Guy sat down at the dinner table. The kids and his wife had been waiting for him. His wife had a sour expression on her face. The kids were subdued. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he figured that he'd find out soon enough. All he had to do was watch the videos of what his wife was telling the kids and he'd know everything.
They ate dinner with very little conversation around the table. It was the kind of tense meal that Guy had gotten used to having with the family. It did seem to him that the kids were a little more distant than usual. The fact that he was out late last night might have had something to do with it.
When they finally finished eating, Guy said, "I have an announcement."
"What?" Maggie asked.
"As you know, I've been a little busy lately," Guy said.
With an edge to her voice, Maggie said, "I have a pretty good idea of what you've been busy doing."
"Max, one of the guys that was there when the attempted robbery took place, had lost his job that day. He's starting up his own business. I've been meeting with him about it," Guy said.
"That's interesting," Maggie said in a tone of voice that suggested she didn't believe a word he was saying.
"What kind of business?" Ellie asked.
"An internet business," Guy answered.
Sean asked, "What kind of internet business?"
Guy said, "Max discovered that there are all kinds of special interest websites out there that cater to a handful of people. The way he explained it to me is that you set up website addressing some particular interest, say knitting, and you charge members a small monthly fee. It doesn't need to be a very big fee. You also post advertisements to other websites and get paid a fee each time someone clicks on the link. You can also get corporate sponsors who will provide content."
Ellie said, "Smart. You get multiple revenue streams out of one website. That small fee gets charged every month. Even if someone loses interest, they are liable to continue getting charged until they realize they are wasting money. You could end up with years of revenue from someone who was interested for a month or two."
Bill said, "There's a lot of money in those advertising links."
"You bet," Guy said.
Maggie was suddenly very interested in this particular topic of conversation. Her suspicions about his cheating were put on the back burner for the moment. This sounded like the real thing. She asked, "So can you get in on this business?"
"He offered me forty percent of the company if I put up four thousand dollars," Guy said.
He wasn't going to mention that the four thousand dollars was a paltry amount compared to what Max was putting into it. His real contribution were the videos of his wife cheating, but that was a separate transaction.
"Take it," Maggie said.
Ellie said, "You better have an iron clad contract."
Guy handed a copy of his contract for part interest in the specialty websites over to her and said, "Read it."
Surprised to actually have a contract handed her, Ellie said, "Give me a few minutes."
"I figured if we decide to go with it, we ought to do it in both of our names individually. You'll own twenty percent and I'll own twenty percent," Guy said.
"You'd give me twenty percent of their company," Maggie asked surprised by the offer.
"Sure. The money would be coming out of our joint savings account. It would give you a little mad money of your own," Guy said.
"I like that," Maggie said.
Guy held out a small presentation folder and said, "Here's a prospectus they made for me. They figure they can open a specialty website every other month. They'll slowly grow the business to where they have ten or twelve of them."
"How much do they expect to make?" Maggie asked.
"They are hoping to make five thousand or so a month off of each specialty website. With ten specialty websites, that's well over a half a million dollars a year after expenses. A twenty percent share would be around a hundred thousand," Guy answered.
"That much?" Maggie asked incredulously.
"Well, it would take some time to get to the point where it's making that much money," Guy said.
Ellie said, "There's a risk that it won't work."
"That's true. It's still better odds than winning the lottery," Guy said.
"It could do better than that," Sean said. "I've read about people who are making a million dollars a year off their blogs."
"Max said the same thing, but he's going conservative," Guy said. "You've got to remember, Max is a salesman. You don't talk about a big sale until it is closed."
"That makes sense," Maggie said just to have something to add to the conversation.
"However, the way I figure it is that at ten dollars a month it only takes five hundred members to get a revenue of five thousand dollars a month. That doesn't include the advertising revenue. There have to be five hundred people in the world interested enough in any topic you chose to sign up as members," Guy said.
"World wide?" Maggie asked.
Sean said, "The internet is everywhere."
"I forgot about that," Maggie said.
"Who will be providing content?" Sean asked.
Guy said, "They've got an independent outfit that will be providing some content for one of the websites already lined up, but Max is being very closed mouthed about it. He doesn't want to blow the deal with wild rumors getting back to them."
"What kind of outfit?" Sean asked.
"I can't really say," Guy said.
"Can you give me an example?" Sean asked suspiciously.
"Let's say you're doing a knitting site. You get a distributor of knitting supplies to provide articles about knitting. They already have them, so it is no big deal. You go to a yarn company and get articles from them about yarn. Before you know it, you've got a website that is pretty informative and useful to some granny somewhere," Guy answered.
Guy was not lying about that. Max and Marylou had given the matter a lot of thought. Their plan was to use the website of his cheating wife to fund expansion into other websites. Marylou had come up with the idea for the knitting website. She was thinking about a canning website as well.
Although there was a lot of legalize in the contract, Ellie had a pretty good idea of what it contained. Nothing looked weird as far as she could tell. She said, "This appears to be a straight forward contract for two thousand shares of a corporate stock. You would be a member of the board."
"Right," Guy said. "I have another contract in your mother's name."
"That's very thoughtful of you," Maggie said giving him a smile.
Ellie said, "I know I want to be a lawyer, but I don't understand all of the legal ramifications in this contract. You should have your lawyer check this out."
"I already did," Guy said.
Already visualizing a hundred thousand dollars a year income, Maggie said, "Let's sign it."
"We have to get the money out of the bank. We'll need two checks; one in my name and one in your name," Guy said.
"I can take care of that first thing in the morning," Maggie said.
Guy said, "We'll have to get the contracts signed in front of a notary."
"I guess it all has to be done legally," Maggie said.
"That right," Guy said.
"When will we start seeing money?" Maggie asked.
"It takes time for these things to take off. It could be six months before the first specialty site gets five hundred members," Guy said. "It just depends."
"That long?" Maggie asked.
Sean said, "Dad's right. These things can take some time to get established. I mean, people have to find out about it."
Bill said, "It could go viral if you manage to hit the right topic."
"That's true," Sean said.
Guy said, "The great thing about this is that we don't have to do anything. We can just sit back and collect our money."
"Maybe I want to do something," Maggie said.
"Like what?" Guy asked.
"I could run a specialty website," Maggie said.
Guy asked, "What topic?"
"I don't know," Maggie answered.
"It should keep you busy. You'll have to research the topic, identify sources of information, design the layout, and update it daily," Guy said. "It would be a real job and you'd basically be doing it all yourself."
Maggie frowned at that idea. She had envisioned being a boss and telling someone what to do. She said, "That sounds like too much work."
Sean said, "So you really were in business meetings."
"Yes," Guy said. "What did you think I was doing?"
Sean looked a little flustered and glanced over at his mother. She had been quite vocal in what she thought he was doing. He said, "I didn't know. It was just kind of weird for you to be gone most evenings like that."
"Between the robbery, traveling, business meetings, and my kidney stones, I guess I haven't been adhering to my normal schedule," Guy said with a grimace. He didn't like lying about the kidney stones, but it did make a good excuse for his visits to the doctor. He was officially cleared of gonorrhea.
He was getting very angry about the accusations coming from his children. His wife wouldn't come straight out and accuse him of doing something wrong. She was using the kids for that purpose.
"I looked up kidney stones on the internet. Those are pretty painful," Bill said.
"You wouldn't believe how painful it is," Guy said looking across the table at Maggie. He was going to add that it was less painful than having your heart ripped out by a cheating spouse, but he held his tongue. He added, "So on top of being busy, I've been a little grouchy."
"You can say that again," Maggie said.
He was saying all the right things, but she didn't believe him. His lack of interest in having sex was telling her that he was getting it somewhere else. There was an edge to the way he looked at her that she didn't like. She knew the signs of a cheating spouse.
"You're acting like I was having an affair or something," Guy said looking at his wife.
He was only going to keep up this pretense for a little longer. All he wanted were a few more videos to kick off the website and then the truth could come out. It would be a surprise to a lot of people to learn what was really going on. He felt bad for the kids. Learning that their mother was a cheating slut would hurt them.
"It is just that you've been acting different," she said.
"Like I said, there's a lot going on in my life right now," Guy said. "You've seen what I've been doing tonight."
"That was quite unexpected," Maggie admitted.
Guy said, "I need to call Max and arrange to drop off the contracts tomorrow night."
"Can I go?" Maggie asked.
"Sure," Guy said. "I'll let him know to expect both of us tomorrow."
He pulled out his cell phone and called Max. When Max answered, he said, "Hello, Max. This is Guy."
Max asked, "Did you present the contract?"
"Yes. We're going to go for it. My wife and I would like to drop off the signed contracts tomorrow," Guy said.
"Excellent. We've already got the website up and running," Max said.
"Really?" Guy said glancing around the room. Everyone was watching him.
"Yes. I put a little blurb on a site dedicated to cheating wives stories. We've already got two hundred members and we're getting about three more an hour," Max said.
"That's good news," Guy said. "So things are progressing well."
Max said, "Marylou has the knitting site put together. She's really gotten into this."
"I bet my wife would love to see that knitting site. Will you be able to show it to her tomorrow?" Guy asked knowing that he was speaking to a broader audience. His entire family was listening to each and every word he said. At least they couldn't hear the other side of the conversation.
"Yes," Max answered.
"Great. I'm sure she'll like seeing it. She suggested that she might be able to come up with a site of her own," Guy said. He noticed Maggie preening a bit upon hearing that.
Max said, "No problem. I'll give Marylou the head's up on that. She probably won't be there. You know how she feels about your wife. Watching the videos really pissed her off."
"So what would be a good time to stop by?" Guy asked.
"How about eight?" Max said.
"We'll see you at eight," Guy said.
They exchanged goodbyes and then Guy hung up. He looked over at his wife and said, "We'll go over there at eight tomorrow. We'll need the checks as well as the signed and notarized contracts."
"Okay," Maggie said.
"We'll have to meet over lunch at the bank near where I work," Guy said.
"That's fine," Maggie said smiling at him. If this business deal made a profit, then all of her worries were over. She started thinking about going shopping for a business suit and briefcase now that she was going to be a business woman.
Thinking this might put Maggie in an amorous mood, Guy said, "I'm going head into the living room and sit down for a bit. My kidney stones are acting up a bit."
"Sorry to hear that," Bill said.
Maggie frowned and said, "Yeah. I hope you feel better soon."
Guy went into the living room and sat down in his chair. He was trying to calculate in his head how much money the website was bringing in. They had two more videos of her cheating to add to the website. At twenty dollars a member, two hundred members was four thousand dollars. Considering that their startup costs were a computer, a web address and a contract on a high volume web server, they were already making a profit.
Sean came into the living room and sat down on the couch. He said, "That's a pretty sweet deal that you've put together."
"Thanks," Guy said. "I'm not giving up my day job yet."
"I was doing some quick calculations. I think your friend was being way too conservative. A lot of these blog sites get thousands of members. With ten sites with a thousand members each and ten dollars a member, you should be bringing in over a hundred thousand dollars a month. You guys will be making a lot of money," Sean said.
"Haven't you ever heard of the phrase 'don't count your chickens before they hatch'?" Guy asked.
"Yeah," Sean said.
Guy said, "That's one of the things you have to learn how to do in business. It's real easy to over estimate how many customers you'll have. If you spend like you already have them, you'll be bankrupt before you know it."
"I guess you're the one with business experience," Sean said.
"Not really. I'm just an engineer who troubleshoots problems in the field," Guy said.
He wasn't going to mention that Max had coached him on how to sell the business to his wife. Guy was to talk about the website he was becoming a partner in without mentioning that she was becoming a partner in a different website. He was already a partner in Maggie's website. It was a bait and switch sale. It was wrong and he knew it, but he was doing it anyway.
Marylou had gone after the idea of making Maggie a partner in the website like a fox goes after a chicken in the henhouse. She had disliked Maggie after watching the first video and each successive video had feed her anger. Max hadn't wanted to use that approach until watching the last video of Maggie cheating. Guy had run into the bathroom to cry leaving Max and Marylou feeling like hell. Guy's resolve not to do it that way crumbled after watching his wife trash talk him in front of the children for twenty minutes.
"Still, you seem to know a bit about it," Sean said.
"You pick up things," Guy said. "One of the hardest things to learn is knowing when to keep your mouth shut."
"So that's why you've been so secretive lately?" Sean asked.
"Yes. I don't really like talking about things until they are a little more concrete. I was hoping to get a bit more of the action, but that didn't pan out. If I had set your mother's expectations a little higher, then I doubt we'd be going into business now. She'd be upset that we didn't get a better deal. As it is, I think we got a very good deal," Guy said.
"I didn't think about that."