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CHAPTER SIX
Clint
I feel a bit like some kind of overly sentimental idiot. That’s because I’m utterly relieved when I wake up at about four thirty and see that Billie is on the bed next to me. I slide myself up a little and sit with my back against the headboard. I do this just to get a better angle so I can look at her, this lovely little girl.
This is not according to plan.
I’m supposed to be focused on the investment business I built, the investment business that allows me to live well, that allows my parents to live in Alaska, retired instead of still working, and that has a positive impact on people like Charlie and others who get financing from me without a hell of a lot of the rigamarole they might have to go through with a typical banking institution.
But instead, here I am acting like some kind of teenager.
A one-night stand is one thing. I mean, a one-night stand is something that blows off steam but most importantly is limited to one night. Already as I look at the incredible shape of her body, thoughts of far more than one night with Billie fill my head. That isn’t smart of me at all. In fact, it’s damned stupid of me. I need to get hold of myself. I need to get my head screwed on straight.
I carefully slide off the bed and put on boxers and a tee shirt. I make my way to the kitchen and start coffee and then drop and give an imaginary drill sergeant twenty. For some reason, I always imagine a drill sergeant when I’m doing push-ups even though I never joined the military.
I end up giving the imaginary drill sergeant a hell of a lot more than twenty. By the time I can’t do anymore, the coffee is brewed. I stand up, splash some water on my face from the kitchen sink and pour a cup of coffee.
“You know,” Billie says from behind me, “if I think about sex any more than I do when you’re around I might be labeled by Congress as obscene.”
I chuckle as I turn around. “We’ll both have to deal with that,” I say. I look her up and town. She has her tee shirt on and nothing else. “Coffee?”
She nods. “Thank you.” She sits down and smiles sadly at me. “You know we can’t do this, right?”
I nod. “Yeah. When I’m with you, I can’t think not to do it. But you’re right.”
“What if we do it casually?” she asks. “I mean, not too casually. Look, I’m so busy if you and I got one night a week together that would preclude anyone else just because I won’t have the time. So, I mean, I’m not saying we date a hundred people each and we’re one of the hundred.”
“You mean we’re exclusive, but the relationship just won’t get very deep?”
She nods and says, “It’s all I can give right now. Actually, I don’t honestly know if I can give that consistently.”
“And you’re still a little girl? I’m still a Daddy?”
She nods. “As much as we can with the time limitations.”
I set the coffee in front of her and sit down with my cup. “I’m willing to give it a try. For just this first week, though, as we navigate the rules, maybe we can try to meet several times. I don’t mean sex. I just mean figuring things out so no fights later.”
She nods and then smiles at me. “Who says we can’t fit sex in several times this week, Daddy?”
I smile and say, “If I didn’t have a conference call in an hour, I would absolutely take you up on that offer right now.”
We both fall silent a moment. That admission just drives home the point that neither of us has the time to dedicate to this. After a moment, she says, “So tell me about your job.”
I’m grateful for the chance to change the subject, so I talk to her about the investment firm. I tell her I founded it ten years ago with some friends from business school and became the sole owner four years ago when my partners sold their shares and moved on to other pursuits. I tell her how I’ve managed to transfer most of the day-to-day to my executive leadership team and my goal is to soon be completely handed off and let them handle the entire operation.
“You’re not afraid something will happen to the company when you leave?”
I shake my head. “I was very fortunate to find good people to run the company for me. The CEO is an old friend from business school who graduated near the top of the class and the rest of the leadership team has decades of experience in investment banking. I need to be a little more involved over the next six months or so to make sure they’re set up for success but I have no fear that they will do an excellent job flying solo when the time comes.”
“That’s wonderful,” she says. “I’m so happy for you, Daddy.”
I smile. “Thank you, princess.”
She blushes at the pet name and I say, “So tell me about the fourplexes. What led you to pursue real estate?”
She smiles and says, “Well, believe it or not, I really love it. The process of buying land, developing it, renting it, selling it, and expanding—it’s all fascinating to me. To the untrained, it just seems like a lot of convoluted busywork over something that should be simple but when you really understand how it works, there’s so much opportunity. I could essentially retire by the time I’m thirty. Not that I would, but I could if I wanted to.”
“Well, I’m really proud of you,” I say.
It’s a strange thing to say since absolutely none of her decisions took place after we met, but she blushes and says, “Thank you,” anyway and I can tell she’s genuinely pleased with the compliment.
We work out four other nights to see each other this week and just so we can keep with the DDlg thing, she agrees to submit the remainder of her fourplex project to me, so we create some goals and make a plan to discuss them with her each time we see each other so I can hold her accountable.
It’s about as unconventional as a DDlg relationship can be but it works for us, at least for right now, and when she leaves, we’re both smiling and a lot less nervous than we were before.
