“I will personally guarantee it. For that kind of money I’ll write it myself in my garage if I have to. Did we get the training included in the price?” That would be pretty neat; it included taking the product to field sites on four continents, installing it and training the local staff.
“Yes, training and installation are budgeted, including travel for two, one week at each of the six sites.” She pointed out the training budget, over $150k for that part alone. I saw the customer was being charged $150 an hour for my time. Wow, I wished I got a third of that. “Do you think you’ll be up to the travel?” She asked.
I wondered if she knew I was ‘up’ now. “Sure. I’d love it. If my math is right, you and I could be sharing a pretty sizeable chunk of cash.”
“That’s right. It could be almost 40 thousand dollars. Not bad for a 4 month project. I figure this was your baby, we can split it 40-60, that’ll give you around 24 thousand.” She smiled at me and I couldn’t help but think that her mouth was awful sexy. I was wondering if she’d be doing the training with me. I was relatively certain I’d be half the training team.
“50-50 sounds fair to me. You did the hard part, getting them to sign on the dotted line.” Also, since she wrote my reviews, and gave me my raises, I was pretty sure she’d find a way to make up the 4k.
She argued a bit, but finally gave in, without too hard a struggle.
I would guess that Chris was in her late 30’s. She had a 13 year old son whose soccer team I had coached. I had to admit she looked great for someone her age. She dressed very conservatively and severe at work, but I had seen her in shorts and t-shirts on the weekends, and she had a nice figure hidden away. She wore her hair up every day, but it looked great down.
It was strange. It seemed the more sex I was getting, the more my mind seemed to dwell on nothing else. I’d never really thought about her that way, but I was wondering just how wild she might be. I caught myself staring at her, my eyes lingering on the gap in her blouse, where her breasts were partially visible, atop a lacy low bra. I was wondering what it’d be like to have my cock riding that valley, her mouth waiting at the end, when I saw that she was blushing at my stare. God, what was I thinking?
* * * *
Karen came over that evening, and we made our plans for moving her in that weekend. She was excited about the prospect, and wanted to do some last minute painting of her kid’s room on Friday, so she was taking the day off. Saturday was the moving day, and she was assuring me that she was going to make that evening something special for me, to celebrate the whole thing coming together.
Beth called to say she couldn’t come over that night, but she’d be by on Friday. I asked her if she’d please stay Friday night, and that we could discuss some of that ‘other stuff’ we had to work out, including how to get her moved in permanently.
I did manage to finish Karen’s closet. I also gave Debbie a tit-fuck, imagining for a moment it was Chris holding her breasts together for me. The image didn’t linger. Debbie herself was far too distracting and beautiful a bed partner to let my mind wander long.
* * * *
I came home from work Friday evening really excited. We’d held our project kick-off meeting. We were still working the “Wizard” project names, and we were calling the project “Oz”. I wondered how, after 7 projects that one had been skipped. Everyone was aboard with the concept, loved the idea, and was really motivated by the offer of a substantial project bonus at the end. Chris and I had spent the morning closeted away, working out what the percentages should be for each member, and that afternoon I talked to each member of the software team and showed them their personal stake in the project. It was a top-end of from $5000 to $8000 for each of them, and they were all excited by the prospect. Chris had pointed out the need to hold back another several thousand for nominal bonuses to others who worked on the project from other groups, including admins, purchasing, testing, configuration management, and the doc writers. People from these groups would be part of our final celebration, would get project goodies, like t-shirts or mugs, and a few hundred bucks at the end. This management stuff was complicated. Chris expected to include about 6-8 extra people on our projects, and we’d need project goodies for at least 30, to include upper management, and the customer.
Brenda, from the Gandalf project was rolling over with me to the new project, but Karen wouldn’t be on this one – no graphic design on this – straight software utility.
When I walked in the door, I found Beth, Debbie, and another girl seated in the living room, drinking frozen Margaritas. They were discussing opening a day care operation, and were getting loud. I could hear the kids playing upstairs. A full house.
“Hi Jack.” Beth called out shortly after I walked in. “This is Amie. I don’t think you’ve met. She works with me. She’d love to work with us in our new day care center.”
I stepped over and extended my hand for a shake as I introduced myself. “Sure. I couldn’t forget anyone as pretty as Amie; you were at the final day of the house-fixing weekend. Nice to see you again.”
Amie took my extended hand and used it to pull herself up from her seat. She was only a couple of inches shorter than me. She had on oversized glasses, which gave her a librarian look. “I think it’s so great that you’d help us all do this, and let us use your property. I’d really like to be involved if you do this.” She never let go of my hand and kept shaking it with her two. I think they’d all had at least one too many Margaritas and the others giggled at my predicament.
“I’m sure we could use the help, but Debbie and Beth will be running this show; just consider me a silent backer.” I extricated myself from her grip, and excused myself. “If you’ll excuse me for a minute, I’ll change, and join you ladies for a drink.”
I was standing in my boxers, picking out a polo from the closet, when Beth walked in.
“You haven’t changed your idea about our opening up a day care have you?” she asked, leaning against the wall while she watched me select my shirt.
“Not at all. I think we’re just about done with this place, at least as far as the essentials go, and I think we can start planning for the next step. Whether that includes an addition, extra bedrooms, a dining room, or just the day care add-on in the back – that’s what we have to workout next.”
“That’s great. Amie is pretty isn’t she?”
Amie was very cute. Tall and very slender with big brown eyes and shoulder length reddish-brown hair, she couldn’t have been more than 20 either. She appeared to be legs all the way up to her chin. “Absolutely. Nothing like you and Debbie, but definitely cute.”
“Great. I’ve been telling her a little about our relationship here. If she were to work with us, would you… well, would you want to be with her?”
I was so confused.
“Beth, I’m not sure what you expect here. Do you think that just because she works with us she has to sleep with me?” I was getting a little ticked off.