Meet Me in Silicon Valley

by Anita Claire

  She points to the dressing room and says, “Let’s see if any of these work.”

  Scurrying into the dressing room and changing into the first outfit she hands me, I’m not wanting to leave since this outfit is way too clingy, way too revealing, and way to expensive. Taking a deep, calming breath to remember that I’m playing along with this makeover idea, I remind myself to just have fun. Finally, I exit the dressing room to perform my best impression of a model on a catwalk.

  Cassie is standing in the dressing area in front of the three-way mirror with a couple more outfits.

  She watches me, shakes her head, and with a laugh, says, “It’s a good thing you didn’t go into modeling.” She holds up a dress. “What do you think of this outfit?”

  “Cassie, I have no place to wear clothes like that,and it’s definitely not my style.”

  She rolls her eyes and hands over a couple of things to try on. “Juliette, we’re creating a new style for you. When you have the clothes, you make a point of finding places to wear them. “

  It’s fun trying on these really expensive garments. Cassie joins in the fun, and also tries on some apparel. Of course, she looks marvelous in everything. Cassie gives up on me after I say no to every outfit. She has the sales clerk put a $3,000 outfit on hold for her.

  In a conspiratorial voice, she tells me, “I’m going to get Luke to buy that outfit for me.”

  With a smile, Cassie heads for the door. “Let’s check out Niemen’s.”

  We walk across the road, I spot the Free People store and say, “Please, let’s just see if there’s anything new.”

  Cassie whines. “Juliette, you’re just such a suburban mall shopper.”

  “Maybe because we are in a suburban mall.”

  All the fun hippie clothes make me feel lighter. I pull out a stretchy seamless long-sleeved top with a cutout pattern that costs $55 and say, “This is cute.”

  Cassie rolls her eyes. “You’re hopeless, that’s just so … suburban.” She puts the top back on the rack, takes me by the hand and says, “Let’s go to Sephora and get you looking better. Cassie easily corners one of the women who work at Sephora to give me a makeover. Typically, I only wear Neutrogena PF30 sunscreen, mascara, and a bit of eyeliner—only wearing lipgloss when I dress up. Cassie spends a lot of time choosing different products for me. She has the women contour my face, put foundation, blush, eye shadow and lipgloss on me. My face itches from everything on it. Cassie won’t let me look until they’re done. At the big reveal, I am shocked; I look so foolish. My eyes look like two big black holes, my lips are ridiculously red. Feeling like a clown, I smile and say, “Wow, this is some look.” The sales woman tries to sell me what she used. Since you can always use mascara that’s all I buy. Cassie buys a couple expensive lipsticks.

  As we walk through the mall Cassie drags me into Burberry where she buys a $500 pair of ballerina flats. She pulls out a black Visa credit card to pay.

  “Cassie that card doesn’t have a limit. How’d you get it?”

  With a flippant attitude, she replies, “Cody got it for me when we were married.”

  “You need to be real careful about using it. Cody is in no longer paying your bills.”

  She rolls her eyes. I’m not a complete idiot. I’m already working on it.”

  On the way out of the mall, we walk past Frette, the Italian linen store that sells $4,000 cashmere throws. Cassie says, “I just love their things. That’s where I get all my sheets and blankets.”

  Cassie better curb her spending, or get Luke paying her bills fast, because she is going to be in real trouble soon.

  Chapter 27

  In the early evening, Luke comes to the door to pick up Cassie. This time she isn’t even close to being ready. Answering the door, I invite him in, introduce myself again, and thank him warmly for tomorrow’s football tickets. He radiates arrogance, barely nods in response, and even seems annoyed that I’m here. As a good hostess, I ask Luke if he would like to have a seat. Then I offer something to drink. Pointing at the TV, I add, “You might want to watch something; it could be a while.”

  He sneers at my hospitality.

  He really seems to want me to leave. Luke might be rich and hot, but he’s also a total dick. Escaping to my room is my next best move, and I do just that. I’m real happy when Cassie is ready, and they both leave. Luke casts an unpleasant pall.

  Now I’m free to scrub all the remaining makeup off my face. Phew. I do that and apply the little bit of eyeliner and mascara that I’m normally comfortable with. About a half-an-hour later Hita, Isabelle, and Kelly show up. Our plan is to go out for Mexican food and then find a party.

  “Where’s Jennifer?” Isabelle questions. “I thought she was going to join?”

  Kelly smiles and lifts her eyebrows in a coy way. “Jennifer’s in Santa Cruz on a date.”

  “I thought she had broken up with the guy who had all the shoes?” Hita says.

  Kelly starts to laugh. “No, it’s Rocket—the guy that was all over her last weekend when we were dancing at Moe’s.”

  “The rough looking guy with all the tattoos?” I gasp.

  “That’s Rocket.” Kelly declares.

  “Rough looking guy with tattoos, that doesn’t sound like Jennifer’s type at all.” Hita comments.

  With a gleam in her eyes, Kelly says, “You don’t even know the half of it. You know how sweet, innocent. and vanilla Jennifer is? We all shake our heads yes. “Rocket is the polar opposite, he’s wild, kinky, and … really wild and really kinky.”

  “Are we talking about sex or something else?” Hita asks.

  “Is there anything other than sex that we possibly could be talking about?” Kelly states.

  “And you let our innocent Jennifer go out with wild Rocket?” I state in disbelief.

  Kelly puts her hands up in the air. “Hey, I’m not Jennifer’s mother. Furthermore, Rocket is all tatted and pierced, He doesn’t come off like an altar boy. She’s a big girl, she must know. And don’t forget our freshman year…. Jennifer’s not that innocent. Furthermore, Maybe she wants to try a wild one.”

  “So, what does wild Rocket see in prim Jennifer?” I incredulously ask.

  Kelly gives me a disbelieving look. “Really? I’m starting to think you’re more naïve than Jennifer. “

  “What? Why would a wild guy want to date a nice, sweet girl?” I ask.

  “Maybe he has a teacher fantasy. Jennifer has that cute teacher vibe thing going.” Hita adds.

  “I think he just likes to chase pretty tail. Once the fun stops, he’ll move on.” Kelly declares.

  Jennifer is the craftiest person I know. “Well, it won’t last long for him to move on once the glue gun comes out and she starts stamping everything.” I laugh.

  “Kelly starts to really laugh. “I wish I was there to see her face when he brings out his ampallang.”

  “What’s an ampallang?” Isabelle asks.

  Now Kelly is really laughing. “The piercing through his dick.”

  Isabelle, Hita, and I gasp at the same time. Then, in chorus we chime, “He pierced his dick? Why would someone do that? That would hurt. How do you know?”

  Still laughing, Kelly says, “I only slept with him once. He says it makes sex better. I was rather drunk at the time, but I’ll tell you, he can really hit the G spot. Or the ampallang can. Whatever.”

  I’m horrified and fascinated at the same time. Using her iPhone, Hita has now brought up genital piercings on Wikipedia. She scrolls through the page and clicks on “ampallang.” A picture of a penis with a piercing that penetrates horizontally through the tip comes up. She shows it around to a round of gasps and ewes.

  “How would he keep it clean, wouldn’t you think it would be prone to infection?” Hita questions.

  “Could you imagine having to go to the doctor because your penis piercing got infected?” I add.

  “I hope this guy isn’t into too kinky shit. Jennifer might need an intervention.” Hita cont
inues

  “Or maybe Jennifer has been holding back. She might be interested in taking a walk on the darker side of sex.” Kelly brings up.

  Hita, Isabelle, and I give each other a wide-eyed look.

  Kelly declares. “We’re at the age where we should be sleeping with hot guys and trying something kinky. Once we get old, married, and have kids we’ll be too busy working and parenting to be interested in sex, let alone kinky sex.”

  The thought of wild guys and kinky sex scares me. Even so, it annoys me that Kelly thinks I’m so vanilla. “So how do you know I haven’t been having hot, kinky sex?” I defiantly exclaim.

  Kelly smirks and rolls her eyes. “Really, I know all the guys you’ve gone out with. Stephan was the wildest, and there is no way that guy was into anything kinky. I bet his favorite position was missionary.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Juliette, that guy had a rod stuck so far up his ass, he couldn’t bend over.” Kelly responds

  How did everyone else see all these things in Stephan that I never saw?

  Isabelle chimes in. “Kelly, now that you got Juliette all defensive, can we get some Mexican food, and then go to a party with boring engineers that will only want vanilla sex?”

  We walk over to a local Mexican restaurant. Every few minutes Isabelle shakes and says something along the lines of “piercing your dick, ewe.”

  At dinner, Hita checks her Twitter feed to see if anything of interest is going on. “Some friends of mine are having a party.”

  When we’re done with dinner, we get in Isabelle’s car and head to the apartment of Hita’s friend.

  He lives in a typical three-bedroom apartment in a typical 1980’s apartment complex. It’s more of a get-to-gather, than a party. Of course, there are three times as many guys in the apartment. There’s no doubt that they’re all engineers. Most of them are wearing either Apple or Cisco T-shirts. There’s a Dance Dance Revolution machine in the dining room. Not the Wii version, but a full arcade version designed for two people.

  As we get closer to the dining room, we are blasted by the machine’s loud techno beat. A guy in a blue T-shirt is challenging everyone else to a game. Another guy in a white T steps up to the challenge. The techno sounds blast our ears as the arrows come screaming up the screen. The guys playing are shockingly good at it. Their feet move around the four arrows that match the screen at an alarmingly fast rate. At the end, Blue T wins, while both guys have a sheen of sweat on their brow. Blue T looks around the room for another challenger.

  Kelly, always the participant, jumps up and down screaming “Me, me, let me be next!”

  Blue T smiles and point to her.

  Kelly jumps up on the Dance Dance Revolution platform, rubs her hands together, and says to Blue T,” I’m ready whenever you are.”

  The techno beat grows, and the arrows start scrolling up the screen. Kelly concentrates on the screen, moving her legs in time to the arrows. The three of us cheer loudly. Unfortunately, Blue T easily beats her.

  She gets off the platform with a big smile. Her arms launch up in a wide V, her fists are clenched as she yells, “Yes!”

  “Kelly, you realize that you didn’t win.” Hita explains.

  “Yeah, but I got a personal best.” Kelly gloats.

  “You’ve played this before? I shockingly respond. This is all so surprising….

  With a lot of attitude, Kelly says, “Yes, Juliette, I have been to a game arcade before. Unlike the three of you, I’ve lived it up.”

  We all roll our eyes. Isabelle moves the group with a, “Let’s get a beer.”

  They have a keg in the kitchen, which has a big beer poster on the wall, the one with Cassie wearing a bikini.

  Pointing, I smile, and say, “I guess my roommate came with us after all”.

  Chapter 28

  My daily morning message check shows that, sure enough, Nate has left one for me: My skills take advantage of my dexterity and cardiac system.

  He’s on board with flirting, though my response is so quick that I forget to write something flirty or sexy. My roommate’s dating Luke Tomlinson. She scored us tickets to the football game. It’s the first time I have been to a professional football game. I can’t wait.

  Our soccer game goes smoothly, and I get to play defense with Isabelle again. After the match, I race home to get ready for my adventure with Cassie. When I enter our place, the music is blasting.

  Cassie is dancing around the living room. She’s wearing skin tight black leggings and a shimmery hot pink, formfitting, low-cut team T-shirt with 12 on both sides and “Tomlinson” in rhinestones on the back. Her eyes sparkle. “Since he’s my guy, I figure I should wear his name.” She yells over the racket.

  “Catch! I have a great gift for you.” She throws me a bag. Inside there is more team apparel. A baseball cap and a girly T-shirt both with their logo on it. The T-shirt has a deep V-neck and is made out of a cotton Lycra blend, so it too looks form fitting. “This is great. How much do I owe you?”

  “This, my friend, is a gift. You can buy the first round of drinks.”

  She then claps her hands. “Come on, shower, and get changed. I can’t wait to go to the game.”

  The weather report shows Santa Clara will have clear blue skies and the temperature will be 75˚. All excited I change into skinny jeans, boots with a 2 inch heel, and my new T, making sure to put on lots of sunscreen. My gift from Cassie is about two sizes smaller than I’d ever buy, making it very tight. It’s also much lower cut than I would ever wear, baring lots of skin. Since I work mostly with guys, I make a point of not showing any cleavage. But, what the hell, no one I know will see me at the game. As I stare at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I work Curls Rock through my hair.

  Cassie yells from the living room. “If I go home with Luke, will you drive my car back here?”

  Tipping my body so I’m half out of the bathroom, I yell back, “Well, in that case why don’t I drive?”

  Cassie moves to the hallway. She gasps, and gives me a horrified look, “In your grandmother’s car?”

  My grandmother’s ten-year-old Prius was a great deal. It had fewer than 20,000 miles and was in perfect shape. Just thinking about the image of Cassie getting out of that car makes me laugh. “Ok, I guess that means I get to drive your fancy sports car home.”

  On the way to the game, Highway 101 is surprisingly traffic free. The only backup is when we get off at Great America Parkway. After that ten-minute delay, we spot a sign and a separate lane for the “semi-private stadium entrance.” In no time, we’re parked. Cassie hands me a ticket. I lose my breath—$350! Yikes, I had no idea that one ticket could cost so much. I’m glad I thanked Luke, even though he’s a dick.

  We find our seats quickly. They’re superior, almost center field, and right behind the players bench.

  Cassie looks behind us to the big glass windows under the next level of the stadium and says, “Let’s check out the Champion Club.”

  Following her up the stadium stairs, I realize that—in public—Cassie doesn’t walk, she struts. Channeling her allure, I pull my shoulders back and place a smile on my face. We enter a large room with a tony feel. The space is broken up into several bars and seating areas. There’re so many large screen TVs broadcasting the pre-game show, it’s distracting. Cassie turns to me, flips her hair, and with a curl of her lip says, “Now, that drink.”

  There are a number of people in the clubhouse, mostly men. We both strut up to a bar. Cassie flashes her smile and pushes out her chest. Looking around, I realize she has captured everyone’s attention. Instantly a couple of guys start buzzing around her.

  A guy around thirty comes up to me, but stares at Cassie practically drooling. Without even giving me the courtesy of eye contact, he asks, “Your friend is gorgeous, will you introduce me to her?”

  What! No eye contact? No, hello, my name is…? I can’t believe this. Annoyed, I respond, “I’m not her pimp.” When I get pissed off I can be a
smart ass. Giving him the cold shoulder, I ask Cassie, “What do you want to drink?

  She smiles and waves the drink in her hand. “Lucky you, Juliette, my drink is all taken care of.”

  It amazes me how dumb guys are when they’re around Cassie. Realizing I’ll never make it all afternoon if I start drinking alcohol at noon, I order a $6 iced tea. With a slow sip of my drink, I watch the men around Cassie, swarm like flies to manure. At some point, Cassie and I walk around the club. There’re a lot of food options, other than stadium hot dogs. In the club section, they have waiter service at your seat. After debating, we decide to order some very expensive sushi.

  Cassie and I head to our seats. We watch our team enter the stadium. Cassie goes wild when they announce Luke.

  A guy sitting behind us says, “You sure are a big fan of Tomlinson’s.”

  She laughs and says to him “You have no idea.” She then gives me an elbow, and in a secret voice says, “Even more a fan of his post-game, game.”

  I think I vomit a little in my nose, but plow forward.

  When Luke gets to the bench, he looks up to where we’re sitting. As he spots Cassie, he smiles and points. She stands up and throws him a theatrical two-handed kiss. There’re no longer any doubts to anyone in the stadium who got us tickets.

  The guy on my left leans over to me. “You know Tomlinson?”

  Laughing I say, “I’ve only met him. But, obviously, my friend is dating him.”

  At some point, Cassie pokes me in the side, with a Hollywood smile she points and waves to the big monitor on the side of the stadium. Looking up, I see our faces—well mostly her face—on the monitor. Following her lead, I smile and wave to the camera. Going places with Cassie is truly a unique experience.