Ever hear of a business owner whose primary motivation for selling his company was because he didn't want to cheat on his wife?
Now you have, because I, Brent Voorhes, did just that.
It wasn't my only reason, but it was my primary one.
My business was the proverbial garage startup. I had a degree in biomedical engineering and after college worked for a big firm - the work was not rewarding. In my free time I became interested in quick test kits for various medical conditions that would inexpensively allow a consumer to test himself/herself at home to see if it was worth a more sophisticated follow-up test. Without boring with details not related to this story I wanted the tests to be capable of providing no false negatives if used twice at times two days apart. Up to 10% false positives would be acceptable as long as the consumers knew that fact.
Working out of my garage, I first came up with a test kit for Babesiosis, a relatively obscure tick-borne disease. I sold the patent rights to that to a nationwide test laboratory. After that I started working on other test kits, and by the time of my third test kit, despite the fact that I was in debt from all of the capital I had borrowed to prove the effectiveness of my kits, I felt confident enough to go out on my own and start Resikit Inc.
By the time that I was forty three Resikit was making scads of money, had over 250 employees, and was a purchase target of a number of different biomedical and pharmaceutical companies. It was at that time that I started getting interested in selling.
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By the time that I had turned thirty six, I was divorced from my first wife. Kathy and I got married a year after college, and she was with me during the garage startup period. My long hours and going into debt to start the business certainly didn't help my marital situation, but what killed it was the fact that I cheated. My cheating resulted from a classic "entitlement" attitude I developed when I sold my second test kit patent rights. My paramour Sophia was young, impressionable, and thought that I was hot shit. After three sessions with her, however, I got my head out of my ass and cut it off. Unfortunately she didn't take the breakup well and reported my dalliances to Kathy.
When Kathy confronted me I didn't lie, even though Sophia had no actual proof. By then I felt bad enough that I wasn't going to compound my sins by lying. Confession may have been good for my soul, but it was the end of my marriage; fortunately we had no kids.
I thought that I felt about as bad as I could have until I learned 183 days (not that I was counting) after the divorce decree had been formally entered that Kathy had stepped out on me too, and more than just the three times that I had.
While my divorce settlement didn't significantly adversely affect my business or financial situation, primarily because I was in debt and Kathy had no faith that my efforts would ultimately succeed, it almost killed me emotionally.
I married my second wife Brenda when I was thirty eight, at a point where Resikit was starting to show real promise. I got good legal counsel, and Brenda and I signed a prenup. I insisted that a mutual morality clause be included in the prenup as an extra incentive - as if I needed one - to remain faithful. Sex outside of marriage was defined as any oral, vaginal, or anal contact - and even French kissing, although regular kissing did not qualify.
Before I married Brenda, or we signed the prenup, I had been completely honest with Brenda and had told her my past history with infidelity, and the great regret that I had about it. She seemed pleased with the morality clause. The prenup also provided that she would get nothing from Resikit (whether stock or proceeds of sale) regardless of the reason for any divorce, and I would get no part of the money she brought into the marriage (she was fairly well off). The penalties for violating the morality clause were significant.
My problems started when Resikit was in the midst of its best growth spurt, about the time that I turned forty. It was necessary to hire a full time experienced HR person, so I had the present part-time one (who was being moved to a different department, something that he was happy about) cull the resumes and let me interview the best four.
The first interviewee was Gail Preston, a five foot one inch tall woman with 5 inch heels who weighed maybe 105 pounds. If her personality and ability to fascinate were translated to size she would have been seven feet tall, 350 pounds. She had been married six years, was thirty five years old, and had impressive educational and work experience. However those facts barely registered with me. There was something about the way that she carried herself, her posture when talking, the flips of her lustrous brown hair off of her shoulders, and the way that she pursed her lips, that was beyond captivating. By the time that she left the interview, with a combination firm and sensual handshake, an hour later I was drenched in sweat with an uncomfortable sensation at my crotch.
I immediately realized that it would be dangerous to be around this woman, but it wouldn't be fair to her to not consider her just because she was as sultry as a never-ending tropical vacation; so I punted! That is, I called in my two V Ps and said "Jim and Judy, I decided that it would be best to distance myself from the process of hiring an HR director. Here are the four resumes of the most qualified candidates. You two make the decision - if a tiebreaker is necessary we'll have Ken pick between the final two," Ken being the chief of engineering.
"I thought that you just interviewed that little sparkplug who sashayed out of your office a half hour ago," Judy replied with a perplexed look.
"Yes - she's one of the top four. However, based upon that interview I decided that someone else should make the decision and I've nominated you two - so call her and have her come in for another interview, along with the other three," I muttered in reply, as that uncomfortable nether region feeling intensified.
Judy and Jim shrugged their shoulders, said "OK," and sauntered out of my office. I immediately left the building for the gym and worked out to exhaustion. "I hope that they don't pick her," I murmured under my breath at least a dozen times while performing various lifts or while watching TV on the elliptical.
A week later Judy and Jim came into my office first thing in the morning. "We both agree that Gail Preston is by far the best candidate," Judy announced. "She starts a week from Monday. We're giving her the office across from yours," Jim added.
I swallowed hard, plastered a fake smile on my face, and replied "Great."
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It was as bad as I feared. I had to interface with Gail, or at least see her, every work day that I was in town. Since we also had a very sociable office, there were many parties, picnics, gatherings, retreats, and other activities outside of work where we interfaced, most - thankfully - with spouses. Gail seemed to be happily married to her husband John, a stockbroker. Brenda never seemed to warm up to Gail like she did to most other management employees, despite the fact that as far as I could tell Gail was always affable at these events.
At a holiday party after Gail had been as Resikit for about two years somehow Gail and I ended up dancing together, while John and Brenda did. When a fast song morphed into a slow one and Gail inserted one of her matchless thighs between my legs disaster struck. Not only did I get rock hard but as Gail chatted away - it wasn't like she plastered her head against my shoulder - I spontaneously ejaculated in my pants. That was the first time that that had ever happened. I don't think that she felt the wetness before we broke away from each other, but she had to have felt my hard-on.
On the ride home that night, Brenda was not her genial self.
After that night I became preoccupied with the idea of fucking Gail comatose. I spent way too many waking hours thinking about her, and when I saw her butt flouncing down the hallway at work I almost had other spontaneous ejaculations. It was then that I decided that for the good of my marriage, and for my self-image considering my pledge to never cheat again, that I needed to separate myself from Gail.
By the time of my calamitous dance with Gail I had had a number of serious inquiries from biomedical and pharmaceutical companies trying to buy Resikit. We had a significant portfolio of worthwhile patents, covering almost every aspect of our thirty one commercial products, with even more promising products in the pipeline. Plus, I had clearly amassed more money than I could ever use and I was impressed with the philanthropic attitudes of such notables as Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet so that I wanted to work to improve society rather than my personal wealth. I almost convinced myself that this second reason (devotion to philanthropy) was the main reason for wanting to sell. However, during those times when I was thinking of Gail as I was making love to Brenda I had to admit to myself what the real main reason was.
When I entertained suitors for the sale of Resikit I involved the six highest ranking members of the management team in the process, including Gail. Gail expressed nervousness to me about the situation since she seemed certain that she was the most expendable member of the team and didn't think that she could find a financially suitable alternative position. I counseled her not to worry while doing my damndest not to ogle her thighs as she sat across from my desk with her legs crossed and her skirt rising.
I ended up selling to the third - of eight - highest "bidder" (all bids were so obscenely high that it really made no practical difference to me from the monetary standpoint which one I selected) because I considered them a good fit and also because they didn't balk at giving Jim and Judy two year iron clad employment contracts, and Gail a five year one. I individually swore those three to secrecy regarding their contracts. Gail had tears in her eyes and despite my hesitation threw herself on me and hugged my neck tightly while kissing my cheek with tears in her eyes. In a totally juvenile reaction I didn't wash her dried tears off my cheek for two days.
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After I had transitioned out of Resikit, now a division of Megabucks Pharmaceuticals, Gail kept in touch and invited me to lunch a number of times. I tried to turn all of those invitations into events with our spouses, and was usually successful although I got the impression that Gail was sometimes miffed by my attitude. During those outings I sensed a gap forming between Gail and John, and Brenda was usually more reserved for a few days afterward. Finally I started to make excuses for not meeting Gail.
I immersed myself in my philanthropic activities and was actually enjoying life, although my pre-occupation with Gail hadn't waned a significant amount.
I had been gone from Resikit for almost two years - and had not returned Gail's last several calls - when it was time for the annual end-of-the-year holiday party. As a separate division of Megabucks, Resikit still had its own social events. Of course as the prior owner I was invited. I called up the person in charge of the event and asked if Gail and John were coming. I was assured that they were not, which left me free to go.
Of course I wanted Brenda to come with me the Friday night of the party, but she begged off saying that she had a business trip that would not allow her to return until Saturday morning. Brenda continued to work because she got enjoyment out of it; we certainly did not need the money.
When I got to the hotel where the party was being hosted I was enthusiastically greeted by almost everyone there. It seemed that all of the employees were grateful that I had sold to Megabucks (which apparently was a good employer), and were pleased with the ten thousand dollar bonuses that I had given to each of them when I left. Then, despite what I had been told, I saw Gail there. When she saw me she approached with fire in her eyes. "Why have you been avoiding me Brent Voorhees? I thought that you liked me, and you sure looked out for me when you left by getting me that five year employment contract," she chastised, pointing her index finger in my chest.
I noticed that her words were a little slurred. Gail rarely had more alcohol than a glass of wine at a time, but that night she seemed near drunk.
"Uh...well...I haven't...uh...avoided you, Gail. I've just been really busy," I defensively stuttered, already starting to sweat. "Uh, where's John?" I continued, hoping to change the subject.
"He's not here - and don't try to weasel out. I know that you've been avoiding me and before the night is over I'll get the reason why. Now dance with me," she ordered.
Gail and I danced five or six dances together, including one painful slow one, before I convinced her that I had to talk to the division manager and his wife, as well as other management employees brought in by Megabucks. "Only on the condition that after the party is over that you meet me for a drink at the hotel bar to discuss a few things."
