“Like Lexi, you need someone who can stand on their own. The last thing you need is some girl who’s high maintenance.”
“But what if she’s hot?” he asked.
She gave him points for his acting ability; otherwise, she would have slugged him.
“Remember Tracy? She’s hot and crazy as a loon.”
“Here I thought we were friends. I can’t believe you would use my past against me,” David said as he mock-pouted.
“Shut up. You know what I mean.”
“Apparently, I do.”
“If you want me to screen applicants...” Tami ventured.
The look she got back made her day. She knew that David considered himself a big boy now, and the thought of her helping pick his girlfriend rated right up there with his mom being involved. Not that the two of them wouldn’t weigh in when they felt they had to.
“I like my stats class,” he said to change the topic.
“Your mom told me that you found her a bunch of potential clients using stuff you learned there. Do you plan to follow up on what you started with that?” she asked.
“I talked to Alyssa, the girl in my class who helped me work the data, and we’ll see after finals are over. I’m pretty good with the ideas, but I need someone to handle the computer stuff. If she isn’t willing to help, I’ll have to find someone else,” David said.
“Are you worried that USC will want a cut of this?” Tami asked.
“What?”
“Research done at universities can mean they have partial ownership rights,” she reminded him.
“Dang it, I actually knew that. I’ll call my dad and have him talk to the lawyer types and see what they think.”
“You’re a dick sometimes,” she observed.
“Why? For asking my dad for help?”
“No. For making him talk to lawyers.”
That made David laugh.
“Better him than me.”
“Yep, you’re a dick.”
The team left, but David stayed with Tami, and they hung out, catching up with each other’s lives. She shared how everything was going for her. She loved Stanford. They also caught up on what was going on with their mutual friends.
David shared that Greg and Joey were moving to his new house in Venice Beach. His mom had hired a contractor to get it cleaned up. It mainly needed paint and flooring. They’d gotten lucky, and all the mechanicals worked. David looked forward to having his brother join them in the LA area.
Then it got interesting. David spotted a girl wearing a tri-delta shirt and pounded on the window to get her attention. She was with a group of her sorority sisters. It took her a moment to recognize him.
“Who’s that?” Tami asked as the girls filed into the bar.
“Remember when my mom came here for her cancer treatment freshman year?”
Tami nodded. It had been a rough time for David.
“I met her in this very bar back then,” he said as he stood up and greeted the girl with a hug.
“I heard you were in town playing baseball. Fancy meeting you here,” she said.
“You know him?” one of her sisters asked.
“When I was pledging, I ran into David. I got to know him really well in the handicap stall in the bathroom.”
Tami smiled when she saw David blush.
He let them take pictures with him, and then he had to get going for his afternoon game.
After he left, Tami counted herself lucky to have had a front-row seat to watch him tumble gracefully through puberty and now become a man. He really had graduated from being a stupid boy to becoming a better man. It was something she always knew would happen.
Developmental Editors: XofDallas and Bud Ugly
Line / Copy Editors: Bud Ugly, TheMikeBomb, Zom, and Old Rotorhead
Continuity Editor: Rusty
Last One Through: Bud Ugly
Chapter 71
David
David walked in the back door of the townhouse with his first armful of clothes. His car was loaded up with his belongings. He’d had to move out of The Palace for the summer. And so, for the next couple of months, at least, he would reside at his townhouse on the edge of campus near the football practice facility. Thankfully, it was only two blocks from USC’s campus.
He’d talked to Alex’s stepmom. She’d said that even though it didn’t look like Alex would be back, David could leave anything he wanted since he was going to resume living there in the fall. Camilla had also offered to leave all of Alex’s furniture. She’d sent a couple of guys to come to clean out all of Alex’s personal gear.
Kirk, David’s roommate for the coming year, mourned the loss of the gaming system. David had never really used it, but after Alex left to play soccer, Kirk and a few of the guys on the floor took it over.
Alex’s sister, Nat, who lived at the other end of the hall, had her roommate buy a bunch of liquor before she graduated. She’d decided that David should store it in his closet over the summer. He suspected that her parents were coming to help her move out, and she didn’t want them to see it.
He stepped into the townhouse and immediately froze when he heard the all-too-familiar yowl of the cat from hell, Precious. She was perched on the kitchen island, staring him down.
“Are we going to have a problem?” he asked and then felt stupid for talking to the cat.
Precious flipped her tail up and turned around, and when she got to the edge of the countertop, she jumped off and disappeared.
David would be staying in the bedroom on the second floor across from Cassidy. The girls had used it as an office/study room with only a daybed, but David would make do.
The girls were all still taking finals, which gave David a chance to settle in.
David was reading a message from his mom when Tracy came home, looking exhausted. His parents had gone back to Illinois for Greg’s graduation ceremony, and Mom was letting him know they’d made it.
“I need a drink,” Tracy announced.
David was prepared. He’d checked the refrigerator and found it had no food in it, so he’d used the app to have a literal grocery list of food, booze, and other necessities delivered. David cracked a bottle of Jameson and pulled out a pitcher of real lemonade. He filled a highball glass with ice and made a faux whiskey sour, which he handed to Tracy to try.
“Mm, you’re handy to have around.”
“One of the sound gals taught me to make that. She called it Hemingway’s Lemonade. After I had a few, they talked me into being a male stripper. One of the production assistants was celebrating her birthday,” David shared.
“Join me.”
“I was thinking about heading home before I fly out on Sunday,” David pushed back.
He wanted to see his kids before going to London to begin his part promoting the James Bond film that would be out in two weeks. He’d surprised Tami for her birthday, and she was going with him, Frank, and Lexi. She’d gone to school in the UK for a year on a study-abroad program and had stayed with a host family there. David had invited them to an exclusive sneak showing while he was there.
“Nope. You are going to act like an honest-to-goodness college boy and get drunk after finals. It’s one of those rites of passage you need to experience,” Tracy ordered.
’What the fuck,’ David decided and made himself a drink.
“Congratulations,” Tracy said.
David had been named USC’s MVP for baseball and made the all-Pac-12 team along with Andres. Cassidy had also made the all-Pac-12 team in rowing. They were the only freshmen to make either team.
David’s phone chirped to let him know he had a text.
“My tutor just let me know that I got straight ‘A’s,” David shared.