16

The next four months are fairly uneventful.

We get the repairs to the house completed to the tune of one hundred and thirty-five thousand pesos or about $2,800. The architect does come up with the money. He had to, or I would have pressed charges. The roof is removed from the second floor and we pour another slab and columns for a smaller third floor. We have moved into the house. It's not finished but, we needed to move.

We got started with the apartments on the property three months ago. The first two are ready now. We are almost finished with the last two. They are all considered 'maids' quarters but, they are nice, a little more spacious and better appointed than the normal type. They provide privacy and dignity. Maria and Sha will have one. I am putting Renelyn in one. No, she's not a maid but, I think it will be best if she has a little more of her own space and it puts her closer to Maria. The third, when it is finished, will be for Giselle, Joo, Taciana and Jiecel when they are here but they go in the field and will be back only infrequently.

Maria moved into hers two weeks ago. Renelyn, (with Taciana and Jiecel as temporary roommates,) move today. Sha will join her mother soon.

Luckily the columns I poured for the second were a little excessive to begin with and that saved our bacon when it came to building up another floor. The third floor outer columns far exceed the outer dimensions of the walls on that floor allowing for two meters of roof over the edge of the walls on all sides. We decided to not use any block on the outer walls of the top floor, with the exception of the CR there. It is tinted glass floor to ceiling in both offices. But there is block on the interior walls.

The girls were a little flustered with the glass walls, so we hung drapes for them temporarily. We take those down when they move out. That happens today for one of the rooms, as Taciana and Jiecel temporarily move into Renelyn's apartment.

My plan for those rooms, going forward, is to install vertical ceiling to floor blinds inside all the glass on all sides. In more temperate climates, depending on which side of the equator you are on, there is a side that never gets direct sunlight. In Australia that's the south side. In Europe and the US, it's the north side. There I would only need the blinds on three sides, but here in the tropics, depending on the time of year, the sun comes from all sides. Part of the year, from the north and part of it from the south. Clearly there is always eastern and western sun every day.

I guess I should mention that I have been teaching Eve to drive following 'defensive driving' practices. In the beginning she thought the concept was silly but, I think it is now embedded in her psyche. She is a competent driver and I have purchased a Hyundai Accent for her.

§ § §

Order entry has been functioning for months now. It is happening from Eve's new office, via a computer set up for Renelyn. She is fine on a PC and Zelle is pleased with the results. However she is putting in full days plus a little, even though she is good at this. As we add capacity, we are going to need more staff. This becomes a topic of conversation at the dinner table.

Once again, Joo, my purveyor of underage girls, brings up those two girls I rejected before. If Renelyn can do it, why can't the other two?

All the others are agreeing with Joo and two have friends they want to recommend as well. I have agreed to meet the seventeen-year-old tomorrow.

Cynthia is chomping at the bit to visit, and we are almost ready to deploy the sales side. We have gotten 100% in-house inventory compliance with sales but, are not fully tracking from order entry, as some things we are receiving, were ordered before we set the system in place, I want the entire chain to be complete before we add sales. Cynthia is complaining that I am just dragging my feet. Still, we are not far off.

We have started using the RFID tags on new orders as they arrive. We also set up scanners, for the RFID tags, at all ports of entrance and egress from every warehouse and store.

It has proven to be eye opening to Zelle. Only eight days after the tags first came into use, and the scanner technology was on-line, we caught product walking out the door at 10PM. What the two employees who stole the stuff didn't know, was that their access keys now also had RFID tags embedded in them. We knew not only what was gone but when and who. Better yet, because we had set up an alarm setting for RFID that moves through the scanners outside of approved hours, we knew about it as it happened.

Zelle called the pulis² immediately. We jumped in her Pajero and drove down there too. By the time we got there, the pulis had the two employees in custody and the merchandise secured.

That was the first time. I think some folks must have thought it was a fluke, just bad luck on the part of the thieves, because a few days later three others tried their luck with equally bad results. Then the very next day a gal tried it from another warehouse. She is cooling her heels in jail as well.

Following that, the word quickly got around the company, we are catching thieves and pressing charges when caught. Almost immediately Bayan Na's bottom line is getting better and the number of things listed as damaged and disposed of, drops by 86%.

When those numbers become clear, Zelle, is fit to be tied as she comes to understand how bad the bleed has been. We are now able to quickly open up a new store and a new warehouse as our projected costs, losses and turnover looks a lot more favorable. That also means two new trucks and that means the roll-out of the shipping/transportation module.

We can now dispatch from one warehouse to another or other showrooms and have a way to track it all. The RFID triggers the scanners which captures the cargo and produces a bill of lading with the location of the loading, the destination, the driver, the truck and the time of dispatch. The driver cannot say, 'hey, it wasn't on the truck when I took off.' Receiving can't say, we didn't see it when we unloaded the truck. If the unloading is not a match to the lading, alarms go off immediately. Also, since we know when the truck leaves, and we know when it arrives, and as we are tracking via a guard who records the odometer at departure, our drivers are on a pretty short leash. Once again we have reduced losses of this type to almost non-existence.

Yes, on the rare occasion something does get broken but, when that happens a safety stop/loss technician travels to the site, evaluates the damage and what caused it. People climbing over boxes is now not a smart thing to do! If we find the damage is caused by an employee acting in a way that is outside permitted rules, that employee is let go. It's amazing how enforcing such things has resulted in fixing long standing problems.

Tomorrow we will send off Giselle and Joo with Zelle, and eight of the Bayan Na office staff, to start the process of setting up a new showroom and warehouse in a new city. Zelle will only be gone for a few days but, Joo and Giselle will likely be there for many months.

Taciana and Jiecel are working with two other Bayan Na office staff to set up a trucking operation. Since the primary port city is where the new showroom will be located, they are already gone and have been gone for a few days. The trucks we are running are 'straight jobs,' for trucking between warehouses and stores, and flatbeds, for picking up containers at the port.

We have actively been recruiting drivers from the Muslim community. We have relief drivers for Friday work and Muslim holidays. We can move product seven days a week without having to worry about religious holidays and Sabbaths.

On the product side I should also mention that it appears Alona is a natural as a buyer.

Jonathan continues to do that job and now is on the road far more than before. We have been feeding Alona requests we get and can't fill based on current products Bayan Na carries. Alona has been finding products in those areas and sales of what she buys are very strong. That is not to take away from Jonathan. He's a good buyer but, no one can do it all, all the time. What we find now is that customers of Bayan Na are saying that they rarely have to go elsewhere to complete their list of needs. That has a huge impact on the bottom line. We assume we will find different requests as we enter new markets.

I contact Cynthia to see if she has a module that sales staff can use to list things they are unable to sell based on customer requests. There isn't but it is a natural fit, to link to a purchasing-needed module our buyers can access. These requests can be posted in a suspension screen for Zelle to review and then release to the buyers if she approves. We are testing it now. So far so good. However, Cynthia is now having shit fits. She is ready to come.

On the social end, Jonathan's connection with Alona has been accepted. There are no homophobic rumors at all and it seems that they are actually happy with each other. Zelle tells me that the stress she felt before when talking to Jonathan is gone.

Tonight I will spend the night with Joo. Giselle was with me last night. It will be the last time I am with them for a long time.

I think it will be just the two of us but, am surprised to find, when I enter the bedroom, that Renelyn has joined us. Before I can ask, Joo points out that the two of them have always been close and since Renelyn has come into my life, she sleeps most nights in Joo's arms. (This is news to me. I had assumed Renelyn was alone in her apartment and that Jiecel and Taciana were in an apartment with Giselle and Joo. But no, she has been with her friend all this time. Giselle, Jiecel and Taciana have roomed together without Joo.)

While this is a separation from me, it is an even greater separation for these two. I am starting to undress but, the girls jump off the bed and announce that they will do this.

They engage in the slowest progress of undress as is possible. Each button is an event. The zipper on my slacks is loosened tooth by tooth amid giggles. I am teased, hot breath is sent through the fabric of my boxers in onto my rigid penis. The two girls are cooperating and coordinating to maximize my ardor as they subtly tease me and tempt my erection.

Two lovely, truly beautiful girls. One young and the other impossibly younger. I have seduced neither of them. Both came to me, fully aware that she would become a consort, a mistress to an older and married man. There was no subterfuge, no bula-bula³. The two wanted in my bed and they have made the most of their options. Both have been the most loyal, sweet, hardworking, dedicated, and sexually accommodating girls, any man could want.

I am coming to understand the message that Joo is giving me tonight. She is aware that this position of authority and responsibility she is moving into at the remote office, is the reward I am giving to her, in a way for her offering herself up.

She is not being 'sent away.' She is now a protégé who has my trust that she has the rectitude and ability to handle the responsibilities before her. She knows she has a serious task to accomplish. The fact that I think she can do it, is a crown she wears with pride. So this is not a 'goodbye' fuck, this is appreciation night. Joo isn't looking for the affirmation of my love for her. She knows she has it. This is Joo doing all she can to thank me.

But there is something else going on.

This is Joo putting Renelyn in my face, in a way that I have frankly been avoiding as much as possible, these last five months.

One moment, it is Joo's mouth on my tool, the next moment it is Renelyn's. They keep up the oral administration for a good half an hour in a desultory fashion. They are not trying to get me off. That's the last thing they want to do. They want to keep me going for as long as they can. Part of it is to increase my pleasure. Part of it is to get me more comfortable with Renelyn as a sex partner, and I suspect part of it is to teach Renelyn a few things in the process.

Joo is now giving Renelyn lessons on oral scrotum contact while manually keeping me rigid. I'm having a harder time paying attention to what they are up to as Renelyn's smooth, shaved cunt is settling on my mouth. She is dripping wet as her labia and my nose meet. I shift my face a bit and wipe my nose on her thigh giving me a chance to breathe again, before aligning myself to do justice to the young cunt in my face.

It's hard for me to convey the power, the strength in this young girl. Yes she is incredibly pretty but, there is nothing dainty about her. There is a firm tautness to her whole being. She doesn't wish for sexual fulfillment. Her body demands it.

The lessons on my rod have been slow in progress but, now I sense a need in Renelyn. A desire for finality. I am about to disruptively deal with this, when my rod meets another cunt being lowered on me. Joo's cunt is tight as it moves in a nice easy repetitive motion, up and down. I have been hard a long time now. Feeling the pressure and heat is not helping my control at all. I am not in a position to stimulate her beyond what is inserted in her. But I sense that someone is rubbing her clit as we fuck. I feel a finger as she bounces on me. I hear Joo gasp and feel her cunt clamp on me. It is quick but both of us have been building a need. Joo's orgasm triggers mine and I loose my cum inside the girl.

Renelyn however has not cum and is still on my face. That has also become clear to Joo who is moving up closer to Renelyn. Soon there is a dripping cunt over my chest as well as the one over my mouth. I suspect they are kissing. I am sucking hard on Renelyn's clit. I nip it and the child drives my head into the mattress as she explodes with her own orgasm.

They roll off me. I am a mess of female juices mixed with my own cum which has evacuated Joo's cunt and dripped on me. Leaving the two girls on the bed, I go into the master bathroom and rinse off before returning and drifting off to sleep.

§ § §

Did you enjoy yourself last night? Jana has a satisfied expression on her face as she dips a slice of cincamas⁴, in vinegar and salt, and waits for me to answer her.

Why do you ask?

Because she is the youngest one you have had. Because Sha gets here this week and Maria says you will have her too.

There is no reason for Sha to have sex with me.

You didn't answer the question I ask. You want some? Offering me some of the sliced tuber as she pushes the query about Renelyn forward.

I take a slice of the cool crisp food, dip it into the shallow plate of salty vinegar, and take a bite. It gives the zing of eating salt and vinegar potato chips without the guilt.

How do you parse this “enjoy one's self” from the issue of having sex with someone so young? Sure, I enjoyed the sex. Yes, I marvel at Renelyn's youthful body. Do I lust after young girls? No. But will I have sex with Renelyn again? Yes. Clearly, yes. I find the whole thing beyond confusing. I do not want to talk about it because I don't know what to say. It's too nuanced a matter to get from my English to my wife's good but not perfect understanding of the language. It would be a train wreck. No matter how I approach the matter, my language will not be understood, even to this woman who otherwise knows me so well. I only answer, It's complicated, before taking another slice and dip of the cincamas.

Why you not want sex with Sha? Maria think this will happen.

Why are you pushing for me to have sex with young girls?

Men like you like young girls.

And you know this because?

Rose and Joy explain this to me.

I am not Jake! Why are you trying to make me like him?

I am not! It is you! It is OK. I am not worried for me.

I am glad you are not worried but, it isn't going to happen.

We will see. I am right. You will see. I know, I know. Joo's cousin comes today? Di ba?

Yes. She comes after lunch.

You know, she is not really seventeen.

What?

Yes, she is not.

How do you know this?

Giselle tell me.

How old is the girl.

I do not know. The girl is Joo's cousin. Giselle not really know her.

So you think she is following Filipino custom of using the birthday that will come and not the one that has passed?

I not know, Gordon. Remember the false age Renelyn give when she first come? She not nineteen, she is only fifteen.

Oh damn. So this one can be even younger than that?

I do not know. But if you really think the girl will be seventeen you are bobo.

Yeh, I guess I am stupid. … Oh shit, that's the reason the girl is coming just after Joo is leaving, and it is another reason she had Renelyn with me last night. I cannot say the next one is too young, since I am taking Renelyn to my bed.

Filipina's are not stupid! Of course that why she do it. She want her cousin here. She not want you to send her away like you try with Renelyn.

I think I need an aspirin.

Hindi⁵, you need a Cialis.

Very funny.

Oo⁶ it is true. You have this young one this afternoon. I want you tonight. You should take the pill. You can have the young ones but, then you are with Maria and me tonight. You want I cut up another cincamas? Maybe you want the hopia⁷ I buy at the bakery?

Well, that takes care of any lunch I might have considered. I text Joo who left early this morning.

What is the truthful and real age right now of Raya?

Sorry? I tell you seventeen before.

Yes I know what you told me. What is the truth? Tell me now or I will not see her.

Sir, you must see her!

What is her age?

Fifteen. I think she look seventeen.

Shit.

Why isn't she in school?

The school she go to now is a bad one in her province and very far from her home. She stop going after sixth grade. But she smart and she can do the work.

And your other cousin, Amzkie? The one that comes tomorrow? How old?

Raya's younger sister. Amzkie fourteen.

Also not in school?

Yes, Sir.

Why did you do this Joo?

You know why. Why you ask?

OK, well maybe she is right. I probably do know. It's stealing in reverse. Rather than take from me to give to her needy family members, she is gifting me her family members and they then get more than she might ever be able to steal. I probably should be angry. But I see the desperation among so many. I feel less angry and more exhausted. But Jeezus, I don't need to be fucking children. Well, OK, they're not exactly children anymore but, they are legally far too young.

Eve will be home for a few days next week. I see her very little these days and that needs to change. She has been on the road a lot, and will continue to need to be but, she also needs to be here more often. Zelle is keeping very busy with the things that are happening at Bayan Na. I am not seeing her very much most days. That is not a complaint. She and I am happy with how things are going and happy with each other.

Jana tells me that she and Maria are, to me, much like Joy and Rose are to Jake. I sure as hell hope that the claim is inaccurate. I hear the guy likes his girls very young and has far too many of them for any marginally sane human. Still, Jana and Maria are functioning like a team here. As a simple reality, if I say something to one of them, the other will learn what I said in very short order. If I want to keep a secret from one of them, it must be a secret from both.

I have just told Jana the ages of Raya and Amzkie. Maria will now know.

It is twenty minutes later, and no surprise, that Maria is now at my office door with the Cialis and a glass of water. I am expecting a kiss on the cheek and a little gentle kidding. Instead I get a full arms encircling assault of tongue tangling need.

Wow. That was great but, why?

Now I know.

What do you know?

That you will take Sha too. If you take these two girls, there is no reason to not take Sha.

There is no way I will argue about Sha. I know Maria's weird logic about this. By the end of this week, if things go the way Joo and Maria want, I will have bedded two fifteen year-old and two fourteen year-old girls. Three of them will be my back office order entry team. Sha is not a company employee. As Maria's daughter, I have no plans for her other than that she live here with her mother.

Maria, feeling very sure of the world she inhabits, walks out of my office, convinced that the world is spinning as it should. I am not so sure.

Five minutes later, Raya is at the front door and Maria is bringing her upstairs to my office.

§ § §

§ § §

Chapter 17