Timothy - 23. Chapter 23

Walking home with Stephen was nice. We kept bumping into each other and then laugh. ‘Stephen, I wonder when my mom and dad will be driving up?”

“Not until we give them our address. It will be when Randy has a break from school. You know he will want to come.”

Arriving home, I went to my office with my briefcase, dropped it off, and headed to our bedroom to change into more comfortable clothes. Stephen had other ideas, and we had to take a shower. According to Stephen, we smelled of work. I laughed. We sit in air-conditioned offices. There was no smell of work, but I didn’t mind taking a shower,

We had a light dinner that evening. After the lunch we had, I couldn’t eat a regular dinner. We had a salad, and that was enough.

“Stephen, I need to set up a system that will allow me to address any topic or file. I brought home several files on past litigations. I need to set up a system that will allow me to address these files by subject, by company, and strategies used to win the cases.”

“If you give me an example, I’ll set up a program for you. You may need to develop how you will want to access these files. We should probably invest in a computer storage device as we have at work. Then we can tie in a printer that will allow you to print off the file or a part of the file. You will need a commercial printer, or you will constantly be replacing ink heads.”

I took one of our files for a case Andrew fought three years ago. I read through the file. Now I needed to look at the case with the idea I would fight a similar case. I would need to do a critical review, high lighting specific points. These points would be my search keys for the files in the computer storage device.

I was hoping that the search method would allow me to develop a position to defend the company’s position in a lawsuit. As a side benefit, it may allow me to develop an attack position when we go after a company for patent infringement.

I explained all of this to Stephen. “You’ll need a reader to read the documents into your computer storage device. I’ll get you one if I’m allowed to use it as well.” I just kissed him.

The rest of the week was a repeat of that first day, except we used the back door instead of the main entrance. We also ate in the employee’s cafeteria. By the end of the week, I was treated as a member of Gramps staff, as were all of the other employees.

On Friday, we were invited for Sunday dinner at Stephen’s parent’s home. Friday night, I called my mom and brought her up to date while giving her our new address. I had to talk to Randy before I spoke to my dad. He wanted me to know he wears short pants when he milks the goats. I guess Donnie’s dad told him about the dangers of milking goats. I also had to hear about his girlfriend. Stephen was listening in to our conversation.

I gave Dad instructions on what roads to take to get to our home. We would expect them in time for a late lunch at 2.

“Stephen, do you think we could give Mom, Dad, and Randy a quick tour of the plant? Maybe we can turn Randy on to either computer tech or a lawyer.”

“I’ll call Gramps. He might like to catch up with your parents. “

“Want to bet Randy will be diving?”

“No, I wonder if his mother will also be coming?”

“If she comes, then your sister will be coming as well.”

“That’s okay. I was close to Eva. She knew I was gay long before Mom and Dad knew.”

“Stephen, we need to continue our morning runs. Did you run during the school breaks when you worked for Gramps?”

“Yes, do you remember where I showed you my high school? I would run there and back. It’s a little shorter than what we ran at the University.”

“How much further would it be to run from here to your high school and back?”

“I’d guess about an hour more.”

“Let’s try it tomorrow morning?”

“Since we haven’t run for a while, let’s do a half run. We’ll run halfway and back. I don’t want to run all the way and then be cramping on the way back.”

I thought we could do it, but Stephen’s proposal made sense since we haven’t run for a few weeks.

Monday morning, we decided to run as we did at college. The morning light was starting To brighten the Eastern sky when we left for our run. We ran until we could see the high school in the distance, then turned and ran back home. It was shorter than usual, but it felt good to be running again.

Taking our shower, “You know we don’t need any excuses to take a shower anymore.”

I laughed. We would tell ourselves that the only reason we showed together was to save water. The joke was that our rent included water.