The Schuyler Fortune

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The Schuyler Fortune VI: A Throuple of Bums-2

Ben Dewey, Jr. handed the folder of legal documents and memos to Liam and recommended he read Appendix A.

The plates had been swept away and the after-dinner mints were at hand when Liam gasped and quickly glanced up at Ben. His breath had been forced out of him by a few words on a piece of paper, typed neatly.

His heart began to race and for some reason he felt something like fear. Short of breath, he felt something big approaching his stream of consciousness...news for which he was not prepared.

Mr. Gratz had been given an initial bequest in the will of Michael Schuyler-Jones... in the amount of fifty million dollars. Michael's brother Loren had faithfully tended that investment over the years, doubling it before Loren's retirement. One hundred.

Mr. Gratz's friend, Darren, had willed his exact same bequest to Mr. Gratz before Darren's death. It had also doubled. The amounts registered as steps of an elephant approaching. One hundred.

Michael had also left similar bequests to his deceased husband's little brother John and to Andrew, a close friend, an employee at the Schuyler museum, both still living.

Mr. Gratz's connections in New York and Massachusetts brought him clients able to pay for his legal services; he had made a great deal of money from that practice. His homes and real estate investments were valuable. The yearly income from his real estate properties was way more than most people make in ten years and more than most of the world's population make in a lifetime.

The folder also included the business address and contact information of Paulo Schuyler-Jones of Manhattan. Ben shook hands with Liam.

"Remember, I'm your lawyer now unless you fire me. I'm a member of the bar in both New York and Massachusetts. If you need to talk, call me. My card is in the folder. Please remember what I said about secrecy and the team and disappearing for a while. Keep me in the loop."

Back at the apartment, Liam opened the door and surveyed the cheap furniture, the peeling wallpaper, smelled the asparagus, remembered laundromat day tomorrow, and sank into bed. He slept eventually from sheer mental exhaustion.

At the post office the next day, his supervisor had some bag changes to discuss with the sorting clerks and routing changes. "We are now sending bags and trays in their racks to Poughkeepsie in bay twelve departing 1730 p.m. Those bags and trays will now close at 1710 p.m. for loading. New bags for that zip will open at 1710 p.m."

Liam noted the change but didn't store it in memory. In the giant sorting room at his post office, there had been installed large overhead screens similar to a train station which announced what departures would leave what bays at what time, when the bags and trays closed and at what exact time new bags and trays had to be in position to accept new sorts.

The sorting clerks had only to verify the machine-sorted letters by zip tags, get them in the right bag or tray, then into the larger units that were wheeled into the trucks. Their deadlines were accessed overhead and now the new bag times were on the overhead screen as well.

Liam spoke with his supervisor. "I need to take a couple of days off, next Monday and Tuesday. Family business." The supervisor made a note, "You're off, kid. See you when you get back." The union was good about letting workers have flexible time off.

Liam called Mr. Schuyler-Jones during his break for an appointment, talked with his secretary who seemed to be expecting the call, and they agreed that Monday morning at ten o'clock would work.

Liam stopped by Starbucks next to his appointment address at seven a.m. and waded past a dozen security personnel in black vehicles in a convoy in front of the Starbucks for coffee and a muffin. He looked around the crowded room and saw a seat in the corner at a table with two other men. As he approached the table, one of the men frowned and jammed his hand inside his suit jacket. The other man put his hand on the guy's shoulder as if to calm him down... "I've got this one."

Liam smiled at both men. "I've an appointment next door this morning. Thought I'd get some calories and wake-up juice first. Is this seat available?"

The younger man whispered something to the first, who stood and went to the counter to order something.

The younger guy had good skin, dark hair, expensive glasses, no ring on his finger, dressed up in a charcoal pinstripe suit, expressive brown eyes, turned back to Liam.

"Please, sit down. Any seat that doesn't have a body in it is available for anyone. Have you been to this location before?"

"No, I mean, I've been to other Starbucks before, just not here."

"I'm Mateo and you are..."

"Liam Markham, nice to meet you." Liam shook Mateo's hand noting a quickly suppressed alert glance from Mateo.

"Sorry for the bodyguard's nervousness. He's paid to keep people at a distance, I think, but not by me. Dad and Mom are hyper about my safety in public."

"Tell me what brings you to this part of town? I mean... unless, you came for peace and quiet over a cup of the house caffeine."

Liam remembered Ben's warning about talking. "I have an appointment with someone named Paulo Schuyler-Jones at ten a.m., a kind of conference thing. I know, I know... I'm early, but I wanted to be on time."

"I've heard the name somewhere," replied Mateo. "So what kind of work do you do, Liam?"

"Up until today, I'm a postal sorting clerk here in the city. I'm trying to decide about my future work, kind of confused at the moment."

"How about you, Mateo?" What's your thing?"

"I am a Certified Financial Planner," said Mateo. I also am the CEO of an accounting company in New York. Seems like Manhattan is full of money people."

Liam filed that away. Check. Ben had advised him to get a planner and an accountant as well as a tax advisor. "Mateo, do you have a business card with you?"

Liam thanked him for the card and slipped it into his wallet.

At ten a.m. sharp, Liam entered Paulo's office after passing through a security check in the lobby, a short interview with a burly guard near the elevator who called up to confirm his appointment and summoned the elevator, and an introduction to the secretary at the desk in a very nice office. "Please have a seat for a moment, Mr. Markham. Paulo will be right out."

A strangely familiar man strode through the door a minute later...

"You must be Liam. I'm Paulo Schuyler-Jones. We've already met through my twin brother Mateo in Starbucks this morning. He called me after you left Starbucks to tell me he's got a crush on you. Said you wanted to make this appointment on time...that's unlike 95% of people these days. Thank you for the consideration."

"Please, come on in. There's lots to talk about and I'll bet you have some questions for me."

A bit stunned, Liam replied that he did have questions. The first that he didn't ask Paulo, but wanted to, had to do with Mateo. Was he serious about this 'crush' thing?

Liam saw his own face in the mirror every day and it didn't turn him on. He decided it was a figure of speech.

The conversation with Paulo took two hours. Liam handed his copy of Mr. Gratz's will to Paulo as well as his driver's license. Paulo scanned those and nodded.

Paulo introduced himself as the fund director for multiple very large multi-billion-dollar funds, or groups of stocks. His father, Loren, had retired to spend more time with his wife, managing ADRA projects in Zimbabwe. Paulo had taken his place.

The job as director was to manage the supervisors who oversaw the broker's work of making sure the funds grew and that all required information was delivered to the SEC and to the owners of the funds.

Paulo gave Liam a list, pages long, of the stocks and bonds that he had just inherited and a list of the banks and his current holdings in cash and also a list of his real estate with initial and estimated current values along with the income generated from that real estate each year.

"Here is the initial list of your inherited stocks and value. My job is to make certain that value increases and the income including dividends is re-invested or given to you as income to minimize loss.

Liam could conceive of a thousand dollars as a unit of money. He thought he knew how long it would take to spend a thousand of those 'thousand-dollar units'. That, he remembered was a million dollars.

Five hundred of those 'million-dollar units' was a mind-stretcher for him. He added in his mind the original fifty million now doubled which should have been around one hundred. The other fifty had grown to one hundred million.

Total so far, now two hundred million. A lifetime of legal work, another one hundred million, Three hundred.

Real estate at two hundred million value now. Five hundred.

Somehow his mind totaled five hundred million. Liam asked him how much income came in from the real estate plus stock dividends.

"Oh, forty to sixty million per year. Lots of variables affect that number."

"Mr. Gratz usually gave most of it to charity, so he didn't have such a large tax bill or just re-invested the dividends. But your tax team can be your resource on that."

The amount was an abstract. He thought about it but still didn't believe it. Paulo, watching him, grinned. "Here's a way to check out your assets in real-time anywhere in the world any time of day."

Paulo handed Liam an iPad Pro in a beautiful leather case with a built-in charger, a shield against RF scanners, and a hanging strap of leather surrounding a titanium-braided strap that no passerby wielding shears could cut quickly.

The custom iPad Pro case had a built-in router with VPN for security, a Tor Browser installed in addition to Safari and Chrome, and a robust antivirus/antispyware app already installed to protect the unit. It had a built-in satellite wi-fi whose antenna could be placed on the outside of the case.

The case charged both itself and the iPad Pro on a ceramic surface which featured multiple adapters to fit various international electrical outlets.

The firewall was already activated. Both Wi-Fi and cell modes were already activated and best of all, all of the data Paulo had just presented to Liam was summarized in an Excel spreadsheet which gathered incoming data in real-time from the server in Paulo's fund.

The iPad Pro updated itself several times each second and then promptly contacted the sending server to report with encrypted data what it had just received to get confirmation of an accurate send.

If the iPad was deep in a basement and was off-line for any reason, it simply resumed communicating as soon as a cell carrier was available or a satellite in view.

Liam saw his name as the account owner on each of the bank accounts, on each of the fund broker's reports of his stocks and bonds and noted at that moment that another section of the spreadsheet appeared and populated itself with data.

A list of his new credit and debit cards appeared with instructions about Apple Pay in a side-note. He saw that an American Express Centurion card had been opened for him with no account limit.

He hadn't heard about this card but thought carrying this and the Schuyler bank Visa credit card and the Schuyler bank debit card would allow him to go grocery shopping and bypass the produce department at the food bank. Then it hit him.

At the bottom of column G was a rather wide, single cell on line 210 formatted in American dollars and highlighted with a pale violet color. This was the up to the second value of his stocks at current prices from exchanges around the globe plus the total of all of his bank balances minus his credit card balances. The value kept spinning upward at a steady, rapid pace.

It jumped faster on occasion when a large deposit landed, like a rental property payment or interest or a dividend somewhere around the globe. He stared at that cell, fascinated and disturbed.

Paulo gave him his new AMEX Centurion card and wished him well.

"Call anytime, Liam. Don't be a stranger after you get back. My only advice to you: please don't make any large purchases that you would not have made anyway for the first week at least."

"You need to adjust to the stress of the change first before making good decisions about the rest of your rich life. This is not the time to buy a house or a car or a jet or a yacht or give anyone a million dollars, no matter what the story might be."

"Here is my business card. You need to find a tax planner, an attorney, an accountant, and a certified financial planner."

"Since Mr. Gratz inherited the basis of his wealth from my family, I will continue to build and safeguard your money without charge along with billions of dollars of other funds."

Liam thought he had found three of those already, two that very morning.

He gave Paolo the name of his attorney with his contact information and promised to be in touch.

Thanking him for his time, Liam took the iPad Pro and went to Central Park to sit and think about the morning's happenings.

Then the events of the day, the events of the week caught up to him and he began to shake, his mind in restless turmoil.

At home, Liam sat at the kitchen table and became acquainted with his iPad Pro. He felt that he could not spend any of his new inheritance before talking to his financial team, but he also needed food, new clothes, and a better place to live. The cash in one Schuyler bank account alone was seventy-five thousand dollars. He made a grocery list but had a very hard time adding anything, especially expensive things he couldn't have afforded just hours before. He had always wanted to shop at a Whole Foods Market, so he grabbed his small list and headed to the southwest corner of Columbus Circle steps away from Central Park. He entered the store and was immediately overwhelmed. He didn't know where anything was. He went to the customer service counter and talked to a friendly guy, perhaps 18, who volunteered to give him a tour.

"Is this your first time here?" It sounded a little like a cheesy pickup line until Liam realized the man was just trying to connect and help him.

"Yeah, first time at a Whole Foods Market. I wanted to try it out."

"First, all of our produce is organic which means no pesticides were used growing the product."

"So what happens to the insects? Are they still on the produce?"

"You're funny. No, the growers use other natural means to get rid of them. I don't what they are, but the produce shows up in great shape and if it doesn't arrive fresh and attractive, we don't sell it."

"We have a section for natural products to treat some ailments over here. These aisles are for frozen items. These aisles have dry goods. There's a bakery over here. The meat is labeled as to origin when we have the data. At the side over here, we have an enormous deli. We cater to people who don't eat animal products too. Those who eat plant-based diets have a ball shopping and eating here. There are companies that will do your shopping online and deliver it to your home." He gave Liam the names of those apps and a brochure on the store and a store map.

"Thank you for the introduction. I owe you."

"Actually, it's included. On second thought, you're a cutie. If I see you walking in Central Park, I might make ya buy me ice cream or something."

"I'd serve ya something all right," vamped Liam, "but it wouldn't be ice cream, exactly."

Two seconds later a wet spot appeared on the store assistant's pants about half way down to his knees and his eyes dilated some, he wobbled a little, and his hand reached out to grab on to Liam's arm.

"Sonny, can you tell me where the eggs are?" An older woman with thick glasses peered at his uniform. "Do you work here?"

"Thanks again. By the way," Liam said in a low tone, "I know where your eggs are."

The assistant whimpered and turned quickly, but not before Liam saw something massive rising.

That was fun, Liam thought. Shopping can be such fun. Wonder why I haven't been shopping recently? He knew exactly why but was enjoying the cross-talk in his head.

His own cock had responded to the call right in the middle of the store, so he turned toward a counter for a while until the bugle stopped threatening to blow.

The list got longer as he cruised down the aisles. The people-watching was spectacular. It seemed that all kinds of really normal people bought groceries. Some more handsome, a few not as, but all focused on the task of foraging just like their Neanderthal forebears, minus a club and skins.

His head went down that route and he began to watch groins. He saw Mr. 'visible bump', Mr. 'long snaky down one side bump', Mr. 'flat pants' Mr. 'up and ready' had already left the store, he guessed.

The grocery list included, besides "perving on people's body parts", eggs (oddly enough), milk, cheese, cereal, steak, chicken, hot sauce, A-1 sauce, a lemon and a couple of limes, tonic, potatoes, tomatoes, 9-grain bread, mayonnaise, refried beans, dill pickles, lettuce, condoms, ibuprofen, a dozen other items.

Then he remembered. Ben had told him to leave town quickly. This stuff would rot during his absence. He left the store without buying a thing.

He also needed a friend, someone who would have his back and with whom he could speak freely. He couldn't very well call his mother. Liam had no one at work that could fill the role. Ben Dewey had asked him to call if he needed to talk.

Liam found the telephone number of the law firm Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe, entered that into Contacts on his iPad Pro. Then he realized that his cell phone wasn't a smart phone that could sync with his iPad Pro.

He left his apartment and took a taxi for the nearest Apple store in Manhattan and purchased an iPhone 8. The salesman asked him which color he preferred. Liam asked the salesman for a red iPhone and a new MacBook Pro as well. Paying for the purchases was simple enough and after connecting to the Internet and setting up his iPhone to back up and sync his devices to iCloud, he noted within a few seconds the telephone number of Dewey, Cheatham & Howe appear in the Contacts app on his iPhone and MacBook Pro.

Liam called the legal firm and ask for Ben Dewey. When Ben came on the line, Liam asked if Ben had a moment to talk. Ben replied that he did. Liam reported the mornings activities.

"Any chance you can come in this morning, so I can bill your ass?"

Liam giggled and said that was an odd way to begin breaking in his ass. "I thought you would never ask. How much is this going to cost me?"

"We can do this in two ways: You can pay by the encounter or pay a fee for unlimited encounters and talk and services by paying a retainer fee each month, renewable unless you cancel, billed to your credit card."

At Ben's office, er, cubbyhole, they continued talking business.

"What's your retainer fee?"

"The smart-aleck answer is you can afford it no matter what it is. The answer, however, is $5,000 a month for the first six months, then we re-negotiate upward if you think you are getting sufficient value for our services or if I think I'm getting worked to death. Maybe less if you move in with me. Sharing the rent would decrease my costs on the condo."

"Have you quit your job yet?"

The thought had crossed Liam's mind daily for a year, but the step had seemed a little premature until today. "No, not yet."

"OK Liam, I know all of this is a lot to chew on. As your attorney I've prepared a list of things for you to do, in this order, starting this afternoon. Do it now please. The vultures will begin to circle soon enough."

Ben handed the list of moves to make to Liam and waved him off.

"See ya when you get back on the other side, man. Get to work. Save some of that cute ass for me."

"Sure, Rod, er Ben."

1. Cancel your old telephone number and give the phone company my forwarding address and telephone number here at the office.

2. Move to a hotel. Register as Davi Murkim. Invite no one to your room except room service and be aware of their activities while there. Use the mini-bar in the suite if you want even though it's high-priced, it's safer in your case.

3. Cancel your apartment lease by telling the super you will pay for two more months lease only and just let them keep the cleaning deposit. Give my address as the forwarding address and tell the super that a company will be by to pack up your belongings and move them in a month.

4. Go online tonight and book a first-class round-trip ticket from JFK to Barcelona in a week's time. Return flight date in one month. Forget the cost. Use your new credit card. Go online and rent a suite in a very nice hotel there for the days you will be there--do that tonight. Like the airline and the passport office, use your own name and use your credit card.

The billing address of the card, should they ask, is Paulo's office and its cell number is Paulo's number, which you have already. Put Paulo's telephone number and address into your iPhone and for that matter, mine if you haven't done it. Download the tickets to your new iPhone and keep the iPhone charged if you want to show the ticket at the airport.

1. Go shopping at Bloomingdales after moving into the hotel.

a. wallet that blocks RF scanners

b. smart backpack with charger

c. Tumi suitcase to fit in overhead bin in first-class on plane.

d. two TSA locks

e. anything else you can buy in Barcelona at very nice stores.

1. Get an emergency passport. Pay whatever they ask for. Do this tomorrow. Take birth certificate and driver's license. On the application, use the full name on your birth certificate and date of birth.

2. Come to my office tomorrow and get a "power of attorney" form, sign it, check off 'for one month only' and leave it here.

3. Go to the largest Schuyler bank branch in Manhattan in three days and get four thousand euros in cash to take with you. Get name of correspondent bank in Barcelona to get more cash if you need it.

Save the receipt for customs. Save all receipts from items purchased in Spain for customs at re-entry to New York. Keep a list of what you purchase and take pictures of each receipt with your iPhone.

1. Call work and quit your job. Give them the forwarding address of my office and telephone number. Have them send all forms to that address and the final check, etc. Do not discuss why you are giving up the job.

2. Relax and have fun planning this. Be sure to call your cell carrier and ask them to enable the global service. Download the instructions for using it and copy them to Notes on your iPhone. Ask them to make certain that they make a note that you will be using it in Spain for the next month or so. Get the agent's name to verify.

3. Call your credit card number on the back and tell them you will be using your new card in Barcelona, Spain for the next month starting the day after your flight leaves. Get confirmation and get the agent's name.

They will say it is unnecessary, but more people's cards get blocked each and every day because they don't call before their trip. If their computer gets a pre-trip message, it will ignore the red flag of 'use out of service area'.

1. Take adapters for Spain's electrical outlets (buy them at the airport), take all chargers and don't forget your passport!

2. Get to the airport 3 hours early, not two. Accidents and traffic jams occur.

Don't forget to email me your super's number. Have fun. On the other side of this page are some notes about these tasks. Best regards. Ben.

On the other side, Ben had written the following and Liam added in some information:

Liam: First on the list was cancelling his telephone number. Fortunately, he had signed up for a new cell number when he purchased the iPhone 8. He called his carrier and cancelled his old number, giving his attorney's contact information as a forwarding address.

Ben: At hotels, don't be flashy with tips but do hand a five-dollar or euro bill to room service, avoid hookers of either gender and con artists. Don't get drunk ever. Don't drink with anyone. This is one time when it's OK to drink alone in moderation. Avoid bars. Don't invite anyone to your room.

Ben: Avoid ATM machines that are not located in a bank and don't use them overseas outside of a bank.

Ben: It's OK to visit a bank in Europe and get a cash withdrawal inside. They will want to see a passport. Never give your social security number to anyone outside Schuyler bank or a correspondent bank.

Ben: Visit the large Schuyler bank branch in Manhattan before you leave and arrange to get some foreign currency directly from your account, say four thousand euros. Save the receipt for customs if they need to see it.

Ben: Ask them who their correspondent bank is in Barcelona. Use that bank in Barcelona if you need more cash. A moving and packing company would be by to box up his belongings and move them to an address that his attorney, Ben, would supply to them within a month. Ben would contact a company for that. Liam was to email the super's cell number to Ben.

Ben: Download the tickets to your new iPhone. Make sure that your carrier activates global calls for your new iPhone number and online, review the procedures for receiving texts, making and receiving calls, syncing and all that from any country. Be sure to take your iPhone charger with you and electrical outlet adapters for Spain and any other country you might run off to. Don't forget your passport for the airport and get there three hours early, not two.

Ben: Keep track of your wallet at JFK. Mind the customs rules for how much money you can take in and out of the country, save all receipts from items purchased in Spain for the customs forms upon re-entry to the country. Read the customs rules carefully and follow them to the letter.

Ben: Some shopping tasks: Go to Bloomingdales tomorrow afternoon and get a leather backpack with room for your iPad Pro and its case. The case with the iPad Pro and your iPhone will go inside the backpack when you are out and about in Barcelona. Get a suitcase that will fit in the overhead in first class--a nice one and tell the salesperson about the size you need. This will carry your American clothing over to Barcelona and your European clothing back on the plane. If you are weak like me, you will end up buying a laptop too. Make sure the backpack can hold all three devices and their chargers. I would leave the laptop at my office. They get heavy to carry around.

Ben: You won't want to leave the backpack in the hotel room. Wear it or carry it all the time. The backpack should have its own charger and very strong straps and room for only that and any prescription medicines you might take (obviously no illegal drugs).

Ben: Don't pack any of your current American clothing except for items you buy at Bloomingdales that suit the New York hotel. Buy all new clothes and shoes for now. Do not, however, wear those American clothes in Barcelona.

Ben: Buy European clothing and shoes in Barcelona after you get there to better fit in. Don't wear baseball caps and American sports team's apparel in Europe. Look around you and see what the Spaniards, the well-dressed ones, are wearing and buy and wear that.

Ben: If it comes to sex in Spain, use condoms. Avoid the saunas unless you wear protection if you value your health and know that pickpockets are not unknown in Barcelona. Call me every day from Barcelona to catch up. Spend time getting acquainted with your Excel spreadsheet too.

Ben: Call and quit your job this afternoon. Don't discuss the reason. Ask them to send all final checks, W-2 forms at year-end, Cobra forms, and 401-K information and access to your attorney (that would be me) and give them my name and contact information. After you sign the power-of attorney form for us, we'll fax copies to your job and anyone who requires it.

Ben: Call me when you are nearly done with the list and we'll talk about it.

Ben: Email me a copy of your air itinerary and your hotel in Barcelona when you get there.

After visiting Schuyler bank the next morning and looking at his to-do list and notes, Liam had finished almost all of the items by ten a.m. He stayed up late online the night before making air and hotel reservations.

He stood at a counter at the passport office filling out paperwork. An unsavory man moved up close to him to fill out a paper and Liam moved away. Immediately a muscular guy, about twenty or so, moved in and the man backed away. Liam looked up to see his neighbor Alan. Surprised, his eyebrows rose, and Alan laughed.

"Ben sent me. I'll have your back. I work for Schuyler security, Liam. I worked for Mr. Gratz in Boston." He showed his security ID, handed Ben's card to Liam, and another card with his own name and number.

"Call if you need me, but I or another person will be close by a lot of the time."

At the window, Liam paid his fee in cash, handed over the form and his birth certificate. After a short time, he received a brand-new passport and his birth certificate back. He left the office in a taxi for Bloomingdales.

Once there he found the luggage department and a back pack per Ben's specs, bought it with cash and left to check into The Pierre, a luxury hotel with a great view of Central Park.

He paid in advance for a week's stay with cash and gave them his Schuyler bank credit card to swipe for incidentals. He called Ben's secretary and gave her an update.

He then went back to Bloomingdales, backpack on with the iPad Pro inside and purchased a Tumi bag just the right size for an overhead bin on. He walked over to the menswear department, enormous, and asked a salesperson if someone could assist him shopping. She told him that the store had a personal shopping service and called an assistant to help.

The lady who arrived was courteous and knew everything there was to know about clothing. He told her his sizes and what he was looking for. "I need one travelling outfit. I also need a pair of really nice dress shoes and a suit and tie, socks and underwear, two pairs of tan slacks, two dress shirts, long-sleeve oxford cloth and a navy blazer."

"I want an understated watch, some citrus based cologne, a really good electric razor and I'll buy the rest at a drug store."

Within two hours he had what he needed packed professionally into his new suitcase and the rest was to be delivered to the Pierre that afternoon.

At a pharmacy close by, he stopped and bought condoms, disposable five-blade razors, deodorant, a hairbrush and comb, personal hygiene products, and small three-ounce clear containers to carry liquids on the flight. He purchased a zip-lock bag to carry them through TSA along with two TSA locks.

Liam reviewed his progress.

He had exited his life... Job gone. Check. Old phone number gone. Check. Old clothes gone. Check. Old apartment taken care of. Check. Power of attorney signed. Check.

New life begun... Money in hand. Check. Wallet with AMEX and Visa cards. Check. Passport in hand. Check. New place to stay. Check. New clothes. Check. Travel arrangements made. Check. Iberia first-class round-trip tickets on his iPhone. Check. Hotel reservations made in Barcelona at 16 Barcelona for three weeks, then one week at the Axel Hotel in the Eixample. Check. iPhone cell carrier account globalized. Check. Backpack and iPad Pro charged. Check. iPhone charger in backpack with adapters for European countries. Check. Other chargers and adapters packed. Check. Nice watch. Check.

Limo reserved to JFK at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow leaving plenty of time for rush hour and arriving three hours before the 5:35 p.m. flight on Iberia non-stop. Check. New cell number to Paulo and Ben. Check.

His last task that afternoon was to call Mateo. He called the number on the card and gave his name to the secretary and explained he why he was calling. Mateo was soon on the line and greeted him warmly. "Hey stud, what can I do for you?"

"I need a tax planner and an accountant and a CFP, I think."

"I can help with that."

"I thought you could after the talk with Paulo."

"Yeah, I told him I had a crush on your body. I meet rich people in my line of work, but rarely a young, gorgeous guy. You made my dick hard, man."

"I'll bet you say that to all your potential clients."

"I'm a not-so-straight shooter, Liam. If I like ya and want to fuck ya, I'll tell you right to your face. Too much right now? To tell you the truth, I've never either...I'm shooting in the dark right now and don't have a reputation for the suave approach, obviously. When can you move in with me?"

"I've never..."

"That's OK. We'll get you plugged in to those business services this afternoon and 'plugged in' to me later, so to speak.

Paulo says you will be gone for a few weeks. Let's lay, oops, sit down when you get back with your attorney and plan this shit out together as a team with your new advisor.

"By the way, I have a suite at the Schuyler museum where Paulo and I live. I understand that your attorney Ben is single and gay as a songbird...we ought to consider living together as a group at the museum where your uncle once played with my grandfather when you get back."

"The rent is free, the food good and we all might learn to live and love together. We would have the suite next to us remodeled within a few days after you and Ben made the decision.

In the meanwhile, when you come back, why don't you think about staying with Paulo and I anyway at least temporarily. He thought your ass was cute and God knows I perved on ya too.

Have a good flight. Bring all of you back safe."

Liam didn't have time to even say good-bye. Mateo rang off and Liam had some business to attend to in the shower, anyway. Tomorrow he would be in Spain.

He slept well-fed, warm but a little mind-fucked.

Liam breakfasted, packed, made a short run back to Bloomingdales to pick up a RF blocked wallet so that thieves could not scan his credit cards through the leather wallet cover.

He spent the rest of the morning downloading apps to his new iPhone. Travel, Utilities, Business, Games, Music, the Schuyler bank app, and a few movies in case the airline showed junk.

He already had Office 365 on the device. Hotel.com, Expedia and Trip Advisor for travel among others.

The concierge called at noon sending the bellboy up to his suite to pick up his suitcase and remind him of the limousine arrival promptly at 12:15 p.m. He left his room after triple checking: he fingered his wallet, his iPhone, his backpack with the iPad Pro inside, all chargers present, looked once again at his passport, fingered his four thousand euros worth of banknotes in his wallet watch on arm, clothes on, keys and tip left in room, looked at his ticket on the charged-up iPhone which hadn't gone away, double checked the departure time...and a little panic entered his head until he told himself he could get whatever he forgot. He wasn't going to Antarctica.

Liam Markham, ex-postal clerk and 'out-there' gay guy, was off on an adventure. His momma didn't know where he was.

He choked down a giddy feeling and the urge to howl, slapped down his sudden erection, "down boy!" and took his suited self out of the suite a few feet behind the bellboy's cute ass pushing a cart with his small Tumi bag plus TSA lock on it all by its lonesome. The bellboy got a tip that knocked his socks off.

The backpack remained on Liam's back, both a real burden and a symbol of his new burden.