Reputational Notoriety

Monday morning arrived at 5:30 as the insipid Autumn light ghosted its bleary fingers through the windows and insinuated itself into the bedroom where Debbie lay sound asleep beside me. A peaceful visage indicated her content as she slept easily, her left arm settled outside the covers and her right arm unseen as it lay beside her naked body, softly resting against my hip.

Not wishing to disturb her, I eased myself out of bed and padded quietly over to the bathroom door, opening it slowly whilst switching the light on simultaneously. As I returned to bed I noticed that the dial on my phone was illuminated, so I picked it up and slid under the covers to escape the sharpness of the morning chill. A quick perusal of the messages showed that there were over forty of them in all. Several from Melody, a couple from Amy, more than a few from Waxy O'Connell and the latest one was from Ritchie D.

Yup?

Yip.

Will you make the call, or do I have to?

Isn't it a bit early in the morning for you to be exerting yourself?

I wouldn't want to be disturbing that young one you have asleep beside you.

Who says she's asleep? She might be in a coma.

Did you drug her or something?

I might simply have overpowered her with desire.

Or the rhythm of your old man wheezing sending her to sleep.

I laughed as quietly as I could. Debbie's eyes flickered open, and she reached her hand out and placed it flat on my stomach.

"Hi," she whispered, "what's so funny at this hour of the day."

"A text from Ritchie," I said, "he can be a funny fucker sometimes."

"Let me see that," she said as she leaned over to read the screen. "The cheek of him."

"He's just trying to wind me up, Debs, this is mild in comparison to some of the stuff he comes up with," I said. "Do you mind if I ring him back?"

She smiled and shook her head before draping her arms around me and kissing me.

"I love that you feel the need to ask me if I mind you making a call, Billy," she said almost dreamily. "Of course you should call him back."

I speed dialled him.

"What the fuck time of day is this to ring someone?" he said.

"Fuck off. I knew you were going to say that," I said, "what has you awake so early, a guilty conscience?"

Debbie started to laugh as she slipped out of bed on her way to the bathroom. I felt movement in my penis as I watched her fantastic bum waltzing deliciously across the room.

"Billy? Did you hear what I said?"

"Sorry, Ritchie, I was distracted for a minute there, what did you say?" I asked.

"When are you meeting this Waxy O'Connell prick?" he said. "He's been texting me every ten fucking minutes."

"He's coming up at 9:00. Why don't you ring him beforehand and let me know what's on his mind?" I said. "Call it inside information."

"Why didn'tyouthink of that?" he said, "I'll ring the prick now."

"Ring me back when you're finished."

"Will do, but first, what was distracting you?"

"I'll take a picture of her next time, Ritchie." I said.

"It was Amy last week and now Debbie? You're a jammy bastard," he said and hung up.

Debbie closed the bathroom door and smiled at me as she tried to sprint across the room with her arms placed as an attempted barrier to hide her charms. I laughed as she ran.

"What?" she said as she slid under the covers.

"Debbie, I have you imprinted on my mind, covering yourself up is not necessary," I said.

"I know," she said, "it's an automatic reaction, I suppose. I'm not used to being naked with a man, or anyone for that matter."

"We have this Waxy fucker coming over this morning," I said.

"What time?"

"He's coming at 9:00, will you sit in with us?" I asked.

"If you need me," she said, kissing my cheek and snuggling in under my arm.

"I need you," I said.

"I needyou," she whispered.

"Are we expressing the same need?" I asked.

"That depends on what you need right now," she whispered.

"What doyouneed?" I said, kissing her lips.

"Oh, many things, but let's start with me taking you in my mouth," she whispered, kissing me before taking my bottom lip between hers and sucking it into her mouth.

I felt her hand move to the base of my quickly forming erection.

"I love that I can make that happen for you, Billy," she whispered as she dipped her head under the covers.

Ritchie called back just as Debbie swallowed my ejaculate and had begun the tender process of calming my penis head with her tongue. I picked the phone up and answered as she smiled like a Cheshire cat beside me on the pillow we shared.

"Yes," I said.

"Did I wake you?"

"No, what's up?" I asked.

"Did I interrupt something?" he persisted.

"No, we were just finished."

"Fucking hell, Bill, that's way too much fucking information," he said laughing as Debbie slapped me playfully.

"Did you get Waxy out of bed?" I asked.

"Yes, you'll never believe what he wants."

"Go on," I said, "but I think I can guess."

"He wanted to know if he could do all of our energy surveys for free," he said incredulously.

"Really?" I said. "How's he going to do that?"

"I'm fucked if I know," he said, "but it must be an earner for him somehow."

"Yes, it's because he thinks he can sell the energy credits on," I told him.

"I know that selling energy credits is an option, Billy," he said, "but they'd have to be too expensive to make it worth his while the way he outlined how he's going to do it."

"What way is that?" I asked.

"He wasn't very specific, Billy," he said, getting his thoughts in order, "but from what I understand, it's a total hand to mouth, work from the kitchen table kind of scheme."

"A bit like yourself then," I said.

"Yes, that's what worries me," he said, "I can't put that forward as a viable option. He hasn't even got any assessment companies on board, maybe that's what he wants to talk to you about."

"I think so too, Ritchie," I said, "as far as I know, he hasn't even got an arse in his trousers at this stage, but I'm prepared to hear him out. Did you ask who's funding him?"

"He wouldn't say, just that it was privileged information."

"That means he has nobody," I said. "He won't get out of here without disclosing everything."

"How are you going to manage that?" he asked. "No, don't tell me, I'm probably better off not knowing."

"Probably not," I said, "but I'll let you know later on."

We hung up as we began to laugh.

I took Debbie through the call and her curious eyes encouraged me to lay out our process for the meeting. A spark suddenly appeared in her eyes, and she smiled.

"I love this, Billy," she said, "do I just sit in and take notes?"

"No, I'll be introducing you as our company secretary. You can ask anything that you think I'm missing," I said.

"I need to prepare," she said.

"You already know everything that's required for this," I said.

"I know, but I like to be prepared too."

The phone rang again. It was Amy.

"We might have something more to work with here, Debs," I said showing her the phone, "it's Amy."

"Answer it!" she said quickly.

I did.

"Morning, Amy," I said, "how's it hanging?"

"Do you suddenly think I'm one of your appendage dependent male associates?" she asked.

"Let me try that again," I said.

"Fuck off, I haven't got time for that, Billy."

"Ok, what do you need?" I asked.

"I don't need anything," she said, "I'm calling with a communication from the front."

"Oh?"

"We have two matching offers for those Energy Credits that we presented," she said.

"Already?"

"Yes, it's a cut throat world we live in."

"Ok, give it to me," I said, "I'm braced for an uncomfortable experience."

"Two offers of €5.5 million plus tax."

I looked at Debbie, her eyes wide and questioning. I gestured the €5.5 million with my fingers and she screamed silently.

"Is that all?" I asked.

A look of shock clouded Debbie's face.

"Is it not enough?" she asked with a laugh.

"It's never enough, Amy, you should know that," I said, "can we get it up?"

"Well it really only needs one of us to get it up, doesn't it, Billy," she said seductively.

"That depends on who it's being gotten up for."

"Don't you have a favourite in your current harem?"

"That would be you of course."

"That's the correct answer."

"Who are the offers from?" I continued.

"Irish Gas and GazPro, do you have a preference?" she said.

"I want to talk to both of them before we agree anything," I said.

"Billy, no," she said, "this is the big league we're playing in now."

"I know, and if I'm going to play in it, I'll play it my way, Amy," I said with finality.

"Do you not trust me, Billy?" she asked.

"You know different than that, Amy," I said, "we need to maximise everything, especially at this stage. Where's GazPro from?"

"Why?"

"Just asking," I said.

"Russia," she said.

"Ok, I'd prefer not to deal with them, it's too unstable and might alienate us from too many economies at some stage. Let's put them on the back burner for now and focus on Irish Gas. Can we get a conference call with them before 9:00?"

"Ooh youhavebeen doing your research, haven't you?" she said. "You know what? I'll let you drive this bus out of the garage this one time, I'll text you a time for a call."

"Great," I said, my head clear and focused at last.

Debbie jumped out of bed and pulled on my robe. She pointed at the bathroom.

"Billy, you take a shower and I'll make some coffee," she said, "we need to get our acts together."

"What are you thinking, Debs?"

"We've got two big conversations this morning and I want to cover our bases before we get into it."

"How so?" I asked.

"Well I need to find out why these Energy Credits are so important to these people," she said, "and that's just the start."

"It's European Law, Debbie," I said. "All of these heavy carbon-based industries will be slapped with huge carbon taxes that they can offset with Energy Credits."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes, but please satisfy yourself on it by all means," I said. "It's because of Kyoto."

"There's also something a bit off with this Waxy fella," she said. "I want to see if I can find anything about him too."

"Ok, well you shower first, and I'll make the coffee," I said, "that way we'll be ready for everything quicker."

Amy's text arrived as I returned to the room with coffee and toast.

Call confirmed for 7:45 through my number.

Great, who are we dealing with?I replied.

Austin Sammon, CEO.

Great. One question, how are the ECs represented?

How do you mean?

You know, are they a paper certificate or digital?

No, they're itemised as such on a company invoice, they're claimed and registered along with the tax return.

That's tidy.

For a change.

Ok, talk soon.

I was deep in thought when Debbie returned and picked up a coffee and a slice of toast. She looked heavenly in a pale blue lace thong and a matching low-cut bra. My eyes must have been on stalks as I watched her.

"I see that you like this, Billy," she said with a smile.

"Fuck, Debbie, I love it," I said slipping a finger under the lower band of her thong and across the face of her hip as she leapt backwards.

"Stop it, Billy, she squealed, "we'll never get anything done."

She was right, so I decided to hit the shower and calm down. She was in her office when I came out, so I dressed, and joined her there. It was 7:40 when I entered the office and sat down to read through some emailed material from Amy, mostly background on Austin Sammon and Irish Gas. It was pretty much what he'd have included in a CV and wasn't of much value. I dialled into Amy's conference call at 7:45 exactly and we were immediately connected with Austin. After a brief introduction Austin asked me to kick it off.

"Thanks, Austin, we're in a bit of a quandary here at the moment," I said, "both you and GazPro have bid €5.5 million for this first batch of Credits. We won't be talking to anyone else if you can come up to €6.3 million."

"What if we don't?" he asked.

"We'll take GazPro's offer and exclude you from the process in future."

"That doesn't make any sense, Billy," Austin said, a little bit annoyingly, "we're more than happy to compete for them in the future, I think you're cutting off your nose to spite your face."

"You seem to think that you and GazPro are the only game in town," I said to a wink from Debbie as she handed me a piece of paper.

"No, I know that there's only one other, Billy," he said.

"InIrelandthere's only one, but there are over twenty others across the continent of Europe," I said, "we're not restricted to dealing solely with companies in the Irish space are we?"

"You wouldn't dare do that, Billy," he said.

"Amy?" I said, bringing her in.

"Austin," she said, "I told you already that Billy doesn't stand on ceremony. The beauty of him is that he tells it like he sees it. In this case he's right, of course."

"So are you saying that if we came back at double what everyone else did in future, you'd actually reject the offer?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, "you see, Austin, I value Irish companies and I also value ease of operation. The money is secondary."

Debbie took my hand and kissed it.

"Ok, make it €6 million and we'll have a deal," he said.

"I prefer €6.2 as a number, it's the year I was born," I said. "Take it or leave it."

"Ok, you're a hard man to deal with, Billy," he said light-heartedly.

"So are you, Austin," I said. "I've never had to leave a hundred grand on the table before."

"I'll get the paperwork over to you immediately and, if we get everything we need, I'll authorise a payment straight away, but in future I'll need 30 days credit."

"Thanks Austin," I said, "but our terms say payment upon receipt of goods, however I'll give you fourteen days."

A loud laugh accompanied him hanging up his phone. Amy cut the call and rang me back immediately.

"Good driving, sir," she said, "what have you got on this morning?"

"I have some stuff to organise for Ritchie and I have Waxy O'Connell at 9:00."

"I'm just so fucking turned on right now," she said softly, "I'll be here until 11:30, possibly naked. Were you really born in '62?"

"No, I couldn't think of anything else to say."

"Make that 10:30, I want to fuck your brains out you beautiful man.

"I'll take you up on that if I can, but I'm tied up most of the morning."

"Do your best," she said.

"I will."

I hung up the phone and watched Debbie amend the invoice and email it off to Irish Gas. She jumped out of her chair and hugged me, her eyes dancing, and her smile wide and delightful.

"I know," I said. "You're turned on now aren't you?"

"So fucking turned on, Billy," she said, "you're amazing. You weren't born in 1962 though."

"I know, but he doesn't know that, does he? And now that you know, I have to ensure your silence."

I pushed her back to sit on the desk as I kissed her deeply. I was turned on myself as I lifted the hem of her dress and knelt in front of her. I slipped her thong off and spread her legs, softly touching my tongue to her vulva.

"Oh fuck, Billy," she whimpered as she brought herself to climax on my tongue.

I stood up and she rested her head against my chest to recover. She clung to me, her arms around my waist.

"That was an astute move though, Debs," I said, kissing her. "You're a fucking genius."

"Failure to prepare is preparing to fail," she said, unwrapping herself from around me and standing up unsteadily.

"I haven't forgotten that," I said, "what have you got in store for poor Mr. O'Connell?"

"Nothing yet, but I'll get something we can use," she said, picking her knickers up off the floor and strolling out of the office.

At 8:15 I was in the kitchen as Debbie returned from the bathroom. I poured a cup of tea as she sat beside me.

"What's the plan?" she asked.

"There's no plan really," I said. "I suppose I should check in on Baz and his minions."

"Good idea," she said, "we need him to keep up the pace."

"I know," I said. "Unfortunately we're dependent on tenants being home for access, so it might just be a little slower than we'd like."

"I wonder if Ritchie can get contact numbers for these tenants, then Baz can make actual appointments with them, for when he's in the area," she said.

"It's worth a go, I said, "do you want me to ask him?"

"I don't mind doing it," she said, "if it's ok."

"Yes, it shouldn't be an issue," I said, "give him a call when you're finished your tea."

I was concentrating on stirring my tea, my thoughts racing around my head in circles. It occurred to me how easily all of this could unravel very quickly, and it served to copperfasten my goal to cut it back drastically the first chance I got. It amazed me how quickly it had gone from zero to a thousand miles an hour, and there was no reason to assume that it couldn't go in the reverse direction quite quickly if I wasn't careful. The first step on that road was the meeting with Waxy. I had to make sure I didn't alienate him whilst also keeping him onside, hungry and a little pissed off.

"You're very quiet all of a sudden," Debbie said.

"Oh, I'm just trying to get a handle on everything in my head," I said. "There are too many plates spinning at once."

"I agree, but we've arrested one of them with Irish Gas on board," she said.

"Yes, we have," I said, "that's a big help. Can I ask what your plans are, Deb?"

"In what way?"

"Well today, for a start," I said, "will you revert to your normal hours again?"

"I have to, Billy. The ex is dropping the kids to school, so I'm back to my normal routine again, I'm really sorry," she said.

"No, no," I said quickly, "don't be sorry. I didn't expect anything different."

"Do you have any thoughts about what happened with us over the weekend?" she asked delicately.

"I have many thoughts, Debbie," I said, "none of them negative. What about you?"

"I'd never leave if I didn't have to," she said, "it was wonderful."

"We've got a lot to consider, but I'm open to anything you're feeling," I said.

"I am too," she said, "but let's see how we get on, I need to test the waters at home first."

"I know," I said. "We have loads of time for that."

She came over and kissed me and we held each other as we listened to the clock on the wall ticking our lives away.

"Right," she said, kissing me quickly, "time to get working."

She went to call Ritchie and I picked up my phone and called Baz.

"Hey, Billy, nice weekend?" he asked.

"Yeah, it was good, you?"

"Busy, we got all of those surveys done on Saturday."

"Good going, Baz, how did you do that?" I asked.

"Well, when we got there we found that all of the houses are the fucking same, so we measured one and applied that across them all."

"Ok, it's not what I'd have done but go on."

"All we had to do then was establish which houses had extensions etc. and factor those into the mix."

"How did you establish that, Baz?" I asked.

"Easy, Google Earth."

"But if an extension was built this year it'd hardly be on Google Earth yet, would it?" I said.

"True, but while we were surveying the ones thatareon Google Earth we could see which ones thatweren'tby looking along the back gardens."

"Ok, that sounds reasonable. When will we get the paperwork?"

"I have a transition year student transcribing the data into excel, he tells me he'll have that to me by 10:00. I have the invoice ready to go too so I'll forward everything to Debbie as soon as I get it."

"Grand. So where are you working today?" I asked.