Forever Yours
41
The Plan
ON BOXING DAY, Henry, Lisa, and Chastity borrowed Jackie’s car and went shopping. Lisa drove them directly to one of the oldest Louisiana jewelers in business, with a name as Cajun as the Benoits’.
“Whatever you want, love,” Henry said as they began looking at the engagement rings and wedding sets. “I’m only going to do this once in my life, so I don’t care what it costs.”
“You know, if I was a gold digger, I’d take serious advantage of that,” Lisa laughed. “I can’t help but think how Isobel’s hand seems to be weighed down by that rock Luke bought her. I’m a woman of simpler tastes.”
“You have me,” Chastity whispered.
“That is as complex as my tastes get,” Lisa said. “I want to wear my ring all the time, so I don’t want something with too high a profile. I don’t want to get it snagged on anything.”
“This is a pretty set,” Chastity said, pointing to a very antique-looking engagement and wedding ring. Henry wisely stayed out of the conversation. He’d give his opinion only if asked.
“Oh, that’s nice!” Lisa said. “It doesn’t stick up too high and it isn’t an open prong setting, so it isn’t as likely to get caught when I’m trying to hurry out of my clothes. You know?”
A salesperson named Greg smiled at the implication and pulled the set out of the case to display on a dark blue velvet board.
“I hate to think that I just chose the first one that I liked, like I did with my husband to be,” Lisa said with a grin.
“Yeah, but sometimes you just get it right the first time,” Chastity said.
“Please try it on for size and see how it looks on your hand,” Greg said.
Henry moved into action and picked up the engagement ring to place it on Lisa’s finger. It was stunning. He added the wedding band to complete the look.
“Do you think it’s too much?” Lisa asked, looking at him.
“I think it looks stunning on you,” he responded.
“I’d worry about it,” Lisa said. “What if I only wore the engagement ring on special occasions and just wore the band the rest of the time?”
“You know I celebrate every day I spend with you as a special occasion,” Henry said.
He kissed her lightly.
“Sold,” she sighed.
“Now let’s check that sizing,” Greg said, gently removing the rings and replacing them with a size ring from a series.
He tried one up and one down from the size he’d initially chosen, but returned to the original one, showing his expertise in assessing her size.
“We can have the set ready for you by New Year’s,” he said. “We’ll just need a fifty percent deposit.”
“If I pay you the full amount today, can you have it for us by Friday? We’re flying out on Saturday,” Henry asked.
“Oh! Well, of course!” Greg said. “Let me write it up.”
“We’re not done shopping yet,” Lisa said. “Do the paperwork and we’ll continue looking around.”
Greg immediately removed the rings and motioned an assistant over to do the paperwork while he accompanied the trio around the display cases.
“What can I show you?” he asked.
“We need something for Chastity,” Lisa said. “Not as formal as an engagement set, but something that shows permanence.”
“Ah? A third-party wedding?” he asked, as if it were common for people to shop for this kind of jewelry.
“Chastity is our maîtresse,” Lisa said matter-of-factly.
“Might I suggest a right-hand ring, then,” Greg said. He showed a case of lovely rings.
“These all look kind of fancy schmancy and wedding-y,” Chastity said. “I don’t want something that competes with Lisa’s ring.”
“I see. We have a small collection of artist rings. These rings were designed by various well-known artists over the past century and were forged and set by contracted studios. They are all limited editions, so you are unlikely to find anyone with a similar ring,” Greg said, pulling out a display tray with artistic rings. “With your skin tone and elegance, you remind me of one of these art deco mixed metal rings, like this one with white and yellow gold inset with lapis. It has a kind of ancient Greek feeling.”
“Oh! That’s gorgeous!” Chastity exclaimed.
“Perfect for you,” Lisa whispered. “Would you accept that ring from your girlfriend?”
Chastity sniffed and nodded her head. Greg handed the ring to Lisa and Lisa tried on Chastity’s right hand.
“Not too ostentatious, but absolutely elegant,” Henry said. “It’s perfect.”
“I don’t believe this will need any sizing,” Greg said. “You could take it with you now.”
“No!” Chastity breathed. “To pick up when we get Lisa’s rings.”
Greg smiled and summoned his assistant to write up the mixed metals art ring.
“Now,” Chastity said, after she’d wiped her eyes and nose, “we need an engagement gift for our man.”
“A watch,” Lisa suggested.
“A watch? I have a cell phone,” Henry began to protest.
“You deserve a piece of jewelry that does absolutely nothing but remind you that whatever time it is, we love you,” Lisa said.
“Oh. That… Yeah… That’s great,” he said.
“Hmm. You know the big deal these days is the smart watch,” Greg said, “but I see where you are going with this. There are still watchmakers who just create watches. Let’s see what we can do.”
He led them to a selection of men’s watches and allowed them to just look without his explanations. Some watches were fairly plain, while some had the date, cycle of the moon, water resistance, and shock resistance. Some were self-winding while others were battery operated. The selection of watches was as diverse as the selection of rings.
“You know, since it is supposed to be a reminder of our love at all hours, I really don’t see a reason for anyone else to be able to read it but me,” Henry speculated.
“I see exactly where you are looking,” Lisa said. “Would you really be content with a black-on-black watch face?”
“Why not?” Henry asked. “It would be clean and simple on my wrist and everyone else can just guess what it says.”
Greg withdrew the minimalist watch from the display and strapped it onto Henry’s wrist.
“I like it,” Henry said.
“We’ll take it,” Chastity said. “Put it with the other purchases for pickup on Friday.”
Greg took the watch and went to where his assistant had written up the other items. He began to add the details from the watch.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lisa said. “It needs to be three separate checks.”
Greg looked at them for a moment with puzzlement written on his face. Then he smiled in understanding. When they left the store, Henry had the receipt for Lisa’s wedding set, Lisa had the receipt for Chastity’s art ring, and Chastity had the receipt for Henry’s watch.
They could hardly wait for the jewelry to be ready on Friday to announce their intentions. Nonetheless, Friday night, the trio took Lisa’s parents and grandparents to dinner and announced the engagement together. There was a round of congratulations and Solange and Jackie oohed over the two girls’ rings. Beau looked at Henry’s watch and nodded, as did Bill.
There was a celebratory toast, even though the trio drank soda water. Then Beau began the lecture.
“Before you run off and tie the knot, you need a pre-nuptial agreement,” he said. “All three of you. Yes, I believe you will be together all your lives and the agreement will be completely unnecessary, but this is a world in which we’ve seen everything we believed in torn to shreds. It may take more than the rest of my life before we see real order restored. All three of you are wealthy. Yes, I know you don’t have a lot of cash, but Henry and Chastity have a substantial stake in Open Cloak and it is likely to be worth a billion dollars or more in a few years.”
“I have no problem with splitting whatever I have evenly with Lisa,” Henry said.
“That’s not the way Pennsylvania works,” Beau said. “You need to specify that in advance. But you are not the only one who is wealthy. Lisa is the sole heir to a family fortune that includes both Benoit Intracoastal Logistics and EZ Daze games. And by neither Pennsylvania or Louisiana laws would Chastity be in any way protected. The idea of a pre-nuptial agreement is to assure that you are each taken care of if anything should happen either to your relationship or to one of you. It needs to include a will that makes sure your family is taken care of in the event of a tragedy. For each of you.”
“I guess I see the sense in that,” Henry said. “I won’t be twenty-one for two more months. I never even considered needing a will.”
“God forbid that it is ever called for,” Solange said, “but we will all, including your parents, rest easier knowing you have taken care of business.”
Saturday, the three returned to Pittsburgh, still euphoric in the new definition of their relationship. They went immediately to the Pascals’ home to announce their relationship officially to Henry’s parents.
“I can scarcely claim you are too young,” Sylvia laughed. “That was what my parents said when Ryan and I got married. We were twenty-three. I assume you’ll be twenty-one before you tie the knot,” she said looking at her son.
“We have a lot of details to work out,” Henry said. “We need to get pre-nuptial agreements drawn up. And wills. Beau gave us quite a lecture last night.”
“And I need to figure out how I’ll discharge my obligation to work for my father after college,” Lisa said. “It was part of our agreement.”
“I suppose that is wise,” Ryan said. “Neither Sylvia nor I had a pot to piss in when we got married. We never made any kind of financial agreement.”
“What’s his is mine and what’s mine is my own,” Sylvia said lightly. Ryan simply nodded.
“Well, in addition to the legal stuff, we need to do the whole wedding planning routine,” Lisa said. “I know my family will want to have the wedding in Baton Rouge, but most of my friends are here in Pittsburgh. We might need to have two celebrations.”
“Plus, we want to figure out how to celebrate Chas as part of our family,” Henry said. “I know that’s a bit unusual, but I don’t want to be living a lie or hiding our relationship.”
“How did your family receive that, Lisa?”
“Surprisingly openly and happy for us,” she answered. “I knew Mom was really proud of her membership in a welcoming congregation of the Methodists, but I didn’t expect my grandparents to be so easy about it.”
“Did you know your grandparents had a maîtresse when they were first together?” Henry asked. Lisa’s mouth dropped open.
“Papere told you that?” Lisa asked.
“Yes. He said they were very happy together but she died young. He didn’t think your mom remembered her at all,” Henry said.
“Now I have a whole bunch of questions for Forever Yours!” Lisa laughed. “I hope they added those stories.”
“Beau said he would record them.”
“How are you doing with all this, Chastity?” Sylvia asked, reaching out to take Chastity’s hand in hers.
“I feel… like I have a family for the first time in my life. If I died young, like the Benoits’ maîtresse, I would die happy.”
“Let’s all pray that doesn’t happen. You deserve all the happiness life can give you,” Ryan said. “I’m so glad you’ve become a part of our family.”
The previous year, the New Year’s Eve party at the club had included only the four partners. Luke and Isobel hadn’t even been engaged yet. The company had just been founded with the investment from the sale of their first license. This year, nearly thirty people, including spouses and dates, were at the party.
After a long discussion during the day, Lisa, Henry, and Chastity had decided to be completely up front and announce the entire relationship. After dinner, Luke began with the celebratory toasts and welcomes, then turned it over to Henry.
“Well, I hope everyone had a great holiday this week. Mine was a little surprising, but in the most wonderful way. Lisa and I are announcing our engagement,” Henry said as he held Lisa’s hand and had her stand. Everyone applauded and Luke led a toast. Isobel immediately wanted to see Lisa’s ring and was content that hers was bigger.
“I’d like to also share that Chastity has agreed to join our family,” Lisa said. She held Chastity’s hand and encouraged her to stand. “There’s no formal legal arrangement for that kind of relationship, but we are determined to make it work and have given her a ring in celebration.”
Chastity held up her right hand with the art ring.
“That’s beautiful!” Isobel declared. “Damn, girl! You outdid us all.”
“Hey, Isobel,” Henry said. “Look at this. You don’t think they let me get away without having an engagement present, too, do you?”
He held up his wrist and Isobel stared at it.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Just a watch,” Henry said. “Something to remind me at all hours that I am loved.”
The three managed to kiss each other and Luke gave another toast to the happy trio.
Most employees were back in the office on Tuesday, the day after New Year’s.
Having been out a week, Henry immediately went to catch up with the various teams working on projects. A minor dispute on the network defense system had broken out regarding the use of the degrees of separation, but was resolved when the Army cited its agreement with Open Cloak limiting their product to direct attack only. Conrad, however, spoke directly to General Schwartz, going over his girlfriend’s head to get agreement to one degree, not only as an option, but as the default.
It had been apparent at the New Year’s Eve party that no lasting damage was done between Conrad and Rebecca. It seemed they might be on the verge of an announcement themselves.
Page Services reported that Pythia Speaks had its first 100,000 query day on Christmas, of all things! Henry had Darrel run a review of the network usage and had the testers move from their final testing of the network optimization and network search to run an intensive battery of tests on Pythia Speaks and Forever Yours.
The developers Henry had hired for Forever Yours reported making progress on the image and video AI. That had been the biggest feature still lacking in the program, though, of course, there were others that could be added in the future.
“We ditched the licensed software for video generation,” Lee LaRue said.
“What’s the problem with it? Are you saying we can develop our own better?” Henry asked.
“It’s in your original training patent,” Lee said. “Generative AI needs to develop images on the fly that match general descriptions from massive amounts of data. The Forever Yours AI only needs to generate one image. There is only one person that needs to come to life. Once the composite image of that person is established, everything else is a variant of that image. Different expressions and gestures, but all the same person. We were trying to integrate a video AI that could generate an entire cast of characters for hundreds of movies. We don’t need to do that.”
“And you believe you can establish the training parameters for the AI that will allow for that flexibility without having access to the wider range of training content the other programs use?” Henry persisted.
“We should have working video generation of the subject in the next month. It’s really that simple,” Lee insisted.
“I can hardly wait.”
And finally, Ari Patel reported his initial findings on power optimization.
“Your initial patent was headed in the right direction,” Ari said. “I believe we can expand it significantly. By tapping directly into a computer’s power supply, we can reduce consumption another fifteen percent. Ideally, however, we could remove the computer from the grid almost completely by changing the supply to a rechargeable power cell.”
“Isn’t that what we have with laptop computers and other devices? They run on a battery and we plug them in to recharge,” Henry said.
“Those are lithium batteries,” Ari said shaking his head sadly. “Very bad for the environment. I’m talking about fuel cells that have only water and manageable heat as byproducts and are easy to recharge.”
“Where are we supposed to get those?” Henry asked. He was intrigued by the possibility.
“I studied the situation in depth when I was with the power company. There, the purpose of our investigation was to combat this energy source to preserve the electricity monopoly. Of course, the utility companies are concerned with megawatt producing fuel cells. I discovered a company in Minnesota that is working on a consumer edition cell. We could investigate that.”
“Get the information, Ari. I don’t know if we can make that work, but we should definitely make a thorough investigation. In the meantime, I want you to meet with Don Harvey, our patent attorney, and spell out the changes we need to make to our power patents.”
“Yes, Henry. I will begin at once.”
As time drew near for classes to resume on the fifteenth, Luke closed a deal with LifeStory, one of the several guided memoir writing companies that had arisen in the past five years. The VAR package would put both the paper book and the AI capture together. LifeStory would provide weekly prompts for people and would compile those stories into a book. The responses would also be used for the AI to train on for Forever Yours. It was a good combination. One of the things Henry had felt was missing from Forever Yours was a good set of prompts to get people started recording their lives. He had a developer working on the VAR version so that responses to the prompts would automatically be forwarded to LifeStory, but none of the other information collected from that person’s social media or computer would be forwarded.
The quarterly earnings report that came out January fifteenth was for a company that had its first truly profitable quarter. With five products in the market plus an Army contract, the balance sheet was better than any of them had anticipated in the first three years of operation. They’d been in business for just one year and were profitable!
“That’s great news,” Henry said. “I’m sure we can raise additional capital with that report.”
“Why?” Isobel asked. “We have capital in the bank as it is.”
“I think we may want to make one or two acquisitions,” Henry said. “Hear me out on this. Page Services is pushing their limits regarding growth. They need a bigger facility and more hosting units. Pythia Speaks is on eight boxes and Forever Yours samples are running on another. We’re a drop in the bucket of the four hundred plus servers at the company. But we aren’t the only AI running in their server farm. In fact, we’re the smallest. The demand for AI server space is growing. I believe we should position ourselves to acquire the server farm and expand it significantly.”
“I’d say that is a reasonable thing to consider,” Luke said. “Do we have a prospectus?”
“Scott is getting it prepared and we should have it by the end of the month,” Henry said. “However, that is only one of the areas I’d like to consider investing in. Where we really make our impact known is in power savings. Ari brought me information on a company in Minnesota that is working on fuel cell technology. I see us with two possible uses for that tech. We could cut the electric consumption of the server farm by ninety percent. You know the big server guys have already booked MNRs to come online next year. This would pull the rug right out from under them.”
“What’s an MNR?” Chastity asked.
“Mobile Nuclear Reactor,” Henry said.
“Shit!” Luke responded. “Let’s get the proposals together and go get some money.”
“Oh, God! I had no idea the amount of negotiating I would need to do with my own parents!” Lisa exclaimed near the end of January.
With classes having started and the business moving forward rapidly, they’d all been working long hours. Wednesday, Isobel’s birthday had interrupted everything, as she insisted everyone stop to celebrate her turning twenty-one.
“What is it, love?” Henry asked, setting aside his textbook.
“Well, you know I’m obligated to serve one year in my father’s business for each year of college he paid for. As it is, he was expecting to have me for four years and I’ll finish in three, so he feels shorted. Then mother wants us to have a big wedding in the United Methodist Church there in Baton Rouge. Yes, I still have friends there, but it’s not at all like the number of friends I have here in Pittsburgh now.”
“Do you think we’ll have to move to Baton Rouge?” Chastity asked. They were sitting together in the fourth floor lounge to do their studying, but it was getting late and they were all thinking about bed in one way or another.
“I’ve had to make some compromises. I could go home and serve my term in Baton Rouge, putting off getting married for three years. I said I wasn’t interested. Dad said I could feasibly work remotely since I have a house where I’ve got an office, but that I’d have to compromise with my mother in order to make that work. The compromise with mother is that we get married in Baton Rouge. Somehow that doesn’t sound like a compromise, but in exchange for holding the wedding back home, Dad will let me work remotely in Pittsburgh with bi-monthly trips to the office.”
“Babe, we’ll do whatever is necessary. If we need to work from Baton Rouge, I can commute to the office,” Henry said. “Ninety percent of my job is still online.”
“That’ll change soon,” Chastity said. “Conrad has put in for two more developers and two testers for the network defense system. The Army plans to send one or two more, as well.”
“I never expected that project to be so big,” Henry said. “I need to meet with them and tie down the details. How much room do we have in the office?”
“That’s part of the problem,” Chastity said. “I’m in discussions with Ray to lease another 5,000 square feet on the second floor.”
“Welcome to the grown-up world,” Lisa said. “Henry, I don’t want to leave all our friends here in Pittsburgh out of our wedding plans. What are we going to do?”
“I suppose running off to Las Vegas is out of the question,” he chuckled. “I guess we’ll have to get married twice. Tell your mother we’ll come to Baton Rouge for a wedding, but it will be a maximum of two bridesmaids and two groomsmen. Luke will be my best man and I’ll ask Josh to join us. You’ve already said you want Chastity beside you and I completely agree. That gives you room to invite one other person.”
“Will Isobel be offended if I don’t ask her?” Lisa asked.
“She didn’t ask either you or Chastity to be in her wedding party. It was Luke who asked Chastity to stand with him,” Henry said. “So, we’ll bring half a dozen people with us to Baton Rouge, including my parents for the wedding. In return, Jackie and Bill need to come to Pittsburgh two weeks later for our totally secular celebration here. Then we can work out the work arrangements with Bill.”
“Wonderful,” Lisa sighed. “Shall I tell my parents we’ll be there next weekend for the wedding?”
She looked at her lovers and all three started laughing.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
