This is the fourth installment of the story of Nick and his recent sexual encounters involving not only his girlfriend but with friends of hers and others he meets. It is strongly suggested you read at least the last two parts before reading this part, so you will know the individual characters and storylines. This is the second to last part of the series.
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The next day I arrived at work at 7:30 AM. With no Leigh in my bed that morning, plus waking up at 6:45, I had over nine hours of sleep. I felt refreshed; it was going to be a great day. Too bad my girlfriend was probably going to have sex that evening with some other guy.
I had as productive a day at work as I have had in a long time. Even my dad noticed. At 4:00 Leigh called and told me it was set. Roger was coming over to her apartment around 8:00. She wanted to make sure one last time I was okay with it. I said sure. Whatever.
She said she would make him wear a condom and also wanted to know if she could come over to my house around 10:00. I still did not fully understand the need to have sex with other people, especially with the other not there, but knew that if I had someone else to be with tonight, I would probably go ahead with it. I told her to call me later. I was planning on meeting Chad for happy hour at Deke's. About 4:30 I was finishing up when my phone rang. It was Dawn, which made me smile.
"Hello, this is Nick."
"Hey Nick," she started. "I talked to Lisa and she's excited, said everything's coming together."
"When does she want to meet?"
"As soon as you're available."
"Let me tell you, though, I'd rather do it away from the office here. I don't want my dad knowing I'm doing some work on the side for free. You understand, right?"
I did not mean for it to sound like I had some ulterior motive, but she apparently took it as such.
"Sure, no problem. Maybe we could meet at your house. Your bedroom has plenty of room, doesn't it? Is that where you want to discuss an alternative payment plan for your services, too?"
"Dawn, it's not that..."
"Relax, Nick. I was just teasing. No, I understand. We can meet wherever and whenever is convenient for you. This is really nice of you, Nick. I hope Leigh doesn't mind you spending time on this."
"Don't worry about her. Listen, I was going to meet Chad for some drinks soon, but later tonight I'd be free."
"Tonight's out for us, although maybe..." she paused. I could tell she was thinking something through. "Lisa and I are getting together tonight. I don't see why we couldn't get together a little earlier, have dinner perhaps? I don't think she'd mind. She'll probably love it that we're going to meet soon."
"Call or text me where to meet. About seven-ish?"
"Sounds great, babe. Oops, that slipped out. I mean, that's great, Nick. I'll let you know."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I thought of it, yes, but I was not going to act on it.
Sleeping with Dawn tonight could be a distinct possibility if I pushed for it, but when she slipped up and called me "babe", my supposition that she still had some feelings for me were confirmed.
My plan to get at least a little buzzed when I was out with Chad was now put on hold. If I met with Dawn and Lisa later, I did not want to be the slightest bit drunk. After all, I'd be talking business and did not want to appear unprofessional or sound stupid. Chad thought I was lame, but I nursed one beer for an hour and a half. If Lisa and her fiancΓ©'s business became extremely successful or even the least bit successful, chances were good I'd have a new, paying client.
It was good to see Chad again, though. He and April were doing really good, he said. Leigh and April had not seen each other much lately, either, and we both knew the reason was our respective budding relationships.
At seven o'clock, I walked inside the Chili's restaurant where Dawn said she and Lisa would be. They were already seated in a booth.
Now I hadn't described what Lisa looked like earlier. She was cute in high school with big brown eyes but otherwise there wasn't anything spectacular to mention. That was then, though. She had on a tight black top with a surprisingly breath-taking view of her cleavage. What made it surprising was that in high school she did not have any boobs to speak of. She was short and small in every aspect, except her big brown eyes. But now she had tits to match.
"Hi Dawn, hi Lisa," I said as I slid in across from them in the booth. This might prove difficult, I thought. Dawn was in a similar top, although hers was white. Professionalism just might be thrown out the window anyway. I tried not to stare.
"Hi Nick," Lisa said.
"Hi Nick," Dawn echoed. "We were planning on going out dancing later, so hope you can excuse the way we're dressed."
"No problem." Were they really apologizing for displaying their beautiful bodies to me?
"Yeah, not normal business attire, not even business casual," Lisa added. "I'd like to thank you for meeting with us. I don't know if Dawn told you but she has a future role in the business, too."
"No, she didn't. Why don't you start by telling me what kind of business it is. Dawn said it was Internet-based?"
"Uh huh." Then she looked to Dawn and asked, "Do you want to tell him or should I?"
"It's yours and Tim's idea. Why don't you tell him?"
"Okay," she said and looked back at me. "There's a lot of websites out there in this area but we feel pretty confident we'll have our own little niche."
"Uh huh, go on," I said.
"It's going to be a porn site, Nick," Lisa said. "More specifically, a website for arranging threesomes. How to get them arranged and setting it up for the participants, matching singles with couples, couples with singles, or just getting three single people together. Also, a way to get them set up as girl-girl-guy or guy-guy-girl. Or, three of the same sex."
You could have knocked me over with a feather. I'm sure my expression was similar to when I first met Mike and discovered he was black.
"Okay," I said slowly.
"And it would branch out with a newsletter, members area, picture gallery, selling merchandise," Dawn added. "That's where I'd come in, getting the products together that we'll sell and find a way to market them."
I was shocked to hear what kind of website it was but I didn't let it deter from my business acumen. "So there'd be advertising revenue, first and foremost. Then some ancillary retail sales, possibly member fees, too?" I asked.
Lisa and Dawn looked at each other and suddenly burst out laughing. I had been had.
"You're right, Dawn. He is gullible," Lisa said.
"Ha ha," I said. "Good one. Joke's on me."
"Yeah, but you should have seen your face," Dawn said. "It'll be a look I'll remember for a long time. It was like 'I can't wait to see what this will look like' but at the same time you're trying to act all professional and ask the appropriate questions."
"Guilty as charged," I said.
"It was all Dawn's idea," Lisa claimed. "You're so nice to be helping us, I didn't want to rag on you like that, but it was fun."
Not as much fun as the fictitious website would be, I thought.
"Tim wished he could meet us tonight but he already had plans," continued Lisa.
"No problem. Okay, so what are you selling then?"
"It is thought this will be a medical necessity, wherein everyone is tagged with a chip embedded someone on your person. In it, it will have your complete medical history, insurance information and contact information and anything a medical care provider would need, including prescriptions you are currently taking."
"I've heard of this before," I said. "Isn't it already in the development stages?"
"Sure," Lisa started. "But Tim is quite adept at computers and creating software, and his program will interface seemlessly with all different insurance companies, pharmacies, employment and personal information. He feels that the work he has put into it has already surpassed the efforts of larger companies that are being slowed down by red tape and other constraints."
"Why is he going it alone?" I asked. "Seems he would have a valuable service or product he could sell."
"Oh, he has tried. But he has been met with a lot of resistance himself. Bottom line is, no one has taken him seriously. We think that within the year, if the prototype is already developed and the implementation is the next phase, many companies will then become a buyer. Our best bet at that point might be to decide if we're in it for the long haul or become a seller at that point. Of course, there is still a lot to do to get to that point."
"Interesting," I said.
Lisa went on for ten minutes explaining the concept further; it was rather fascinating. They had a major initiative to write a program, a backup, market it and demonstrate it at live presentations directly for these large companies. Their "seed money" so far was $15,000 from Lisa's father, $5,000 from Tim's parents and they were applying for an SBA loan for another $25,000. Their out-of-pocket expenses so far had totaled $3,500 and most of that had been legal expenses.
"So, in return for your time, we'd like to offer you a 5% stake in the venture, or if you'd prefer, a $1,000 retainer fee. If the company takes off like we hope it will, you could be rewarded many times over. If you want to take the fee and that's it, that's fine, too."
"I see."
"But there might be a lot of work that needs to be done. We'll need your help filling out the loan applications, adding financial analysis and models to our business plan, helping with filling out our personal financial statements as well as forecasts and proformas for the business over a five-year period given certain assumptions. You've done this stuff before, right?"
"Most of it, yes. I won't lie, I'm not an expert in any given field but I can lean on my dad and the resources at the office if need be. I'm confident I can help."
I was also pretty sure the undertaking could take a lot of my free time. Countless hours would need to be spent the next couple of weeknights and weekends, during the summer no less. And I imagined a lot of time would be spent working with Lisa, certainly a feat I would not mind taking on.
"Dawn is getting up to speed and will soon be in a position to work with you on a lot of the numbers."
I looked at Dawn and she was smiling big. I could not help but smile back.
"I hope your girlfriend isn't the jealous type," Lisa added.
"It's business, it won't even be an issue. She'll understand." Or else, I thought. After all, she was soon going to be fucking some guy I didn't even know.
"Okay, enough business talk. Let's order something to eat and drink. I'm treating, by the way. I've budgeted some for planning meetings," she said with a wink. "But I've got to call Tim and I'd rather call him on my cell outside. Be back in five minutes or so."
The first thing I thought was that the budget plan might need to be revised, but it could wait until after my free dinner and drink.
"So," Dawn began. "What do you think?"
"I think it's terrific. It's a great product."