24 comments/  56119 views/  5 favorites

The Fall and Rise of David Beckman Ch. 02

By: K.K.



Two days later I received another call from a customer asking me about a problem with another of my contracts. I couldn't believe it was happening again. I contacted the customer and arranged to bring a correct version of the contract to them myself. 

I was now sure that I had a big problem to deal with. Either I was suddenly incompetent or someone was fucking with me. I was going to have to find out which it was and fix the problem. 

I started by going do to the C&L department and talking to Fred Allard. Fred is a good guy and I trusted him and I knew he would tell me the truth. I asked him if they had been having any problems with my contracts. 

"We have never had any problems with your contracts. We always write your contracts exactly the way you send them into us. Why? Are you finding problems with our work when we give them back to you?" Fred asked.

"Has anyone other than me brought back one of my contracts for revisions?" I asked.

"I don't believe so and I think I would remember if someone did."

"Have you heard anything about problems with anyone else's contracts?" I asked.

"No. Why?"

"I have just had a could of strange things happen lately and I am trying to figure a few things out," I said.

"If there is anything I can do to help, let me know." 

"You have already helped, Fred. Thanks," I said.

That was a dead end. It was beginning to look like I was the one screwing up my contracts. I wasn't sure if it was my ego or if I was right but I just couldn't accept that it was my fault.

*****

That evening I told Erica what happened and she reacted as expected. "So you made a few mistakes," she said, "everyone does. Now that you know what happened you can take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again. Maybe you could ask Bill to start proof reading your contracts with you again." 

"I still don't believe I made any mistakes," I said. "Someone is out to ruin me." 

"Do you have any idea how paranoid that sounds?" Erica asked. "You have no proof that anyone has done anything to your contracts and you can't think of any reason why anyone would want to and, even if someone wanted to mess with one of your contracts, you don't know how they could do it. I am beginning to think that you are just stressed out. Maybe all you need is a vacation." 

"I am getting stressed out but that is not what is causing these problems," I said. "I know this sounds crazy but someone is doing this to me." 

"I think you need some professional help, honey," Erica said. "I am really beginning to worry about you." 

"I am beginning to worry about us," I said. "Not once since this started have you taken my side." 

"That's nonsense. Of course I am on your side. I just want you to get help." 

"I don't need help." 

That was the end of the conversation for that night. Erica went off to bed and I retired to the family room with a large glass of scotch.

*****

The next morning found me in Mike's office, not by choice.

"David, I am getting concerned about the number of mistakes you are making in your contracts," Mike said.

I wondered how Mike had heard about the other problems. Had Bill told him? 

"Your customers think that you are trying to take things out of the contract after they have agreed to the terms. What the hell is going on?" Mike asked.

I was at a lost to explain what was happening. If I tried to tell Mike that I thought that someone was screwing with my contracts, I knew he wouldn't believe it. No one else believed it so why would Mike. I decided to keep my mouth shut and let Mike finish his rant. When he was done, I told him I would try to find out why this was happening and then I left his office.

*****

When I told Erica about the meeting with Mike, she asked me if I was ready to consider asking for help. I was so pissed I didn't speak to her for the rest of the night. When we went to bed that night, she apologized to me. 

"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings; it is just that there doesn't seem to be any logical explanation for the problems you are having," she said.

I told her that I thought that Bill might be the one messing with my contracts. 

"Why would he do that?" she asked. "What would he gain by causing problems for you and your customers?"

"I don't know," I said. I really didn't know. "It's just that Bill is the only person who knew about the last couple of problems and suddenly today Mike knew about them. Bill told me he was going to keep this information from Mike. I can't think of any reason that Bill would do this but there is no reason that anyone else in the company would do this to me either." 

"Bill has been trying to help you and now you are ready to accuse him of tampering with your contracts," Erica said. "Your paranoia is really beginning to scare me." 

I let it drop and Erica cuddled up to me and whispered, "Why don't you forget about work now and make love to me?" 

That sounded like a very good suggestion so I slid my hands down Erica's sides until I reached the hem of her short nightgown and then I pulled it up and over her head. I immediately went to work on Erica's sensitive nipples followed by some passionate kissing. 

Erica likes it when I talk dirty to her during sex so I whispered, "You want me to stick my tongue in your hot pussy, don't you?"

"Umm," was her response.

I began to kiss my way down over Erica's breast to her belly and on down to her triangle of dark hair. We hadn't planed on having sex that night so we hadn't showered before going to bed so the musky scent of Erica's womanhood was very strong and getting stronger as I got closer to her soft mound. 

I used my tongue to separate her neither lips and as I penetrated her sex her natural juices were just beginning to flow. I sucked the little nub of her clit between my lips and used my tongue to fully arouse her. When I could feel her juices running down my chin, I pushed two fingers into her cavern and slowly worked her into an orgasm. 

When I moved back up on top of Erica and pushed my cock inside her, Erica attached my mouth with her lips and tongue. I could tell that Erica was hot because she didn't usually kiss me that way right after I had gone down on her unwashed pussy.

I started pumping my engorged cock into her slowly gradually picking up speed as my own excitement increased. That night was one of the infrequent occasions that we both climaxed at the same time. 

Afterwards Erica lay in my arms and drifted off to sleep.

*****

Things were quiet around the office for the next week and then I got a call from George Harris, the CIO at Clinton Products. He asked me if I could come see him the next day and I said that I would be happy to and I asked him what the subject of the meeting would be and he said that he would rather not say. That puzzled me a bit.

The next morning, instead of going into the office I drove down to Macon to meet with George Harris. On the drive down, I pondered the possible reasons for this meeting. I hadn't talked to him for more than a year. I was sure that it wasn't a contract problem because we were still under the terms of a contract we had agreed to two years earlier. Clinton Products was the first new account I had signed up when I started with BDS. I had gotten my foot in the door by winning a contract to provide a third of the network services required by the company. Over the years George Harris and I had become friends and I had managed to talk him into increasing BDS' share of their business to half of the services they required. I just hoped that this meeting wouldn't decrease our share of their services budget.

When I walked into the reception area the receptionist recognized me." Good morning, Mr. Beckman. How are you?"

"I am great, thank you, Sarah. I have a meeting with Mr. Harris. Can I just go up?"

Sarah smiled and said, "No." 

That was a first. Normally I would just be waived through the lobby and I would head straight up to George's office. I look at Sarah and waited for an explanation.

"Mr. Harris' office isn't in the data center anymore. He is on the second floor directly above us. Now that you know where you are going you can go on up." 

Sarah always did like to tease me a little whenever I came to visit. I thanked her and headed for the elevators. When I got to his office, I did a double take. Outside his door was a sign, which read "George Harris, Chief Executive Officer". 

There was no secretary at the desk outside his office so I didn't know whether to knock or just walk in. As I was trying to decide, the door opened and an attractive young lady came out of the office. She smiled at me and said, "You must be Mr. Beckman. Mr. Harris is expecting you. You can go right in." 

I thanked her and stepped inside the huge office. George Harris got up from behind his enormous desk and came around to greet me. 

"David, good to see you again. Thanks for coming on such short notice." 

"No problem," I said. "I guess I should congratulate you on your promotion. When did that happen?"

"About six months ago." 

"That's terrific," I said. "I am happy for you. Now how can I help the new CEO of Clinton Products?"

"I have always liked you, David," he said. "I always felt that I could trust you and have never regretted signing that first contract we signed together. As you remember I was not a supporter of the idea of splitting our services among multiple vendors and now that I am CEO I can do things my way. My promotion to CEO isn't the only major change around here. We are about to announce the acquisition of two other companies that will at least triple the size of Clinton Products. This won't be announced until Friday and that's why I couldn't tell you anything on the phone. As a matter of fact, before we go any farther I need you to sign a non-disclosure agreement. I can't afford to have this pre-announced. I am sure you understand." 

George already had the non-disclosure document on his desk and I quickly signed it.

"David, I have decided to use a single source for all of our services and wanted to give you the first opportunity to put together a proposal to do just that. I would like to see your proposal by the first of June so that gives you six weeks to put it together. Do you think you can pull that off?" George said. 

"It'll be tight but I believe I can get a proposal to you by then," I said. "What would be the term of the contract?"

"I want the contract to commence on July 1 and run for five years,' George said.

"Five years?" I could feel my heart rate increasing as I considered how much this contract would be worth to BDS." I'll need some information on the two companies you acquired." 

"The two acquired companies are Augusta Industries in Augusta and Beaucom Manufacturing in Kennesaw. I have contacts for you at both locations," George said and handed me two business cards. "They should be able to provide any information you'll need." 

I spent another two hours with George as we discussed the scope of the services he wanted BDS to provide. Before I left we set up a schedule of weekly telephone calls to update him on the progress I was making and so that I could relay to him any problems I was having getting the information I needed.

As I was preparing to leave, George shook my hand and said, "I hope you realize that there are a lot of companies I could have gotten these services from. I chose BDS because of you. Good luck. I'll talk to you next week." 

On the drive back to Atlanta, I thought about all the work I had ahead of me and who I could get to help. It was then that I decided not to tell anyone what I was working on. I knew it would be a lot of work to do it all myself but I didn't want Bill or Mike to know about this deal until I had the final contract.

*****

I was in a good mood when I got home that evening and Erica noticed. "Looks like you had a good day today," she said. "It's nice to see you smiling when you come into the house for a change." 

"How could I help but smile when I knew I was coming home to the most beautiful woman in Georgia?"

"Only in Georgia?" Erica teased.

"I haven't been everywhere else in the country yet so I can't be sure that there isn't someone more beautiful out there," I teased back. 

Erica put her arms around my neck and kissed me. 

"Kiss me like that again and dinner will have to be late," I said.

"I think we better eat dinner first because you are going to need the energy," Erica said and kissed the end of my nose. "Would you like a beer before dinner?"

"That would be great." 

Erica and I took our drinks into the family room and sat on the sofa. 

"So, what has put you in such a good mood today. You have been down and grumpy for the last couple of months so this is a welcome change," Erica said.

"I just started working on a proposal for one of my customers that could turn out to be very big," I said.

"Is Bill working with you on it?"

I snapped my head around and gave Erica a stern look. "No." 

"Don't you think that you should ask him for help if it is that big of an opportunity?"

"I am running this one by myself," I said. "I am completely capable of doing my job without outside interference." 

"It's not outside interference. It would still be your deal. I just thought that after the recent problems you have had that it might be a good idea to ask for help," Erica said.

"I don't need or want any help from Bill or anyone else," I said. "So let's just drop this, okay?"

"Okay." 

Even though she said it, I knew she didn't mean it. The problems I was having at work were a real pain in the ass but the fact that those problems were affecting Erica's confidence in me is what really hurt.

*****

For the next four weeks I didn't go into the office at all. I spent most of my time at one of the Clinton Product locations. Mondays and Tuesdays I was in Kennesaw, Wednesdays and Thursdays I was in Augusta. Fridays I spent visiting my other customers. I was putting in twelve and fifteen-hour days but I was making good progress. Erica was very supportive during that time. She would wait to have dinner with me no matter how late I got home. However, she did occasionally suggest that maybe it was time to ask for help. By the end of that fourth week I had my initial proposal and I made an appointment with George Harris to do a preliminary review of the proposal.

For the meeting George had brought in my contacts from the Augusta site and the Kennesaw site as well as the new CIO at Clinton Products. We spent six hours going over my proposal line by line. In the end there were very few changes to be made so we schedule a final meeting for the first of June. 

I spent the next two weeks in the BDS offices making the final changes to my proposal and checking Clinton Products financial condition. I ran a Dunn and Bradstreet (D&B) and they came up clean. I put the final proposal together seven days before the final meeting. I was finished a week early and I was quite proud of myself. As I put the final document into my brief case, Bill came over to my desk.

"Got a minute?" he asked.

I said, "Sure," and followed him into his office.

"I haven't seen you in the office much over the last few weeks," Bill said. "I was wondering what you have been up to." 

"It's been a bit slow lately so I have been out visiting my customers trying to drum up some business," I said.

"You got anything coming in?" He asked.

"Some small orders right now," I said. "Hopefully things will turn around next month." 

There was something in the way Bill was looking at me that made me wonder if he knew more than he was letting on. Could he possibly know about the proposal I was putting together for Clinton Products?

"Okay, good. If anything big should come up, let me know. As you said, things have been a bit slow and we could certainly use some good news," Bill said.

I could tell that our meeting was over so I stood up. "If anything big crops up, I'll be sure to let you know," I said and then left his office.

I wondered about that meeting for the rest of the afternoon. I finally decided that there was no way he could know about Clinton Products and if he did know he would have come right out and asked about it. I guessed that I was just being paranoid.

My final meeting with Clinton Products was scheduled for the following Wednesday so I spent the time before the meeting squeezing out some modest contracts from my other customers.

*****

The meeting with Clinton Products went better that I hoped for. We went over the whole proposal again and everyone was in agreement that no changes needed to be made. The total price of the proposal was slightly more than ten million dollars over five years. 

George Harris looked around the room and said, "Last chance, any additions, deletions, or other changes?"

No one spoke. I reached inside my suit jacket and pulled out my Mont Blanc pen and handed it to George. Without another word, George took the pen from me and signed the proposal.

"I'll take this back to my office and have the contract drawn up and bring it back for your signature next week," I said.

"Fine. I guess that does it. I want to thank everyone for their efforts," George said and then ended the meeting.

*****

I was in an extremely good mood during my drive home that evening. Erica was waiting inside the door as I came into the house from the garage." Well? How did it go?"

"They signed the proposal. Ten mil over five years. Mike is going to shit his pants when he sees this one," I said.

"I am so proud of you, honey," Erica said as she wrapped her arms around me and kissed me. Erica then took my hand and led me into the bedroom where she helped me undress. I returned the favor and then Erica led me to the shower where she gave me the full treatment. I stood still while she lathered and lovingly washed my whole body. 

She got down on her knees to wash between my legs and then she took my semi-erect cock into her mouth. As my cock stiffened, Erica cupped my balls with her left hand and she wrapped her right hand around my shaft. Erica pumped my shaft with her hand while she sucked and licked the purple helmet. I leaned back against the wall while Erica continued to pleasure my member until I climaxed. My orgasm was so intense that I could feel my legs getting weak. 

Erica continued sucking until no more cum was leaking from my softening cock. Then she went back to bathing me. When Erica finished bathing me, I stood there enjoying the feel of the hot water while Erica bathed herself. 

We got out of the shower, dried quickly and headed back to the bedroom. As soon as we climbed onto the bed, Erica had my cock in her mouth again. I managed to get us both turned so that I could get a taste of her wonderful pussy. One of my favorite parts of making love to Erica is going down on her. I love the way she smells and the taste of her juices when they begin to flow. I sometimes think I could have an orgasm just from the thrill I get from eating Erica's pussy.

We continued to orally pleasure each other until my cock was fully recharged and Erica had an orgasm. Erica pushed me onto my back and straddled me and then reached between us to guide my cock into her slippery sex. Erica bounced up and down on me for a while and then she lay on top of me. She continued to hump me just using her pelvic motions while she pushed her tongue down my throat.

When I finally felt myself building toward my orgasm I rolled Erica over so that I was on top of her and I started pounding into her fast and hard. I had a wonderfully powerful orgasm but I kept stroking into Erica, slower than before but I kept moving. It took just a couple more minutes for Erica to erupt in orgasm.

Afterward we just held each other for a while and after twenty minutes we got up and dressed. 


The Fall and Rise of David Beckman Ch. 02



*****

The next morning I kissed Erica as I prepared to leave for work. "You know I love you don't you? Last night was wonderful," I said.

"Play your cards right and you might get a repeat performance tonight," Erica said and then kissed me again.

When I got to the office I went directly to the Contracts and Legal Department and handed the Clinton Products proposal to Fred Allard.

"Fred, I need you to do a legal review on this proposal and then write up the contract. When you are finished, I want this taken directly to Mike's office. I don't want you to show this to anyone else. Okay?"

Fred smiled and winked at me, "No one will see this but me and Mike," he said.

I thanked him and left. I knew that Mike wouldn't see the contract until the next day so I went out to visit some customers.

*****

Thursday night wasn't quite a repeat of the night before but it was pretty damn close. It made getting out of bed Friday morning a little difficult. 

"Hey, Babe, why don't we both call in sick today and stay in bed?' I asked.

"Yeah, right. Like you could stay home today," Erica said. "I know how anxious you are to get to the office to hear what Mike has to say about your big contract." 

I had to laugh. She knew me too well. "Guess we better get up then." 

*****

When I got to my desk there was already a message on my voice mail from Mike. The message said that I was to come see him immediately.

As I walk up to Mike's office, I had difficulty trying to remove the smile from my face. I knew that he wouldn't like me to come in there looking smug. When I got to his office, Marci looked at me and I got the impression that she was sad about something. Before I could ask her what was wrong I heard Mike yell out from his office. "Is that David? Tell him to get his ass in here." 

Marci just nodded her head toward the door so I decided I would have to talk to Marci later to see what she was bothering her.

"Close the door," Mike said as I entered his office.

I closed the door and took a seat in front of Mike's desk. When Mike finally looked at me he didn't look happy. "What the fuck are you trying to pull?" He shouted at me.

I shook my head. "I don't know what you're talking about," I said.

Mike threw a copy of the Clinton Products contract across the desk at me. When I saw the contract I knew that Mike was just trying to bust my balls a little. "Pretty good, huh? Ten million over five years," I said. 

"Are you totally incompetent or did you really think you could get away with this?" Mike growled.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, Mike." 

"You do realize that on a contract this large you have to check the customer's financial background so that we don't get stuck with a contract that we can't collect on?"

"Of course I do. I did check them out and there were no problems," I said but I was beginning to get scared. Could I have missed something?

"Well, then, maybe you can explain how you missed this," Mike said as he slid a sheet of paper across his desk.

As I read the page Mike had given me I could feel my stomach begin to roll. What he had handed me was a copy of a news article from the Wall Street Journal, dated three weeks earlier. As I don't have the article in front of me right now I'll just relate the gist of it. The story said that Clinton Products of Macon, Georgia was under investigation by the SEC. There were reports that Clinton Products had intentionally misrepresented the company's financial condition in their quarterly and annual reports. The story went on to say that if the information that the SEC had received was true the company was probably headed for bankruptcy. The story went on to say that an unidentified source had told the SEC that the company executives were pulling an Enron.

When I finished reading the article, I looked up at Mike. I didn't know what to say or do so I just sat there and waited for Mike to say something.

"Do you realize that if Bill hadn't seen this story we would have signed this contract with them? Then when they collapsed financially we would have lost everything we invested into this deal," he said. 

This was a fuck up of historic proportions. Somehow hearing that Bill was the one who had discovered the news article made things even worse. 

"Mike, this isn't my fault. I ran the D&B and the report showed no problems," I said.

"The hell it isn't your fault. The SEC investigation is just getting started so D&B wouldn't have any negative information yet. They won't report the problem until they get confirmation from the SEC that there was wrong doing. It's obvious that this deal was too big for you to handle. This never would have happened if you had Bill involved from the start." 

"What was I supposed to do? If the D&B report said they were okay, how was I to know there was a problem?"

"Do some fucking research the way Bill did. All you had to do was do a search on the Wall Street Journal for any mention of Clinton Products and you would have found this story yourself. I suspect that you could only see the size of the deal and you almost fucked us." 

"It's not too late," I said. "We haven't signed a contract with them yet. I'll go back out to Clinton next week and find out what is going on." 

"That is exactly what we are going to do but you aren't going to be involved." 

"But they are my customer and if this was my mistake, you have to let me try and fix it," I said.

"They aren't your customer anymore. Your performance over the last few months has been erratic and now with this fuck up I have lost my patience with you. I am terminating your employment effective immediately," Mike said. "Just wait here." 

Mike left the office and while he was out I tried to understand what had just happened to me. I couldn't believe I had just been fired. I wanted to get up and run somewhere and scream but I couldn't seem to make my legs move. 

I don't know how much time passed before Mike returned but when he came back he had two security guards with him. To the guards, Mike said, "Escort Mr. Beckman to his desk and watch him as he packs his personal belongings. Also collect his badge and his desk keys. When he finishes packing his stuff, escort him down to payroll so he can pick up his severance check. After he gets his check, escort him to his car and make sure he leaves the company's property." 

Mike sat down at his desk and didn't look at me as the security guards escorted me from his office. 

From the time I left Mike's office until I was escorted out to my car I was in a fog. I drove straight home. I was so depressed by the time I walked in the door the only thing I could think to do was to curl up in bed. I don't actually remember getting into bed that day but I woke up about three o'clock that afternoon. I knew Erica would be home around five o'clock and I didn't want to be sitting there looking so pathetic when she walked into the house. My brilliant solution to that was to drive to a shopping center about a mile from our house. There was a Chili's restaurant in that shopping center and that was my destination. I told myself I was going there to have a late lunch and that's what I did if you can consider bourbon a proper lunch food. By six o'clock I was half in the bag so I left my car at the shopping center and walked home. 

When I walked in the house I could see that Erica was very upset. It wasn't because I was late getting home. It was only 6:20. I seldom got home from work before 6:45.

"Where have you been? I have been worried sick about you," Erica said.

I thought of all of the possible reasons why Erica might be worried about me and then I reviewed all of my possible answers before I gave her a response. 

I said, "Huh?" 

"Bill Nelson called here shortly after I got home. He told me what happened. Are you okay?" She said.

"I'm shnot okay yet but ip I could hab anutter drinky-pooh well den I'd be terripic." I said in a slightly altered version of the English language.

I wanted to say something else but I forgot what it was so I headed into the family room and sat down to wait for Erica to bring me my drink. While I waited I remembered what I had wanted to say, "Who the fuck does Bill Nelson think he is calling my wife to tell her I was fired?" 

Of course I never did ask that question. When I woke up that Saturday morning I was still on the sofa in the family room. Erica had put a pillow under my head and had covered me with a blanket. I got up and wondered into the kitchen where I found Erica sitting at the table with her coffee and the morning paper. I poured myself a cup and sat at the table with Erica.

"How are you feeling this morning?" Erica asked.

"Not bad for a hung over out of work salesman," I said.

"I don't think this is something to joke about," Erica said. "What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know. I'll have to give that some thought." 

"Is there any chance that Mike will take you back?"

"No, and even if he did offer to give me back my job, I wouldn't take it. I always knew the big dumb shit was an asshole but the way he treated me yesterday was way out of line. I admit that I screwed up but that doesn't give him the right to talk to me that way," I said.

"What did he say to you?"

I told Erica about the confrontation with Mike, expecting her to express anger at the way I had been treated.

"Well, what would you expect him to say after a screw up like that? It seems he has been letting some of your mistakes slide and he just couldn't take anymore." 

"I can't believe you are taking his side in this," I said.

"I'm not. But you have to see things from both sides if you expect to be able to work with him again. After all, you have worked there for nearly twelve years. Are you just going to throw that all away and try to start over?"

"Weren't you listening to me? I said he won't take me back and I wouldn't go back there even if he would," I responded.

Erica and I didn't talk much the rest of the weekend and the following week wasn't much better. It wasn't because we were angry; it was because we just didn't know what to say to each other. Besides, I was so depressed I didn't want to talk to anyone anyway.

By Wednesday of that week, tension had started to build in our home. Erica asked me each day if I had looked for a job and I would reply that I was going to start the next day. The truth was I just didn't feel like I had the energy to go job hunting. All I wanted to do was sleep and, when I wasn't sleeping, I wanted to have a few drinks to dull the pain of my humiliation. I could tell that my behavior annoyed Erica but she let it slide until Wednesday night.

"Damn it, David, you have to get out of this funk you're in. We can't afford to have you out of work for a long period of time." 

I didn't like the pressure Erica was putting on me but I knew she was right so I didn't argue with her. 

"Bill Nelson called to see how you were doing. He offered to write you a good recommendation if it would help," Erica said.

"Why the hell is he calling you?"

"I don't know. Maybe he knows you won't talk to him if he calls you." 

"Well, he's right about that." 

"Why are you acting that way? Bill didn't do anything to you. He said that he tried to talk Mike out of firing you but Mike wouldn't listen to him. Bill likes you and just wants to help." 

"He could have helped by not going to Mike with that Wall Street Journal article," I said.

"You know he couldn't ignore that. It would have meant his job too," Erica said.

"I know you're right but that doesn't make me like him." 

The same kind of arguments occurred on Thursday and Friday. By Saturday I just avoided talking to Erica all together.

Monday started out like it was going to be a repeat of the previous week so I continued to avoid conversations with Erica. I just pulled myself farther into my shell. Then on Wednesday Erica dropped a bomb on me. When she came home from work that evening, she asked me to sit down with her because she had something to tell me. I must say that the tone of her voice worried me. I knew that whatever she was going to tell me was not going to be good news.

"My boss called me in and told me that there was an opening in a training class that he wanted me to attend. The class starts Tuesday in Los Angeles. I'll be flying to LA Monday morning and will be coming home late on Friday."

I didn't respond to Erica right away. She didn't ask me a question and I didn't know what to say anyhow. I was trying to figure out how I felt about her going away for a week under our current circumstances.

"This is a great opportunity for me. I need this class so I can qualify for promotion and I think it might do us both good if we spent a few days apart. Maybe while I am away, you will start to feel better."

I found myself to be ambivalent about the subject at hand. I couldn't seem to feel any emotion about the prospect of Erica being away for a week.

"Well? What do you think?" she asked.

I looked at her and read something in her eyes. "You already made you reservations, didn't you?"

Erica looked a little embarrassed as she answered me. "Yes. I had to lock in the seat for the class before someone else took it." 

"Being that you have already decided that you are going, I guess you should go," I said.

"You could try to at least pretend to be supportive," Erica said.

"I'm sorry. I am just not feeling well," I said.

"I'm shocked," Erica said. I could hear the sarcasm in her voice but I chose to ignore it. Instead I went into my home office and pretended to read a book.

*****

I may have been ambivalent on Wednesday when Erica told me about her trip but by Sunday night I was anything but. By then my depression had turned into pure anxiety. I was worried about everything and the thought of Erica going away for a week was turning me into a basket case.

That was when I got the bright idea to ask Erica to reschedule her class. Did I say brilliant idea? Actually it turned out that it wasn't a very good idea to ask her to reschedule her class the night before she was supposed to leave. That horse wasn't leaving the gate.

It was eight o'clock Sunday evening and we had just finished watching 'Sixty Minutes' on television when Erica announced that she was going to take a bath. As she rose from the sofa to go upstairs, I put my foot firmly in my mouth.

"Erica, I was just wondering. Well, you know, I haven't been doing too well the last couple of weeks and I was thinking that maybe you could... ah... cancel this trip tomorrow and maybe reschedule the class for another time," I said.

Erica gave me a nasty look and said, "Don't do this to me now." Then she headed up the stairs. 

I followed her upstairs and into the bedroom. I flopped down on the bed as she began undressing and then I tried to restate my argument for why she should stay home with me. Her reaction wasn't as positive as I had hoped it would be.

"You want me to give up this opportunity because you screwed up and lost your job? You know my job is just as important to me as yours was to you and, now that I am the only one of us with a job, it's even more important," Erica said, obviously straining to control her temper.

"I know this is important to you," I said. "I just thought that under the circumstances you could arrange to take that class later. I am not doing too well with this situation and I would like to have your support to help me get through this." 

For a brief moment, I actually thought that I saw fire in Erica's eyes when she looked at me. I could feel the heat of her anger in her words when she tore into me.

"You're such a loser," Erica said. "This is your own fault. All you had to do was ask Bill to help you and this never would have happened. You just had to try and do this on your own and you fucked it up. Now you have lost your job and your self-respect. Well, don't expect to drag me down with you. In case you haven't realized this, your screw up doesn't just effect you, it effects both of us." 

*****

It was at least forty-five minutes before the bathroom door opened. It was dark in the bedroom so the only light was coming from the bathroom behind Erica as she stood naked in the doorway. Erica's face and the front of her body were in shadow and the light coming from behind cast a kind of aura around her. My eyes were drawn to the light shining between her legs, highlighting her mound and making her curly hairs glow as if they were gold. The erotic view gave me an erection while at the same time my heart ached. I had made Erica angry with me the night before she was going away. A time when we should be making love, not arguing.

I wasn't sure if Erica could see me in the dark as I was enjoying the delicious view of her lovely body. I expected Erica to go into her closet to get her nightgown but she just stood in the doorway for a minute and then came over to the bed. I was very surprised when she got on the bed and laid her head on my chest. 

"I am sorry, David. You are not a loser and I never should have called you one," she said. "It's just that over these last few months you have behaved strangely and I have the feeling that you need help. I no longer know what to do. I only know that I love you and that I will help you get through this. Please understand that I have to go to this class tomorrow. When I get home Friday we will figure this out and I'll help you get through this." 

I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. Erica still loved me and that was all that was important at that moment. As I contemplated that, Erica lifted her head and kissed me while at the same time she slipped her hand inside my pants and began to stroke my already hard cock.

"I see my body still has a positive effect on you," Erica said. "I wasn't sure if you were looking at me when I came out of the bathroom but, from the greeting I am getting from my friend down here, I can tell you were looking and that I can still turn you on." 

Erica kissed me again and began to unbutton my shirt. She spread my shirt open and started kissing my chest and sucking on my nipples. She moved slowly down my chest while she worked at opening my pants. I lifted my hips up to help as she pulled my pants down so that she could remove them. 

I looked down at Erica as she lowered her head and took my cock into her mouth and swirled her tongue around its head. Enjoying the wonderful sensations of Erica's mouth around my cock, I closed my eyes and lay my head on the pillow. I couldn't help but marvel at how different this evening was turning out from what I had expected just ten minutes earlier. I had expected Erica to come out of the bathroom, put on a nightgown and go to bed without speaking to me. I certainly didn't expect to be getting oral sex from her.

Erica had me close to climax when she released my cock from her mouth.

"My turn," she said and turned her body so that I could get my head between her legs. 

When I ran my tongue over her pussy lips I could already taste the nectar of her aroused sex. The idea that she had become aroused while giving me pleasure made me want to drive her wild. I sucked her clit between my lips and slipped a finger into her and did my best to give her a quick orgasm. Her first orgasm was small but it left her wanting more and I was able to give her a second, much bigger orgasm just a few minutes later. 

"Hurry, I want you inside me now," she said as soon as her orgasm subsided.

Not wanting to disappoint her I moved on top of her and pushed my flesh saber inside her. As I pumped into her, she began to talk. 

"Oh, yes. That feels wonderful. Oh, God, I love you." Erica went on like that until she started to climax and then she just pulled my face to hers and kissed me hard while she came. 




The Fall and Rise of David Beckman Ch. 02



It was another five minutes before I reached my orgasm. Afterward we just held each other for a while with my softening cock still inside Erica. 

"That was wonderful, honey," Erica said. "Do you think you can do it again?"

"I'll need a little while to recover but I think I can go again." 

"I'll help you recover," she said and then did something that she never did before. Erica pushed me off her and rolled me onto my back. Then she took my cock, which was covered with both of our love juices, into her mouth and began to suck me back to life.

When my cock began to respond to Erica's efforts and I felt my desire building again, I decided to do something I had never done before. I decided to go down on Erica's messy pussy. I figured it was our shared mess and if she could do it so could I. 

When I moved Erica around so that I could get my head between her legs while she continued to suck on my cock, I was a little hesitant and Erica stopped what she was doing.

"You don't have to do that for me," she said.

There was something about the way she said it that made me think she really wanted me to do it. So I just moved my head between her legs and pushed my tongue inside her. When I started tonguing her clit, Erica said, "Oh, that is so hot. I can't believe you are doing that." 

It turned out that eating her pussy wasn't all that unpleasant and the effect it was having on Erica made it more than worth the effort. Encouraged by her response, I continued licking and tonguing her while using two fingers to help until she had a massive orgasm.

Erica stopped her oral action on my cock just long enough for her orgasm to pass and then she started again and wouldn't stop when I told her I was about to cum. Erica sucked me dry. 

We turned ourselves around and laid there looking at each other." I'm sorry, babe, but I don't think I'll be able to get it up again tonight," I said.

"That's okay. I am more than satisfied. I can't believe you did that to me. I think that is the hottest thing you've ever done to me," Erica said.

"You like that more than fucking?"

"No. It was just so different. I know you could never have done that if you didn't love me and that is what made that so hot. What you did affected me mentally as well as physically. What I mean is that what you were doing felt good. It always feels good when you do that but the idea that you would do that to me right after you had cum inside me just blew me away. I kept thinking I should tell you to stop but I couldn't. I didn't want you to stop... I love you so much." 

We held each other for a while and then drifted off to sleep.

*****

To be continued... 



The Fall and Rise of David Beckman Ch. 03



Monday morning we were both up early. It was 5:00 AM and I was fixing breakfast while Erica showered and finished her packing. When she came into the kitchen, she smiled at me and she actually blushed a little. 

"Did you sleep well?" I asked.

Erica kissed me and said, "I slept wonderfully." 

"Coffee?"

"Yes, please... Oh, before I forget, here is the itinerary for my trip." 

Erica handed me the one page document and I set it on the kitchen counter. I looked at Erica again and smiled. I was feeling better than I had at anytime since my problems first began a few months earlier. I am not sure why but I was sure that the love making the night before had something to do with it.

At 6:30 AM, Erica's taxi arrived and I carried her suitcase out for her. Before she got into the cab, Erica hugged and kissed me. "I love you. You know that, don't you?"

"Yes." 

"Everything is going to be okay now." 

"I know," I said. "I feel much better already. As a matter of fact as soon as you leave I am going to update my resume and start the job hunt. By the time you get home Friday I will have a new job." 

I saw a tear on Erica's cheek as she leaned in to kiss me again and then she got into the taxi and left. I watched as the taxi turned the corner at the end of our street and disappeared from sight. I stood there for another moment and then turned to go back into the house. 

As I entered the house, I had no idea of the turmoil that would face me over the next few days.

*****

Feeling more positive about the future than I had in a couple of months, I poured myself a cup of coffee, picked up Erica's itinerary off the kitchen table and headed for my home office. 

My plan was to dust off my resume and start sending it around and maybe even post it on Monster.com. I turned on my computer and as it booted up I looked over Erica's itinerary. Her flight to LA was at 9:05 AM that morning and she would arrive in LA at 1:30 PM Pacific time, 4:30 PM Eastern. She was staying at the Westin Bonaventure on South Figueroa Street in LA. Her return flight would leave LA on Friday at 2:17 PM Pacific time and arrived in Atlanta at 10:50 PM. 

I was still looking at the itinerary when my computer finished its calisthenics and was ready for me to begin my work. I went to the 'My Documents' folder to get the most recent version of my resume. Several of the documents in this folder were work related and one of them was my last draft to the Clinton Products' proposal. Seeing that caused a pain in my chest. I felt myself sliding back into my depression but I forced myself to fight it. If I let that take over I would never accomplish what I needed to get done. I sat and stared at the Clinton Products file and suddenly I needed to know how I had messed that up. I thought about how hard I had worked on putting the proposal together. I had worked closely with George Harris and the rest of his team and there was never a hint from them that they might be in financial trouble. It occurred to me that things just didn't make sense. Clinton Products had just bought two other companies. How could they have done that if they were in financial trouble? I had to get to the bottom of this. 

I looked at the clock and it was 7:50 AM. I picked up the phone and dialed. 

"George Harris speaking." 

"I was hoping you would be in early," I said.

"David? I am glad you called. I have wanted to talk to you." 

That surprised me. "About what?" I asked.

"I got a call last week from a Mr. Nelson. He told me there was a small problem with the contract and that he was going to come out and see me next week to straighten it out," George said.

"Did he say what the problem was?"

"No. I asked him and he said he would rather talk about it face to face. I asked him why you didn't call me about the problem and he said that you were no longer working on the Clinton Products account. Can you tell me what in the hell is going on?"

"What can you tell me about a Wall Street Journal article that said Clinton Products was being investigated by the SEC for cooking your books and that you may have to file Chapter eleven?"

"That's old news. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Old news? It was only five weeks ago. That's what is holding up this deal.

"What are you talking about? That story was in the Journal over three years ago and it was a bogus investigation triggered by a former employee. He was angry about getting fired so he called the SEC and made some wild accusations about our bookkeeping. The SEC sent an investigator down here and he interviewed a few people and then the investigation was closed. There was a second article the following week that explained what happened. How could you have mistaken a three year old article for being only five weeks old?" George said.

"When I saw the copy of the article the date on it was 4/17/2002." 

"All you had to do was call me and I could have cleared this up for you," he said. "I can't believe you would let a misunderstanding about a news story derail our contract." 

"I would have called if I had been given the chance," I said. "I was fired before I could even try to find out what happened." 

"Fired? They fired you because of this? What kind of Tinker Toy outfit do you work for?" George said. "Do you want me to call your boss and straighten him out?"

"No. I think I'll do that myself. There is more involved here than just this one contract. Will you do me a favor though?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

"Don't talk to anybody about this until I talk to you again. I'll call you tomorrow and we will get things straightened out." 

"No problem. Just remember what I told you before. The only reason I was going to sign a contract with BDS was because of you. If you don't work there, they don't get my business." 

"Thanks for the support, George. I'll call you tomorrow afternoon and I'll straighten this mess out." 

After the call, I was feeling better about myself because I hadn't fucked up after all but I was also extremely angry. I finally had an answer to who was behind my problems. It was Bill Nelson who had been fucking me over. I still didn't know why. Why would he have dug up that old WSJ article and changed the date to make it look like it was recent? Was his plan to get me fired and if so, why?

This got me to thinking about the other problems I had been having. Could he have tampered with my other contracts? On a hunch I called the mailroom at BDS. "Mail Room, Jenson speaking." 

"Morning, Tom. David Beckman here." 

"Morning, David. I thought you left BDS." 

"I did but I might be correcting that later today," I said. "Got a question for you." 

"Okay, shoot." 

"Over the last few months, has Bill Nelson ever come down to the mail room to pull any of my contracts before they got mailed out." 

"Didn't have to," Tom said.

"What do you mean he didn't have to?"

"He didn't have to come down her to get your contracts. He sent us a memo a couple of months ago that said we were to bring him any outgoing mail that had your name in the return address," Tom said.

"Did he say why he wanted to see all of my outgoing mail?"

"No." 

"Did he ever ask to have anyone else's mail brought up to him?"

"No. Is there a problem?"

"Yes. Didn't you think it was improper for him to ask to see my outgoing mail?" 

"A little but what was I supposed to do?"

"You should have told me," I said. "Do you still have the memo Bill sent you? "Yes." 

"Here's what I want you to do. I want you to put the memo into an envelope and hold it until I come pick it up," I said.

"I don't know if I should do that. After all you don't even work here anymore." 

"Here's the deal ... you give me that memo and I won't report you for tampering with my mail. That is illegal, you know." 

"Shit, man, I was just doing what I was told," Tom said.

"Doing something because you were told to do it is no excuse when you know that it's wrong. So ... are you going to give me that memo?"

"Yeah. I'll have it for you when you come in." 

"Thanks, Tom." 

As I put down the phone, I could feel the anger building. All this time I had mistakenly believed that once I dropped my contracts in the outgoing mail that they were safe but it turns out they weren't. Bill Nelson was getting my contracts out of the mailroom and editing them to make me look bad. His tampering with my contracts had cost me my job and had put a terrible strain on my marriage. He would have to pay for that.

I now knew what was done, how it was done and who did it but I still had no idea why Bill Nelson was trying to destroy me.

*****

It was just after nine o'clock in the morning when I placed a call to Barry Schwartz.

"IBM, Barry Schwartz speaking. How can I help you?"

"Good morning, Barry. This is David Beckman. I'm not sure you remember me. We met out in San Jose in a Cisco class several months ago." 

"Of course I remember you, David. It's funny that you're calling today. Alan and I were talking about you yesterday. We were talking about the night the three of us went into San Francisco and had dinner down on Fisherman's Wharf." 

I had to laugh at the memory. "I would rather forget that night. You got me to play liars' poker and I ended up paying for all of our dinners." 

"Well, I did pay for the drinks and they cost almost as much as the dinners. Alan is the one who got off easy that night," Barry said.

"As I remember, we stuck Alan for the check the next night," I said.

"Right... right. We did. So what can I do for you? You want to come to NYC?"

"Some day but right now I am just looking for some information. Did you know Bill Nelson? He used to work out of your office," I said.

"Yeah, I know Bill. He left here about ten months ago." 

"Do you know why he left?" I asked.

"Off the record?"

"Absolutely." 

"He was fired," Barry said.

"Fired? Why was he fired? Can you tell me?" I asked.

"I really don't know what happened. The guy was a real asshole and no one was sorry to see him go but I never heard exactly what happened. You might want to talk to Alan about that. Alan and Bill started together and were pretty good friends for a while. I think they even went to college together." 

I spent another fifteen minutes talking to Barry and I promised him that Erica and I would come to New York for a visit and let him show us around.

When I called Alan I got his voice mail and his message said that he was on another call and would call back as soon as he was available. I left him a message asking him to call me. And then sat staring at my computer. I remember thinking while I waited for Alan to call me back that Erica's plane should have departed Atlanta about a half hour earlier. If everything went well I would have my job back before Erica got to her hotel in LA. She was going to be surprised to not only hear that I got my job back but that I was right all along. Someone had been messing with my contracts. The big shock would come when I told her that Bill Nelson was the one who had done it. 

While I waited for Alan, I decided to find the WSJ article on Clinton Products. It took me nearly a half hour to find the article and I knew what I was looking for. It would have to have taken Bill a lot longer to find the article. I had to keep trying different combinations of search criteria until I finally got a hit. I found the article that Bill used and the date on the article was 4/17/1999. So all Bill did was to change the year to 2002. I copied the URL and began searching for the second article that George Harris said had been in the WSJ about five days later. I found the second article rather quickly by searching the WSJ by dates starting from 4/20/ 1999. The article was in the WSJ on 4/24/1999.

I had just recorded the URL for the second article when my phone rang.

"Holy shit, there really is a David Beckman. I was beginning to think that guy I met in San Jose was just a figment of my imagination. I figured if you were real I would have heard from you before now," Alan Binder said when I answered the phone.

"That works both ways Alan," I said.

"Yeah, you're right... It's good to hear from you anyway. I just saw Barry and he said that you would be calling and then there was your message on my voice mail. Barry said you had some questions about Bill Nelson?"

"I know he was a friend of yours so if you don't want to say anything that's okay," I said.

"He was a friend but he isn't anymore," Alan said. "He fucked me over a couple of times, but that just made me a member of a big club. Bill fucked over a lot of people." "Barry told me he got fired. Do you know why?" 

"It's a complicated story but the bottom line is that Bill tried to get his manager fired but was caught when he forged a phony expense account."

"So his plan backfired on him?"

"Yep. Everyone knew that Bob Morgan, Bill's manager, would not have done the things that Bill tried to make it look like he had done. Once it was known that someone was trying to get Bob fired, it didn't talk long for them to catch Bill. They fired Bill on the spot and tried to keep the whole thing quiet. So why are you interested in my old friend?"

"Your old friend has been my boss for the last six months and he fucked me over and got me fired. So I am just getting some background information for when I go after him. So he fucked you over too? I thought you two were friends for a long time." 

"We became friends while we were in sales training. Then we worked together for about three years which was longer than the friendship lasted," Alan said.

"I thought you were friends in college." 

"I barely knew him at school. I think that we had two classes together at Binghamton. I didn't really get to know him until we started at IBM," Alan said.

"You both went to Binghamton?" I asked as I felt a knot developing in my stomach.

"Yeah. We both graduated December 92 and started with IBM in January 93." 

"Did you know Erica Patterson?"

"I don't remember that name. Did she go to Binghamton?"

"Yes. Class of 1993," I said.

"I'll have to check my yearbook and see if I recognize her. How do you know her?"

"I married her," I said.

"Married a Binghamton alum ... smart move." 

"Alan, thanks for the information man." 

"No problem, David. Come up and see us some time." 

"I'll do that," I said.

*****

After the call, I sat trying to gage the significance of Bill Nelson having been a student at Binghamton at the same time Erica was there. If Erica and Bill knew each other, neither of them ever mentioned it. When Erica and I ran into Bill and Diane at the mall, they didn't seem to know each other. I couldn't imagine any reason why Erica wouldn't tell me if she knew Bill at school.

I couldn't make anything out of the Binghamton connection other than it being a coincidence so I moved on. I had enough proof that Bill Nelson had intentionally misled Mike about the SEC investigation at Clinton products and that he also had the opportunity to make changes to my other contracts before they were sent out to my customers. What I still didn't know was why but I decided to act on the information I had and worry about why Bill did it later.

*****

It was 12:15 PM when I arrived at the BDS mail room and picked up the envelope that Tom Jenson was holding for me. From there I walked up to Mike's office.

"Hi, Marci," I said.

"Hi, David. How are you? I feel so bad about what happened to you." 

"I'm fine, Marci, thanks." 

I could see Mike sitting in his office reading a magazine. Sometimes I wondered if he ever did any real work.

"Marci, do me a favor please and go tell Mike that I am here to see him," I said. "Tell him that I have important information for him about the Clinton Products' deal. Tell him if he refuses to talk to me it will be a very expensive mistake." 

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Yes. Just try and make him understand that this is important." 

Marci went into Mike's office and returned about five minutes later. 

"Mike isn't very happy about your being here. He said that it sounded as though you were trying to threaten him. He said that you should leave or he will call security. He said that if you don't leave he will have you arrested. I'm sorry, David, but you know how he is." 

"Thanks for trying, Marci." 

*****

That didn't go the way I had hoped. Actually I should have known better. Mike isn't the kind of guy that likes to be told that he is wrong or to admit it when it is proven. It shouldn't have surprised me that he refused to see me. Unfortunately there wasn't much I could do about that except to do everything in my power to make sure that BDS did not get the Clinton Products' contract.

On the drive home, I forced myself to stop thinking about getting revenge against BDS and concentrate on the bigger problem. What was I going to do about a job? I had promised Erica that morning that I would work on finding a job and hopefully have one before she got home on Friday. While I was thinking about my possibilities a question formed in my head. "What do I have to offer that would help me land a good job?" 

The question changed the way I was thinking and then the solution came to me. I pulled over to the curb and got my cell phone out and called Jeff Henning. 

"H and S Computers, Jeff Henning speaking." 

"Jeff, it's David." 

"Hey, David, what's up?"

"I am going to drive over to Augusta tomorrow to meet with you and your partner if you are available." 

"What? You're not looking for a job, are you?"

"I have a business proposition for you and I think you'll be very interested." 

"Can you give me a hint?" Jeff asked.

"Sorry, you'll have to wait till tomorrow. I'm still formulating the deal. See you in the morning." 

*****

I stopped at the store to pick up some groceries and got home around three o'clock. Erica's plane wasn't due to land for another hour and a half and it would be probably another hour and a half before she got checked into her hotel. I decided to spend the time working on the proposal I was going to give Jeff and his partner the next morning.

I managed to work on the proposal for about an hour before I started thinking about what Bill Nelson had done to me again. I was so angry I felt that I had to do something immediately to get some satisfaction. I wanted to play with him a little so I decided to call him and tell him that I suspected that the WSJ article about the SEC investigation of Clinton products was a mistake. I was going to tell him that I knew that they had been investigated three years earlier and that the article he had may have been referring to that investigation. Then I would ask him to set up a meeting with Mike so that we could all discuss the matter. I just wanted to see how he would react to that. 

When I called Bill's office number, his voice mail message said that he was on vacation. I started looking for Bill's cell phone number on my cell phone. I found Bill's name and a number that I knew wasn't his office number and I made the call. I hoped I could at least ruin his vacation.

"Hello?" a female voice answered.

"Hello, Diane? This is David Beckman." 

"Hi, David. Oh, David ... Bill told me what happened at work. I am so sorry. I can't believe Mike wouldn't give you another chance." 

"Don't worry about it, Diane. I am better off away from that company. I am sorry to disturb you but I thought I was calling Bill's cell phone," I said.

"You got our house phone. Bill is out of town but I can give you his cell phone number if you don't have it," Diane said.

"If you have it handy, I would like his cell number. Where is Bill?"

He had to go to a conference in Los Angeles." 

I find it difficult to describe how I felt at that moment. There was a sudden tightness in my chest that made it difficult to breathe. It took an extreme effort for me to continue talking to Diane when all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and try to block out all thoughts of what I had just heard. I had to force air into my lungs so that I could speak. 




The Fall and Rise of David Beckman Ch. 03



"He's in Los Angeles?" I managed to ask.

"Yes." 

"When did this come up?"

"He found out about the conference last Wednesday afternoon." 

I was almost too afraid to ask the next question." Where is the conference?"

"It's at the Westin Bonaventure," she said. "Oh, here's Bill's cell phone number." 

Diane gave me the number and I didn't bother to write it down.

"Actually I don't think I want to talk to him now, Diane," I said.

I suddenly had a horrible picture in my mind of Erica and Bill boarding the plane that morning and laughing about what a fool I was. 

"When did Bill leave?" I asked.

"He had an early flight this morning. He called me about an hour ago from the hotel to tell me he had arrived," she said.

For some reason, that made me feel a little better just knowing that they weren't traveling together. My mind was already working on what I was going to do. I had no plan yet but I knew that I wanted to talk to Erica before Bill found out that Diane told me he was in LA.

"Do me a favor, Diane. If you talk to Bill again today, don't tell him I called." 

"Why? I am sure he would want to talk to you," Diane said.

"Maybe but I am not ready to talk to Bill yet. I thought I was but now I am not so sure. I'm just not too sure of things right now. Please don't tell him I called. I'll call him later in the week when I am ready to talk." 

"If that's what you want, I won't say a word." 

"Thanks, Diane." 

*****

When I set the phone down, I felt all of the energy drain from my body. Just ten minutes earlier I was feeling good for the first time in months and I thought that I could finally see the light at the end of my tunnel. If I had only known that it was the light from an oncoming train, I would have been better prepared for what I learned from Diane. Could Erica really be having an affair with Bill Nelson? 

Erica and Bill both attending college at SUNY Binghamton could have been a coincidence but both of them going to LA the same day and staying at the same hotel was not a coincidence. I had the last pieces of the puzzle that I had been trying to put together and I didn't like the picture that was being formed. 

I sat for maybe ten minutes with random thoughts spinning through my mind. I was powerless to hold onto any one thought for more than a few seconds before another thought replaced it. Finally, with a great deal of effort, I was able to force myself to stand up and walk to the kitchen. I got my Maker's Mark out of the pantry and poured myself a double and then sat at the kitchen table and tried to get my head around what was happening to me.

I asked myself, "If Erica is having an affair with Bill, how long has it been going on?"

When I thought about Erica's behavior over the period of time since Bill Nelson had come to Atlanta, I really couldn't find anything that would point to them having an affair. Erica never worked late, never had nights out with the girls that would given her a chance to sneak off and meet Bill someplace. I also knew that Erica only got a half hour for lunch and that Dean Healthcare wasn't the kind of place that allowed employees to take extra long lunches. Erica always ate in the company cafeteria so she wasn't meeting Bill during her lunch breaks. I hadn't done any overnight business trips since Bill arrived on the scene. I just don't know how they could have gotten together but if they were going to spend the week together in LA, whatever happened before didn't rally matter.

Then another thought struck me. Up until that moment I had just been thinking that Erica probably knew Bill in college and that was what drew them together but it suddenly occurred to me that Bill might have been the boyfriend that Erica had dated for more than two years while they were in college. The attraction between the two of them apparently was still there.

As I sipped my drink, I remembered the way Erica had made love to me the night before. She told me over and over that she loved me. Then this morning before she left for the airport, she said, "I love you. You know that, don't you?" and then she said, "Everything is going to be okay now." 

What the hell was that all about? Was she feeling guilty or was she just trying to keep me from becoming suspicious? She certainly can't love me when she is spending a week with her old lover. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 4:15 PM. Erica's plane was due to land in LA in fifteen minutes. I wondered if Bill was going to meet her plane at the airport or if he was waiting at the hotel. I also wondered if they even bothered to get separate rooms. I decided that I would call Erica at six o'clock. I figured that by then she would be in her room. I planned to tell her that I knew what was going on and that there was no reason for her to even bother to come back home. 

For the next hour and a half, I tried to keep my mind off of Erica while at the same time I tried not to drink too much. I wanted to be sober when I spoke to Erica. For short periods of time, I was able to think about the meeting I was going to have with Jeff on Tuesday morning but it was hard not to think about what my wife was doing to me.

I had gone back into my office and was looking at the copy of the Clinton Products proposal when I was struck with another disturbing thought. I had suspected that Bill must have known I was working on the Clinton Products deal before I submitted the proposal to Fred Allard. He had given the WSJ article to Mike before Mike had even seen the contract. Now I knew how Bill knew about the deal. My faithful wife told him what I was working on. Another betrayal. My anger was building and I was worried that I would lose control when I called Erica and not be able to speak a coherent sentence.

I turned on my computer and went to the Delta Airlines site and typed in Erica's flight number. According to Delta, Erica's flight had landed on time at LAX. That meant that Erica should be in her room by 6:00 PM my time, 3:00 PM in LA as I had figured. 

At six o'clock I thought over what I wanted to say to Erica. I didn't plan to give her a chance to lie to me, I would just say my piece and then hang up on her. It's funny how plans can change so quickly.

At 6:05, I call the hotel instead of Erica's cell phone. I wanted to make sure she was actually registered there. When the hotel operator answered, I asked to be connected to Erica Beckman's room. The operator said, "One moment, sir," and a few seconds later I heard the phone ringing. The phone rang twice and then I heard Erica's voice on the phone.

"No." She wasn't speaking to me. She had to have been speaking to someone else as she picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Erica said, this time into the phone.

"Hey, sweetie," I said. I don't know why I called her sweetie. Under the circumstances it didn't seem appropriate but it just came out that way. 

Before Erica had a chance to respond I heard a man's voice in the back ground say, "Who is it?" The voice was so faint, just above a whisper, that I wasn't really sure if I heard it or not. "Hi, honey. I was just about to call you. I just got here," Erica said.

I don't know where the idea came from because it certainly wasn't among any of the things I had thought of saying to Erica. The words just came to me and I spoke them.

"What's your room number, Erica?" I asked.

"Why do you need my room number?" she asked. 

"The girl at the front desk wouldn't give me your room number," I said.

I thought I could hear concern in her voice as she asked, "What did you need my room number for?"

"This morning after you left I was feeling lonely and the idea of you being away from me for a whole week was more than I could bare. Then I realized that you were also going to be spending a few lonely nights. That's when I got the idea. I called the travel agent and got the next available flight to LA. I am calling you from the courtesy phone in the lobby." 

"You're here? In LA? At the hotel?

"I thought I just said that. As soon as you give me your room number I will be on my way up."

"I'm in room 2215."

"I'll see you in about two minutes lover," I said and then I hung up the phone.

I almost laughed when I thought about the panic that might be taking place in Erica's room. I could almost see Bill hoping around on one leg while he was trying to get his pants on and Erica in the bathroom trying to clean herself up and get dressed before I got to the door. This vision lifted my spirits for only a moment and then the reality came crashing down on me. My worst fears had been realized. Bill had been in the room with her when I called. Was this the end of my marriage? Almost certainly. 

I don't know why I bothered. I guess I just had to know. I called the hotel again and asked for Bill Nelson's room. The phone rang several times and then rolled over to the hotel's voice mail system. I didn't bother to leave a message. I just wanted to know that he had his own room. It was just one of those things that didn't seem to make any difference but it was still important to me.

I sat by the phone for several minutes, not expecting it to ring and not planning to answer it if it did. It was just that I could think of no reason to move. As I sat there, I started to think about what was going to happen as a result of my call.

Erica would wait fifteen or twenty minutes before she would start to really panic. Then she would call my cell phone and, when I didn't answer, she would begin to worry that I had seen Bill leaving her room and that I had left the hotel. She would make several attempts to reach my cell phone and would finally call Bill. Bill would tell her he didn't run into me in the hall and that I couldn't have seen him. 

In time, Erica would start calling the house but she would get no answer there either. While she was trying to figure out what she should do, Bill would probably check with his wife and when he asked her if I had called the house, Diane wouldn't lie to him. She would tell him that she told me where he was. Then Bill would tell Erica and she would know that I had found out what she was planning to do while she was in LA. After that, she would stop trying to call me and I might never see her again other than during divorce proceedings.

I tried to think of a reason to get up from where I was sitting. I thought briefly about starting to pack up Erica's belongings but that idea didn't hold much appeal for me. It would be an admission that my marriage was over and, even though it did appear to be the case, I wasn't ready to give in to that reality.

My stomach finally interceded. I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast that morning and my stomach started to let me know it. I stood up and started to leave the room when my cell phone began to ring. I looked at the caller ID. It was Erica. I looked at my watch and said to myself, "Seventeen minutes, right on schedule." I turned my cell phone off and plugged it into the charger on my desk.

I went out to the kitchen and began to look around for something to eat. I made a ham sandwich and washed it down with a beer. After dinner, I got another beer and dropped down in front of the television and tried my best to become a zombie for the rest of the night. I went up to bed at eleven o'clock and I was brushing my teeth when the phone beside the bed began to ring. I didn't bother to even look at the caller ID. I wasn't about to take a call from Erica or anyone else calling at that hour. 

*****

Erica did me one favor; she didn't call me again until morning. I was afraid that she would keep calling and interrupting my sleep. I was up and ready to leave for Augusta when the phone rang at six o'clock. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Erica so I picked up my briefcase, my keys and my cell phone and headed out to my car. I had to laugh at the thought of Erica sitting in her hotel room at three o'clock in the morning trying to call me.

I jumped onto the inner loop of 285 and drove around to Exit 46 and took I-20 East. I drove for about an hour and then stopped at a Cracker Barrel restaurant for breakfast. While I was waiting for my food, I turned on my cell phone and screened through my calls. There were seven calls from Erica, four of them from Monday evening and three from Tuesday morning. The voice mail indicator was on but I really didn't care to hear anything Erica had to say so I didn't bother to listen to it.

I found H and S Computer and Network Services on a side street just off of Wrightsboro Road in Augusta. It was a small storefront with about 3500 square feet of space mostly taken up by computer and network hardware and a section of shelves containing software. As I walked through the front of the store the first person I saw was Nancy Henning. Once again she had a basketball hidden under her dress.

Nancy rushed over to me and gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek. 

"David, it is so nice to see you again. How is Erica?"

"Erica is in Los Angeles," I said.

I could tell that Nancy sensed the tension in my response but she didn't comment. 

"When Jeff told me you were coming over today, I just had to hang around here to see you. Can you come over for dinner tonight?"

"I would really like that but I have to get back to Atlanta tonight," I responded. I didn't really have to go back to Atlanta but I didn't want to have to talk to Jeff and Nancy about Erica and, if I went to dinner at their house, I knew that they would ask about Erica and I would have to tell them.

"That's too bad," Nancy said. "We were hoping you could stay over."

"I see you've got another bun in the oven," I said.

"Yep. I am due in October, thanks for noticing."

"How could I miss it?" I said. "Where is that luck SOB that married you?"

"Here he comes now," Nancy said. 

I turned and saw Jeff coming out of an office at the back of the store.

"Good to see you, David," Jeff said as he reached out to offer his hand. "Pretty good, I don't hear from you for months and the first thing you do when you get here is hit on my pregnant wife."

"Look at her. Who wouldn't?" I said. 

Nancy punched me on the arm. "Okay, that's enough of this BS, I have to get back to work. Tell Erica I said hello."

"I will," I said as I thought to myself, "that is if I ever see her again."

Nancy gave me another kiss on the cheek and turned to leave. 

"Don't I get a kiss?" Jeff asked.

"You'll get your kiss and more when you get home tonight." Nancy said as she headed out the door.

We both watched her leave and then Jeff guided me into his office and poured me a cup of coffee. 

"It seems you are always getting me a cup of coffee when I need it the most," I said.

"What happened? Did Mike drag you through the coals again?"

"Something like that," I said and then I proceeded to tell him everything that had happened since he left BDS. Everything, that is except for Erica being with Bill Nelson in LA.

"Christ, what a load of shit to have dumped on you. So, Mike wouldn't even talk to you yesterday?"

"No. I had hoped that I could straighten everything out and get my job back but now I am glad that he wouldn't see me. Now I have the chance to start over," I said.

Jeff looked down at the floor and then cleared his throat. "David, if you are here to ask for a job... You know I'd love to have you working for me but we just don't have enough business yet to allow us to hire another sales person. You know I would help you out if there was any way that I could but ..."

I smiled at Jeff. "Stop wringing your hands. I am not here to ask you for a job. I want to talk about something else but I think you should have your partner in here for this discussion," I said.

Jeff looked at me for a minute to see if I would say anything more but I sat quietly and waited for Jeff to make the next move.

Jeff shook his head and picked up his cell phone and pressed the walkie-talkie feature. 

"Don, where are you right now?"

Almost immediately there was a response.

"I'm picking up two spools of cat 5e cable." 

"How soon can you get back to the store?" Jeff asked.

"I should be there in ten minutes? Why?"

"Remember that I told you that my buddy, David Beckman, was coming in today? Well he is here now." 

"Sorry, man, I thought he was coming a little later this morning. I'll get there as soon as I can." 

"I think you'll like Don. He and I have been friends since we were kids," Jeff said to me.

"I am sure that if he is your friend he would be a good person. I guess that's why you were never a friend of Mike's." 

While we waited for Don Spears to return to the store, Jeff showed me around. In addition to the front of the store where they had their products on display there was a small shop in the back with three work benches and Jeff told me that they had a small storage room on the second floor. 

When Don arrived I was a little surprised at his appearance. I somehow picture him as being about the same size as Jeff and me. Don turned out to be about six feet five inches tall and must have weighed at least 220 pounds. He looked like a linebacker for the Falcons but there was something about his mannerisms that didn't fit his large size.

When he spoke, his voice was soft and friendly. His handshake was firm without trying to crush your hand to show you how strong he was. 

"Glad to finally meet you, David. Jeff has been talking about you ever since we started this business," Don said. "Sometimes I think he would rather that you were his partner." 

That last was said in obvious good humor and it made me feel welcome.

"Well, that is kind of why I am here," I said. "I want to be Jeff's partner and your partner as well." 

The two men looked at each other and then Jeff turned to me.

"David, I would like nothing better than that but we just aren't big enough to take on another partner. Things are going well but we have at least one maybe two more years before we can expect to start making a profit," Jeff said.

"If you don't mind my asking, what do you expect to do in revenue this year?" I asked.

"About 750K," Don said. "But with that we still won't break even." 

"What if by making me a partner I could bring in an additional 1.5 million this year with an estimated gross profit of 25%. Along with that 1.5 million, I would deliver an additional 2 million a year over the next five years," I said. "Actually it would be a little more that that. The total would be ten mil over five years but this year is already nearly half over." 

"If you can deliver that, I'll kick Jeff out and you can be my partner," Don said and laughed. "If you are serious about that, I think I speak for Jeff when I say we would be very interested in hearing your proposal." 

I opened my brief case and pulled out the Clinton Products proposal. When I told Jeff about how I got fired, I didn't mention the size of the contract involved. I handed the contract to Don.

"I worked out this deal with the CEO of Clinton Products and then BDS screwed me over and by doing that they pissed off the customer. BDS still thinks that they can win this contract. What they don't know is that George Harris, the CEO of Clinton Products, told me that the only reason he was going to sign a contract with BDS was because of me. I am absolutely certain that, if the three of us can find a way to deliver what Clinton Products is asking for, George Harris will give us this business. If you check out the last page of the proposal, you will see the break down of the ten million dollars over five years.

Jeff and Don started to study the contract and talked excitedly about the possibilities this contract could provide. As they dug farther into the contract, they became quiet. I sat watching them as they digested the terms and conditions laid out in the proposal. Jeff had pulled out a note pad and was making notes as the two partners went through the proposal line by line. I got up and was pacing around the room when my cell phone rang. It was Erica. I waited for the phone to stop ringing and then changed the ring tone to vibrate and put the phone back into my pocket. For a moment, I wondered if Erica had figured out that I knew about Bill and her yet. Every time I thought of them together I felt a shooting pain in my stomach. 




The Fall and Rise of David Beckman Ch. 03



"Hey, David, where are you?" It was Jeff's voice that brought my attention back into the room.

"What? Did I miss something?" I asked as I brought my focus back to the matters at hand.

"No, but we are ready to talk about this proposal now and you looked like you had mentally left the planet," Jeff said.

"Sorry, I guess I did kind of drift off there for a minute," I said.

I sat back down at the table with Jeff and Don and said, "Okay. What do you think?"

"This would be a tremendous deal for us but it is too big. We don't have the resources for a project this size," Don said. "We only have four technical people on staff and only one of them has the level of skills we need for this deal." 

"I've already thought about that," I said. "Here is what I'm thinking. You take your highest skilled technician and assign him to the Augusta plant site. I am almost certain that I can convince Bob McClure to leave BDS and join us. He lives fifteen miles from Clinton Products' Macon plant site and he has been working at that account for nearly ten years. If we offer him a little more than he is currently making at BDS and give him the same benefits he'll come work for us. That just leaves the Kennesaw site. I know a couple of guys that took early retirement from BDS that live near Kennesaw. I am pretty sure they left BDS because they got tired of Mike's bullshit. I'll bet we can get at least one of them to come out of retirement to work on this project.

"With at least three people in place to begin the project, we can start hiring and training more people. I am betting that we can steal a few more technical skills away from BDS and also get some other highly skilled retirees to come work for us part time." 

"That might work," Jeff said. "What do you think, Don?"

"If David can deliver the Clinton Products contract to us, I say let's do it." 

*****

It was four o'clock in the afternoon when I made the call to George Harris. His secretary answered the phone.

"Is Mr. Harris available to take a call?" I asked.

"He is very busy today. Can I take a message?"

"Can you ask him when he would have time to talk to David Beckman?" I said.

"Can you hold on for a minute and I'll check?"

"Yes, I'll wait." 

She put me on hold and about a minute later I heard a click and a voice on the phone.

"David, I was hoping you would call today," George said. "Have you decided what you are going to do about our project?"

"As a matter of fact I have," I said. "You told me before that the only reason you were going to give this contract to BDS was because of me. Is that still true? I mean do you still have that level of trust in me?"

"Yes, I do." 

"Good, because I have a proposition I'd like to make to you. If I bring you a contract that covers the full statement of work that we previously agreed to, would you be willing to sign it if the company delivering the service isn't BDS?" I said. 

"I guess that would depend on who this company is and what relationship you have with them. I would also need some assurance that this company can deliver on this contract," George said.

I looked at Don and Jeff and smiled before I spoke. "The company is Henning, Spears and Beckman." 

"Is the Beckman in that name anyone I know?" George asked with a chuckle.

"Yes, sir. We are a new company but we will have the skills necessary to deliver on the contract and our plan is to make your account our top priority. We want you to be our reference account. Do I have your interest?" I asked.

"Yes, you do. Why don't you and your partners come over here next week with the contract. I just need you to make my team comfortable that you will be able to deliver. If everything goes well, you will probably leave here with a signed contract." 

"When would be a good time for us to meet?" I asked.

"How about noon on Monday? I'll let you buy me lunch and then we'll get together with my team and go over the contract." 

When I put the phone down Jeff and Don gave each other a high five and then each did the same with me. We discussed what we would name our new company and Jeff said that the name I told George Harris was fine with him and Don agreed. So we became Henning, Spears and Beckman. Jeff said that he would contact their lawyer and have him write up the new partnership agreement. I told them that I would put the preliminary contract together and I would come back to Augusta on Friday so that we could get the contract printed on our new company letterhead. 

*****

To be continued...



The Fall and Rise of David Beckman Ch. 04



I was feeling pretty good when I left Augusta at six o'clock for the drive back home. I was excited about being part of this new venture and was pleased that I was able to bring Clinton Products to the table. I guess that I had gotten so wrapped up in what I was doing with Jeff and Don that I had temporarily forgotten about my other problems. My real world came back to me in the form of a tingling sensation on my upper thigh. It startled me at first. I thought something was crawling up my leg and then I realized it was my cell phone vibrating in my pocket. 

I didn't answer the call. I didn't even try to get the phone out of my pocket. I just let it go until it stopped by itself. The whole tone of my mood changed after that. I tried not to think about Erica but I couldn't stop. When you love someone as much as I loved Erica, you can't just put them out of your mind. Especially when you are dealing with betrayal. Anything that reminds you of that person brings back the pain.

I decided that because I couldn't put it out of my mind I would deal it directly and I started planning my future. Since I didn't know if or when Erica might decide to come back from LA, I would proceed without her. I would call a lawyer Wednesday morning and start preparing for a divorce. I would need advice about handling our financial situation. Erica and I both had good jobs before I lost mine. I figured that since Erica conspired against me and helped Bill get me fired that I could probably be safe from having to pay her any alimony. Besides, I didn't know how much income I would get from my new partnership. It would take a while for that to get sorted out and it would depend on how successful we were in getting the business going.

I began to wonder if Erica had been planning to divorce me so she could be with Bill. Was everything that Bill had done to me over the last several months designed to create problems in my marriage so that Erica would have an excuse to leave me? What about Diane? Was Bill just going to dump her? How could Erica possibly be in love with that slimy asshole?

That was the tenor of my thinking as I pulled in my garage at eight o'clock that evening. As I shut the engine off, I thought to myself, "Well, I'm home." Then it occurred to me that this wasn't a home anymore. Having Erica with me made it a home. Now that she was gone, it was just a house with a lot of memories that would cause me pain. Another decision made. After I talked to a lawyer, I would talk to a real estate agent. I would sell the house and maybe move to Augusta to be near my new partners.

When I walked into the house, I had only one goal in mind. That was to pour myself a large bourbon and let its penetrating warmth help relax my muscles that had stiffened during the drive home from Augusta. I went to the kitchen and poured myself a drink and headed into the family room to unwind.

When I walked into the family room, I was shocked to find Erica asleep on the sofa. I was sure that I wouldn't see her again at least until Friday and maybe not even then.

"What the hell is she doing here?" I didn't even realize that I was saying it out loud until Erica sat up and stared at me. It seemed to take her a minute to get her mind alert before she spoke.

"Thank God your home," she said. "Where have you been? I have been going crazy trying to find you ..."

She was still talking when I gave the only response I could come up with.

"What are you doing here?"

Erica stopped talking for a moment and stared at me like I was crazy. "I live here," she said.

I knew it was time for me to say something important. Something of substance, something that would have the impact called for by the situation. The problem was that I was unprepared for this confrontation.

I said, "Oh." 

"What were you thinking?" Erica said, the anger in her voice evident. "You call me and tell me that you are in the hotel lobby and are on your way up to my room and then you never show up." 

Erica was quiet for a minute, waiting for me to respond. Rather than trying to respond I found myself trying to stifle a smile. I don't know why but I was finding Erica's righteous indignation funny. I wondered if she was angry because I never showed up or was it because my phone call made her chase her lover from the room. 

"Aren't you going to say anything?" she said.

"What are you doing here?" I really did try to come up with something better than that but I had nothing.

"Why do you keep asking me that? I came home to find you?" she said.

"What made you think I would be here?" For some reason, I wanted to play games with Erica; I decided not to answer her questions, at least not right away. I didn't really even have a plan. I was just going to be uncooperative.

"After you called me, I waited fifteen minutes and, when you didn't show up, I looked out in the hallway to see if you were out there. When I didn't see you there, I thought maybe you didn't get the room number right and were on the wrong floor and trying to get into the wrong room. I called your cell phone but you didn't answer. I waited for a while and called you again and this time I got a message that your cell phone was turned off." 

The emotion in Erica's voice made me take a close look at her. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were puffy and red. She looked exhausted. When she continued, the stress in her voice was obvious.

"When I couldn't get you to answer your phone, I went down to the front desk and asked the two people working if either of them had spoken to you when you came in. They both said that they were the only two working the front desk for the last hour and that no one had asked either of them for my room number. I told them that you called my room from the courtesy phone. One of the clerks called the hotel operator who told her that no one had called my room from the courtesy phone. The hotel operator said that the only call to my room came from an outside line," Erica said.

Erica looked at me as if she expected me to say something so I did.

"Please continue." 

"I tried to call you on your cell phone several times and then I called the house but got no answer. At eight o'clock, I knew it was getting late back home so I called Mrs. Campbell next door and asked her if she had seen you. She told me that she saw you drive into the garage yesterday afternoon and when I was talking to her on the phone she said that she could see lights on in the house." 

Again Erica stopped and looked at me. I again felt pressured to say something so I said, "I didn't think about you calling a neighbor. I guess I shouldn't have turned any lights on." 

Erica looked exasperated as she took a deep breath. "When I found out for sure that you were at home, I booked the first flight I could get and came home. I got here at eight o'clock this morning. Now I think you own me an explanation," Erica said. I smiled at Erica - I am not sure why, perhaps just to piss her off. "No, Erica, I think that it is you that owes me an explanation," I said.

Erica looked surprised by my last statement.

"What explanation do I owe you?" Erica asked.

"I need you to explain all of the lies and deceptions," I said.

"Lies? What Lies?"

"Why don't you start with the bullshit about this class you had to take? I have a hard time believing that your boss dropped that on you the Wednesday before the class was to start," I said.

"I wasn't lying about that class ... well, I guess I wasn't completely truthful," she said. I was surprised that she was already breaking down. I thought that she would have stuck to her lie a little longer. 

"So you admit you lied about the class?"

"What I told you about the class was true. My boss wanted me to take this class. The part that wasn't true was that he told me about it last Wednesday. The truth is he told me about it two weeks ago. That's when I made my reservations. I was going to tell you about it right away but you were so depressed that I put off telling you as long as I could." 

I didn't expect that. "Is that the truth?"

"Of course it is. You can call and ask my boss if you want. If you would have looked at my itinerary you would have seen the date I made my reservations was more than two weeks ago. That's why I didn't give you my itinerary until Monday morning," Erica said.

I believed her. She wouldn't tell me a lie that would be so easy to check out but I intended to take a closer look at the itinerary she gave me anyway. 

"I can't believe that you are accusing me of lying to you. I have never told you anything that wasn't true," Erica said.

My first thought was, "I wonder if her last statement covered when she told me that she loved me," but I decided to save that for a later discussion. It was time to break her down and get her to tell me the truth about her relationship with Bill. Erica's next comment set things up perfectly for me.

"You're the liar here. Why do you keep trying to change the subject on me? I want to know why you called and said you were in LA and were on your way up to my room when you were actually at home. You had me so worried I didn't know what to do. I thought you might have finally gone off the deep end," Erica said.

I sat down on the sofa next to Erica and got close to her and stared into her eyes.

"Okay, I'll tell you. I wanted you to think I was on my way up to your room so that you would have to chase your lover out of your room before I got there and caught the two of you together," I said.

Erica's face began to pale. She pulled back from me and I could see her lips quiver. I waited for her response, expecting her words to give away her guilt but what I got was an angry response.

"Lover? What lover?" Erica said.

"Bill Nelson." 

"Oh, God, David, he is not my lover," Erica said.

"Are you denying that he was in your room when I called?" I asked.

Erica looked surprised by my question. "No, but how did you know?"

"When you answered the phone, I heard him ask you who was on the phone," I said.

"How did you know it was him?" Erica asked.

If the conversation weren't so serious, I would have laughed at Erica. She was now doing what I had done earlier. Deflecting my questions by asking me questions. I just played along. I knew the truth would come out eventually and I wasn't in a hurry. "I called his house to talk to him and Diane told me he had to go to a conference. I didn't think it was just a coincidence that you both had to be in LA at the same time and were staying at the same hotel. So when I heard a man's voice in your room, I knew who it was," I said.

"Bill is not my lover." 

"So he was in your room but you didn't make love to him? Was it my phone call that kept you two lovers out of bed?"

"No. I didn't have sex with him and I was not going to have sex with him. We were just talking." 

"Are you saying that you never had sex with him?"

"I have never cheated of you," Erica said. 

"Another lie," I said.

"That is not a lie," Erica said.

"Okay, maybe not a lie but a deception. I can't judge the truth of what you tell me but I know about your deceptions. The dishonesty caused by things you didn't tell me." 

Erica didn't say anything. I could see that her eyes were filling up with tears but she was trying to stay strong.

"Shall I list all of your deceptions? I am talking about the truths that you didn't tell me that became lies by their omission? Let's see, where shall I start? How about the day we ran into Bill and Diane at the Mall. The truth was that you already knew Bill but by not saying anything you let me believe that you had never met him before. Then there were the phone calls. You told me that Bill called you and talked about me. This led me to believe that his calls were because he was concerned about me and about my job performance. What you failed to mention was that the real reason he called was so the two of you could talk about yourselves. Then you forgot to tell me that you told Bill about the deal I was working on with Clinton Products. That omission cost me my job. Let's see what else was there. Oh yeah. You failed to mention that Bill Nelson was going to be in LA at the same hotel you were staying at followed by your not telling me he had been in your room when I called. Then the final deception. When I asked you if you had ever had sex with Bill you said you never cheated on me but you neglected to say that Bill was your lover for more than two years when you were in college. Have I got anything wrong so far?"

Erica bent her head and stared down at her hands but said nothing. 

"I'll take your silence as confirmation," I said. "Given all of the truths you didn't tell me I am having a hard time believing what you have told me." 

"I had a good reasons for not telling you those things. You have to let me explain," Erica said and then fell silent.

I got up and started to leave the room.

"David, please don't leave. Let me explain," Erica said.

"I am just going to pour myself a drink while you make up more lies," I said. "Would you like something?"

Erica gave me an angry look. "I haven't lied to you and I am not going to lie to you," Erica said. "I would like a glass of wine?"

I went into the kitchen and refreshed my drink and then poured a glass of Shiraz for Erica. I didn't return to the family room immediately, giving her more time to think about what she was going to tell me. I felt pretty sure I would be able to separate the truth from the bullshit so I wasn't worried that she was using the time to make up a bunch of lies. I was desperately hoping that she would tell me the truth. The truth was the only hope of saving our marriage.

When I finally returned, Erica thanked me for the wine and then sat silently as she sipped a small amount if the dark red liquid. Erica put her glass down on the coffee table and looked at me.

"You have to know two things that I have told you that are true," Erica started. "I love you and I have never cheated on you. A lot of what you said is true but I did not know that Bill was going to be in LA. He never told me he was going to be there. My reasons for not telling you about those other things are not what you think. 

"It's true that Bill was my boyfriend in college. I told you about that when we first started dating," she said.

"You told me that you had a long relationship in college but you never mentioned his name," I said.

"His name wasn't important then. I heard from a friend that shortly after going to New York, Bill had started dating someone else. I think it may have been Diane but I don't know for sure. Bill and I had stopped talking before he found a job so I never even knew he worked at IBM. 

"When we ran into Bill and Diane at the mall, it was the first time I had seen him since college. I had never had any desire to see him again and I felt very uncomfortable running into him that way. I didn't have time to think about whether to acknowledge that I knew Bill or not. He seemed to make that decision for us. I thought about it afterward and I decided it might be best if you didn't know. I thought it might be uncomfortable for you at work if you knew that Bill and I had been lovers in college." 

Erica took a sip of her wine before she continued.

"When you suggested that we should ask them over for dinner, I nearly panicked. That would have been too uncomfortable for me. I felt that the farther I stayed away from Bill Nelson the better," she said.

"Why? Were you worried that you might be attracted to him again?" I asked.

"No. It was nothing like that. I just thought it would be uncomfortable being with them knowing that we were keeping a secret from you and Diane. Anyway, one evening about two weeks later, Bill called the house before you got home from work. He thanked me for not saying anything at the mall and said that he didn't want to make you or Diane uncomfortable. Then he said that there was something that he wanted to talk to me about but he didn't think the time was right. He just said that it was about you. Bill asked me if I could meet him somewhere and I told him that I thought that would be very inappropriate. So he asked if he could call me so I gave him my work number. 

"The next day Bill called me at work. He said that he was worried about you. He told me that you were making mistakes at work that as far as he could tell you had never made before. Bill told me he liked you and he didn't want Mike to find out that you had screwed up a couple of important contracts. Bill then asked me if you were having any problems that might explain what was going on at work." 

I was beginning to get angry. Was Erica just trying to cover up what the two of them did to me or did she really not know what Bill was up to. I decided to let Erica finished her story before I went on the attack.

"I told Bill that I didn't think you were having any problems. I told him you hadn't mentioned any problems at work either. Then you told me that Mike had called you in to tell you that two of your customers had complained about the contracts you sent them. From that point on, you seemed to be angry all of the time and you started drinking more than usual. After that first call, Bill called me every few days and told me what was going on with you at work and how concerned he was for you. At home, your behavior began to worry me. After a while, Bill's calls started to become more personal. He started talking about the fun we used to have in college and he asked about different people we had known. I don't know exactly when it happened but suddenly I realized that Bill was calling me every day. By then, the stress you were under was obvious and you had started to claim that someone was sabotaging your work. 

"I told Bill what you were saying and he said that he was beginning to worry that you might be having a breakdown. He said that you had complained around the office that the problems with your contracts weren't your fault but that someone was messing with them. Bill said that you seemed to be suffering from some sort of paranoia. I was seeing the same thing at home and it worried me a great deal. 

"The problem was that anytime I mentioned that I had talked to Bill you got angry and said that you didn't need help. Your behavior became so erratic that I was afraid of what you might do. When Bill first started calling me everyday I was uncomfortable and I was going to tell him to stop calling but then, when your behavior became so unsettling to me, I found it comforting to have a friend I could talk to about what was going on." 

Erica took another break for a sip of wine. I had been watching her very carefully and had the feeling that she was being honest. I couldn't be sure if that feeling was because I wanted to believe what she was saying or if it was because she was telling me the truth.

Erica put the glass down and started talking again.

"When things were at their worst at home, Bill began to suggest that we meet for a drink so we could talk face to face. I told him I wouldn't do that but he suggested it again the next time we talked.

"I felt that I had made it clear that I would not see him but he persisted. I was trying to deal with a husband that seemed to have lost his grip on reality and I needed Bill's advice to help me cope but I knew that meeting him for a drink would be inappropriate. That's when I started to crack under the pressure. I was trying to get you to seek help while at the same time deal with Bill pressuring me to go out for a drink with him. I have to admit that at the time Bill's phone calls were something I had begun to look forward to and going home at night to deal with your paranoia was something I had come to dread. 

"Then one night you came home happy. Your change in mood made me think that maybe you had broken out of whatever funk you had been in and that everything was going to be better. When I asked you why you were in such a good mood you told me about the deal you were working on with Clinton Products. I could see this was an important opportunity for you so I asked if you were going to get Bill to help you with it. You got upset and said that you didn't want anyone else at BDS involved in your deal. You didn't trust anyone. That really scared me. I just thought that if you did that deal on your own and there was a problem with it that you might come unglued. I knew you didn't want Bill involved but I was afraid of what would happen if he didn't get involved, so I told him about Clinton Products.




The Fall and Rise of David Beckman Ch. 04



"Bill told me that he tried to give you a chance to discuss what you were working on with him but you blew him off. He said that he would try to keep and eye on things but there was only so much he could do unless you asked him to get involved. When you turned the contract in and Bill found out that you hadn't done a careful enough check on Clinton Products' financial situation, he told me that there was nothing he could do. He had to tell Mike. Bill said he thought he could control the situation but Mike got so angry that nothing Bill said would change Mike's mind about firing you.

"That's when things really hit bottom. You started drinking too much and just hanging around the house. You still wouldn't admit that any of this was your fault. I felt bad for you but I was also running out of patience. I wanted you to get help but you wouldn't listen. On top of that, everyday Bill was after me to meet him for a drink. I continued to refuse him but I was feeling starved for companionship. You were no longer giving me what I needed and I was feeling pretty depressed myself.

"Then, on the Monday after you were fired, my boss told me about that class in LA and said that he wanted me to go. I felt guilty about going away when you were doing so poorly but I also felt that I needed to get away for my own sanity. So, that afternoon I registered for the class and made my airline and hotel reservations. When I got home that night, you were in a foul mood so I didn't tell you about the class. Things didn't change so I kept putting off telling you about the class until last Wednesday. I was thinking about canceling the class and staying home because I knew you would be upset when I told you about it. I talked to Bill that afternoon and I told him about the class and that I hadn't told you yet and that I was thinking of not going. Bill told me that I had to go to the class. He said that I couldn't let your situation take away an opportunity like that. He also told me that I had to tell you about it that night. I shouldn't put if off any longer because it wouldn't get any easier. So that evening I told you about the class.

"The next day Bill called and asked if I told you about the trip. I told him I did and he asked how you took the news. I told him better than expected but you weren't very supportive. Bill told me that I had done the right thing and that getting away for a week would be good for me."

Erica was saying that she had not agreed to meet Bill in LA. The knot in my stomach eased a little. Erica had already sworn that she didn't have an affair with him and now she was saying she had never planned to have an affair with him. Should I believe her? Could I believe her?

"By Sunday, my thinking was pretty clouded," Erica said. "I knew I was going to LA for the class but I also knew that I was using the class as a reason to get away from you for a few days. The problem was that our marriage was in turmoil and I could see it getting worse but you didn't seem to see anything beyond the perceived wrongs that were done to you at BDS.

"By Sunday night, I was wishing that I was already in LA just so I could forget about our problems for a while. That's when you asked me to cancel the trip and I blew up at you and I called you a loser. The blow up wasn't just because you asked me to cancel my trip; it was a combination of everything I was going through. After the blow up, I went and soaked in the tub. That's when it hit me that I had called you a loser. I felt terrible about that. Then I started to think about why I was so mad at you. At first, I told myself that it was all your fault. But I knew better. I realized that just because I could see that what happened to you was not a conspiracy didn't mean that you could easily see that. Right or wrong you believed the world was against you and then the one person you did trust turned against you. When you needed me most, I called you a loser. 

"By the time I finished my bath, I knew what I had to do. I had to show you that I loved you and that I was on your side and that everything would be all right. After we made love Sunday night, I really did believe that everything was going to be all right.

"When I left for that airport, I had the feeling that you were in better spirits and that made me happy. I was really looking forward to coming home Friday so that I could continue to help you get out of your depression.

"On the flight out to LA, I decided that I would get in touch with Bill when I got back home and tell him that I wanted him to stop calling me. I finally realized that it was inappropriate for us to be talking behind your back. The problem was that when I walked into the hotel I found Bill waiting for me in the lobby. 

"I asked him what he was doing there and he said that he thought that we needed to meet so that we could talk about us. He waited for me to register and then followed me up to my room. I told him several times that there was no us and that he should not have come to LA. I told him that I wanted him to stay away from me and leave me alone. 

"When I got to the room my immediate need was to go pee. I hadn't had a chance to go before I left the airport, so by the time I got to my room I was desperate. Bill asked me if I would just talk to him for a few minutes so I let him come into the room while I ran to the bathroom. 

"When I came out of the bathroom, Bill was lying on the bed with a drink in his hand. He had already opened the mini-bar and had poured us both a drink. He patted the bed next to him and told me to sit down and relax while we talked. I told him to leave. I was starting to get angry because he made no move to get off the bed. I suggested that we go down to the bar for a drink and talk there. I told him I was very uncomfortable with his being in my room. Bill said he just wanted to talk and asked me to sit down again and that is when the phone rang. 

"I said, 'No,' to him as I was picking up the phone. I heard your voice on the phone and then that idiot Bill said 'Who is it?' I was praying you didn't hear him. When you said you were in the hotel and would be up to the room in a couple of minutes, I was both scared and happy. That gave me a way to get rid of Bill but I worried that when you got off the elevator that you might see Bill leaving my room so as soon as you hung up I started screaming at Bill to leave. I needn't have yelled at him. As soon as I said you were on you way up, I could see the fear in his face. He ran out of the room. After that, all of my time was spent trying to locate you." 

"Is that everything?" I asked.

"Yes and it is the truth." 

I sat staring at Erica for a minute. I wasn't really waiting for her to say anything more; I was trying to understand what I had just heard and figure out what to do next. I never expected Erica to come home so soon. I was expecting her to stay in LA at least until Friday and I wasn't sure if I would see her even after she came back from LA. I felt so hurt and so angry that I was already planning to talk to a lawyer about a divorce. I never expected that I would be sitting there Tuesday night listening to Erica as she explained things from her point of view. I wasn't ready for this and I didn't know how to react. Erica's story had a ring of truth to it but I wasn't ready to just accept what she was telling me. I was still angry and although I tried not to show it I think Erica could feel it in my response to her story.

"Would you mind if I summarize what you've told me to make sure I understand?" I asked but did not wait for an answer. 

"You didn't tell me that Bill was your lover in college because you thought it would make me uncomfortable. How do you think it makes me feel to find it out now? Then you never told me that Bill was calling you everyday because the two of you thought I was having some kind of a mental breakdown and you weren't sure how I would feel about you talking to him. Then when I told you how important the Clinton Products' deal was for me and that I didn't want anyone else from BDS to even know about it, you told Bill because you thought I was no longer competent to do my job. So when I got fired, you thought I was crazy, incompetent, and a loser and the only person you could talk to about my problem was the man who was trying to get in your pants. Have I got it right so far?"

When Erica didn't respond right away, I continued.

"I find it interesting that the person that you said you loved was telling you that someone was messing with his work but rather than believe him you turned to the guy that was trying to rekindle an old romance with you for information about your husband's job performance. Then when I got fired, it was Bill's doing. He is the one who came up with the evidence of my incompetence. Don't you see a pattern beginning to develop?"

"It wasn't like that at all. You are twisting things around," Erica said.

"Let me finish," I said. "Let's see now, where was I? Oh, yeah, the class in Los Angeles. You were not sure if you should go or not until you talked to your special friend who tells you that you have to go to LA, even though you both know that it will upset me. Surprise, surprise, you find Billy Boy waiting for you at your hotel in LA. Are you sure he had your best interests at heart when he told you that you should go to the class? It doesn't sound that way to me but then I am just paranoid, right?"  "I swear that I had no idea that he was going to be in LA," Erica said. "The only thing I did wrong in LA was letting him into my room in the first place. I didn't want him to follow me into my room but he did."

"I don't think you tried hard enough." 

"David, you're not being fair," Erica said. "I wasn't expecting him to be waiting in the lobby for me when I arrived. I was shocked and surprised and didn't know how to handle the situation. You have to believe me that I was not going to have an affair with him. His being in my room was not something I planned nor wanted." 

"Could you have said that before Sunday night with such conviction? Probably not. Anyway, what happened Sunday night? You had some sort of an epiphany. You realized that a faithful, loving wife doesn't turn against her mentally ill husband, right? In sickness and in health, isn't that how it goes? So that night you made the difficult decision to sacrifice your happiness for your mentally unbalanced husband?" 

"David, you have to understand what I was going through at the time. You were acting so strange and Bill was being so supportive. I couldn't help but turn to him but I never had any intention of having an affair with him. I can't help but wonder why you can only see the negatives in everything I have told you. I am trying to help you and I want to be with you but I don't know what else I can do," Erica said.

"Let me tell you how things could have gone much better. All you had to do is believe me when I told you someone was messing with my contracts. If you had done that, in time I would have been able to show you the evidence that proved I was right. But you chose to believe I was suffering from some sort of paranoia and that I needed professional help. But instead of believing me, you went against me and joined forces with Bill Nelson, even betraying me by telling him about my work with Clinton Products. You helped him get me fired," I said.

"Bill didn't get you fired; he just found the mistake you made. He had no choice but to show it to Mike," Erica said.

"See, there you go taking Bill's side again without even asking me why I would accuse him of being the reason I was fired." 

Looking at Erica I could see that she was about out of patience with me. She was so sure that she had done the right things that she knew I had to be crazy to be carrying on the way I was. I was about to change her view of the world. 

"Did you ever, even once, think that I might not be crazy and that the things I was saying might be true?"

I could tell from her expression that I was right. That possibility had never entered her mind.

"Remember when I told you that someone had to be messing with my contracts after I turned them in but I couldn't explain how anyone would have that opportunity?" I asked and then handed Erica the memo I got from Tom Jenson.

Erica read the memo twice and then asked, "What does this mean?"

"It means that the last person to see any of my contracts before they got mailed to my customers was your friend, Bill," I said.

"I don't understand. Why would he do that?"

"I believe that he wanted to make me look incompetent. I am not sure why but I believe it had something to do with you." 

"Why would this have anything to do with me?"

"Think about it," I said. "Bill was already my boss so there was no business reason to do this to me. We had been friends until we ran into Bill and Diane in the mall. It was about that time that my troubles at work started. The only thing I can figure is that he wanted to make me look bad in your eyes." 

Erica was shaking her head, not in denial but in bewilderment. I think she was starting to get the picture but still wasn't sure if this was just a delusion caused by my mental state.

"Bill's plan was working. He had you on the phone everyday talking to him but he still couldn't get you to go out with him so he took things to another level. He was waiting for me to get involved in something important hoping that he could find a way to make it look like I fucked up big time. So what did you do? You handed him Clinton Products." 

At that point, I told Erica about my call to George Harris and what I found out and that I pulled up the actual WSJ articles on the Internet and that they were indeed three years old.

"Your boyfriend changed the date on the article and used it to get me fired. Bill knew that Mike would never bother to follow up to see if what he said was true or not. I have to hand it to him, Billy Boy's plan to get you into bed almost worked. If you hadn't got a case of guilty conscience about the way you had treated me you probably would have ended up in bed with him. What do you think of your old lover now?"

Erica's big brown eyes filled with tears and they started running down her cheek. She looked broken. Without saying a word she got up off the sofa and ran to the bedroom and closed the door. 

*****

For the next hour, I sat thinking about everything Erica had said. I thought about my behavior over the last few months and I could see why Erica would have been concerned. I was drinking a lot and I guess I did sound paranoid when I ranted about someone messing with my contracts when it didn't seem possible that anyone could have. Yes, my behavior was erratic and once Bill had put the idea in her head that I might be having some sort of a breakdown my behavior fit Erica's perception. The rest of the problem seemed to build from there. 

I considered what might have happened if Erica had believed me when I told her that my problems were being caused by someone else. If she had sided with me, would Bill have given up? Maybe, but if he didn't, how far would he have gone to try and put a wedge between Erica and me? 

I realized that thinking about what might have happened wasn't going to get me to a resolution of my problem. I had to deal with what did happen. Erica had made the initial mistake when she let Bill convince her that I was having mental problems. I tried to see things from Erica's point of view and I came to the conclusion that everything Erica had done she had done because she had trusted Bill. He had gained her trust when he told her that he and I were friends and that he wanted to help me. After that, he manipulated her into thinking I had become incompetent and was having a breakdown and I didn't exactly help myself with my behavior.

I thought about Sunday night and the way Erica had made love to me. I thought about how she kept telling me she loved me and then I thought about Monday morning and how she again told me she loved me and that everything was going to be all right. I believed her when she said that. 

I thought about how Erica had taken a red eye flight to get back to me rather than staying with Bill. She didn't know then that I knew he was there. It seems she chose me over him. She might have been lying when she told me that when I called she was telling Bill to leave her room and that she was not going to try and stir up a long dead romance with him. I was still kicking that thought around in my head when I heard the bedroom door open. 

Erica came back into the family room and sat on the sofa with me. She had dried her eyes and was no longer crying. 

"I'm sorry I ran off like that," she said, "but when I realized what a fool I have been I just had to be alone for a while. I can't imagine how I let myself get led astray like that. I had never doubted you before so I don't know why it was so easy for me to believe that you were wrong about what was happening to you. I am sorry for doubting you. I am sorry for not just telling you about Bill the day we ran into him in the mall. 

"You were right, I didn't try hard enough to stop Bill from coming into my room in LA but you have to believe that I had no intention of letting him stay nor was I ever going to have an affair with him. After Sunday night, all I wanted to do was get through the week of training and get back home to you. It's true that I made that decision based on my thinking that you were ill and needed me to stand by you but I only made that decision because I love you. I can see how all of this might leave doubts in your mind but I don't know what I can do to erase those doubts. What do we do now? How do we recover from this mess?"

"I hope that in time we should be able to get through this. I may have been a little overly harsh to you today but you have to realize how close we came to losing it all. The last thing I expected when I came home tonight was to find you sleeping on the sofa. I wasn't able to grasp the significance of that until just a few minutes ago," I said.

"What is the significance of my coming home? What else would I have done?

"I fully expected that you would stay in LA for the week and that you would have been with Bill the whole time. I was planning on calling a lawyer tomorrow to start the process to get a divorce. I also planned on seeing a real estate agent to put the house on the market. When I walked in and found you on the sofa, it confused me. I finally realized that your love brought you home to me," I said.

Erica put her arms around me and put her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and we held each other for a while and then Erica pulled away.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"I think we need to take it slow and build back the trust we had. I have to convince you that I am not crazy and you have to convince me that you don't have any lingering feelings for Bill," I said.

"I know that you are not crazy. That is, I do now. As for Bill, I never had any real feelings for him, I mean not since college. It was just that I thought that he was someone I could trust and could turn to for help while you were going through your problems. He clouded my judgment but I always knew there was nothing Bill had that I wanted. When I saw him at the hotel, I felt no attraction to him. I was more irritated by him than anything else. He just would not accept it when I told him I didn't want to be with him," Erica said.

"I think I believe you. I want to believe you," I said.

"Now that you know what Bill did to get you fired, are you going to see Mike and explain it to him. I'm sure once he knows what happened he'll give you back your job." 

"I tried to do that Monday. He wouldn't see me," I said. "You have to keep trying. You can't let Bill get away with this. Mike should fire him and give you the sales manager position," Erica said.




The Fall and Rise of David Beckman Ch. 04



"That is what he should do but that is not what is going to happen," I said. "I have no intention of ever working for Mike Boswell again. As for Bill, Mike will find out about him soon enough." 

"If you aren't going back to BDS, what will you do?" Erica asked.

I wondered for a moment if I should trust Erica but then realized that if there were any hope for us I would have to trust her. I looked directly into her eyes and said, "You can't tell anyone what I am about to tell you, at least for another couple of weeks. I am starting my own business. Well, not exactly my own. I have joined into a partnership called Henning, Spears and Beckman." 

"You have gone into business with Jeff?" Erica asked. "I thought he had started his own company. How did you get involved with him?"

I told Erica about the business that Jeff and Don had started and that I had joined with them. "And they took you in as a partner? How did you talk them into that?" Erica asked.

"I had something to trade," I said.

"What?"

"I had the Clinton Products deal in my pocket. We are going to meet with the CEO next week and hopefully we will walk out of that meeting with a signed contract," I said. "Wow. That's great. Oh, I get it now. When Mike finds out he lost the contract he will be pissed. Are you going to tell him that it was Bill's fault that he lost the contract?" Erica asked.

"No. I'll let Mike figure that out by himself. Besides, I think the two of them deserve each other. In the meantime I will be stealing employees and customers from BDS. Bill is supposed to meet with Clinton Products later next week. That is when he will find out they are not going to sign a contract with BDS. He will have to cover that up somehow. If he manages to get away with that, I may have to send Mike an anonymous e-mail with the URLs for the WSJ articles that will be the end of Bill's job at BDS. But I am in no hurry." 

*****

You might think that Erica and I made wild and passionate love that night but that didn't happen. She hadn't slept the night before and was exhausted and I wasn't quite ready to jump into bed with her like nothing had ever happened. My nerves were still a little raw.

*****

In the morning Erica called her office and spoke to her boss. She explained that she had a personal family emergency and had to come back home. Luckily he didn't press her for the nature of her emergency. Erica told him she needed the day off but that she would be back to work on Thursday.

Erica spent the day doing some housework and grocery shopping and generally staying out of my way as much as possible. I spent the day in my office making calls as I tried to recruit employees for Henning, Spears and Beckman. By two o'clock in the afternoon I had a verbal agreement from Bob McClure that he would come work for me starting the first of the month. That would allow him to give two weeks notice at BDS. Bob also gave me the names of two other BDS techs that he was sure would be glad to jump ship and come work for me. I also managed to line up a former BDS employee in Kennesaw to work for us up there. By the end of the day I had lined up almost all of the skills we would need to deliver on the Clinton Products contract. 

That evening I was tempted to make love to Erica but I felt an uneasiness between us that prevented that from happening. The last few weeks had taken an emotional toll on us and it was going to take some time for us to get back to where we were before Bill Nelson entered my life. 

Thursday I spent most of the day on the phone with Jeff and Don talking about our plan of action. Jeff had managed to find a couple of BDS retirees that were willing to come work for us part time, which gave us what we needed to take on the Clinton Products project and continue to service our current customers.

At five o'clock I called Erica and asked her to meet me for dinner after work. I was already seated at the restaurant when Erica came in. From the expression on her face, I couldn't tell if she was happy to be there or not. As soon as she sat down, the waiter came over and asked for our drink order. When he left, Erica looked into my eyes for a moment.

"Bill called me at work today," she said.

I felt my heart start to beat a little faster. "What did he want?"

"He said he was worried about me. He said that after he left my room in LA he went back to his room and called home. Apparently Diane told him that you had called the house and that she had told you that Bill was in LA and where he was staying."

I didn't think Diane would keep my call a secret. It didn't matter now.

"Bill said he tried to call my room several times but either my phone was busy or there was no answer," Erica continued. "He said he was afraid to leave a message because he thought you might hear it. When he called the room again on Tuesday and found out I had left the hotel he was sure that something was wrong."

My heart was really pounding now. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him the truth. I said that you had found out that he was in LA and assumed that we were going to have an affair. I said that you called the room and said you were in the hotel just to scare us. I told him that, as soon as I found out that you hadn't really come to LA, I booked the first flight I could get to come back home."

"What else did you tell him?" I asked.

"I told him that we had a big fight but that I was going to do everything possible to save my marriage," Erica said.

"Did you tell him that I knew what he did to me?"

Erica smiled for the first time since she had come into the restaurant. "No. I didn't want to spoil the surprise."

Erica put her hand on top of mine and studied my face for a moment. "David, are we going to be okay?"

"Well, I didn't ask you out to dinner to break up with you if that's what you're worried about," I said. "I was hoping to start rebuilding our marriage tonight."

Erica moved her hand to my cheek and said, "That's what I want too."

Conversation was difficult as it was impossible to ignore the events of the last few weeks and try to make small talk. I guess I would have to credit Erica with the breakthrough.

"I guess we can't just pretend nothing is wrong so let's talk about it. I'll start," she said. "First of all I need you to understand that I am not in love with Bill. I was in love with him in college but not since then. I have always loved you more than I ever loved Bill. During this ... well, let's just call it our misunderstanding, I only thought of Bill as a friend, someone I could trust because I thought he was trying to help you. I never thought that I was doing anything wrong. I realize now that I was doing the wrong things for the right reasons. Now I just feel like a complete fool. I am sorry for the pain I caused you but I need to know that you still love me."

I took her hand in mine and held it and, as I looked into her eyes, I said, "I was faced with the prospect of living without you and, although I was sure I could handle it, I didn't want to. I realize that my behavior over the last couple of months put a strain on our marriage but you have to understand how frustrating it was for me. I knew that someone was messing with my contracts and making me look bad but no one would believe me, including you. I can't begin to tell you how much it hurt to see that you had lost faith in me. You thought that I was no longer competent in my job and you actually thought I was having a mental breakdown. I want to save this marriage. I still love you but I have to know that in the future you will stand by me and not let other people drive a wedge between us." 

"I really can't explain how this happened," Erica said. "I can only promise that it will never happen again. It was naïve of me to believe that Bill was trying to help you after he began suggesting that we meet for a drink. I should have immediately distanced myself from him when he started trying to get me to go out with him. It was never my intention to do anything that wasn't in your best interests but I let myself get misled. I don't know what else I can tell you other than to say I am sorry I didn't believe you from the start and I am sorry that I let you down when you needed me most."

I brought Erica's hand up to my lips and kissed it. "I don't think we need to talk about this anymore tonight. I love you and I believe that you love me and that's all that is important right now," I said.

*****

After dinner we left the restaurant holding hands. I walked Erica over to her car and kissed her and said, "I'll see you at home."

Erica pulled out of the parking lot as I was getting in my car. I was about halfway home when my cell phone began to chime. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Erica's phone. 

"What's up?" I answered.

"I just wanted to tell you that I just removed my panties and that by the time I pull into the garage I will be completely naked. When you get home I want you to join me in my car."

"How the hell am I supposed to drive now? I have three legs now and two of them are pushing on the gas pedal," I said. 

"I guess you won't be very far behind me then," Erica said. "I've got to hang up now so I can get my skirt off at the next traffic light."

"Don't get stopped for speeding."

"Why, do you think a cop would give a ticket to a naked women?"

"It's not a ticket I am worried about him giving you."

"Silly, no one gets to give me that but you," Erica said as she laughed. It was the first time I had heard her laugh in a long time. It felt good to hear it.

Five minutes later my phone rang again. 

"Almost home. I am only wearing my bra now," Erica said. "I'll wait till I am inside the garage to remove it. My nipples are getting hard and I think I am leaving a wet spot on my seat."

"Damn, you are going to make me cum before I even get home," I said.

When I finally pulled into the garage, Erica was already in the back seat of her car waiting for me. I got out of my car and quickly moved around to the open door of her car. As I climbed into the car with her, Erica began to unbutton my shirt.

"Why here?" I asked. "Why not go up to our bedroom where we can be comfortable?" 

"I just want you inside me right now. I want it fast and hard. Then I want you to take me to bed and make love to me," Erica said. 

I looked at her lying there completely naked and knew I could not say no to her. Erica wasn't interested in foreplay; she just wanted me inside her. She practically tore my shirt off and then went to work on opening my pants. When she had managed to get my pants and shorts down around my knees, Erica pulled me down on top of her. She lifted her left leg up on top of the back seat and her right leg was on the floor. As I moved on top of her, Erica reached between us and guided my cock to her opening. She was wet although not as wet as she usually was when I penetrated her but, as soon as I started stroking into her, she got wet very quickly. 

It was difficult for me to move in the confines of her car but that didn't deter me from pounding into Erica as fast and hard as I could. I was a bit surprised at how aroused we both were given that I hadn't even kissed her before pushing my cock inside her. Luckily I lasted only five minutes before I climaxed. If it had taken any longer, I might not have ever been able to walk again. I am not sure if Erica had an orgasm or not. I didn't think that she did but it didn't seem to bother her.

When I pulled my limp cock out of her, I noticed our sexual juices leaking out of her pussy and running down onto the car seat. I backed out of the car and pulled my pants up. Then I helped Erica out.

"I'll get something to clean up the mess on your seat," I said.

"Leave it. I'll clean it tomorrow," she said.

"It'll leave a stain if we don't clean it now."

"That's okay. It will always remind me of what we just did. Come on, let's go up to bed."

Erica left her clothes in the car and led the way into the house. As I followed her up the stairs to our bedroom I couldn't help but notice the residue of our coupling running down the inside of Erica's thigh. I would have never believed that I would find that sight erotic but I did. By the time we got to our bedroom, my cock was already half erect and was growing.

"Shall we hop into the shower?" Erica asked.

"No, I think I want to eat you just the way you are."

"Are you sure you don't want me to wash myself first?" Erica asked.

"Erica, I want to go down on you right now and I know that is what you want too."

"You're right. I would love for you to do that again but only if you really want to do it. I wouldn't enjoy it if I thought it wasn't what you wanted too."

"Just get on the bed and spread those beautiful legs for me."

Erica quickly pulled the bedspread and blankets down and lay down on top of the sheets. I got between her legs and pressed my mouth against her sticky pussy. The taste didn't bother me in the least but I knew that had a lot to do with how aroused I was at the moment. I suddenly had a flash to a story I read about a guy that liked to eat his wife's pussy after she had sex with another man. I remembered that at the time I read that I thought it was pretty sick. I was sure I would never do anything like that. Well, I was still sure that I would never eat another man's leavings from my wife's pussy but I was having no problem cleaning up my own mess.

Erica began to orgasm shortly after I started sucking on her clit. I think she had at least two, maybe three, orgasms before she asked me to stop. She said she was too sensitive and needed to give her little pussy a rest. I moved up next to Erica and then she turned so that she could take my cock into her mouth. I thought that she would work on me until I was completely erect and then ask me to put it inside her but she surprised me. Erica licked, kissed and sucked on my cock until I climaxed in her mouth. She then swallowed my whole load. When she was done, she smiled at me. 

"Now we are even. We have both had a taste of your mess," she said and then kissed me.

Erica played with my cock for a while but it seemed that he had retired for the night. Erica pulled the blanket up over us and then lay on her side pressing her soft butt cheeks into me. Erica was asleep in just a few minutes.

*****

When I woke in the morning I felt great. I had no doubts about Erica and I was looking forward to my meeting with Jeff and Don.

By the time I showered and dressed, Erica was already in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee. I poured myself a cup and sat down next to her at the table.

'What time will you be back from Augusta tonight?" Erica asked.

"I should be home by seven."

"What would you like for dinner? I'll try and have it ready when you get home."

"I can't be sure exactly what time I'll get home so why don't I call you when I'm about an hour from home and then you can order a pizza."

"Don't work too hard today because I want more of what we did last night," Erica said. "So do I."

It had been months since I had felt that good and I could see that Erica was happy too. I got up to get myself a bowl of cereal and Erica turned her attention to the newspaper. I watched her from behind for a moment and felt a lump in my throat. It was the realization that I had come close to losing her. If she hadn't come home from LA when she did, it might have been to late to save the marriage. Watching her reading the paper just made everything feel so normal. I suddenly wasn't hungry. I wasn't upset; I just didn't feel the need for food.

I went back over to the table and bent down and kissed Erica on the neck. "You got time for a little action before I leave?" I asked.

"Now? I have to take my shower and get ready for work," Erica said.

"We can do it in the shower and then I'll help you get washed."

Erica looked at me for a moment to see if I was serious. "Okay, let's go."

*****

An hour later I was on my way to Augusta. My hair was still wet from my second shower of the morning but I was in a great mood. 

At eleven o'clock that morning Jeff, Don and I sat down with Harvey Turnbull, our attorney, and went over the partnership documents. By noon our new company was a reality. The three of us spent the rest of the day going over our notes for Monday's meeting with George Harris. I had decided to let Jeff and Don take the lead in the meeting. George already knew me and we had a good relationship. I wanted him to get acquainted with Jeff and Don. I was sure that they would make a very good impression on George and I felt that he would need to have confidence in all three of us before he would give us his business.

We finished up for the day just before five o'clock. We made plans to meet at a coffee shop in Macon on Monday morning to go over our presentation one last time before our meeting with George Harris. 

I got home shortly after seven o'clock to find a hot pizza and a cold beer waiting for me. After eating, Erica and I went into the family room to watch television but ended up having sex on the floor instead. I guess there was nothing good on TV anyway. 

*****

On Monday, Jeff, Don and I had our meeting with George Harris and his team. I introduced everyone and then let Don take over the presentation. We showed the Clinton Products' team how we planned to execute the project plan we put together. We explained our staffing and who would be working on their project. After the presentation, there were a lot of questions from the Clinton Products' team, which Jeff answered. By the end of the afternoon everyone seemed satisfied that we could deliver what we promised.

At four o'clock, George asked us to leave so that he could meet with his team and he walked us to the door. George put his hand on my shoulder as we walked and whispered to me, "Don't go too far away. I think you will have to come back to sign a contract." 

I waited till we were outside the building before I told Jeff and Don what George had said to me. We drove back to the coffee shop we had started our day at and sat nervously waiting for George to call us back. 

The call came at 4:45 PM. "Congratulations, you got the job," George said before I even had a chance to say hello. "Come on back and lets get the contract signed so I can go home."

I called Erica and gave her the good news and then we drove back over to Clinton Products to finalize the contract.

During our final meeting with George, after he signed our contract, he told me that Bill Nelson was coming out to meet with him on Friday. I asked George if he was going to cancel the meeting now that he had signed with us.

"No. I want to make him suffer a little. I don't like that he dug up that old news story and tried to use it against you. Whatever is going on between the two of you had nothing to do with Clinton Products and he should have left us out of his game," George said.

"George, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell Bill that I know what he did," I said. "Just tell him that I came in and sold you on my new company."

"No problem. I just want to see him squirm when I tell him that he is not getting my business."

*****

When I got home that evening, Erica had dinner waiting for me. As we ate dinner, I looked across the table at her. The last few days had been so great that I was already starting to forget the pain of the last few months. Erica noticed me staring at her.

"What?"

"I didn't say anything," I replied.

"You were looking at me like you were about to say something."

"I was just thinking," I said.

"Thinking about what?"

"How much I love you."

Erica began to smile but at the same time her eyes filled with water and her voice cracked when she spoke. "You will never be able to love me as much as I love you right now."