It Had Been Years (10 page)

The deal was all but dead, they woke with awe and wonder expecting Santa Clause to show up and when they went downstairs to look under the tree the reaper was standing there waiting for them.  Death had arrived for all of them because one of the children didn’t do as he was told. 
Ramesh
was after all brilliant, a Stanford grad, he also had access to WUZ’s technology,
it
grew out of a University technology commercialization incubator he had worked in. There was to be no executed contract, no agreement and most importantly no exchange of funds and before those few moments no one but one in the company knew the truth, perhaps some had suspected but not enough for whispers to even become prevalent.  It was the act of a lone individual.   Mitchell asked for all outside parties to excuse
themselves
for a moment.  He hung up the Conference bridge dialed Smith and Wallace back in.  They were deflated, no one but
Ramesh
had the soul to fight, a core element of their solution, the very thing that had made it so revolutionary was at best used without licensing and in a more probably reality had been stolen, buried and hidden and no one knew except the man who committed the act an certainly knew better.

Vincent stepped back in and the audio bridge was redialed.  Mitchell read from a hand written prepared statement from council.  “While we are unaware of any infringement on others property right or patents the similarities warrant further investigation on
area’s
of the technology that are not related to IEEE sanctioned, drafted or proposed standards.”  He went on for a few more minutes, blah, blah, blah, this and that and legal ease
gobbly
goop in the end it was just over.  It was painful to watch a man’s dream and his life’s work die a sudden unimagined death in front of him.  Vincent shook a humbled team and
councils
hands,
Ramesh
was not present for the final moments.  Vincent told Mitchell that “We look forward to your supporting documentation, and if all is in order we can pick back up.”  It was a lie again, out of courtesy.  No supporting documents were ever going to be
produced,
The company was insolvent in 30 days.  At 9:34 Chris had pulled back into the parking lot and nine minutes later Vincent was back in the car.  Sitting with his knees exactly over his feet, ass on the front third of the seat, and his back rounded awkwardly both forward and backwards at the same time.  He sipped his latte and dialed his phone.  They were going to look into acquiring WUZ.  He arrived at the airport at 10:25 admittedly two hours early, bags checked, headset on, seated comfortably exhausted in the air clubs lounge.  He plugged in his PC and began documenting the day’s events for the files final report.  Mitchell sat at his desk wondering what dream might spring up next to his own professional graveyard.

Tiffany was young, she was beautiful, desperate and just slightly above average intellectual capacity,
the
only thing she had learned in life was how to use her looks to get her way.  A flip of her dark hair, a sultry cliché look from her dark green eyes.  Pushing out a pouting lip and the occasional petulant stomp away from whoever or whatever was causing her world to end at that very instant.  It was a child like feature that she hadn’t yet outgrown.  She wasn’t a dreamer or an aimless drifter, she wasn’t an artist or a writer or a poet, she could have been, but never gave much thought to that sort of thing.  She never gave much thought at all to anything beyond the moment she was
in,
in her mind there was no cause and effect beyond the next few hours.  She lived much differently than most because all she cared about was the here and the now and on occasion where to go next.  Chances are where she was, and in a rare case if
Steph
, wasn’t there, where she was going next would involve her.   Stephanie and Tiff had been inseparable since High School, through two miserable years in Community College then into where they both truly felt they belonged, the night club scene.  Stephanie much like her friend was quite adept at using her body to manipulate others, she had dark red hair and pale white skin, a large chest and heart shaped ass.  The pair
were
quite aware of who they were and what men wanted at the most primal levels.  They were roommates, best
friends,
they knew every detail about the other.  In their existence, they shared everything, each feeling and elation, they saw the other as someone who each could keep the company of at any given time or event.

Sarah on the other hand had lived her life in books, built a planned future based on her
past,
she seemed destined to have just a little something more from life than the other two.  The day she moved into the building, the pair had mistaken her for another party girl.  Someone to stagger and whore herself through life along side of them, Sarah was not running in those circles.  Tiff and
Steph
didn’t notice and thought she seemed nice enough and about the same age so they adopted her, including Sarah in their jaunts around town.  The pair worked in a restaurant as waitresses second and eye candy
first, sporting tight cut away t-shirts and short shorts.  They spent the midday portion of their lives serving catsup to men who were most often staring at their squeezed together mammalian protuberances or their other tangible body parts.  A look in the eyes, a smile and a little extra time distributing condiments helped the daily income level quite a bit.  The pair thought they were celebrities, paying only for the necessities in life housing a little food and transportation, most everything else was provided by this or that ship that would pass in the night. 
Steph
for example, when being casual could be seen sporting her favorite baby doll T.  It was a skin tight, pastel shaded number sporting a logo that said The Pink Taco, she loved the food and it was a happening scene on a sprung for trip to Vegas, she didn’t like the shirt for the memories she like the shirt as a form of advertising. Pink Taco she considered to be even more desirable than her Kitty T-shirt that had lips around the word kitty.  They both were of course entendre laden, suggestive euphuisms for her “girlie parts” as she put it when discussing such things with a person who she didn’t know for more than a few minutes.   Tiffany sported a chest adorned with barbell pierced nipples that seemed to defy both nature and sensibility since they were almost always erect.  Life was simple for the pair, it was just a party, or a party waiting to happen, wax this or that, shape and fix and change, six drinks none of which were paid for with their own funds and a tooth chipping orgasm.  The pair had in fact learned something they had never consciously realized, how to save their money since they only paid for the bare minimum with their own meager funds.

When out on the town Sarah was as one might predict be the responsible, respectable member of the party, she didn’t do trampy, even on the few times she tried she ended up just being pretty.  The other two looked like they fell out of a
swingers
club party which on occasion they were known to do.  The trio would be out dancing and drinking although some more than others, Tiff and
Steph
would use their affection for each other to lure in the occasional man.  A redeeming feature if it could be considered one is that they didn’t discriminate, depending on the day and the mood it might be the 22 year old construction worker, strong and young, or the thirty something “in his cute little clothes” all the way through to more mature sexy an confident gentlemen in their 50’s which to most 22
year olds seem ancient, at times though there was something quite beguiling about and older confident man.  The pair would play and dance, touch and rub and move and grind.  Life was not always an orgy, in fact there was something quite simple and innocent that was part of the two’s relationship.  On nights when they did not choose to keep the company of another or after the flavor Du Jour had left they could be found sleeping together in the same bed, curled up next to each other without illicit intent.  It was like twenty two had magically become twelve again, when things were simple and where just what they were. 

Sometimes the pair would take an interest in the same man, when they took him home he expected to live out a common fantasy as they played a game with him called “what gets you off”.  The man was dreaming of a threesome as the pair would tease and titillate each other right in front of him.  They were not in their own minds demeaning themselves because “dick” as they would call him during their little game would be reduced to nothing more than their requisite piece of meat.

Sarah on the other hand was studious and
no where
near aware of the carnal desires as her two friends.  She was however very much in love with Joe.  She liked being one of the girls and Tiff and
Steph
accepted her very much for
who
and what she was.  Before the pair had befriended her she never talked openly about sex except in a text book reproductive lesson kind of way.  She didn’t share or even think of sharing and verbalizing intimate details of that portion of her life.  Joe was the benefactor of her friendship with the two.  Sarah was not bisexual and she was very much straight & monogamous.  With the exception of a few awkward touches and the occasional attempt at an unwanted kiss from one of her suitors from her youth, she had only known the intimacy of one man.  Tiff and
Steph
on the hand knew so many different touches and so many different lovers that except for the holiday card sent to preferred customers by condom manufacturers most were just grouped into basic categories. Good, bad and indifferent, sure they always liked proficient but they also like men who were polite, and if one could be found that was both polite and funny well, his skills in bed could be as they put it “improved with a little
coaching” but they would almost always see him again, some men were as one would expect selfish jerks.  Men classified as indifferent were never
discussed,
good was raved about and bad was discussed in painful levels of detail of the gents inadequacies and deficiencies, unless of course he was nice and funny.  Tiffany was a social
alcoholic,
she binged in excess like a first semester college freshman on a September evening.  She would never drink alone, but all too often drank in excess in the company of friends and trusted lovers, like so many things in her life she never stopped to think about why.  In these people’s company she would drink so much that the room would still be spinning in the morning when she woke up. 
Steph
was not such a heavy drinker, but liked a little Bolivian Marching powder now and again, the occasional handful of X and intermittent joint and for all the things she would put in her body she never worried about what would happen tomorrow or what ill might befall her.  To that point, nothing of consequence ever had.   Sarah was usually good for a glass or two of red wine and then back to bottled water.  On a particularly adventurous night she might have a third glass of wine or instead of wine have a Whiskey Sour or Tom Collins, not ever more than one, she was the picture or restraint and control even when partying. On one night in the girls apartment Sarah found
her self
topless after being persuaded to compare breasts with the other two by Tiffany.  In the end the pair concluded that they all had their own unique qualities but as Tiff put it “I still like mine the best”, which Sarah found despite her general uncertainty of the entire situation hysterically funny.  That evening ended with a conversation detailing likes and dislikes of the male genitals, Sarah was uncomfortable and didn’t have much to offer beyond medical references and statistics.  Tiff and
Steph
thought these comments added a bit of legitimacy to a conversation that otherwise was just a group of girls talking about dicks. As the night wound down it ended with Tiffany once again proclaiming she still liked hers the best,
Steph
showing Sarah how she liked her nipples played with, Sarah was not attracted to the pair but when she left highly aroused and just a little more sexually aware and more aroused than anything in recent memory allowed.  Parts of her body were alive that she had taken for granted.  Joe again was the beneficiary. 

With that past and everything it entailed behind them Tiffany was on a mission, she wanted to go dancing and drinking, she wanted to go to “N’s” party, but she wanted her friends to go with her.  Stephanie droned on about some article in a fashion magazine about self pleasure, and the need for a regular release for healthy glowing skin or something like that. “Ok Tiff, I’ll go, but it better be decent or I’m leaving.”