This story is a work of complete fiction. Any resemblance of characters to real persons and reality is a coincidence. This story eventually includes descriptions of sex between adult males. If you are a minor, if this material is illegal where you live, or if this material offends you, please don't read it. Please donate to Nifty. Find the donation button on the Nifty web site to help you to pay your share of their expenses to provide these entertaining stories for you. All rights reserved.
David's Contribution: Ryan-Chapter 5
Ryan and Liam thought carefully about the pros and cons of living in the Schuyler Museum. One of the best things about being there, aside from the awesome security, was the proximity to their work. A very large percentage of the Schuyler collection was right there in the building, free from any commute.
Another great benefit was the rent. There wasn't any.
Both Ryan and Liam had placed 'sex with my employer' on the con side, however. It would be a great benefit in terms of fun and relaxation, but they were happy before it happened, too. They couldn't ignore the possible, no probable eventual conflict between employee and employers' having naked time together.
After the Plan Q scare in Rome, the eagerness to continue the overseas catalog work had vanished. Neither had signed up for risk. Neither craved a dangerous life.
Later that day, they decided to ask JJ for their ideas about improving the safety of their work and for resolving potential employee-employer conflict.
They were interested to know if that potential conflict was erased or just altered a bit or not altered at all in the presence of a contractual relationship instead of the traditional employee-employer relationship.
Plan Q had saved a lot of trouble for them, but what if a pilot hadn't been in Rome right then to rescue them? Were there any other safeguards for preventing trouble before it got to the point of near-hostage? Did the Schuyler Trust have governmental contacts at high levels in countries that played fast and loose with personal freedom?
About the time that Ryan and Liam had finished talking, JJ telephoned.
"Hey guys, can you come over and talk tonight about 8 pm?"
They could.
JJ did have some ideas.
"We came home exhausted and happy," said Jayden. "You probably don't realize that for any number of reasons we don't have a large circle of friends."
"There are people who admire, respect, toady up, resent, obey and have other relationships with us... "
"Our sex last night with you guys," said John, "was the beginning of a life-changing twenty-four hours for both of us."
John went on, pacing up and down. He told them they had talked about nothing else that day. "We think we might have found the answer to a couple of issues that we couldn't solve and maybe some answers for you as well."
"Jayden had a near-religious experience with your cock up his ass, Ryan."
Jayden didn't show a blush well with his smooth pigmented skin, but he felt flushed and hot all over all of a sudden. He nodded and pumped his fist in the air in agreement.
"To find friends that are willing to let their hair down," Jayden said, "people that we have chemistry with, is like mining the Golconda's Kollur mine and finding another Koh-i-Noor diamond. It's that rare for us."
"Getting to play with you sometimes, hooking up with you two, would be a private pleasure, one not for sale or rent, nothing that has to be in a catalog or studied by art historians," said John.
"We forgot to tell you this morning," John continued, "that we were pretty shaken up by what happened in Rome. That the first use of that plan happened to you shook us up. The fact that it was available helped some. The fact that it worked was great."
Jayden took up the thread.
"We don't want to see that happen to anyone again, least of all you. We are identifying a list of countries from whom we are recalling our art objects. We should have timed this sooner in retrospect."
"I have a tentative list of 15 countries that will by the end of the week have no Schuyler works on loan. The involved museums will be told today that the objects are being recalled for maintenance and assessment for the indefinite future prior to being returned."
"Our fleet will return to Manhattan with those art objects under guard and the first, most expensive and rare items will arrive beginning tomorrow. This operation must be silent, swift and attract minimal attention. The museums will cooperate, I'm sure. If they don't, no other museum will ever lend them so much as a piece of typing paper. Nor will many private collectors, of which we are the largest by far.
"One of the secrets of our collection you will learn is that every time the public reads about an art object selling for tens of millions of dollars goes on the block, they are told that a wealthy investor in the Middle East or Japan or Macau or someplace won the bid for his or her collection. Nine out of ten times, that person was an agent of the Schuyler collection and the object is now safe in our basement here at the museum or sometimes in a museum in the Middle East or Japan or Macau or wherever to maintain the fiction."
"Ownership is ours in a very large percentage of cases. Very few people outbid us for items we want for our collection."
"This helps the total value of our collection stay high. We tend to manufacture our own prices in some ways. We make our own weather."
"You can probably guess some of the countries on the list we are moving objects from and correctly infer that 'indefinite' in this context means 'forever'."
"You'll be surprised to know that Italy isn't one of them. That guy was a kook and a right-wing fanatic who had gained official support in his agency from one person in the agency who thought like he did."
"The Prime Minister and the cabinet there were not amused at what transpired, the art community had a hissy fit, and the public reaction helped us get Raspberry back with its contents intact and entire. Abandoned jets aren't always returned to the owner around the world."
"We want to know what you would think of not working for us." said John.
"No, you aren't getting fired. You're not being 'let go'. We don't want to replace you."
"We've talked all day about this and both Jayden and I are lockstep in wanting to ask you to consider being co-beneficiaries of the Schuyler Trust"
My hand was holding Ryan's hand while John was talking. I couldn't detect any visible physical reaction from him. My own reaction was that if we were co-beneficiaries that Ryan would have to do most of the work, since my business skills only consisted of some common sense. Balance sheets, debits, credits, books, taxes... I knew some of the terms but putting it all together into a workable enterprise that could compete in the modern age?
Then I realized that the Trust had people for that. The beneficiaries ('co' or not) just had to spend money and decide what to spend it on. Pretty much without limits. In fact, without limit. Literally.
John and Jayden were giving us a huge gift. Yeah. But why? What had we done for them in return? How did they benefit from splitting with us? The question didn't just enter my head, it struck me with some force.
"My head was saying, "No way this is for real."
"My heart was coming up with stuff, childish stuff that I can't talk about to this day. Flashes of John's warm cock in my ass that morning, thrilling, rough... came to me. I had to force myself to just listen and follow Ryan's lead here. Flashes of Ryan's tender, sensuous cock gently dilating me open and long nights of skin to skin... as exciting as John had been, Ryan was my guy and I was keeping him."
"Now for the sensitive part of this discussion," Jayden went on. "Neither of you is for sale. If you agree to be co-beneficiaries of the Trust, however, and if we hook up on occasion, some will say that you had a price and we paid it. Hell, you might even wonder sometimes."
"All I can say is that wasn't our intention and it certainly wasn't yours."
"There are other downsides."
"Constant security is my least favorite part of all of this," said Jayden.
"Avoiding the limelight... the Schuyler tradition is to avoid publicity like the plague; we don't party outside the museum, we don't compete and make enemies unless art is involved, our primary focus is to nourish the Trust and make it grow and do good for our world, our families and our employees."
"The Trust does not politicize itself or its assets or support any party or issue outside of art itself. Friends in the political world come and go; enemies accumulate."
"Yes, we treat ourselves to vacations and toys and jets and we enjoy our art objects and enjoy giving students of art a boost through our museum educational programs. We also enjoy giving to our family."
"The co-beneficiaries under Trust rules must together approve all spending and all gifts, however. The investment guys can spend their own money however they wish but must ask the co-'bens' for a written document of a gift prior to spending major funds over a Trust-mandated limit."
"Initial thoughts?"
There was silence in the room for a minute. Ryan and Liam were pretty much stunned and then their brains started to work again. Ryan jumped in first.
"How could we contribute in that role, like the old saying about too many cooks in the kitchen and all... "
"We would divide up the administrative responsibilities even further. As you know, John and I are doing double duty now, in charge of administration and we're also responsible for both the Trust and the Alain Investments. Just the administration of the art and gem collections is a full-time gig."
"The original beneficiary advice document is in a separate vault in the basement, a copy of it is in the Trust offices. Our founder thought succeeding beneficiaries might need a little guidance."
"The workload of the front-end of the Trust used to be divided between a beneficiary and another person who just did the investing."
"Now that we also have Alain Industry funds to invest as well, somewhere in the trillions, other investment factors come into play like politics which require more time."
It was John that provided the next shocking statement.
"Jayden and I as a couple believe we have begun the process of falling for you two as a couple."
First, I'd like to share something about the two of us with you."
"We know we are not idiots savants; we have been checked for autism and there is no evidence of it, we don't fit the clinical picture of Asberger's Syndrome which is for some diagnosticians an autism-related disease."
"On the other hand, the truest picture of memory talent and social talent deficit may exist somewhere on a spectrum of ability and disability."
John continued. "We don't look on the lack of social talent as a disability, but some do. We don't lack the ability to enjoy sex, that's for sure."
"What I'm trying to get at is that the investment side of the Trust, as it involves huge amounts of money that can make, save, or destroy a market, rescue a country, etc. requires social and political talents that continue to require us to up our game. That's where your talents come in."
"We would like, at the end of two years, for you two to be the sole co-beneficiaries, co-owners, or like we tell ourselves, co-'bens', of the Schuyler Trust."
"We will continue to do the investing and retire from ownership then."
"The traditional Schuyler path is to allow family (that would be defined as all of us) to have access to the fortune, the jets, the perks after a beneficiary change, usually, but wouldn't have to involve a death. That all could be spelled out in an altered Trust document approved by the Pennsylvania legislature in two years."
"The beneficiary, or co-'bens', both of you after two years, would have the final say about expenditures and Trust staffing changes and even structure to the extent the present, or future successfully- altered Trust documents allow it."
"There is a paid Trust Board with great global ties, however since you 'owned' the Trust, you could replace them at will, leaving you with complete control. We have not replaced anyone since they all have the global contacts that benefit us greatly."
"Being the 'co-owners' of the Schuyler Trust has been educational and stimulating, a lot of work, rewarding, time-consuming, ego-boosting for sure, and a chance to be extremely powerful."
"The fact remains that no man can be everything and everywhere, all-knowing and all-powerful. We both hope and believe there is a Higher Power who has all of those attributes and at the same time, we know we don't."
"It makes sense for us to limit ourselves in two years and you are the obvious choice for the administrative/ownership work. You have amazing amounts of common sense and benevolent heads to boot."
"You are quintessential givers, intelligent, mindful, and mature. You both have capacity to learn and grow... and besides we like ya."
"Our conversation today also included our own relationship and how we could have a relationship with you two which also met your own needs. In short, how can a couple have a bond with another committed couple? We didn't have a model, a structure, for that one. That was one tough chat. Both of us are friend-naive outside of our own bond. He was spot on when he told you that he and I have a special and specific bond."
"Our backgrounds, our education, our memory talents are similar, and we've been through a lot together that we share with no one else."
"As important as that bond is to both of us, there is one thing we know we lack. That's the lack of social talent I mentioned previously. People who have the kind of memories that we do commonly exhibit this. We both sense that you two have those social talents we lack."
"Jayden and I are extremely good at investing, given our memory talents and education in business. It just makes sense, if you are interested, to bring you and your families into the picture."
"We can glue our two couples together with our recreation, getting to know each other, eating together, working on projects together, taking vacations together perhaps...and, we hope, by the kind of physical pleasures that we all enjoyed in the last twenty-four hours."
John continued, "That togetherness was so unique and so good that it re-purposed our entire day, it served as a spark for a major shift- change in our thinking about ourselves, an evaluation we don't address every day. We needed that spark badly. It freed both of us to think about forward progress on issues we hadn't thought easily solved."
"You added incredible value to our lives last night. We are thinking that the return response should be proportional."
"If the idea meets with your approval and if you feel the same, let's spend the rest of our lives as two primary couples in the same line of work, free to play couples with couples when all are agreeable, agreeing to not play alone across couple lines for now."
"In short, Jayden and I are asking you, Ryan and Liam, to be a valued part of our own small family. We hope you would consider developing a connection to us. We hope that our feelings could deepen over time."
"Liam, you've been quiet."
"Still thinking, John. This is still pretty new to me, shocking, growing on me like your cock in my ass yesterday. That was new and shocking to me also in a good way. I keep thinking that life is just a process of a lot of changes put together. Why people fight change I don't know. It happens whether one fights it or no."
"By the way, how do our families interface with all this?" Liam asked.
Jayden replied, "Initially Ryan's dads and your parents are considered family just as President Darnell was. She was Michael's sister and had access to her own Presidential perks and fleet, but had she needed access to the Schuyler jets, she could have just said so any time."
"In addition, she had access to the family fortune, including what she needed to finance her campaigns within the law, of course."
"If additional family is adopted or comes along genetically, those family members also have access to any perks that the beneficiary(s) decide to allow them, but not control of the Trust."
"Marcus Jones was married to Michael and his immediate family had access to jets and a lot of perks including security and living quarters."
"Their other interests were served from the massive gifts that Michael gave the Jones family, including a massive charity fund or two that has now reverted to the Trust."
Ryan nodded.
"I assume we would live here in the museum with that arrangement," he said. "Living elsewhere wouldn't make sense. We'd be a lot closer to Liam's parents and could support them better. I agree with the plan to limit the loans to safer countries now.
"Who would choose the next beneficiary after Liam and me?"
"You would," said John.
"The Trust documents state the co-'bens', as we say, get to decide who replaces them and also who replaces the investment gurus."
"The 'bens' (co-'bens' in your case) submit their choice to the Trust legal department at the appropriate time, usually some years prior to allow bureaucratic processes to occur."
"If you decide, you each become your one-quarter of a 'ben' as soon as Pennsylvania changes the rules for our situation, then in two years your one-half of a 'ben' happens as soon as Pennsylvania once again changes our rules."
Ryan and John discussed the Trust law in Pennsylvania and the process of convincing the legislature to introduce a private bill to change it for their situation along with the process of convincing the governor to sign that bill.
Jayden asked the next stunner.
"Are you two opposed to staying for the night? We'd like to have you watch us fuck and also watch you make love... all in the same big bed after a swim in the museum pool?"
"Liam grinned. "Does moon revolve around Earth?"
John stood and stretched. "Then it's settled as a concept, anyway?"
"Staying for the night as a concept? I'll say!" said Ryan.
Liam swatted Ryan's ass. "I can't take you out, can I?"
John replied, "Liam and I will need a little time to digest what you've told us today. This isn't a decision which anyone would be advised to rush toward or away from. Can we have a week to think?"
"Take as much time as you need. The offer won't disappear. If you have questions or would like to explore other options within what we've talked about or even outside that framework, please just say what you're thinking," said John.
"Anybody hungry? The kitchen is open 24/7 for hungry, horny men. There's a chef on duty who probably needs stimulation. Let's run down there and make his day."
The men ran the hall and downstairs both for exercise and for fun to relieve the stress of the day, giddy to be done with it. After a batch of 'from scratch' deep-fried jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and served with a reasonable copy of Arby's berry sauce along with a light salad of artichoke hearts, Walla Walla sweet onion slivers, olive oil, kalamata olives, feta cheese, capers and finely shredded lettuce, seasoned with salt and pepper, they ran to the museum pool, now closed by security for the exclusive use of the four men.
John and Jayden were all over each other in the pool. Ryan and Liam limited their explorations to themselves.
John had asked Peter, JJ's personal footman, to fold the bed linens down to the end of the bed and cover the bed with thick towels. Peter grinned inside and asked them to be comfortable in the living room of the huge suite on 4th floor and he'd call them when the bed was ready.
Peter called them in.
"I'll be down the hall, gentlemen; please call me if you need me."
Back at the suite, Liam and Jayden started kissing and exploring a little.
John and Ryan held each other, and Ryan sat on John's ass, his cock resting in John's crack and massaged John's neck, back, and ass cheeks. He avoided John's junk for now.
Liam and Jayden lay down on their backs and their partners mounted them and serious kissing began.
Ryan began to play with Liam's tackle. John began to suck Jayden's cock.
Ryan and Liam stopped to watch John and Jayden, a turn-on for them.
"Jayden," said John, "please turn over on your hands and knees. Jayden turned over and spread his knees apart on the bed. John swiftly moved in and began to rim Jayden, his stiff tongue plunging in and out of Jayden's hole.
Jayden's cries of delight, his moans of passion, stirred Ryan and Liam.
Jayden's cock began to get moist and finally he yelled.
"John! Please, please just do it. Oh God, fuck me now! I can't stand it."
Ryan watched Liam's face turn into a broad grin and saw Liam swallow. He's living this one inside his head, thought Ryan. He's feeling it.
John suddenly plunged his cock deep and hard into Jayden's ass.
Liam was startled. This was different from what he was used to. Jayden seemed to like it rough.
Jayden yelled and carried on and both John and Jayden got very physical, turned up and on, for maximum stimulation and sensation.
"Oh fuck! Harder, John! Plough my ass!"
And then John came with a roar like a lion and collapsed onto Jayden's back, cum oozing out alongside John's hard cock into his pubic hair.
Jayden had come at about the same time onto the thick towel.
The two were panting, sweating, exhausted, too excited to sleep, John's cum still dripping out of Jayden's ass.
With that Ryan intended to display something different.
"Liam," he whispered, "lay on your back. Wrap your legs around me."
Liam obeyed and they began to kiss again. Ryan lifted Liam's body up until his butt was pointing almost straight into the air.
Ryan then stood, applied lube to his cock and Liam's ass, pointed his cock almost straight down and just touched the tip of his large cock to Liam's asshole.
Liam's sphincter muscle quivered and tightened at the touch, then relaxed, allowing a little natural progress. The muscle continued to cycle, tighten, then, relax, winking as it were.
Finally, Ryan's cock's head was inside, and he stopped to let Liam adjust.
After a minute, Liam looked at Ryan and nodded. "Move me, stud," he said.
Ryan began to gently advance and retreat, keeping the end of his cock inside. The position he had chosen for them allowed John and Jayden full view.
The gentle pace progressed to a more rapid fuck. Ryan's balls began to draw up and he recognized the feeling that he was about to blow.
"Liam, I'm there. You with me, bud?"
"Breed me, Ryan. Take my butt. Own it."
With that, his body filled with love, Ryan's muscles stiffened and those watching could see then his muscles jerk, then cum dripped out of Liam's ass. Liam, in turn, shot cum up on his own face without touching his cock.
John and Jayden turned back away to their world, kissing each other, happy for their new friends, happy for themselves.
The rest of the night was quiet. The men slept well, woke once at different times to void, physically regenerating themselves for a new day.
In the morning the shower saw Jayden and Liam kneeling on soft padded plastic benches under the warm rain spray. Jayden made John cum hard and Liam did the same for Ryan.
After dressing, Ryan and Liam said their goodbyes and they were driven home, a security car following behind.
"How shall we tell the families if we decide to do this?" Liam wanted to know. "I'd like both of us to run this past my dads and your folks, asking all of them to keep it under wraps until the deed is done."
The decision would change Ryan's dad's lives and Liam's folks lives since the security and access to jets would be included along with benefits they might not have yet, limousines if they desired and a few other perks.
Ryan and Liam walked in the door of Liam's parents for supper. She was glad to see them and asked them to sit and take a load off. She had added a couple of places to the table. Her cottage cheese and lentil casserole was nearly done, the vegetables steamed, and the basil sauce done. She asked them what they wanted to drink.
"Water's good," her boys replied.
"I baked bread today," she said. "If one of you slices it and puts it on the bread plate, we can eat sooner."
They rose as one to attack the loaf with the knife just as Joseph Reilly walked in the door from the garage. He washed his hands also and all sat down to eat. Ryan noticed the 'grace' thing again but was used to it.
"What's new at your house, guys?"
"The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings" Ryan thought of the quotation from Lewis Carroll just then. Liam began to giggle, then burst into tears.
Liam's parents had seen Liam burst into tears before. He expressed his emotion that way sometimes. They weren't prepared for the next words out of Ryan's mouth, however.
"Liam, I love you, man. I'll take the lead on this one."
Ryan looked up at Liam's parents (now his parents too by agreement) and began.
"We learned today that we have new jobs soon. Liam and I have been selected (offered) the position of co-beneficiaries of the Schuyler Trust, quarter-beneficiaries for now, then co-beneficiaries after two years."
Minerva and Joseph's eyes curled around into question marks.
"What does that mean, Ryan?"
"It means that your son and I will be the richest men in the world... it means a lot of work...it means we'll live in the Schuyler Museum and so will you if you want to..." I
"It means that your son and I and you and my dads will all have access to the Schuyler Gulfstream Jet fleet anytime any of us want to go somewhere... it means you will ride in limousines with security details to avoid kidnapping... it means you can continue to work at the store or not as you wish... it means you have access to a huge fortune... Liam will never starve or need loans... his life will change... your lives will change... as will mine."
"I think that's why Liam's reaction is what it is. He's overwhelmed too."
A long silence, interspersed with hiccups from Liam, Minerva getting up to reheat the casserole in the microwave, questions unasked, unanswered... the news had to be digested but the food was right there to eat. The family ate silently, then decamped to the living room to talk.
Joseph addressed the elephant in the room. "How much is this Trust worth?"
"That dollar amount is unknown because so much of the assets are priceless, but the Trust investments are worth trillions of dollars and the Alain Industries investments which they also manage on the side are also in the trillions of dollars after they started selling cold-fusion reactors. In addition, the art collection and gem collections are priceless, and no one will ever know their total value. Liam and I will share ownership of more money than any other person on earth. We'll never be able, even if we tried, to spend just the income from all that money, let alone the original sum, the principal of the Trust."
Liam, finally able to put words together, apologized for the angst and his mother just smiled and told him to knock it off since they had had his number for a long time. Liam grinned and burrowed his face into Ryan's chest. Ryan's arms went around him, and they all just sat thinking in the evening shadows.
When they left that evening, a black Suburban was parked behind their car and the burly driver was standing by the driver's side, waved to Ryan and Liam and said, "Hi from JJ!" That Suburban and one's like it stayed with them from that day on.
The next day, they flew to Columbus and a farm hand met them in one of the pickup trucks. A different black Suburban followed them to the ranch where David and Payne met them on the big front porch...
"Hey, what brings you guys to the hinterlands?"
A similar speech was delivered, was absorbed, only the response was disbelief, then lots of questions.
Payne asked if they could build a jetport on the back forty acres, David asked if they needed to plan for the security types. He offered, half in jest, a barn with a hayloft where they could sleep and kind of camp out. They were delighted that Ryan finally had a 'decent, safer' job, but when the smart-Alec questions were exhausted, a similar silence descended over the group.
"What do you think, dads? Should we take the job?"
David, right off the bat, told them that if he understood the thing right, that they would work harder than they ever had in their lives and at the same time, they'd have more influence, power, and money than anyone else on the planet. He said they'd enjoy most of that and agonize over parts of it too. He was a little worried about them being targets of any kind but thought that their security was probably as good as anyone's might be.
Payne asked Ryan if he would invite them over when they got settled (if they decided to accept).
Ryan told both of them that publicity about this could get someone killed and that absolute silence until it happened had to happen. "Don't tell the barber, the grocer, the neighbor, just forget about the waitress and the bartender. There's no room for error here. Don't say anything to former co-workers at hotels or on the street or talk on the phone about it, don't text about it, just forget this until I let you know. Don't ask someone to measure for a jetport, Payne."
His dads promised not to talk in front of the farm workers including the house employees.
I hadn't expected Liam's meltdown and I had near to no expectation that Payne would keep his mouth shut. He was my dad and I loved him. I also knew his manic times when he would say almost anything that entered his head and then he would think later. He was a lot of fun when he was 'high' in a manic phase, less so when he was depressed and seeking comfort. I began to think a little more about the wisdom of bringing things up to them before the fact. It made me wonder if I'd inherited any of Payne's 'talk at all costs' brain.
Liam didn't repeat that initial behavior and became a solid help at final decision-making time, putting together lists of Pros and Cons, lists of things to do if we said yes. He had learned that we'd choose a personal footman from the small crowd of nearly ten that had the experience and training for the position in the museum.
He took it on himself to discover who they were and get acquainted through the housekeeper, a nice bit of politics. He had asked JJ if he could approach the housekeeper and they called her right then and asked her to meet with him.
Liam was a good judge of character and personality. He had written up a list of questions to fit in as the various footmen gave him tours of different suites, questions about privacy, what situations might embarrass them or annoy them, what they liked best about their job, and as they were already hired, he figured he wasn't doing employment interviews and could ask any damn thing he wished about their partners, their families, their favorite foods...
It wouldn't have surprised me if he knew the length of their dick by the end of their tour. I don't think that came up, but you get the drift.
I would have still been asking how long they'd been employed.
Liam didn't change much during this time, which stretched out to ten days or so.
I did. Change. My mind began to focus in on the work. I needed to hit the ground running, knew I couldn't learn it until I did it, so focused on developing an attitude about the tasks that would give others confidence that the organization was in good hands. I wanted to show great knowledge about it. Couldn't do that yet.
I wanted to assure employees that their jobs would go on and that I was interested in them as persons too, so wanted their job satisfaction to improve even more. I decided that a lot of listening in an active listening mode would suffice for that.
I decided that a good posture and a smile, a non-hurried, tranquil appearance might help. That and a haircut and a manicure...
I added to the list, also giving our measurements to the housekeeper when she asked.
I had retrieved my clothes from Raspberry. So had Liam. We had our business attire and our fun casual stuff for each other.
Liam asked me to meet the two candidates for footman that he had chosen and approve one with him.
First, we went to JJ and accepted their kind offer to work with them. They hugged each other, then stepped over to us. John hugged both of us and gave us a deep kiss. Jayden did the same.
"When do you want to move in?" Jayden was asking.
"We thought we'd move some things every day for a week and keep it low-key. We'll keep some stuff over at the apartment so will need security checked over there.
I think if our security vets the system over there and approves, we won't have to move any personnel over there.
That could change and probably will when we are actually there for a few hours or overnight. Does that sound good to you, Jayden?"
"Sure thing... feel free to stop by our office for refreshments and a meet and greet thing just before dinner. The Mayor, the Chief of Police, the Governor, the President of the New York Senate, the Federal Prosecutors here on the Island, Trust officers, Fire Chief, City Council Chair and spouses. Others will arrive to join the above for dinner. If you get there at five, we'll all be done and ready to descend to dinner at five forty-five on the dot to eat at six pm. Sound good?"
"By the way, just so you know, we usually dress formally for dinner and eat the other meals in our shorts in our room or whatever."
"I can't imagine that you planned for formal tonight, but if you choose one in the next hour, you can bet your next bottle of Fiji water that he will have one ready for both of you by five pm. These guys are amazing!" said John.
John came and asked me if he could have a word in private. We moved to the corner of his office. He told me he was relieved to hear that we were willing to take them on.
As soon as guests and employees hear you will be co-bens soon, he thought there will be a quiet stampede to curry favor, ask for money and donations, even the governor, ask for favors, ask for jobs for relatives, ask for an interview for their nephew on the New York Times...and lots more.
Jayden and I learned early, he told me, the value of the word 'no'!
Just so you know... he told me the Trust has a publicity office for the press, an HR department for jobs, a supplies/storage office for vendors, a philanthropy office to handle requests for money, etc. He said if a kid asked me for a buck or if I wanted to give a homeless guy a fiver or whatever, I could do whatever I liked. You can, he said, always refer a political donation request to the philanthropy department. "In practice if we want to give, we do from our own personal funds. We are allowed to give ourselves personal funds if the other co-'bens' give written approval. It's not like we have to go around like paupers."
Subject to approval of the Trust and the state of Pennsylvania's amendment of the Trust to include us, I could give someone a billion dollars, he said, subject to it reverting to the trust and the income going to that person in the meanwhile as long as all the co-"bens' signed off in written form on it and usually they would as a matter of courtesy.
"I didn't want you to be blindsided here," said John. "We'll go over all of this with Liam at our regular meeting on Tuesday morning at ten a.m. Your footman knows the museum admin schedule and will make sure you get to where you are to be and when and in what shape." He grinned.
"There will be lots of time for you to change any or all of this in a couple years when we bow out of ownership, don't worry." He grinned.
Liam and I went down to the housekeeper's office to meet our footman candidates and they were shown in, one then the other. The first was a short, trim neighbor next door looking guy, average package, great butt, nice smile, good white teeth, short blonde hair, blue eyes, alert.
The second was a drop-dead gorgeous dark as in Italian, swarthy faced tall man, very trim, very formal, alert, dark hair, full of yes sir and no sir.
I spoke with both. Liam already had. I was drawn to the first candidate. After they left for the ante-room, I told Liam so. He grinned.
"I liked Giorgio the best but wanted someone dedicated to you. The Italian has enough seniority to almost demand an interview."
"He didn't, but I figured that his feelings would be hurt if he wasn't advanced to the finals. I'm trying to think ahead here."
Liam called Giorgio back in and asked if he would be Liam's personal footman. He smiled happily and said yes, he would.
Then Will the Short was called back in and hired to be my personal footman. He grinned and thanked us. His salary and benefits went up mightily with this new gig.
I told him I didn't mean to stress him, but relayed the formal clothing request that I'd been given by Jayden for the meet and greet at five forty-five pm.
"Sure, I'll have formal shirts, black socks, polished shoes and the formal wear along with black tie and clean underwear ready at five pm in suite 423, your new suite and I'll ask Giorgio to do the same for Liam."
"Do you wish towels, soap and shampoo with hair conditioner set out for your showers at 4:30?"
"Is your shaving equipment here or at your apartment still?"
"I can send for it, no problem if you give me your key.
"Nah, don't worry if your apartment isn't spotless. Neither is mine today.
Somehow, I didn't believe that, but it was politic of him to say it.
"Just a word about the 'Meet' event before dinner," Will said. "Remember that all these guys and their wives take off their pant legs one leg at a time and their wives slap them around like wives everywhere. Don't be afraid of any of them. You have 50 times as much wealth as any of them and they'll all be trying to figure out how you got it. So, my advice is to keep smiling."