Chapter 40: The Start of a New Career
To my surprise I woke up early and managed to get out of bed without waking them. I prepared coffee and sat the table, put a Mozart horn concerto on the CD and tried to finish my book. The weather was bad; it was pouring rain and winds were strong. Suddenly Maureen appeared. "James, you got up and left me alone. How could you?"
"Well, technically speaking, you were not alone, since your mother was with you. And I got up to prepare breakfast, so that you had more time for the financial statements you mentioned."
"James, are you upset with me? You know that I didn't mean to tell you to sleep. I just told you what I thought, and you could have told me otherwise. You know that I'm always there for you!"
I realized that the fun had gone too far and kissed her. "My love, it was just a joke. I know that you're there for me at any moment, but that means that I'm there for you also. You were tired and I'm satisfied that you slept so deeply that I could get out of bed without waking you. By the way, where's your mother?"
An upset voce replied: "Her mother is here, James, and I'm complaining also. How could you leave two beautiful nude women alone in your bed to read a book?" and she picked up the book.
"Thomas Piketty: Capital in the Twenty-First Century ... You leave two eager nude women for this?"
"Well, technically speaking, I didn't leave two eager women for this. Both of you were sleeping soundly and I would not define this as 'eager'. As for nude, you were covered well up to your shoulders and it was still dark in the room."
"Mom, we better shut up and let him be. When he is in this mood, he will analyze every word and tell us at long length where we are not precise and correct. Let's have breakfast! That is, James, if you can tear yourself away from the book?"
The sarcasm was not lost on me and I decided that it would be advisable to follow the mocking hints I had received. In any case, it was the pleasure of always to have both walking around naked and showing off their lovely bodies. There was the occasional touch and a fleeting kiss and when we were finished, Eileen sent us off to have a shower, as she would clean up.
"But please be back in less than an hour! I know what a shower means for you two!"
I received my compensation from my eager wife and contributed to her pleasure and satisfaction, and we made it in less than an hour. We were quite proud of ourselves! Considering the weather and the work we had to do, we dressed in comfortable outfits: my shorts and t-shirt, a light green jogging suit for her. When we got back Eileen looked up surprised. "Well, what can I say? Less than an hour. Are you getting old?"
We just smiled and Maureen licked her lips. "We work efficiently, Mom, and I even had time for my morning proteins!"
Eileen seemed to be a tick jealous hearing that remark, but relaxed and pointed to the table where books and printouts were laid out. She was also dressed in a light jogging suit, blue this time. "Let's go to work."
It took us the whole morning to analyze and summarize the accounts and to come to a conclusion. The results were outstanding, and I realized that I had a wife who had increased her wealth dramatically. I thought that I was well off - she was rich, however!
She looked at me. "My love, this is all yours to decide what to do. We have an agreement; we're living of what we earn, and this money is for exceptional circumstances only. Don't worry, since I will not buy fifteen handbags or thirty pairs of shoes, but ... perhaps thinking better, I might buy at least some!"
Eileen wanted to eat something different and well prepared, took out her address book.
"Is Chinese and sushi OK with you?" We nodded and she called the restaurants. It was surprisingly good food and two bottles of bubbly helped us get it down. When we came back, we listened to music, Eileen went through the newspaper and suddenly yelled "YES!"
We stared at her and she read us the paragraph that had caught her attention.
"Mrs. Eileen Monahan, the CEO of NT, a fast-growing logistics company, has been seen dancing her feet off in the MacQuarry restaurant, famous for its fish and meat dishes. She was accompanied by her son-in-law James, Count de Winter, and her daughter, Maureen, Countess de Winter. We were told by guests at the restaurant that the performance of Mrs. Monahan and Count de Winter was superb and that they were enthusiastically applauded when they finished. Mrs. Monahan, can we have a more public repetition of your show? With your Count de Winter, please! ¨
She smiled happily. "That will tell them, those snobs who were always looking down at me. James, you made me happy once more!" She came over and kissed me with enthusiasm.
The phone rang and Eileen called me. "James, Sir Allan wants to talk to you."
Allan was unhappy. ¨"James, the Chairman has refused to sign any letter. For him it was an unfortunate incident, and he thinks the fact that his nephew had to leave the company, was already too much. And he is furious about you! What can we do now?"
We had discussed this, and I followed Eileen´s orientation.
"Allan, you better prepare for a disaster. She is unyielding and she'll go nuclear! She has an outstanding invitation by our major TV network to be interviewed for half an hour, talking about Australia, its economy, and how a small Australian company can work with an international giant like IBM. She'll be on TV on Tuesday night! I couldn't do anything to avert this situation; I can only hope that this disaster will be contained within Australia, but I'm not very optimistic. You will suffer with the consequences for a long time, Allan."
There was silence on the other side.
"James, apparently Ian Taylor asked you to come and see him. We know what this means. What are you going to do?"
"I accepted the invitation and will see him on Wednesday. There's a lot of family pressure to accept and to show your Chairman, how stupid he was - and apparently, still is. Eileen asked me whether I had signed a Non-Competitive Clause, and as far as I remember, I did not. She was very happy about this! You can assume that we´ll have an interesting conversation!"
Again, there was silence on the other side.
"James, did you not say that you would not compete against your friends?"
"Allan, I'm pressured by my family on one side, and my ethics on the other side. I don't know what I'll do, so tell your friends in HQ I might be on the other side in a few weeks! Perhaps this will help you to find a compromise?"
Silence. Then I heard some hope creeping into Allan´s voice.
¨I understand, James. I knew that I could trust you. Leave this to me and I'll call you or Mrs. Monahan either tomorrow or on Monday morning. You gave me hope, son!"
After he hang up, the two ladies were staring at me, waiting for an explanation. I told them what we had discussed, and it was funny to see the reaction on their faces.
Eileen was set up to go all the way. She might have financial losses, but it was more important to her at this moment that she would show them - all of them - that she was the alpha woman, and damn the consequences! Maureen wanted to have her revenge also, but she didn´t want to see any problems for Allan and Ellen darkening his retirement. She hugged me. "James, we'll resolve his one way or another. Now let's think about us!"
It was getting late and Eileen started to prepare a light dinner. She looked at Maureen.
"Any appetite for smoked salmon?"
Maureen shook her head. "That's only for special occasions and you enjoyed him already, so let's have something to eat, I'll select a wine and then we can go to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day!"
Eileen had found some English cheeses that went well with Port, and with light banter and sarcastic comments about Australian politics, we finished our meal. Eileen hesitated for a moment.
"Maureen, may I ask a favor? Two, actually. Could you please clean up and may I invite you to my bedroom tonight? You'll leave tomorrow and I want some real memories of us together."
We agreed and she left; it was easy to clean up and we went to our bedroom. I changed into a robe and Maureen, hesitating what to do, asked me: "Decent or immoral?"
As long as we were among ourselves, I was always in favor of immoral and she took out a little baby doll. It was minuscule and covered practically nothing, but it was fun to look at: the breasts were exposed, it went all the way to the middle of her labia, and she blushed.
"James, are you sure? This is for us, not for public consumption."