by Anita Claire
Shaking my head, no, she continues with, “We’ve ordered nice fleece jackets for next month.”
Hita pipes in, “Did you order any in women’s sizes? I have a complete wardrobe of company wear. My closet looks like I have a guy living with me.”
The woman grins, “I’ll talk to my boss and see what we can do.” Before leaving, Hita and I introduce ourselves. She tells us her name is Jessica. I note that she’s dressed much more stylish than the women in Engineering.
As we head back to our desks, Hita says, “I think the reason they hand out so much clothing is so the guys here don’t have to go shopping”
“…And only need to do laundry once a month.” I add. “If we go back and pick up a long-sleeved T-shirt for Ian, do you think he’ll get the hint and cover up?”
We both look at each other and laugh. At the same time, we shake our heads and mouth “no.”
Chapter 24
After work, I park my car at the condo and walk the five blocks to the Tide House—a local brew pub where the swim team’s having happy hour. I enter the bar alone, feeling rather uncomfortable since I have only been working out with the team for a month and really don’t know anyone. While looking around, I immediately, recognize one of the coaches. He’s wearing a black swim parka with “Mountain View Masters” on the back. The group is jammed around a couple of long wood tables at the corner of the bar. There are around twenty people with ages ranging from twenties to fifties. Not wanting to suffer through some old guy hitting on me, I look around for younger people before choosing a seat. Spotting a couple twenty-something guys, I head over to that end of the table. None of them look like Abs Guy, but I still prefer being with people my age.
Leaning over to one of them, I ask, “Is that chair taken?”
He’s wearing a Google logoed hoodie over a Google logoed T-shirt. The guy has dark hair, dark eyes, and looks to be part Asian. He briefly glances at me, and interrupts his conversation to say, “Yeah, sure.”
An uncomfortable feeling of dread in the base of my chest works its way through to my core. I’m not a good bar person. My personality is not flashy, I feel uncomfortable flirting, and I’ve never been good at chitchatting with strangers. Because no one is doing much talking at this end of the table, I figure that these guys must be engineers. Most of them are just sitting around looking at their beers. After sitting in my seat for about one, excruciatingly, uncomfortable minute, I finally catch the eye of the other young guy. He has light brown eyes, and short brown hair that looks like it was once blond. He’s wearing a long sleeve T-shirt with a Tesla logo on it. People on the team introduce themselves by name, lane, and time they swim.
With an attempt at good cheer, I say, “Hi, I’m Juliette, I swim in lane five at 6:00 a.m.”
That seems to get him out of his trance, or awakens his manners. He smiles back and says, I’m Austin.” Pointing at the dark-haired guy, he adds, “That’s Kevin.”
Kevin has just finished his conversation. He gives me a second look, “Are you new to the team?”
Grinning, I say, “Yes, I just joined a few weeks ago.”
Austin asks, “So, what brought you to Mountain View?
Using my quick answer, I reply, “I got my masters in June, spent the next three months as an intern in London and last month started a new job in Sunnyvale.”
Austin nods, “Kevin and I swim at either 6:00 or 7:00 a.m., in lane eight.”
All the company swag makes it easy to figure out who works where. Figuring I need to get more of a conversation going, I ask Kevin, “Doesn’t Google have a 50 meter pool?”
Kevin gives a mellow nod, “Yeah, but I like these coached workouts better. Plus, I get bored if I don’t have competition in my lane.”
Austin smirks, “You wish.”
It’s easy to tell that they have a rivalry going. They’re not talkative, so I continue that trail of thought with, “I hear they call lane eight the shark tank.”
Both guys smirk.
Austin casually says, “Hey, I’m just trying to stay in shape.”
Kevin gives him shit by saying, “For a guy trying to stay in shape, you swim pretty slowly.”
“Kicked your ass this morning,” Austin replies.
Austin gives me a long look, “You don’t have a beer.” There’re a bunch of glasses and a full pitcher in the middle of our end the table. Austin grabs a glass and the pitcher. “Do you like Blonde Ale?”
Not being a big beer drinker, I have no knowledge what of the different types are, so I just smile and say, “Yes.”
He fills a glass and hands it to me. Kevin and Austin seem cool. Although, it’s excruciating to come to one of these happy hours alone, I’m glad to meet swimmers my age. I’m starting to fear I’ll never meet Abs Guy, when Austin says, “Excuse me.” He stands up and shouts over my head, “Zach, my man, we were wondering if you were going to show.”
He pours another glass and hands it to Zach—who’s standing behind me. Following with my eyes as he hands the beer over to Zach my heart jumps when I realize that Zach is Abs Guy. Zach grabs the beer with one hand—and a chair with the other—to join us.
Austin points his thumb at me. “This is Juliette; she’s new to the team. She swims, what did you say lane five at six?”
With an uncontrollably large grin, I respond, “yes,” to Austin, as I turn my head to look at Zach. “Nice to meet you,” I manage to squeak out. My internal voice says, be cool. My body tingles with excitement. This gives me a good chance to get a close look at Zach—my morning coffee cake. He has a tall, lean swimmer’s body; well, of course, I already knew that. He’s wearing a Facebook T-shirt; I’m not surprised he’s probably another software developer—probably an engineer. Who else are you going to meet in Silicon Valley? He has an even, masculine, non-pretty face. It’s long, with a well-defined jaw, strong straight nose, and high cheekbones that are complemented by his dark hair and steel gray eyes. He’s sporting a bit of a five o’clock shadow, which makes his face look rugged.
Zach smiles at me. “Cool, I, too, swim at six. Lane eight.” He has nice white teeth and a cute dimple on the right when he smiles
Austin announces, “We have twenty minutes to get happy hour appetizers.” Then he asks, “What will you guys have?”
“They’re only five bucks each, just order a bunch of stuff, we’ll eat whatever you get.” Zach answers.
Coach Chris sits down on the other side of Austin and starts talking about their last swim meet. From what I gather, these guys were all on a relay together with one other person. They start talking about different stroke times.
Coach Chris looks at me and says, “You should join us; we have a nice-sized group that goes to the swim meets.”
Remembering competition from when I was a kid, I recall it consisted of a long day or two of sitting around a pool waiting for your heat to be up, and then swimming for only a couple of minutes. In the summer, there are plenty of one and two mile lake and ocean swims in California. These are a lot more fun because everyone gets in at the same time, so nobody has to spend their day sitting around.
I reply, “Actually I’m waiting for the open water season. I hear there’s a fun swim up at Donner Lake. Also, I’d like to swim around the Santa Cruz Pier, and do the Escape from Alcatraz.”
Coach Chris says, “OK, then I’ll make sure you’re on the open water list.”
“You are aware that the ocean is only around 58˚ and real swimmers don’t wear wetsuits?” Zach dryly comments.
Giving him a flirty smirk, I respond, “Do I look like some wimpy women who can’t handle cold water?”
Austin elbows Zack and says, “Dude, you better be careful, women swimmers are tough.”
Zack gives me a once over with his eyes. “Yeah, the little ones are deceiving. They look girly, but they can be tough.”
Figuring that this comment should be taken as a challenge, I fight back with, “So, Mr. Big Guy who swims in the shark tank, are you man enough t
o swim with the real sharks in the cold ocean?”
On second thought, maybe I can flirt. Yikes, I just flirted with Abs Guy. Austin and Kevin both crack up. Zach gives me a half-smile that shows off his dimple. “That’s an easy challenge, if you can handle a cold water swim without a wetsuit, so can I.”
I look at Austin and Kevin. “Are you guys going to man up, or are you going to let Zach show you up?”
Kevin laughs as he replies. “When you put it that way, you give me very little choice.”
“So I take it you’re wimping out?” Austin jests good-naturedly.
Coach Chris jumps in cheerfully. “Looks like we’ll have a good-sized group at the open water swims this summer.”
The server delivers pesto calamari, buffalo chicken tenderloins, a cheese board, garlic sweet potato fries, and black bean nachos along with another pitcher of Blonde Ale. Tonight, I’ll consume my grease and carbohydrate quota for the month.
Austin rubs his hands together. “Not bad for twenty-five bucks.”
We eat up while Coach Chris talks about record breaking master’s swimmers and the last meet’s highlights. Now, I sort of know these guys, making it easy to say hi to them at the pool. After eating, deciding to play it cool. I stand up and throw $20 on the table. “I get up early, so I need to crash early. Thanks for making me feel welcome. I’ll see you at the pool.”
Austin asks, “Are you swimming tomorrow?
As I grab my purse from the back of my chair “Most likely I’ll swim the 8:00 a.m. workout. That’ll give me a chance to sleep in.”
On the walk home—while passing a Mediterranean restaurant—I hear my name being called. Turning around, it’s my parents waving to me as they eat their dinner. My dad flags down a waiter to bring an extra chair, while I head over to their table. After joining them, we talk about meeting new people and the swim team happy hour. I’m not hungry after eating all that junk food and beer. My dad orders me an iced tea. After dinner, my parents walk me to my door.
After getting inside, I send a group text to the Princesses. “Abs Guy has a name, it’s Zach. He also has a couple of cute friends.”
It’s now 9:00 p.m. I haven’t seen Cassie for a few days. She must be spending a lot of time at Luke’s. She sure moves quickly. Putting on my comfy pajamas and snuggling into my nice, comfy bed, I read a fun, romantic comedy that takes place in New Zealand on my Kindle.
Chapter 25
Getting up a little earlier than normal for a Saturday morning, I walk over to the pool. It’s great living so close to everything. While opening the latch on the pool gate, a long arm reaches over my head and holds the door open. Turning to look at the face attached to the arm, I see that it’s Austin.
“Hey, how much later did you guys stay last night?”
“Not much longer; we also get up early.” Austin says, as we walk across the pool deck.
“Have a good swim,” I say while heading into the women’s locker room. Cool, now I know the swimming guys that are my age. After shedding my clothes and walking across the deck, Zach passes me as he heads into the men’s locker room. We make eye contact at the same, exact time.
He nods. “Hi.”
Smiling back, I say, “Hi.” It’s amazing how such a brief interaction can make my heart jump. My morning coffee cake just got sprinkled with powdered sugar.
The Chinese pastry shop on the way home has great cocktail buns, stopping to pick up a three-pack, I continue walking while simultaneously checking to see if Doctor Nate has replied to my last text.
He responded: I have plenty of other talents; someday I’ll share them with you.
I’m looking to amp this texting thing up. It’s not like I’ll get into trouble if he’s living halfway across the country….
Are your great, thorough skills physically demanding? I write. Kind of lame, but for conservative me, this is a big flirt.
Now that I’m home, I feel lazy. Plopping down on the couch, I start channel surfing. I’m not finding anything interesting to watch, so I bring up YouTube and start streaming Glasgow Physics. It’s a creatively done series in five-to-six-minute long segments on physics topics hosted by a guy with a crazy, strong Scottish accent. Okay, it’s really geeky, but it’s also funny. Of course, that’s when Cassie comes home. She’s hovering behind me trying to figure out what’s on TV; I can feel her presence. It takes her a while to realize that the guy’s speaking English. The subject seems to be lost on her…until she gasps.
In a slow, deep voice, Cassie sputters, “Juliette, this is the geekiest thing I have ever seen. Sometimes you scare me. I think you’re in need of an intervention.”
With a laugh, I respond, “Cassie, just because I watch a funny show on physics doesn’t make me eligible for an intervention.”
“Juliette, don’t ever let a guy know you watch shows like this. You really need to up your game if you want to catch a star.”
“Cassie, I don’t think that the men you date would ever be interested in someone like me.”
“But you can try to date someone more interesting. Have you even flirted with anyone since you’ve been back?”
“As a matter of fact, I’m in the middle of a whole texting thing with a sexy doctor I met last week. And last night at happy hour, I met some cute swimmers.”
“So what do these swimmers do?” she skeptically asks.
“They’re engineers, like me.”
She rolls her eyes. “Engineers are boring. If you’re going to live in Silicon Valley, the least you can do is date VC’s and lawyers. They tend to be a little more interesting.”
Her definition of interesting is arrogant and flashy.
Cassie narrows her eyes, stares intently, plops her hands on her hips. “Look, I’m going to do you a big favor and give you a makeover.”
This conversation is going in a scary direction. Cassie is beautiful and she has a hip, skin bearing, yet oddly, classy style. A makeover holds no interest for me. Working in engineering, it’s expected that you don’t dress up since the guys wear jeans and company issued T-shirts. A polo shirt is their idea of dressing up. My life style is not flashy, no one invites me to “things.” I have no place to wear any of her dressy, expensive, and revealing clothes. Furthermore, I’d feel like a clown if I put a lot of makeup on, and I’m way too conservative to show off my chest and stomach the way Cassie does.
“Juliette, I have another thing tonight with Luke. He gave me two tickets to tomorrow’s football game. I’ve been deciding who to take. My brother’s in on tickets with some of his friends, and you would be a lot more fun than my dad. Let’s work on a makeover today, and then we’ll go to the game tomorrow.”
“Cassie, I know nothing about football. In high school and college all I ever did at football games were to socialize with my friends in the stands.”
“So, I’m no expert either. In high school, I was too busy cheering to bother watching the game. Look, I’m only going to watch Luke play. It’s simple, all we need to know is that his jersey number is 12, we don’t want him to get hurt, and we want his team to win. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get us into the platinum section and the Legacy Club. Our tickets are in the red section, which gives us access to the Champions Club and the semi-private stadium entrance.”
Thinking about whether or not this will work, I figure that this might be my only opportunity to go to a professional football game in the club section. There’s only one thing holding me back. “But my soccer game’s in the morning.”
“What time’s your game?”
“9:00 a.m.”
“Then it’s a done deal. The game doesn’t start until 1:00 p.m. Levi’s park is only fifteen minutes from here. We can leave at 11:30 and have plenty of time to park, tailgate, and make the first kick off.”
It hits me that we’re going to the football game, I jump up and cheer saying, “This will be so much fun, it’s my first time going to a professional football game!”
Cassie does a little dance too. “Com
e on, Juliette, your makeover is waiting. Put some makeup on and wear something decent so we can head over to Stanford shopping center and up your game.”
Chapter 26
We take Cassie’s car to Stanford Shopping Center. It’s a sparkly white Mercedes SLS GT Roadster—another remnant from her marriage to Cody. On the way, over I sync my Droid with her Bluetooth.
“Hey, how’d you do that?” Cassie asks.
“Really? This is about as low-tech as you can get. I’m just going to share some of my music. How can you even listen to that shit?”
“It’s dance music.”
“Cassie we’re not at a party.” I mention, after switching the music to my mix. “I’m totally into this artist. He’s local: Bradford Perry. Well sort of local, he’s out of Oakland. Listen to his amazing voice. His music runs right through me. Also, I’ve checked out his YouTube videos, he’s got this astonishing energy, not to mention he’s really hot.”
Playing my favorite music for Cassie makes for a fun twenty-minute drive to Stanford Shopping Center. Parking between Wilkes Bashford and Neiman Markus is the first sign that this makeover might be out of my league, since I’m a Banana Republic, Free People, Athleta kind of gal.
We walk into the posh Wilkes Bashford store. Cassie’s carrying an orange Hermes Birkin bag and wearing clothes that show off her body—high healed light brown leather boots, cream colored leggings, and a tight body-baring cream top that looks like it was sewn from strips of ribbon. Meanwhile, I’m wearing skinny jeans, black knee high riding boots, a girly T with a swirly tribal print, and carrying my orange Kate Spade purse. The sales associate takes one look at Cassie’s Birkin bag and starts fluttering. Cassie pulls a pricey designer top off of a rack and holds it up to my face.
“I’m not sure if this is the right color for you.” She hands it to me.
Looking at the price tag, I lose my breath: $950. This store is definitely out of my league. I don’t spend that much for an entire season of clothes. No way I’m going to buy anything here. But Cassie is into it, so I’m playing along. Anyway, it’s fun. Cassie takes back the shirt she originally handed me, replaces it with a selection of other items.
