Forever Yours
42
Unreasonable Demands
AS WEDDING PLANS became the focus for Lisa and Chastity, Isobel seemed to become more abrasive in the office. Luke excused her as having an extremely intensive class load this semester that was giving her headaches and stomach upsets. He confided to Henry that he thought she needed her meds adjusted and was trying to get her to visit her doctor.
In private, Henry and Chastity concurred that she was being upset by having someone else planning a wedding and that she was not the top princess in the office. Isobel hadn’t felt her birthday got enough attention because people were talking about Henry and Lisa’s wedding. Even though Lisa was only in the office ten hours a week, there was definite tension between the two of them.
“How can you be so utterly incompetent?” Izzy screamed at Nancy at the front desk. “It’s a simple spreadsheet. You said you could use the software.”
“But I don’t understand the terms, Mrs. Riordan,” Nancy protested. “I wasn’t trained in accounting. I know how to do a pivot table, but I don’t understand which variables you want adjusted.”
“I can’t believe you are so worthless,” Isobel said.
“Isobel!” Chastity said severely. “Back off! You need to learn how to explain what you want in language understandable by a human instead of a calculator. That’s enough beating on my assistant. If you need someone as your assistant, put together the job description and I’ll see if I can find someone who will work with you.”
“How dare you speak to me like that!” Izzy screamed loudly enough that Luke rushed out of his office.
“Izzy, honey, come with me into the office so we can talk this over,” Luke said.
“Don’t you be condescending to me, too!” Isobel screeched. Nonetheless she allowed herself to be guided into Luke’s office.
Chastity spent a few minutes comforting the distressed receptionist/office assistant.
“Please don’t fire me, Chastity,” Nancy pled. “I like working here. I just don’t understand what she wants.”
“None of us do, Nance. I swear there are days she just wants one plus one to equal three and won’t accept anything else. You report to me and me only. I’m through loaning you to Isobel,” Chastity said.
Chastity returned to her office and began assembling a job description for an office accountant for Isobel’s approval. Of course, Isobel would be upset about spending more money on an employee, but since it would be for an assistant to her, it might be less of a problem. Chastity began assessing the office space and sketching out a design for the second floor that would allow them to double in size. She needed the space available before the new employees started on the twelfth of February. Just a week away. They were already overcrowded with twenty-one people in the office designed to comfortably house twenty.
Ray had made immediate adjustments on the second floor so they could move the entire network defense department into suitable space, but the remainder of the second floor was open. Henry had already told her that Ari was going to need two developers and a tester for the power group. And everyone was clamoring for a new full-time UI developer. Lisa was stretched beyond the ten hours a week she had available and would be leaving the company after graduation so she could work for her father. Even Darrel had put in for an IT tech to help with the multiple networks they were running for corporate, development, and testing.
She tossed down her notepad and went to Henry’s office.
“Hey, babe. I haven’t seen you in this position in a long time,” Henry said when Chastity had locked his door and sat on the corner of his desk. He automatically reached for her bare leg and leaned in to give put a kiss on her thigh.
“Yeah. Hardly at all since we basically started living together. I miss it,” Chastity sighed.
“You know, so do I,” he said, stroking up her inner thigh. “Maybe I should start coming to your office like this.”
“Oh, now that would get tongues wagging,” she giggled. “I miss this,” she repeated.
Henry responded by using both hands on her legs and then running a hand up under her blouse to play with her breasts and piercings. He was surprised when he reached under her skirt to find she was wearing panties.
“Just pull them aside, okay?” she said.
“What’s on your mind today?” he asked as he managed to get the gusset of her panties pulled to one side so he could gently pet her slit.
“Your birthday is Friday,” she said.
“Mmm. Yeah. I guess I’ll be all grown up like the rest of you.”
“Luke is two weeks later, so you’re ahead of him. Does it bother you to be marrying an older woman?” Chastity asked.
“I never even thought about it,” he said. “Lisa is only five months older than me, and you’re only three months older. As far as I’m concerned, we’re all the same age.”
“Yeah. It’s good. I need to hire an assistant for Isobel. I won’t let her use Nancy any longer. She’s too abusive,” Chastity said, coming to the point.
“I’m sorry. Do I need to talk to her? Or to Nancy?”
“No. I think Luke’s handling it. The biggest problem is finding an accounting assistant who doesn’t have more experience than Izzy has. That’s the biggest problem we have in the company. We four partners are just twenty-one years old. Sometimes, I wonder if Luke is even qualified to be our CEO. I’m certainly not qualified to be the office manager.”
“And I don’t even have my degree yet,” Henry agreed. “I’d love to hire a mentor, you know.”
“That’s a good idea. Hmm. We should see if Beau wants a part-time job,” she laughed.
“Why not my dad, if we’re hiring relatives. You know I’m talking to him more frequently now than I did any time in the past four years.”
“They say it’s amazing how much a father learns after you turn twenty-one,” Chas said. “Seriously, though, you should consider what you would need in the way of a person to take some of the management burden off your shoulders. I know you want to have your fingers in the code.”
“I kind of like where my fingers are right now,” he said, tickling her clit. She’d moistened since she sat down with him, but he wasn’t attempting to push fingers into her.
“I do, too. Maybe you could visit me tonight for a while… just the two of us.”
“We don’t do that often.”
“I do it more often with Lisa. Just check with her first.”
“We’ll get through the rough spots,” Henry said.
“Yeah. We can be a little rough. I mean… yeah.”
Henry discovered a new side of Chastity after he thought he understood her pretty well. She had a dark side to her sexuality. She did want things a little rougher at times. She was still fairly quiet until she was coming. Then she was very noisy. But in the quiet times, she wanted her nipple piercings twisted more violently than he’d ever allowed himself before.
And after she had come on his tongue, she wanted him to take her ass. The few times Henry had done such a thing, he’d been gentle and careful not to hurt his partner, but Chastity wanted no such consideration. He drove his entire length into her and she wailed her encouragement.
After he’d come, they both panted, holding each other.
“Thank you. I really needed that,” she said. Her kisses were still lips only.
“But Chas, you…”
“I did when you ate me. No one eats me like you do.”
“But not while we were…”
“I didn’t need to come when you fucked my ass. Not everything is about coming. Now clean yourself up and go back to your fiancée. I want to take a bath,” Chastity said, pushing him out of bed.
Henry washed himself as she ran bath water. Then he dressed, gave her a quick kiss, and returned to his own suite where Lisa was waiting for him in bed. They held each other, kissed deeply, and went to sleep.
“Trust me. I’ve been through this and you have to be firm with your mother or she’ll try to run your whole marriage,” Isobel said as she sat with Lisa at Henry’s birthday party. It wasn’t a huge party like his twentieth had been. It was just his parents and partners with him and Lisa.
“I’m not in an adversarial relationship with my mother,” Lisa said. “She’s managing the wedding in Baton Rouge. That’s for the family. I’m managing the one here. That’s for our family.”
“How are you managing the wedding in a church with two brides?” Isobel insisted.
“Not. Henry and I are getting married. Chastity is my maid of honor. My best friend from high school is at LSU there and will be with us. Luke and Josh will stand with Henry.”
“Only two? You poor kid! I’ll stand with you. We could even bring that receptionist girl from the office. You should have at least four attendants,” Isobel said.
“Henry and I set the number. There won’t be any attendants at the celebration in Pittsburgh. It’s not like we need a certain number of witnesses to make it legal or anything,” Lisa said.
“Well, I certainly hope Henry is insisting on a pre-nuptial. He’s worth a few million now.”
“We’re all three signing pre-nups,” Lisa explained. “My parents and grandparents insisted. There’s a few million in their accounts as well.”
“A few…? Why are you even bothering to get married? You have your own money. You aren’t having a big wedding. Are you even wearing a dress?”
“I don’t plan to go naked!”
“I mean a wedding dress!”
“Of course!”
“How about a wedding shower? If Chastity isn’t planning something, I’ll do it. It’s hardly a wedding without gifts,” Isobel said.
“I don’t think we need anything. We’ll set up a charitable donation. Really, Isobel, we aren’t even planning to move. We’ve got a perfectly lovely home. It has space for all three of us. It’s convenient to work. There’s plenty of space for my office.”
“I really don’t understand why you’re even bothering,” Izzy sighed. “You’re not getting any of the benefits. Luke and I are shopping for a house. Probably something in Lyndale. It’s a gated community on the north side. Ever since Darla warned us that there were threats, I’ve wanted to get into something more secure. And we can get a house that’s suitable for a corporate executive. You should consider that, too. I mean, the apartment life is fine for the first year, but it’s hardly suitable for people of your status.”
Lisa didn’t bother to contradict Isobel. Izzy was off on what they were looking for in a house.
“Of course, it doesn’t need to be 4,000 square feet and six bedrooms,” she laughed, “though that seems to be the average in Lyndale. It would give us each a home office and room for a live-in housekeeper. God! Can you imagine having to clean a place like that? No, thank you.”
“You’ll want a bedroom or two for kids, won’t you?” Lisa asked.
“Are you kidding me? Can you imagine me with a brat? One of us would die. I know Luke wants children, but he keeps it wrapped up tight. This is not a mommy-body,” Izzy said.
Lisa excused herself to help Sylvia and Chastity serve the cake and ice cream.
Of course, there was a far more lavish party for Luke’s twenty-first two weeks later at his parents’ home. Lisa and Chastity helped Marla with serving and making sure everyone had drinks and food. Isobel reigned next to Luke, making sure everyone knew he was her husband.
Then, it seemed there was no time at all until the university had spring break. Lisa and Chastity went to Baton Rouge to make the plans for the wedding, get a dress for Lisa, and address invitations. Isobel and Luke decided to take a spring break trip to Florida.
Henry was the only officer left in Pittsburgh and he was pressed to make sure everything was covered. In Chastity and Isobel’s absence, Nancy was doing a fine job of checking bank balances each day and letting Henry know if anything needed to be transferred from saving to checking.
Henry’s real focus for the week, however, was reviewing the progress of the network defense program. The group had ten developers and testers now. While Conrad still had general responsibility in the company for development, the project had consumed much of his time, so Henry had been more actively guiding the Forever Yours and power management projects.
Significantly, Brigadier General Schwartz was onsite to review the progress and release more funds.
“Seriously, I only have oversight of the military grade version of the software,” Schwartz said. “I’ll be happy to sit in with you on the commercial version review if you want me to.”
“I would appreciate that, Nathan,” Henry said. “Congratulations on your promotion. I don’t want us to stray into any area that you consider too powerful to be in the hands of independents.”
“The promotion was in the works for a long time. Finally came through. We’re going to get into distribution eventually. Once this is released, we really won’t attempt to prevent any other company or military organization or government having access to the commercial version. Network security is a worldwide issue. However, we’ll want to keep our own special features only in the hands of our armed forces,” Nathan said.
“I’m completely in favor of that. I think we’ve adequately removed any trace of a degrees of separation option. It simply is what it’s set at. Your version still has the variable. There has been a lot of discussion regarding the level of severity of the response. Rebecca has insisted that we not have total annihilation of the attacking computer as a response in the commercial version. It makes it difficult. Without the option, we have to specify what options are available rather than letting the user specify their own response.”
“Hmm. I see. Let’s take a look at the code and then discuss the various options.”
The code review went well. The team was making progress and Nathan congratulated both groups. They estimated the release as July 1. At that point, the military development code would be removed from the Open Cloak development and would be transferred to the Pentagon. Open Cloak would release their network defense product—a high-dollar investment for enterprises. The company planned to sell into very large companies, who were prone to being attacked, and to the entire financial sector, which was considered to be the most vulnerable.
Henry and Nathan sat at dinner at the club without any of their subordinates and discussed business and development.
“I’m interested in putting together an advisory board,” Henry said. “We have a lot of ideas for products, but we’re a young company. We could use some… let’s say wisdom to help guide our priorities.”
“This is very much off the record, Henry. You don’t want a military representative on your advisory board. Someone who knows the military, yes. Not someone in the military. Someone in the military, like myself, would be required to report any technology development that might be considered advantageous to the military. At that point, you’d be subject to oversight and regulation.”
“Ouch. I guess I shouldn’t talk about any of that with you, then.”
“Not yet,” Nathan said. “Please do not spread this word to any of my subordinates working at your office. I am now fifteen weeks from retirement.”
“Congratulations! Um… How does that work? You aren’t any older than my parents. Maybe a couple of years. They’re in their mid-forties.”
“And I will be fifty-five. I manage that with thirty years of service and being promoted to a more expensive rank. I can retire with my full pension and still get good work for a young and thriving company. Hmm. All I need to do is find one.”
“Sir, if you are implying that you might be available to join Open Cloak, I would love to have you here. We have projects that could really use some oversight.”
“Don’t mention them. I’m not retired yet.”
“What moves you to retire now? I know you like your work.”
“Well, thirty years and a long-awaited promotion. That was during the previous administration. The new administration wants its own people in various positions and those people will want their own people. Things are a little tied up at the moment with the rather rocky transition, but as soon as they stabilize a little it will be a good time for me to disappear,” Nathan said.
“We do our best to ignore the ruling party and politics. Sometimes we can’t, but we do our best.”
“As do the lower levels of the armed forces. The senior levels are more subject to the whims of the administration. The lower levels just keep doing what they are told to do.”
“May I invite you to apply here as soon as it is legal for you to do so?” Henry said.
“You can expect it.”
By the first of April, everyone was working far more than forty hours a week. Henry was barely keeping up with his final three courses at the university. Isobel and Luke did not have the luxury of reducing their course loads and were doing as much study in the office as they did at home. Plans for the June 30 wedding were mostly in Lisa’s hands as Henry was often at the office until late.
Professor Jacoby’s consortium came through with full funding of $100 million over four years, beginning with an immediate cash infusion of $25 million. Open Cloak used a combination of cash and stock to purchase Page Services and immediately launch a move to new facilities in San Jose. Much of the investment capital was used to fund the purchase of the company and new equipment for the server farm.
Henry and Chastity flew to California to finalize the arrangements and get everyone registered as employees of Open Cloak. They did not, however, change the name of Page Services. It became a wholly owned subsidiary. The five partners who owned that company wept when they received their checks. It appeared that they had been working around the clock to keep the operation running and would immediately hire additional staff to spread the work out.
The first site migrated to the new facility was Pythia Speaks, which was now approaching 150,000 queries per day. Henry had contracted out a translation service that would expand Pythia’s languages to include English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Hindi, and Brazilian Portuguese. As each language came online, Henry’s developers targeted the AI to train on that language. The increase in usage went from linear to a sharp curve upward.
And then, as if without warning, it was graduation day for Henry and Lisa. Families gathered, and even though they were not required to attend the general university commencement, they did attend the School of Computer Science commencement.
It was the first time that Lisa’s family got to meet Henry’s family and that was more significant to them than the degree. By the time they left the reception that Henry, Lisa, and Chastity held at the row house, the families were best friends and were headed to a popular nightspot for drinks.
The trio collapsed in bed. Henry and Lisa scarcely noticed when Chas slipped out to go to her own bed late that night.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
