"Adam, I want to talk about what has been going on between us lately." Sally McCord looked serious, even more so than usual.
Oh boy. One of those talks. I tried to look serious too. "Me too. We need to get things out in the open again."
She licked her lips. "I got super defensive about how all this stuff with Barbara and Robert made me feel. I was ashamed of what happened with my first husband, and ashamed of being turned on by you bulling Barbara now, and just ashamed in general. I got all defensive and weird. I know I told you to go ahead with it, then tried to put it all off on you and bottle it up. I'm sorry!"
"Forgiven. I was only mad that you cut off the open communications we had, not about you being conflicted about all this. Hell, I am highly conflicted about all this."
"If we were not conflicted it would worry me more!"
"So, what should we do?"
She looked pensive. "Let's first come up with all the things we could do. A brainstorming session?
"Yeah, I went to one of those seminars too. Okay. No evaluation or judgment yet. Let's just list our options. But first, I need to bring you up to date on a few things."
I went through Barbara's new demand to have Robert there every Tuesday night, and threat to expose our little dalliance, and Christine McLette's plan to avoid it. She listened but fidgeted while she did. Then she began to tick things off on her fingers.
"One, you could just tell Babs it's over, no more Tuesday nights. Maybe she won't go public. Two, you could just keep doing her until a sale goes through. Three, you could get somebody else to do her and get a video, like Barlow said. Four, you could execute Christine's plan."
The essence of brainstorming was not to evaluate anything, yet. Just collect the ideas and let one idea spark another, no matter how off the wall they sounded at first. I got into the spirit.
"How about we secretly make a video and then put it on a hot wife website for everyone to see. Call Barbara's bluff before she can do anything."
Sally gulped but did not instantly evaluate and reject. She used to put on these brainstorming seminars. She built on my idea, "Or you just tell Barbara and Robert you want to make a video like that, get it all out in the open. They may recoil so strongly that you know Babs was bluffing."
Fair point. I couldn't come up with anything else, but Sally was rolling.
"Or we tell her I want to be there to watch Robert in action, or we want to place and ad for more bulls to do her, or we tell her we want her to go dogging at a truck stop on the highway, or...."
Sally was out of breath. Was this like some Rorschach test that revealed her psychology as much as it generated potential solutions? She seemed to shake herself and got quieter. "Time to evaluate, now, Adam?"
"Let's talk about one specific thing first. I thought you were getting really turned on by the prospect of being there in person to watch me with Babs, and then watch Robert with Babs afterward. Then later, you shut it down and looked disgusted. How do you really feel about that?"
She sighed, and then looked sad again. "I freaked myself out, Adam! I was turned on, in a very nasty and spinal way. Then I was ashamed because I was so sad and guilty about my first husband. I realized I was thinking of this as a disease, rather than a choice someone could make. When you told me that Robert was grateful to you, having the best time ever, he now knew how to please Barbara, loved Barbara more than ever, and that Barbara was now considering staying with him long term, I was paralyzed with fear. I asked myself if I should have accommodated my husband's desires. I would do almost anything for him, but I only thought this was a disease, not a way to please him. Maybe he wouldn't have died of cancer if I had made him happier?"
She just sobbed, and I held her. What the hell did you say to that? I did my best.
"I don't think your sex life with him would have had any influence on him developing cancer. But now it is about you and me, and we should be honest about what turns you on. Does it mean that it turns you on to see Robert do what he does to Babs, or that you want a bull, too?
She sniffled. "It does turn me on to think about it, but its more about Robert being so open about his kinky desires and still wanting to please Barbara. Maybe she is handling this whole thing better than I did. The only bull I want is you. But to be totally honest, it lights me up to think of watching you doing Barbara and making her serve you and making her husband watch. It's like a dirty pleasure that I can excuse myself for because Robert likes it. It might turn me on even more in person than it does to just think about it."
I hugged her. "One of my favorite things in the world is a turned on and crazy wet Sally McCord. You are invited to come watch anytime you want to, and even to tell me what you want to see me do to Babs and Robert to get you hot!"
She looked scared and confused. Then she really hit me with the big stuff. "How could you still love me when you know how perverse I am?"
Luckily, I answered without thinking. "That ship has sailed, Sally. I love you and I can't take that back. It's a done deal. If you wanted me to dress up funny or play a pirate or any of that of stuff, I would do it without any hesitation. This is a little more intense than that, but the same principle applies. What do you really want?"
She took a big breath. "Long term, I want to stay with you, and make sure we both keep our careers on track. Short term, I want to keep the situation under control until you can sell the company and get a big payday from the options, then leave Barbara and Robert in the rear view mirror."
I just looked at her for a minute. "That's what proper and practical Senior VP Sally McCord wants, and I agree. But what does after work, relaxed, and wet pussy Sally McCord want?"
She got that wild look in her eyes again.
"I want to use Barbara and Robert to get me hot for a while, and then drop them like a bad habit!"
Okay! Nothing like clear goals to work towards. "Does that mean you want to be there in person to see them?"
"Yes, and I also want to tell them what to do! And maybe do a few things too." Again, with the wild look. Buttoned down Sally was getting unbuttoned.
"Another big question. Do you want to get married?"
She looked totally shocked then drew a deep breath. "You always surprise me, Adam. I am not big on marriage, especially right now. I want to be with you, but I don't want to ever have children, so marriage is moot."
That made me a lot sadder than the situation with Babs did. A phrase ran through my head: it is what it is. Trite, but apt. Another thought: how much is Sally like Babs and how much am I like Robert? There but for the grace of God go I? Perhaps I can avoid that troubling idea by getting all practical.
"So, we try to maintain the status quo for as long as Babs will hold off on her threats, but have you there to watch?"
She sighed again. "Let's hold off on that until Barbara demands that Robert be there again, and when she does, we say I have to be there too? Maybe it will break her momentum." She sighed again.
"One more thing Adam. You are a young guy, and you should want to have children. That won't be with me. I will understand of you want to find a younger woman and get married and have kids. If that happens, I will be happy to be either just your old friend or your mistress. Your choice."
Wow. "I'll always love you, Sally." She cried on my shoulder. I tried to change the subject.
How would Babs and Robert react to Sally McCord joining us on Tuesday nights? I couldn't guess. Their marriage was too modern for me.
"Okay, then I will busy myself moving forward by preparing for a potential acquisition, and we'll deal with Babs when we have to."
I pulled out some of my b school stuff and read a few recent pubs. We had just completed an audit of our books by a national accounting firm, a process we have had in place for several years, at the insistence of our founder when he stepped down as CEO and moved on to another startup. That would stand us in good stead now.
I authorized our valuation consultant to discretely whisper in a few ears of corporate acquisition types and took a meeting with our auditors to ask about what we should do to prepare. We were committed now. One of the key points from the articles I read was not to get so caught up in the acquisition process that you failed to stay on top of day to day and quarter to quarter management issues.
I tapped my CFO, who I had much greater confidence in lately, and told him what was in play, and that I was going to add him to the improved stock option plan. I asked him to do a de novo financial analysis of our company from the viewpoint of a potential acquirer, to help me anticipate what the key valuation points would be, and what negotiation issues might be raised. I asked Sally McCord to do the same thing from an HR perspective.
When I told the VP of Engineering what was afoot, I asked him to do a technology review from an acquirer's perspective, and to try to anticipate our SWOT analysis as an outsider would see it. He looked surprisingly thoughtful, then nodded yes and headed for his office.
Robert's DEFI deal was going smoothly. We had shipped their first big order, and their systems dutifully reported to us when the first lot of parts went into their products. Four weeks from now, we would have our biggest monthly sales number ever. Our competitor was threating a lawsuit instead of figuring out how they left themselves so vulnerable in the first place, so I knew they were toast in DEFI's eyes. I dashed off a memo to Robert suggesting he go over their other customers with a fine tooth comb and see it there were any he could pick off.
Friday night I took Sally out to her favorite spot, a venerable sushi fusion place that was always booked up weeks ahead and cost me at least $300 for a meal. But it proved to be worth it, both for the smile it put on her face, and the information from a phone call she shared.
