Sisters, Friends, and Lovers Ch. 17

The color in Joe's neck rose and then his face turned scarlet. He nearly screamed, "And just what is the justification for this? Trumped up charges no doubt."

Jane said, "I'm afraid they're not trumped up. You've had a string of sexual harassment accusations, too many to ignore. You present a huge liability to TCI, more than you're worth. Last week you were filmed in one of your assaults, an assault sufficiently physical to be worthy of felony charges and serious jail time. This was the final straw, and the evidence is impossible to ignore, particularly for someone like you in such a sensitive position. Terminating you is a decision made unanimously by the board of directors and the executive committee. I am their representative in this termination."

Brenda had gone to the door and invited the two guards inside. I noted that two cardboard boxes had mysteriously appeared.

Joe came around the desk almost at a run. Steam surged out of his nostrils. He raised his clenched fist to take a swing at Jane. Just as he passed me, I stuck my foot out. Joe started to swing, but my move had slowed his forward progress. His swing fell about a foot short of Jane's face as she backed up in fear. Joe fell into the plush carpeting.

I grabbed Joe's outstretched right arm and pulled it up behind him with my good arm. "Mr. Collard, hitting a woman is not an honorable thing to do. I think this is why you are in trouble in the first place."

Collard spat out, "She's no woman. She's a fucking cunt."

I twisted his arm until he moaned, "OK. OK. Let me go."

"Will you be peaceful or do we need the taser?" I saw that one of the guards had his taser drawn.

"I'll be peaceful."

I let go of Collard's arm, and he stood. No sooner was he erect than he turned to take a swing at me. Just as his fist connected with the side of my head, I heard a loud pop and a sizzle. Right in front of me, Collard's entire body went rigid, his eyes rolled up in his head, and he fell face first into the carpet again. That had to hurt. The two wires from the taser stretched to the firing device in the nearest guard's hand. The electrode darts were clearly embedded in Collard's back, and his entire body twitched violently on the floor.

I rubbed my face, and Jane came and made appropriate gestures of tenderness and sympathy to my getting clobbered by the angry man. Fortunately, the blow had come at a glancing angle.

I heard Brenda instruct the guards, "Handcuff him. Feet too. Put him on the sofa. Please get his secretary in here."

As Joe's body slowly stopped twitching from being tasered, the two guards handcuffed his hands behind his back, shackled his feet, and then hoisted him up and set him on the sofa. One guard left the room and returned a few minutes later with Joe's secretary.

Brenda pulled the secretary aside, apparently told her what the situation was, and asked her to pack up Joe's personal effects. The woman looked scared to death, but complied with Brenda's instructions. As she did, Joe struggled to get free of the cuffs, and then started to scream obscenities at each of us including his secretary. For the most part, we ignored him.

Brenda conversed with one of the guards at length. Soon another guard arrived with two additional boxes that his secretary filled. When all seemed packed, the guards pulled Collard into an upright stance and marched him out to the elevator, hampered by the shackles on his feet that kept him from kicking anyone. One guard produced a hand truck that we loaded with his possessions, and wheeled to the elevator. The other two guards carried the remaining boxes. Brenda explained that instead of a taxi, Collard would be driven home in handcuffs in a TCI security car with several guards - armed with guns and tasers. At that point, he would be released.

Jane, Brenda, and I ended up standing in Collard's office watching out the window with probably a couple of hundred others at other TCI windows as he was put into the back seat in cuffs and shackles, and driven away.

Brenda said, "Well, I've got some damage control to do. Jane, you're in charge of this division for the time being."

Jane started sputtering, "WAIT. In charge? What do you mean? Isn't there a number two?"

Brenda shook her head. "Nope, you're it. His ego was too big, so he never groomed a successor. There's quite a gap in management. We were always on him about that, but never succeeded."

"But ... I have a job back in New Jersey ... that I love. I live there ... not here. I have commitments there ... I'm ..."

Brenda interrupted, "I was told this morning that you were taking over for the time being. I suggest you talk to the President or Chairman or someone about what they have in play for you. I'm sorry for the suddenness of this news, but I'm only a bit player in this regard."

I heard Jane mutter several 'Oh, shits' under her breath. Brenda left the office. Jane looked around, and then at me, "I'm speechless. I didn't want this."

I said, "I'm feeling adrift myself. First, I feel I should connect with the two teams we were going to meet with today, and go ahead with that work. You're going to have your hands full figuring out what will happen here. I feel I should do that and stop back up here at the end of the day."

Jane agreed and I went off to the already arranged meetings, late to the first one. As best I could tell, the entire company was abuzz with the news of Collard's firing, and the well-known reasons why. I had the entire sting operation explained to me in my first meeting, so there seemed to be no secrets. I explained my bruised cheek to the few that asked as a run in with a door at the hotel, but everyone seemed to also know that I had been in Collard's office when he was fired and that he'd probably gotten a punch in. The bruise actually gave me high esteem among the people in the meetings, and obviously no one believed my 'door' story.

I found Jane about six-thirty looking haggard and tired sitting behind what had been Joe's mega-desk studying a large calendar.

Jane said, "This place was run on intimidation like a North Korean dictatorship. All Joe's direct reports feared him. They still fear him. I've learned he struck more than one. Each of the women got hit on for sex, but I don't think anyone accepted his offers, yet there's the potential for more lawsuits than the two we have already. Moreover, Joe wasn't all that good a leader, as we suspected, so many of what we thought were smoothly running initiatives are in shambles because he'd override the logical decisions in favor of some personal whim of his."

I nodded.

Jane asked, "What'd you find out about the two projects?"

"Disasters, just as you described about some of the others. Apparently, he kept firing the consulting staff, sending them off, so we weren't able to maintain any coherency on the jobs. The same was happening on the TCI side. Joe propositioned one of the FDC project managers too, without success I believe. Milestones that were supposed to have been completed months ago have been slipped indefinitely."

"Does it still make sense to do the projects?"

"The goals are right, but I'm now wondering if the infrastructure is there to support the systems once they're operational, although that might be months or even more than a year away now."

Jane put her head down and shook her head from side to side.

She looked up at me, smiled weakly, and said, "Will you please take me back to the hotel and fuck my brains out after you pour a bottle of wine into me? Diversion may be the only way I'll be ready to come back here again tomorrow."

I laughed, "With pleasure. I think maybe we should eat too. Did you get lunch?"

"No time."

"Come on, you can't do any more here tonight."

We left the building getting gracious nods from the security guards who now knew who their new boss was. We stopped at a TGIFridays for dinner, and I poured three large glasses of wine into Jane. She got happier with each glass of wine, although the pall of what had happened during the day obviously hung over her.

Back at the hotel, I took special care to divert Jane's attention from the stress she'd built up. I gave her a massage that got increasingly erotic as time progressed. I soon had her popping off orgasms at a steady rate, and I hadn't even penetrated her with anything but fingers and tongue.

We made love twice. Both events were beautiful and mind consuming.

Jane woke me at five o'clock in the morning. "Come on. We have to get to work. I have some ideas and I want some of yours too." I could barely open my eyes I was so groggy, but she was charged up on adrenalin, even after only five hours of sleep.

We had breakfast in the TCI cafeteria. Almost no one was there when we sat down, but by the time we left a couple of hundred TCI employees in the eatery stared at us. Apparently, Joe only appeared for public lynchings, and now here was the new (temporary?) head of the division mingling with the proletariat and even smiling and thanking the cafeteria help for their service and the quality of their meals.

After a short summary of what she'd learned yesterday, Jane asked, "Based on what I've told you, what would you do?"

"Prioritize all the projects in the place. Resources are spread too thin to get results on all of them - even the ones we're helping with, and don't you dare let that influence you. I'd also find a successor unless you want to stay here forever. You've got to change the culture from this fear-based operation Joe created to one oriented to customers and results. I'd do an assessment of the entire management team - your direct reports. Brenda looked sharp, and maybe she can help with that. Get the right people in the right place; you might have to move people around, even do a few promotions or demotions."

"Wow. What'll I do after I finish my coffee?"

"If I get relieved from working on the two projects, I could help you, but I don't know how much you want to rely on an outside consultant?"

"I don't care about that. I need to get this place back in order."

"Let's go layout a plan. I saw that Joe had a conference room with a large white board. We could use that."

Joe's secretary had been a meek older woman named Minnie. I could tell Jane didn't think much of her abilities. I suggested she pull Marge from New Jersey on a temporary basis. She grinned at me, and put in a call to Brenda.

Brenda came by the conference room a half hour later with a pile of folders. She smiled at the two of us, "I think Marge will be here the beginning of next week. I talked to her personally and she thinks the two of you walk on water, by the way. I'm sure there's more there, but I'll ask about that later. I've told Minnie I'm putting her back into the secretarial pool. I think Joe liked her because she gave him blowjobs, but that's more likely a rumor to defuse what was really going on. She probably fucked him morning, noon, and night."

Jane shrugged and pointed at the folders, "What are those?"

"The personnel files on each of your direct reports - all twenty six of them."

Jane gasped, "Twenty six? I thought there were eight."

"Joe didn't like to delegate."

"Do you report to me?"

"Yes."

"Good. Let's not change that."

Brenda looked pleased and relieved. I'm sure they could feel the good chemistry between them, and I was haloed in.

We sat and went through each personnel folder, with Brenda adding in 'color' and more accurate descriptions of each person: eighteen men and eight women, including Brenda who recused comments about herself other than factual information: married, thirty six, one child a freshman in college, BA, etc.

We talked about a logical reorganization of the staff in ways that would seem like a win-win for each of the managers, yet would reduce the number of direct reports. As Jane put it, "Whoever is in this position needs time to look out far ahead of where the organization is today; with twenty-six reports they can't do anything but focus on daily problems. Let the managers deal with the day to day stuff, and keep this position focused on the long term."

By mid-afternoon, we had a cohesive organizational plan laid out. Seven middle managers would be promoted to new roles as division directors, a title not normally used in TCI. The other managers would slide under them in some way, and we acknowledged that some of them would be miffed about feeling left behind because they didn't get promoted. Jane promised she'd deal with each person in one-on-one meetings.

Brenda would continue to be a direct report because of the importance of human resources as a strategic asset in the company. She'd wisely been grooming a successor, who could assume some of her duties and free her up for more of a planning role part of the time.

Brenda asked Jane, "By the way, how is your old position being handled while you're out here in Denver?"

"I've been grooming another woman named Pam Goodwin to take my place. She's taken on the position as an 'acting' until we see how this'll turn out." I smiled thinking of the last time the three of us had been together making love.

Brenda must have caught my look because she gave me a peculiar glance after I caught her studying me. I realized she couldn't possibly have known what I'd been thinking so I went back to what I'd been doing and let the little sexual fantasy continue in my head.

At the end of the workday, Minnie came in, "Miss Jane, I have your schedule for tomorrow - rather what used to be Mr. Collard's schedule. I don't know what you want me to do with some of the meetings."

Jane conferred with Minnie after going over the various scheduled meetings, talking about their purpose. In the end half of them got cancelled, and Jane scheduled a series of one-on-one meetings with each of her then direct reports starting at seven o'clock the next morning. I made a mental note to be sure I got her to work on time. Minnie left to arrange the meetings, and then go home.

Brenda, Jane, and I worked another hour, putting together a presentation for Jane to use with all of the managers at a larger meeting after lunch the next day. After we'd finished three-dozen PowerPoint slides, Jane declared we were done for the day. She gave me a somewhat lecherous grin, and I noticed from the corner of my eye that Brenda caught that look too.

Jane offered, "Brenda, we're dining out as you might expect; would you like to join us? I know you probably have a husband at home, but ... well, if not tonight, one of these evenings. Just casual talk, nothing deep, I promise."

Brenda smiled, "I'd love to, but I have to check in. Might I invite Mike to join us? I'm sure you'll like him. He does most of the marketing for the Denver Broncos. He's also dying to meet the two of you. I spent most of last night telling him about the two of you - extolling your virtues on many fronts."

Jane and I simultaneously said, "Oh, most definitely. Bring him along if he can make it."

A half-hour later, we left the building to connect with Mike at a restaurant near the stadium where he could jump us to the head of the line.

Mike turned out to be a super nice man: tall, dark, handsome, well mannered, polite, an astute business man who appreciated the short summary of what we'd done all day, and a man with more jokes and quippy remarks in his conversational repertoire than anyone I'd ever met. I could see that he and Brenda had a special relationship.

Midway through dinner, Brenda paused in our conversation and dining and asked, "May I ask a delicate question?" Neither Jane nor I were sure to whom she addressed her question. We both nodded.

Brenda continued, "Are you two an item? Secretly?"

I about coughed up the piece of meat I'd been chewing.

Jane laughed, "Yes. What tipped you off?"

"The way you two act with each other. There's an under current of love between the two of you - a deep caring and desire to make each other a success. Also, when you're not looking all gooey eyed at each other about a thousand times a day, you each get that look that signals you really wish you were off in bed somewhere fucking the daylights out of each other."

Jane looked shocked and said, "Oh, my God. I was trying to be so well behaved."

Brenda smirked, "Well, I also got some intelligence from New Jersey about the possibility."

I asked, "Is it bad enough that I should recuse myself from the projects and from working with Jane?"

"Oh, no," Brenda protested. "Not at all. You're a good work team. Just keep any financial decisions on someone else's shoulders and you'll be fine. We have a lot of couples and husband-wife teams in this place, of all ages, so the company is already tolerant of all that. Just avoid conflicts of interest of a financial nature."

After a pause Brenda added, "I think your pairing will be good for all of us. By the way, there are several serious relationships and affairs going on among your management team. See if you can spot them tomorrow."

Jane nodded. She liked guessing games. I could tell our being outed bothered her a little because it might impact her career.

Brenda looked me squarely in the eye and in a tone that had a teasing quality to it asked, "You've been checking me out too, haven't you?"

I groaned but told the truth, "Yes, probably. You're a very attractive woman, and I feel a resonance with you that I rarely find with most other people. I like good-looking, competent women. It's hard not to look at you." I worried that Mike might clobber me in my blind spot, but when I looked at him he was laughing.

Brenda teased, "It's hard?" She giggled with her play on words, and I instantly regretted setting her up for that word play.

I rolled my eyes at her tease. She laughed.

Jane stepped in, "Steve lives with three women in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has a few others he resonates with too."

Brenda laughed, "And you're one of them?"

Jane realized what she'd just said and clammed up, throwing one hand over her mouth. Behind the hand she muttered, "Oops. Just talked too much again."

Brenda asked me, "How many women do you have on the string?"

I said, "Well, that's not easy to answer. We have an open relationship with each other."

Brenda and Mike laughed. Mike asked, "When Jane says you live with them ... errr, does that include intimate relations."

I nodded. "I'm engaged to one, and the other two I live with are her sisters ... and yes, we're intimate and in love. I know it's a bit strange. The term is polyamorous, and I don't advertise it, so please just appreciate and then forget."

Mike kept probing, "But then you have others you sleep with?"

"Errr, this is really not a conversation we should be having ... I mean about my sex life."

Mike protested, "But it's interesting, and arousing. Come on, Steve, answer the question." We'd already established a good rapport with each other, so I knew I'd respond, but it still felt a little awkward.

I leaned forward so I didn't broadcast it to the entire restaurant, "I have about a dozen other women who I'm intimate with on a frequent basis."

Brenda turned to Jane, "Is he a swinger?"

Jane suddenly blushed up to a vermilion shade that left no doubt about the answer. She stuttered, "Errr, that's a strange question and a big leap in our discussion. The wrong terminology too."

Brenda whispered, "Mike and I are attracted to the two of you." She reached across the table so she could touch each of our hands. "If you wanted to ... play or however you put it, we'd be most interested. I'm attracted to Steve, and Mike finds you fascinating." She looked deep into Jane's eyes.

Jane and I both glanced at each other afraid to say anything at this point.

Brenda took our silence as somewhat positive but showing a need to be sold some more. "Mike and I are safe and clean. We've never played around with anybody else, but we've been talking about it a lot recently, both to spice up our marriage and to expand ourselves with some close and intimate friends who think alike. And when the two of you arrived yesterday, I about went ballistic because I knew you were what we were looking for in the first thirty seconds we were together. I even sent Mike a picture of you I took during one of our meetings."