekend away from their parents."

I kissed her mildly deformed breast. "They are beautiful breasts, not perfect, but beautiful nonetheless. So what if they bounce a little more than they would have when you were younger, that is just a part of growing old that we can't do much about. I, for one, am going to enjoy looking at them, and touching them, and kissing them." I punctuated my comments by kissing her nipples in turn. Judith smiled down at me and her hips began to move, encouraging little dick into further action. At the rate that we were going we'd need another week off, just to recover.

The time that it takes to plunge from euphoria to despair is, it turns out, around fifteen minutes. We had just opened the office when a man appeared at the front desk. We were presented with a Court Injunction preventing us from entering into any formal arrangements with Bridewell and Associates, Jones and Farquhar, and Milton Robertson. A court date for hearing of this injunction was set for Tuesday at 10:00. It was time to marshal the reinforcements.

The Magistrate sat behind his desk and put the injunction down to look at Hallston's Solicitor. "In this injunction you claim that the Defendants not only poached your clients, but took with them when they left, certain computer systems that you claim are the property of Hallston's, would you like to explain to this to the court?"

"Mr Sedgwick has been an employee of Hallston's for some time, and during his tenure with the company, he did design some systems that he used to, he claims, significantly speed up the processes associated with his work. We, the Plaintiffs, claim that this was developed as an employee of this company and, as per the employer/employee agreement, remains the property of the company. As to the poaching of Hallston's clients, these companies have employed Hallston's over the past twenty years to carry out Quantity Survey work for them. They were clients even before Mr Sedgwick began working for Hallston's, they were Hallston clients."

George Bradford, the solicitor hired to represent us in this matter, rose to his feet. "Hallston's claim that Mr Sedgwick developed the systems as an employee of Hallston's and because of this they remain the property of that company. Mr Sedgwick did not develop any of the systems in question, he merely, at the request of the System Engineer, act as one of several consultants hired to provide input as to the functions carried out in the Quantity Surveying section of an over an all-encompassing process. This system is a registered design of the developers, not Mr Sedgwick. As to the other matter. Some twenty years ago Mr Sedgwick came to work for Hallston's. It is true that the client relationship existed with Hallston's and several Architectural companies, in particular Bridewell and Associates. It was early on in his tenure that the Principal, Geoffrey Bridewell, realised that Mr Sedgwick demonstrated capabilities at a higher level than the other Quantity Surveyors employed at that time. He also demonstrated an interest in learning more about the whole construction process from the concept plans to completion to further enhance his efficiency. This was encouraged by his previous boss Henry Hallston. Following submissions from these clients, Henry Hallston entered into a separate agreement between them that ensured that, while the financial side of the agreement remained the same, the actual work would be carried out by Mr Richard Sedgwick, and following his separation from Hallston's would transfer to him, or to a third party. Under no circumstances would it remain with Hallston's."