This is Act 3 of the Upwardly Mobile series. I'm going to do it in the first person, with each section being from a different character's POV. It will be a very different experience with Bob and Rose than how things were in the first two acts, which were in the third person. It is a bit of an experiment. I hope it works.
Also, this story contains depictions of characters having extra-marital sex. If that offends you, please exercise your right to read something else.
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Chapter 1
It had been a couple of weeks since the events at the lake. I had expected to be fired or to have my partnership somehow revoked. But neither happened. In fact, Jerry had acted like nothing bad had even gone down at the lake.
I flew to Seattle on Monday and was there until that Friday evening. Jerry, to my surprise, was there too, having taken a different flight. He didn't show up for most of the week but suddenly appeared at the client's offices on Thursday for a meeting before delivering our final proposal on Friday.
The opportunity was huge for us, both financially and from a prestige perspective. The client was J.J. Greene, one of the largest retailers of outdoor apparel and related products. Jerry and I met Thursday evening to review the proposal, which we were to deliver the next day. It was a package deal that we had worked with a software platform vendor that included their software and our design and development services.
There was only one problem. By my estimate, our project price would be about three million dollars, but Jerry had committed to the software vendor that we would be able to deliver it for about eight-hundred thousand. We debated and argued for hours, and it kept coming back to the same points. The vendor wouldn't let us present the true costs to the client. They expected us to absorb much of the expense, viewing the project as a loss-leader. That meant we would lose money on it, but make that loss up from the marketing we would get from having J. J. Greene as a client, as well as future opportunities the vendor would bring us.
"We are doing it for time and materials, not fixed fee," Jerry repeated for the tenth time. "We need to close the deal for $800K. Then we will just hit them with change request after change request until we end up getting the $3 million, if not more anyway."
"But, Jerry," I argued again, "we cannot in good faith agree to deliver the project for that amount or that timeline. It's impossible."
We also had another big issue. Jerry had lied to them in the meeting earlier. He assured them we had a team of experienced developers that we would assign to the J.J. Greene account. He even called them "our best people, our A-team." The truth has we had no developers at all with experience working on this platform. He also told them they would be "onshore" resources, when in fact they would be in India.
In the end, Jerry overruled me and modified the Statement of Work that I had written to match his terms. We presented it on Friday and blew everyone away. The Vendor was happy with us but was now only more determined to make Adrenaline their bitch. The client was thrilled to get the entire package for within their budget. They were reluctant to sign a Time and Materials contract, but when Jerry lied and assured them that we would not use change requests to drive up the price, they agreed. We got the deal.
As we sat in the hotel bar afterward, Jerry justified all his lies. "It's business, Bob. You have to lie to clients to get the business. They are lying to us, too. We do what we have to do to win the business. Once we have a client signed, we fucking own them. They can't do shit. We can take as much time as we want and charge them for every dime. What are they going to do? Once they're heavily invested in the project, they can't afford to turn it off, so we milk them dry."
I was appalled and mortified. My name was on this contract. Jerry had insisted that as head of sales, it was my responsibility to write the contract and, as a partner, I had full authority to sign for the company. Naively, I signed.
I headed to the airport for the return trip to Dallas. Jerry let me know he was staying in Seattle for the weekend and would be heading to Vancouver on Monday for meetings with potential clients. I found it odd. As head of sales, I didn't know about any opportunities in Vancouver that warranted our CEO's attention.
When I returned home, Rose met me at the door in only a thong, with a freshly made martini in her hand. She had spent the afternoon with Gloria, trying to keep up appearances. Things had gotten a little physical, but Rose had used the lie about her being pregnant to avoid letting things go too far. It had, however, left her on fire and in need of satisfying, a job which fell to me.
Fortunately, the kids were all out at a football game and wouldn't be back until late. We had intense sex for a couple of hours and had just finished a hot session when I heard the garage door open. A few minutes later, Amanda entered our bedroom. Rose and I were naked but had a light sheet covering us. Amanda sat on the edge of the bed, looking depressed.
"What's wrong, honey?" I asked.
She looked like she was about to cry. "Mom told me about Mike and how he and Jerry had tried to rape her," she explained, fighting back tears. I could tell there was more to it.
"Rape is a little harsh, Amanda," Rose interrupted. "I was willing, and they weren't forcing me. I would say it was more manipulation than rape."
"I gave Mike my virginity," Amanda said as the tears started flowing. "I thought he was a nice guy, but he's an asshole. He was at the game tonight with the twins. They're all assholes."
I decided to let Rose handle this, as I didn't think Amanda needed a man's perspective. I looked at my wife with my eyebrows raised and held up my hands as if to say, "Don't look at me."
Rose hugged Amanda and stroked her hair. "What happened, honey?" she asked.
"I know you told me not to do or say anything, but when I saw them, I couldn't stop myself. I yelled at Mike for trying to get with you. They all laughed at me and told me I was an immature child. I got mad and told them all off. They said I was a whore just like my whore mother."
It took a lot of soothing and talk to get her to calm down and feel somewhat better about the situation. At least I didn't need to worry about Amanda being sexually active with the twins or Mike Hernandez anymore. That was one thing less to worry about.
Chapter 2
We had arranged to have the house all to ourselves on Sunday afternoon. Shawn and Corrine were coming over. We had many things to talk about and didn't want the kids interrupting us or overhearing anything we discussed.
I was stunned by the change in Corrinne. Gone was the bubbly, happy young woman. In her place was a woman with dark circles under her eyes and a broken gaze coming from them. She was dressed somewhat conservatively in a simple navy-blue dress that came down almost to her knees and matching navy pumps.
I hugged her and shook Shawn's hand as I invited them in, offering them both a drink. I had made some cocktails we called SoCal's. They were lime juice, mint syrup, and vodka, topped with club soda. I poured us all one as Rose set out some snacks. I sat on the sofa, next to Rose with Shawn and Corrinne seated on the loveseat.
"So, Shawn," I started, after taking a deep breath. "Why don't you tell us everything that happened so that we're all on the same page."
"Ok," he replied, "It's a long story."
"It's alright," Rose assured him. "We need to hear it all so that we can understand."
"I'm not sure you'll understand it all that much more," Corrinne chimed in.
Shawn told us his entire history with Jerry and Gloria. It took a couple of hours and two bottles of wine. He had been in sales at a company called ASM Software, one of the industry leaders in eCommerce Platforms, with a long list of client contacts. Jerry and Shawn had worked on several proposals together, in our former consulting firm.
When Jerry decided to start Adrenaline, he brought Shawn in for his relationship with ASM and his client list. Jerry wanted to exploit Shawn's connections, to drum up business. It proved successful as they were able to ink several major consulting gigs with some of Shawn's former clients.
The seduction of Corrinne had begun from day one. Jerry and Gloria had not yet created their swinging group, but partied often and invited Shawn and Corrinne over to their home frequently. At their first party, Jerry was flirting hard with Corrinne, who enjoyed the attention of a man much sexier than her husband. To make sure Shawn stayed out of the way, Gloria kept his attention focused on her tits.
"I think we both had a lot of pent-up sexual frustration," Shawn explained. "It was too easy for us both to just go along with it. So, while Gloria was showing me her big tits and letting me fondle them, Jerry had Corrinne on his pool table, fucking the hell out of her."
Corrinne blushed but tried to laugh it off. "I'd never had a dick that big. I mean you've seen Shawn's cock. Jerry pulled his out and well, I wanted it." She leaned back on the loveseat, and her dress slid up her thighs; she wasn't wearing any panties.
"So, after that Jerry would fuck me all the time," she continued to explain, "He would have me come over when Shawn was out of town. He flew me to Miami for a few days and to New York. He kept Shawn in the dark. He even fucked me in his office once, while he sent Shawn to go buy us lunch."
"That sounds like the Jerry I know," I said, nodding. "He's all about his ego."
"Yeah, he had me hooked. He owned me. Sometimes, I think he still does. He even had me sleep with a couple of clients to win their business," she confessed.
