Chapter 2: Too Much of a Good Thing
On Monday morning everyone had come into the office early because we had been told that we were going to have a visit from the company president. When I got to the office there were pots of coffee and trays of pastries set up and everyone was milling around drinking coffee and speculating about why the company president was visiting. The company I work for is one of the country's largest security system and consulting companies. We primarily plan, design, implement and run security systems for large corporations. My job is in design and implementation, which means that I make sure that the customer gets what they need when they need it. In the two years since RJ Peterson had taken over as president of the company this was the first time he had ever visited our offices.
At nine o'clock R.J. Peterson and the companies three vice presidents came into the room. There was Chester Warren, VP of Sales; Donald Baker, VP of Manufacturing and Mark Anderson, VP of Design and Implementation.
Mr. Peterson is about thirty-five years old. He is a tall man, maybe six feet four inches, with blonde neatly trimmed hair and looks like he is in excellent physical condition. That day Mr. Peterson was wearing a very expensive finely tailored suit.
As Mr. Peterson and the VPs entered, the room became quiet. Mr. Peterson moved to the center of the office space and said "Could I have your attention for just a minute please? I just wanted to stop by and say hello, and tell all of you what a great job your are doing. I will be coming around to personally thank each of you for your efforts so grab another cup of coffee and a pastry and go back to your work areas and I will see you shortly."
As I watched the VPs were leading Mr. Peterson around the offices introducing him to the employees I thought to myself 'Wow, some meeting. Everyone comes in early so he can say hello.' As he made his way around the cubicles shaking hands with everyone the only people he seemed to spend any time talking to were the managers and team leaders. Being that I was a team leader meant that he would probably want to talk to me. I was a little nervous about talking to him. I was confident that I knewmy job but I was afraid that I might say something wrong and make a fool of myself.
By the time the four men had worked their way to my cubicle I had butterflies in my stomach. Then to make matters worse Mark Anderson introduces me by saying "RJ, this is one of our brightest stars, George Marlin. George is our team leader for national design and implementation projects."
How was I going to live up to an introduction like that? I spoke first. "Mr. Peterson, it is a pleasure to meet you."
Mr. Peterson responded by saying, "Call me RJ, and I am glad to meet you too. I understand that you are quite the hotshot around here. Exactly what products are you in charge of?"
The question caught me off guard but luckily Mark spoke up. "RJ, George isn't in sales he does design and consulting work."
RJ didn't seem to be embarrassed by his mistake he just asked another question. "What project are you currently working on?"
I felt relieved now. This question I could answer in extreme detail and leave RJ with a positive impression of me. "I am working on the design and installation of our System 2200 at a large insurance company in Kansas City."
Before I could start to describe the scope of the project RJ interrupted me with another question. "What is the System 2200?"
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The company president didn't know what the 2200 was. Just a month earlier the announcement of this product made the front page of the business sections of almost every major newspaper in the country. This product was described as being head and shoulders above any competitive product in price and performance. The project I was working on was the first large scale implementation of the System 2200 therefore it was very important to the company. I was a little pissed that the company president wouldn't know that, and I lost all enthusiasm for answering his question. "Oh, the 2200 is a new security system." I waited for RJ to ask a follow up question but instead he just turned and moved off toward the next team leader's cubicle. As they walked away Mark Anderson turned and gave me a strange look.
Then it struck me that I might have screwed up big time. Asking me what the System 2200 may have been a set up question to see how I would describe the product and its' capabilities, and I had totally blown it. I worried about this for the rest of the morning. At noon I was debating on whether to go to lunch or not when my phone rang. It was Mark Anderson's secretary. She said that Mark wanted to see me before I went to lunch."
On the way up to Mark's office I could feel my stomach churning. When I got the to executive offices area Mark's secretary told me to "go right in, Mark is waiting." I walked over to the door, took a deep breath and walked in.
When I stepped inside Mark was sitting behind his desk reading the Wall Street Journal. When he looked up he smiled and told me to have a seat. His manner was friendly rather that threatening. "George, thanks for coming up here so quickly. I wanted to catch you before you went down to the cafeteria for lunch. I guess from your chat with RJ that you surmised that he doesn't have a clue about what we do here, and you're right he doesn't. Actually RJ did pretty well with the introductions to the other team leaders but he really blew it when he asked you what the System 2200 was. RJ is not a stupid man; it's just that his interests lay elsewhere. He lets us run the company and he stays out of our way. We have and excellent management team and with team leaders like you, we have been successful in spite of RJ Peterson."
I felt better knowing I wasn't in trouble but was disturbed by what Mark told me. "Mark, why on earth would the board of directors let someone like him to be president of the company?"
"This is primarily a family owned company and RJ is head of that family. He has control of enough voting shares of our stock to overrule anything the Board of Directors tries to do so he appointed himself president and we are stuck with him. I guess he just likes having the title. That brings me to why I asked you to come up here. You are one of only a very few people that knows the truth about RJ. I wanted to catch you before you went to lunch so I could ask you not to tell anyone what happened when you talked to him. It wouldn't be good for morale if word got around that the company president doesn't know or care what his company does."
I said "I understand, and I will keep this between us."
Mark thanked me and I left for lunch. As hard as it was to keep my mouth shut I didn't say a word to anyone about RJ. But after that I got angry every time I heard RJ's name mentioned. I couldn't believe his arrogance, thinking that just because he has money and power, that qualifies him to be president of a company.
For the next two days my project ate up every minute of my time including several hours of overtime. I was trying to work out some scheduling problems in my head when I walked into the house on Wednesday evening. I was surprised to find that Barb had dinner waiting. Normally we didn't eat as soon as I got home. We usually sat down with a drink and talked about our day first. I sat down at the table and asked Barb why we were eating so early. She looked and me as if I had just farted loudly in a restaurant then she said, "Have you forgotten, it's Wednesday night. Didn't you want me to go out tonight?"
"Oh my god, I can't believe I forget about that. I have had so much going on at work this week that I haven't been able to think of anything else." I was just about to ask Barb if she would mind if we canceled her outing. At that moment the idea of her spending the night with another man didn't appeal to me.
Before I could say anything Barb said, "Well, maybe I shouldn't go. I'm still not sure I am comfortable with this whole thing. I'd only be doing this for you so if your not excited about this I don't think we should do it. I am afraid that things won't be the way they were Saturday night. We were both excited about living out your fantasy. It was scary, naughty, sexy and just plain hot. Now that we have done it before I don't know if it will have the same effect on us. I am afraid that you might think differently of me, might not love me as much. I keep thinking that if I come home again looking the way I did Saturday night that you might become jealous or angry."
I was all set to agree with Barb until I remembered the image of her standing in front of me with no panties on and dried semen crusted on her stockings and in her pubic hair. It's amazing how quickly I was aroused by that image. I walked over to Barb and put my arms around her and kissed her gently on the cheek then passionately on the mouth, then I said, "Barb, I love you, and I will always love you and I still want you to go out tonight. (This was another of those important moments). I only wish that you were already there so I wouldn't have to wait so long for you to get back home to me." I held and kissed Barb for a little while, then we sat down to eat.