First & Long

by Jesse Jordan

  Su Lin turns around, her face nervous. “Rick, this is supposed to be my prime time. Are you sure we’ll be able to find the time-”

  I cut Su Lin off, pulling her close and kissing her hard. She resists for half a second before giving in, her mouth opening and her tongue tasting mine. I pull back after stroking her body, giving her a smile. “I promise, I won’t let you down, and I’m not going to disrespect you either. I know you wanted to see the Rockies, but I promise you we’ll have a good week in New York.”

  Su Lin nods, then chuckles. “Guess I’m going to have to repack. I’d put together a few bags of nothing but jeans, t-shirts, and some flannel.”

  “So perfect wear for Minnesota,” I quip, making her laugh. I put an arm around her shoulders, and lead her towards the door. “Come on, let’s see what’s in that small apartment we call a walk-in closet for you. I’m sure somewhere in there is stuff that’s appropriate for you to wear in New York City. And if not… well, I do believe I’ve got a credit card around here somewhere that you can go shopping with.”

  Heading into the boardroom, I’m already irritated. While Su Lin and I took the opportunity to use the bedroom onboard my plane to try and make the most of her breeding window, it wasn’t as pleasurable as the other times we’ve had sex. It was rushed and mechanical, and while it was enough for both of us to climax, there was something lacking. No way are we going to be able to do that another nine or ten times before this month’s window closes.

  Harvey isn’t in the room when I arrive, so instead I make small talk with the other board members. Some of them, like Eric Sloane, have been around since the beginning of K-S. “How’s married life treating you, Rick?”

  “About the same as grandfatherhood’s treating you,” I say with a polite chuckle. Eric’s neutral in the fight between Harvey and I, always trying to be the peacekeeper. He’s a good CFO, but since his job deals with dollars and cents, I’m always keeping my eyes open around him. “How old is your grandson?”

  “Nine months now,” Eric says with a smile. “Cutest thing you’ve ever seen. And how about you, Rick? You’re feeling healthy still?”

  “Don’t worry, Eric. I’ve got a ways to go before Harvey can have the maintenance crew take my name off the building,” I reply. Eric’s able to keep secrets as well as anyone, and he knows the truth about my physical condition.

  Eric hums, folding his hands together in front of him. “Rick, can I be honest? Why not find a middle ground with Harvey? We all know the situation, I’m shocked you’ve been able to hold on this long. You know Harvey’s going to win out eventually, nobody outraces the Grim Reaper forever.”

  “True… but that motherfucker’s been cheated more often than he likes to let on. The Reaper, that is,” I answer him. “As for Harvey, you know why I oppose him. I didn’t make all those inventions to make it easier for people to kill each other.”

  “Alfred Nobel said the same thing,” Eric points out. “Didn’t stop people from taking dynamite and evolving it into high explosives.”

  “No, but as long as I hold the patents or my estate holds the patents, I’m going to make sure to delay the perversion of my inventions as long as possible. Who knows? If I’m lucky, I might just be able to delay it to the point that someone else comes up with an idea that nullifies it before it can be used.”

  “I doubt it,” Harvey’s voice says behind me, and I turn. He’s looking confident but angry, like he normally does any time we see each other recently. “And your foolish idea is going to lead to our country falling behind in the arms race.”

  I shake my head, keeping my temper in check. “The only side fueling an arms race is our side, Harvey. The Chinese, the Russians… they’re just stealing and copying. Nothing they’ve put out in the past twenty years matches programs we’ve created and then abandoned because they were too damn expensive.”

  “Who cares?” Harvey seethes, planting his fists on the table across from me and glaring at me. “When it comes to the safety and position of this country, I don’t care if it takes every dime we have!”

  I roll my eyes. “You don’t give a damn about the safety of this country, or its position within the world. You just care about your own position within the country. And surrounding yourself with pointy weapons and telling the whole world to fuck off is going to make things worse in the long run.”

  “Not always!” Harvey seethes.

  “No,” I acknowledge, thinking back to my own ideas when I was younger of walking in Alexander the Great’s footsteps. “But unless you plan on taking over the entire planet Harvey, I don’t think you understand the enormity of the task you’re talking about. Either way, you’re certainly not the man to be able to get it done anyway.”

  “Why you… what, and do you think you are?” Harvey shoots back. The entire boardroom is silent, everyone else freezing as Harvey and I go into it yet again. They know that the two bulls are charging, getting in the way only ensures they get hurt. “You’re dying, Rick. You can’t even plan beyond Christmas.”

  “I can see beyond my own fucking personal ambitions!” I yell, losing my cool. “I can see that my business partner isn’t merely content with being a billionaire, he’s an ego maniacal manchild who has delusions of grandeur, but at the same time is afraid of everyone and everything that doesn’t come from his own tiny little preconcieved notions of what the world is. To you Harvey, if it can’t be bought, bullied, or sucked up to, it’s to be feared and attacked. Well guess what? Not on my watch, and not on the back of my inventions!”

  “You fucking arrogant little shit!” Harvey seethes. “I’ll take over this company!”

  “Go ahead and try, Harvey. May I point out, I own a majority controlling stake in this company. Fifty point one percent, to be precise. Even if you get the rest of the board, every employee, and little old Mrs. Whipman who bought three shares because the company name reminds her of an old boyfriend, my word is law in this company!”

  Harvey’s eye twitches, and I can see the veins in his temples throb as he stares at me. “Not for long, Rick. It’s funny… I’m twice your age, but I’m going to outlive you. And there isn’t a damn thing you can do to stop me from taking over this company when you’re dead, I’ve already got enough money set aside to purchase your shares and make sure I’m never put in this position again.”

  “Gentlemen, there’s more than your personal issues to deal with here,” Eric says placatingly. “Please, there are corporate issues to deal with.”

  “I already looked over the whole slate,” I say, not taking my eyes off of Harvey. “Bonuses for the factory in Illinois, yes. Bidding on the French power deal, yes. Proposal to the FAA on a cargo version of the Panther, yes. Proposal to the Pentagon, no. Providing backup power supplies to the Pentagon, no. Any and all matters involving the Pentagon, the DEA, Homeland Security, or any other military or paramilitary applications, no. And finally, increasing wages in the subsystem factory in Alabama, yes. Anything else?”

  Eric blanches, shaking his head. “Do you want to hear about the proposals? I had the accounting unit-”

  “I already know the data, I had Freida brief me on all the numbers,” I reply, cutting him off. “We’re going to keep doing things the right way, Eric. Take care of the workers, and those that prove themselves worthy of more, get more. Bottom line. Now, anything else?”

  Harvey’s eyes are full of murder as he hisses. “You’re not only going to not go after more profits, but you’re going to piss away profits for some hourly wage schlep job in Buttfuck, Alabama that could be done by anyone with two hands? The shareholders aren’t going to be happy.”

  I shrug, knowing I have him beat. “Doesn’t matter, Harvey. The shareholders can take six cents per share dividend instead of seven this year, if it helps the workers. They’re the ones the company depends on, not the shareholders.”

  Before Harvey can say anything I sit down in my chair, cocking my feet up on the table and looking around the room. “Anything else?
Good. Everyone, thank you for coming to this meeting that Harvey called. I do hope you have a good rest of your day.”

  The rest of the board files out, Harvey pausing at the door to look back at me. “I know the truth, you motherfucker. I can wait a year.”

  “In a year Harvey, all you’ll be wondering is how you’re going to weasel your way out of trouble, because I’m not going anywhere,” I reply with more confidence than I feel. “Best of luck in your future endeavors.”

  I don’t put on a gi for jiu-jitsu often, but New York has some of the best dojos in America, and after the tense meeting with the board, I was so full of anger and adrenalin that I had to find something to do. Su Lin’s out haunting Chinatown with Freida, so I had the driver bring me here for an early afternoon practice, to the unassuming place a few blocks from the Empire State building that has some of the best jiu-jitsu instructors in the world.

  It’s part of New York life, and something that I miss sometimes. Being rich has its perks, but there’s nothing quite like being able to walk down the street at any time and know that what you want to do is available. You want to eat bacon and eggs at two in the morning, New York has it. You want to do scuba diving at midnight? New York has it. You want to go ballroom dancing at ten in the morning on a Wednesday? New York, baby.

  And at three in the afternoon, you can find world class jiu-jitsu. I tighten my belt, knowing I’m probably going to spend the next ninety minutes getting my ass kicked but needing it. These players around me, all purple belts and higher, aren’t local level players like I normally train with, but some of the most intense competitors in the United States. Around me are people looking to go to the Mundials, the World Championships, or to eventually enter professional MMA.

  “Rick, it’s been a while,” the instructor greets me in his thick Brazilian accent. “How have you been doing in Minnesota?”

  “Doing a lot more wrestling than jiu-jitsu,” I joke back. “You know how the Midwest is.”

  Class starts, and after thirty minutes of technique drilling, sparring starts. I’m quickly pushed to my limits, the unfamiliar gi along with some very good opponents means that I’m uncomfortable. More than once I tap out, but I give as good as I get. My last opponent is a scrappy brown belt who’s long and almost unnaturally flexible, and knows how to use his limbs in unorthodox ways to get advantages.

  “Yeah… that’s it,” he grunts as his knee tries to wedge itself between my shoulder and neck. He’s got his arm around my head, and if he gets it in, he can choke me with his shin bone. “Just a bit more….”

  I know if I’m going to get out of this, I have to take a risk and do something unconventional myself. I get higher, onto my knees and swing my leg over his, while at the same time reaching back with my left hand. It’s a dangerous move because it opens up my neck, and for an instant I feel his shin slide into place and the immediate pulsing roar in my head as my body furiously tries to prevent the loss of blood to my brain. I’m depending on momentum to wrench me free, and just before my vision starts to go black I’m rewarded. I feel his knee pop free and into my waiting left arm, where I quickly secure it before reaching up and grabbing ahold of my opponent’s thick collar. In jiu-jitsu, the gi collar is a weapon and a curse. As quickly as it can be used to assist in a movement, it can be turned against you.

  In this case, the collar allows me to anchor my opponent as I torque on his knee while bending him backwards. He grunts, but taps out quickly as I increase the pressure, long before he was in danger, but that’s part of practice. No reason to be a gym class hero around here.

  “That was sweet,” the guy says when the buzzer goes off and we sit on the mat, both of us streaming in sweat and identical grins on our face. “Where’d you learn that?”

  “Japan,” I say with a chuckle.

  “You did jitz in Japan?” the guy asks, raising an eyebrow when I shake my head. “What then?”

  “Did three months in the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo. Those guys have some off the wall ways of stretching you that nobody who’s sane would try. But it was go for that or tap out.”

  We tap fists and class wraps up. I head over to my bag when I hear a familiar woman’s voice behind me. “Well, well, well… Rick Kelley as I live and breathe. Guess Harvey’s been causing you issues again?”

  I turn around to see the tall, voluptuous form of Amanda Rhett. With her white-blonde hair, cornflower blue eyes and curvy figure, there’s a reason she’s been in the society pages around town since her debut in high school. Since then, for the past decade she’s walked a fine line between being a trust fund bad girl and celebreality darling, twice walking at New York Fashion week.

  Part of that time, of course, was when she and I were seen as an item around New York. This was back before my retirement, and Amanda was one of the hottest young twenty-somethings in the New York scene. Now pushing thirty herself, she’s still making headlines, last time I bothered to check. “Hello Amanda. What’re you doing here?”

  “Oh, didn’t you hear?” she replies, stretching her arms over her head and making her breasts press outward against the rashguard she’s wearing, “I started taking classes. There’s a women’s only class in about twenty minutes. It’s a great workout for the stomach and the bum.”

  Amanda shows off her comment by turning and emphasizing the curve of her hip, running a hand down the back of a set of gi pants that have barely seen enough wear to not have their in-package creases still. My training partner though is certainly watching, and probably has a few ideas on her technique. As for me, I know Amanda Rhett… as beautiful as she is on the outside, she’s as self obsessed and ugly on the inside. “You should spend more time working on your technique and less time worrying how your ass looks in those pants.”

  Amanda smirks, turning back around. “What’s wrong, Ricky baby? I thought since you were back in town, you might show me a few of those moves you used to do on me. You used to love to take my back and sink it in nice and deep.”

  “That was before, Amanda,” I reply, bending down to grab my bag and shouldering it. “I’m married now, if you haven’t heard.”

  “Oh, I heard. Robbie was at that charity thing,” Amanda says airily. “I was too busy, off in Rome for a thing. Anyway, who cares? I was married for a hot minute too.”

  “Who cheated on who first?” I ask, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice. Before I met Su Lin I’d fucked a lot of women, but I never cheated on one I was in a relationship with. Amanda doesn’t seem to have that problem.

  “It’s not cheating if it’s with another girl, silly. I told you that years ago,” Amanda teases, biting her lip. “So what do you say? Wanna go get some drinks after class?”

  “I’d rather spend the time with my wife,” I reply icily. “I trust her more.”

  Without another word I leave the dojo, hailing a taxi. On the way back uptown towards the building where I have my New York penthouse, I fume. Amanda was the first and only time I’d let myself get involved with someone in the ‘money class,’ thinking that maybe she understood all that I was going through.

  Nothing could have been further from the truth. To Amanda, money is just numbers in a bank account that has no meaning. For her, bankruptcy means only getting by on twenty thousand dollars a month in her upper west side apartment.

  Thankfully I grew up in reality. While I might have a billion dollars now, I haven’t forgotten where I’m from. That thought rings in my head as I reach the building where my New York penthouse is and I go inside. Taking the elevator to the top, I’m slightly surprised when I see Su Lin back, watching a movie on the home theater system. “Hi. I thought you’d still be out, there’s hours until our dinner reservation.”

  “I had a good time, but when Freida got a call, we both decided it’d be better if I came back,” Su Lin says, turning off the television. “So things didn’t go well?”

  “It’s a stalemate,” I reply, setting my bag down and sitting down on the couch next to her. �
�Harvey can’t do anything until I’m incapacitated, and he knows it. All he can do is harass me, make me waste my time. But he can’t do that too much, he wants what secrets are still in my mind and in my lab. He wants the money that’ll come from them.”

  “Does he know you’re trying to produce an heir?” Su Lin asks. She gets up and comes behind the couch, rubbing my shoulders. “You feel very tense.”

  “I tried to work off some tension by going to a jiu-jitsu class,” I admit. Su Lin keeps kneading and massaging my shoulders, her strong fingers helping things feel better as I tell her about class. “Then at the end, Amanda showed up.”

  “Amanda?” Su Lin asks, her fingers pausing for a moment. “An ex?”

  “A snake in human form,” I reply, “but yes, an ex. She tried to flirt, but I wasn’t having any of it. Then I came back here. I thought I’d be able to get a shower in before you got home, I didn’t think I’d have interrupted your day.”

  “Don’t worry, I got to enjoy Chinatown enough,” Su Lin says. “It’s remarkable the number of supposed Chinese grocers and shops run by people that aren’t Chinese. One tried to pretend they were Chinese, and started talking Korean to me!”

  I chuckle, leaning back and looking up at her. She’s smiling as she looks down, biting her lip. “You know, I’d have enjoyed that a hell of a lot more than the board meeting.”

  “Well, we have the next few days to do whatever we want,” Su Lin says, leaning down and kissing my lips. “And I have an idea. I wanted to help you with your stress, and since you just burned off a lot of calories wrestling around with a bunch of other sweaty men, how about I get you a very special Chinese snack I got in Chinatown?”

  “I could do that,” I reply, enjoying her kiss. “What is it?”

  “A surprise,” Su Lin teases. “Now sit there, close your eyes, and no peeking. Or else you’re never going to get your treat.”

  I chuckle, closing my eyes and putting my hands over my face to confirm my blindness as Su Lin moves away. I hear a little bit of rustling, it sounds like something being removed from a paper bag, and I have to open my mouth. “Can I look now?”