by Anita Claire
She stops running and looks at me. “No way, how do you know?”
“Kelly’s slept with him. Kelly told us he’s wild; coming from wild Kelly, that’s scary.”
She gives me a shocked look. “No way, why would a guy do that?”
“Yeah and Mr. Pierced Dick is dating our sweet Jennifer.”
“So you’re concerned for Jennifer, or do you just want gossip?”
As I run, I think, then answer, “I guess both.”
“I bet she just wants some privacy while she’s figuring it out. You know how we all are. If you tell one of us something, it’s the same as telling all of us.”
We run a little longer. Meredith breaks the silence. “Talking about our love lives, what’s going on with yours?”
“I don’t have a love life. I’m texting a guy in Minnesota, like that’ll go anywhere. And I’m saying hi to Abs Guy on a regular basis now. Yipee.” I add flatly.
“But what happens if it moves past hi?”
“Well then, … yippee again. And I guess I’ll want some privacy while I figure out what’s going on.”
Before we part, I ask Meredith, “By any chance, did Sam DVR the game on Sunday?”
“Yeah, most likely.”
“Do you think he could put it on a flash drive for me? I would really like to see what other people saw.”
“You mean you and Cassie on National TV.”
“Well, mostly Cassie, but yea.”
“Just look it up on YouTube”
“Well I’m not sure if they have all the shots and I’d like to see the shots in context.”
“OK, No problem, I’ll get back to you on that.”
On Thursday, Nate texts: Oh, she was working it. You were the one who was enjoying the game.
Wow, he picked up on that. Cassie is always working it. Maybe there’s more to Nate than just being a typical guy.
Game talk is getting old, I figure the I’d like to find out more, so I text. Your sister plays soccer. So, do you work out … thoroughly?
On Friday Nate texts back: Hockey is my weakness; I played in high school and college. These days I play in a local league.
My response is: Good choice, an indoor sport comes in handy when you live in long, cold, dark winters.
Chapter 32
Saturday morning after swim practice, as I walk out of the pool building, I see Zach and Kevin sitting on the decorative wall.
With a friendly wave and a smile I give them a ”hey.”
Kevin replies, “Hey, I saw you at the game last weekend.”
Stopping, I question “Did you actually see me at the game, or did you see me on the jumbotron or on TV?”
He laughs. “OK, let me clarify, I saw you on TV at the game.”
With a tip of my head and a half smile, I add, “That was rather wild. My roommate invited me. She bought us those T-shirts. She tends to attract a lot of attention. I’ve never been caught up in one of her media storms before.”
“So was it fun, all the attention that is?” Zach asks.
Now I have to think about that answer. “Getting great seats with access to the clubhouse was fun; going to the game was fun; having the country see me cheering at the game...?” Thinking of my answer, I shake my head, “that was not my style. I’m careful what I put on Facebook. I don’t blog. I prefer to keep a low profile. My privacy is important to me, so the media storm was kind of … strange.”
“How do you know the … blond? You seem to have a very different … style?” Zach asks.
“She’s been a friend of mine since kindergarten. We both moved back here at the same time and were looking for roommates. It’s funny, we’re very different, but when it’s just the two of us, we have a good time together.”
“You’re the first person I know who’s been on National TV.” Kevin fills in.
Thinking about being on national TV, I give a good-natured chuckle. “Yes, that was my fifteen minutes....”
A woman about our age, wearing sweats, joins our mini crowd. I vaguely remember seeing her in the locker room.
“Do you know Amanda?” Kevin says, as he simultaneously stands and lifts his swim bag to his shoulder.
Assuming that’s whom they’ve been waiting for, I turn. “No, Hi, I’m Juliette lane five at 6:00 a.m.”
She smiles, squints her eyes, and points. “The girl at the football game.”
Chuckling again, I add. “Wow, that was almost a week ago.”
She tilts her head at Zach and Kevin. “I watched it with these guys. When you and your friend were spotlighted, they flipped. A big discussion ensued as they wondered if that really was you. They said they’d just met you on Friday at the swim team happy hour.”
With a shake of my head, I say, “Another friend contacted me wondering if it really was me. I guess you don’t expect to see someone you know on TV.”
“It’s more than that. The camera man wouldn’t stop showing you and your friend,” she adds.
“I think it was much more Cassie than it was me, I was kind of in the corner of the pictures. Really I was cropped out of most of the pictures.”
Everyone is standing now.
“Well, it’s nice meeting you.” I turn to start walking back to my place. Realizing that they’re all walking with me, I find it’s strange. I mean, we’re all walking in the opposite direction from the parking lot. I turn to Amanda. “So, I haven’t seen you at the pool before.”
“Oh, I’m not a regular here; I typically swim at the Freemont pool at lunchtime. I only make it for the Saturday swim when breakfast is involved.”
We walk for about ten more paces as Amanda continues with “Hey, if you’re not doing anything now, why don’t you join us for breakfast? We’re heading over to the Crapevine.”
Amanda seems nice; my luck she’s Zach’s girlfriend. Now I need to make nice with her while I’m running hot for her boyfriend’s body. “Are you sure I’m not intruding?”
“No, having another girl there will be fun.”
“Well, then, sure that sounds like fun. I was just contemplating where I would get breakfast.”
“Do you live near here?” she asks.
“My roommate and I live in a condo just on the other side of Castro. It’s really convenient. I love living so close to downtown since it’s easy to walk to everything.”
We head through the park and down Castro. The entire time Amanda and I are talking. The guys just kind of follow along not saying much. At some point—I’m not paying attention because Amanda’s telling me an animated story—a strong hand grabs my upper arm and pulls me off to the right. The warmth of his hand sends a hot tingle through my body. Looking up there are a couple of kids on bicycles riding past real close on my left. Following the arm to Zach’s face, we both look directly in each other’s eyes (again). He lets go of my arm and maintains eye contact as he says, “They almost got you.”
“Thanks.” I wonder if he felt that tingle or if it was just me.
Looking at Amanda, I see it doesn’t seem to bother her that Zach was touching me. Is she Kevin’s girlfriend, or is she just a friend? Regardless, she’s nice and easy to talk to.
We get to the Crapevine, and luckily, the line isn’t too long. We each order breakfast and find a table for four.
Amanda sits down next to me with Zach sitting across from me.
As we wait for our food to be delivered Amanda asks, “Your roommate’s dating Luke Tomlinson, right?”
I nod. “Yes, that’s who got us the seats.”
“So what’s he like?” she gushes.
“Luke?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I’ve only sort of met him. But, frankly, I think he’s a bit of a dick.” The guys start laughing.
I cringe, realizing I just said that out loud. Here’s comes the backpedaling. “I feel guilty saying that since he paid for my football ticket. But…” Backpeddling even more, “Cassie seems to be happy with him.” Then I get really nervous about giving suc
h a strong negative opinion. Looking sincerely at Amanda, I plead, “Please don’t put that up anywhere. If he finds out that I think he’s a dick, I don’t think he’ll let her take me to any more games.”
Amanda laughs. “Don’t’ worry; I won’t post what you think about him. Can I tell everyone that I met you?”
“Sure … why would you want to post that you met me?”
“Well you’re almost famous. You and your friend made national news.”
“I guess.” Now that I’m thinking about, I give a small smile. “Better yet, if you have your phone we could take a group selfie.”
She pulls out her cell phone and snaps a picture of both of us. She posts it to Instagram with a caption, Breakfast with Juliette—the women spotlighted on TV at the football game.
“Hey, can you text that picture to me.” I recite off my phone number. Shaking my head, I laugh. “It’s funny to think that because my roommate is dating Luke Thomlinson, that makes me almost famous.”
“I think that makes you almost, almost famous.” Zach dryly comments.
“Yes, I agree, if Cassie is almost famous, then I am almost, almost famous.”
Amanda changes the subject by saying; “It sure is nice to have another girl at breakfast. Sometimes it’s just me with Kevin, Zach, Sean, and Austin.”
“Who’s Sean?”
“Breast stroke on our 400 IM relay.” Kevin fills in.
“So, what are you?”
“I’m back stroke.” he points to Zach. “He’s fly. Austin is the anchor—free. I finish.”
Both guys nod their heads.
“So, does Sean swim on our master’s team?” I ask wondering which guy he is in the morning.
“No, he swims over at Stanford; we play water polo with him.”
These guys look like water polo players. In college, we would watch water polo games just to check out the beautiful male bodies.
Amanda says. “I am so glad you joined us for breakfast. These guys are all quiet. When they’re all together they only discuss cars, sports, or the worst programming.”
“I guess with Austin working at Tesla, cars would be a big part of the conversation.” The guys nod in agreement. Looking at Amanda “You’re lucky they’re not gamers, or all you’d be hearing about is Minecraft or Call of Duty.”
She looks surprised. She probably never considered how bad it could get.
It’s probably best to change the subject. “What do you do?”
“Oh, I work in MarCom. I’m responsible for ordering and managing all our logoed clothes. A lot of my job has to do with ensuring that departments don’t create something unsanctioned with our logo.”
With a serious demeanor, I say, “Well, that’s a big job—keeping all your employees clothed and making sure your trademark isn’t misused. I’ve got to ask. I work high tech, why do they only order guys clothes? There’re never any women’s clothes.”
She sighs. “Because women don’t wear corporate apparel. If women are going to wear logoed clothes to work, then they’ll wear a guy style.”
Thinking about what she said I follow up with, “I guess that’s true. I’m not interested in wearing a uniform. If they made a cute top with my company’s logo on it, I would consider wearing it, though. But if I showed up at work and three other women were wearing the same top I wouldn’t want to wear it again. I guess women look at clothes differently than men.”
With a smug expression, she responds, “Precisely.”
“What do you do?” She now asks.
With a small smile, I say, “I’m an engineer, I develop analytical tools. It’s mostly programming and algorithms; currently I spend most of my day using MATLAB.”
She gives a negative shake of her head as she cringes. “My two least favorite subjects.”
With a knowing smile, I shoot Zach and Kevin a look, “I bet it’s not your two least favorite subjects.”
Zach smiles and says, “No, we’re both EE’s, Austin’s an ME, Sean’s Material Science.”
I nod and give a little wave of my hand. “EE and Comp Sci.” Looking at Zach, I say, “I might be a women, but I bet I would find programming talk interesting, or at the least I could bitch about operating systems, libraries, and languages with the best of them.”
Amanda listens to our conversation with a look of boredom. When she has an opportunity, she changes the subject “Really, I can’t believe your hair naturally dries like that?”
Laughing, I grab one of my long spring like curls, holding it out, it looks like a long shiny brown spring. “Those with straight hair want curly hair and those with curly hair want straight hair.”
Now that her hair has dried, it’s medium brown with lots of blond highlights. Knowing how much guys hate hair-talk, I change the subject. “One more question, if you don’t swim here, how do you know these guys?”
Zach looks away uncomfortably. Kevin kind of shifts in his seat and stares at Amanda then looks down while she stares back with an inscrutable look. Good, it’s not Zach and there’s definitely something undefined about her relationship with Kevin.
With a nervous smiles and a strain in her voice, she reluctantly admits, “I’ve been … friends with Kevin … and the other guys for a while.”
Figuring that it’s been friends with benefits for a while, I wonder if she’s in some non-functioning relationship like Caroline from work. A relationship where she wants more than the guy wants, or he keeps her around but really isn’t into her. Although, she did watch the football game with him and his friends, and he was waiting for her to go to breakfast. If we’re ever alone, I’m sure I’ll get the whole story.
On my way home, I check to see if Nate left me a message. Yes, he did.
What do you do for a living?
Let’s see if you get it on the first guess. I’ll give you a big hint: I live in Silicon Valley and work high tech.
Chapter 33
Before leaving for my soccer game on Sunday, I check to see if Nate left me a text. Sure enough: Some kind of computer job?
“That was vague, but close enough. I’m an Engineer at a high tech company.
After soccer, most of the women decide to go out for brunch. Isabelle and I join them. The soccer women are a rowdy group. We’re energized from all the endorphins that have kicked in after running around for the last hour, and from the euphoria of winning a difficult game. We take over Posh Bagels, consuming a lot of food as we laugh and joke.
Posh Bagels is only a few blocks from my place. Walking home with a smile on my face and happiness in my heart, I’m looking forward to a good, long, hot shower. I’ve taken off my cleats and shin guards, but I’m still wearing my knee high purple soccer socks, black baggy shorts, and purple number 14 oversized soccer jersey. My long curly hair is pulled back into a ponytail. With my old gray backpack haphazardly thrown over one shoulder, I enter the condo and walk into my own personal nightmare. Elizabeth Wilder—my high school nemesis—is sitting on Cassie’s living room couch. Of course, she is perfectly dressed and coiffed. Elizabeth is not pretty, and she doesn’t have a hot figure, but she never needed to be physically attractive to rule the roost. She was the meanest of the mean girls in school.
Elizabeth and I were actually friends in fourth grade. At the time, she was new to our school and we were in the same class. After befriending her, I took her under my wing, going out of my way to ease her transition to our school. I invited her to sit with my friends at lunch—introducing her to the other girls and inviting her to join us for play dates. She reciprocated by lobbying my parents to have them send me to the overnight camp she attended. Once I was at the camp, she made my life living hell by ostracizing me, along with the other girls. She told them that I was unpopular at school, and they shouldn’t be my friends. When one of the girl’s personal effects went missing, she passed a rumor that I was the one that stole them. This was only the beginning of her nasty behavior. I quickly learned it’s best to avoid her. During our sophomore year, the gu
y she liked liked me instead. That’s when I learned that summer camp was just a prelude to her nastiness. When Cassie moved from ugly duckling to beautiful swan, Elizabeth welcomed her warmly into the cool kid clique.
Taking a deep breath I remember my mother’s words about rising above the situation by being polite to even the nastiest of people. Also, there is no need to poke the beast.
Quickly, I try to control my horrified look with a fake smile and a breezy tone. “Elizabeth, I didn’t realize you were in town.”
She scornfully looks me up and down with disgust. “Yes, I was surprised that someone like Cassie would want to live with someone like you.” She sneers.
Giving myself an internal eye roll, I take a deep relaxing breath. “Well, off to the shower.” I say too brightly, as I maintain my fake smile.
While exiting the room, Cassie enters all dressed up. With her sparkly smile, she says, “Elizabeth and I are meeting some of the old gang for brunch, do you want to join us?”
I exhibit monumental control by not rolling my eyes. I’m sure I wouldn’t be any more welcome with her old crowd now, then I was in high school and having to eat a meal with those people would suck.
“Cassie, I’m off to the shower. How about you catch up with them and fill me in when you get back.” I chirp in my false friendly voice while racing into my room.
My shower is twice as long as normal since I need to rub the ickyness of Elizabeth Wild off my skin. Six years is a long time, I didn’t realize when moving in with Cassie that I’d be back dealing with the Elizabeth Wild’s of this world.
Chapter 34
Shooting my dad a text, I ask him if he’ll be home later so I can take a nap before going there. My dad would be a great sounding board for the project I’m now working on.
At my parent’s, my mom’s taking a nap while my dad’s sitting at the kitchen island working on his computer. With a quick kiss on his cheek, I grab some ice tea then sit down near him. We spend the next couple of hours talking about my project. My dad has me going into details on what I’m doing, what tools are being used, along with what the other guys are working on. He starts asking a series of questions. At first, they are really simple, but as his queries get deeper, I have no idea what the answers are, I start writing furiously. At one point I ask,”Why are you even even asking all this…?
