"It was just a business decision"

Like Plano, McKinney had gone from a little country town to a rich city filled with executives escaping from the non-whiteness of Dallas and hundreds of mini-mansions stacked side by side with no actual property separating them. Dan Hughes, though, lived in an old Victorian mansion (the real thing, not a mini-mansion) in the old part of town.

Rick had been to Dan's house a number of times, both when he was delivering ideas and plans to help make Dan look good at executive meetings and for the parties Dan and his wife threw for Dan's sales team (as a marketing manager, Rick got invited along as a sort of courtesy and because Dan was too important to actually do the party planning and Rick was a convenient go-fer).

The house looked the same which wasn't a big surprise since it had probably looked the same since it was built by a wealthy cotton-planting family sometime shortly after the civil war. But Rick's feeling about it was a lot different.

He knocked on the door and waited.

Nicki Hughes, Dan's eighteen-year-old daughter opened the door. She was typical rich-girl beautiful. Meaning she had perfect teeth, a slender suntanned body, beautifully highlighted hair, and the best tits money could buy. Her dad had given her three months in Europe as a high school graduation gift, so she must just have gotten back preparatory to attending SMU in the fall.

"Oh, hi Rick. My dad didn't tell me you were stopping by."

"Hi Nicki. It's great to see you. How was Europe."

"Boring. My dad was too cheap to buy the quick access passes so I had to wait in line to see the Mona Lisa and he only let me take three friends so..." Nicki went on but Rick had tuned out.

"Listen," he said when Nicki paused to catch her breath, "I brought this flyer by for your mom, but you might be interested also. It's a new boxing club for women only. The proprietor is a kick-ass called Kat. The other day, she kicked one guy in the nuts and in the head without putting down her foot when he was attacking us. We're having a party tomorrow night."

"Any boys there?"

"Nope. Just women. But there will be dancing."

"What about you."

"Well, yeah. I'll be there because I'm staff."

"Huh? I thought you worked for my dad."

"Rick, great to see you." Speaking of dad, there was Dan now. He slapped Rick on the back, gladhanding him, telling him how great he looked, and ushering Nicki away.

"Look, Rick." Dan lowered his voice to a conspiratory 'just us guys' whisper. "I know you're disappointed about the recent changes. You know I fought for you but the company wanted new directions and they just didn't think you were the guy to lead the next phase of the program. I'm glad to see you landed on your feet, though. 'Course I knew you would. Talent always finds a way, right. People like us don't end up homeless on the street."

"Yeah, sure." As in, 'sure Dan had fought for him.' Dan had fought for the chance to put his dick into the pretty blonde intern from Baylor.

"Rick, can you stay for dinner." Olivia Hughes was about forty, which made her better than a decade older than any other bio-DNA executive wife. She'd been homecoming queen at Baylor when she was a sophomore and professional salesguy Dan had done a master sales job to persuade her to marry him, and was still a stunning MILF, but Rick wasn't sure how much longer the marriage would last. He suspected the only thing keeping it going as long as it had was that Dan hadn't gotten a prenuptial agreement. Luckily for Dan, and unluckily for Olivia, while Texas was a community property state, its juries tended to sympathize with rich husbands over 'grasping' wives.

"Sorry Olivia. It's great to see you but I'm doing some freelance marketing work. I gave a flyer to Nicki but here's one for you. Launch party tomorrow night. Women only so, sorry Dan."

"No problem. I'm heading out of town tomorrow anyway."

"Great to see you, Dan. Great to see you, Olivia. Hope you can make the party tomorrow. It should be fun."

"I'll try to make it."