Forever Yours
©2025 Elder Road Books - Lynnwood WA
Chapter 16: Party
HENRY GOT HIS HAIRCUT, ate lunch at the mall, and drove his car through a car wash. He went home, showered, and dressed. He was ready for his date and it was only four in the afternoon.
He’d kept a few vital things from Lisa, like Open Cloak Design, but realized he hadn’t asked much about her except the color of her dress. They really had a surface-deep relationship.
The creation of androids, or humanoid robots, had come up in one of their expanded study sessions. Henry appreciated the subject but was not enthused. He detected that Lisa was slightly repelled by the concept.
He knew her as an intelligent woman who often had key points to offer to a conversation that enhanced their understanding of a subject. She was cute—as far as he could tell. Her baggy clothes never revealed much about her shape, but he considered her on the petite side with a pretty face.
But who was she? Where did she come from? What were her goals? What was her favorite food? Music? Did they actually have anything besides their classes in common?
He didn’t really need to know any of that for their date. It was just a formality—a favor for a friend—taking her to a dance so she didn’t get passed around to frat boys looking to get lucky. That was all. He could find out more about her while they were together.
He went into his private study. This room was a bonus in his opinion. It was as large as his bedroom, which was generously proportioned. He had his own computers set up next to a wall, but over the summer, he had added a reading corner and a desk for working on class projects and papers. His development computer was in this room rather than upstairs in the office. Just like his partners did, he connected to the company server via their virtual private network.
The Board of Directors—all four of them—had agreed that until they were full time, Henry’s development work on new patents should be considered independent work rather than work for hire. As a result, whatever he created would ultimately be acquired by the company for another $75,000 worth of shares. Of that, Don Harvey would continue to receive $3,750 for his work. Don had readily agreed.
Henry was still absorbed in the new data he’d received on the performance of his new optimization app. He couldn’t understand why he seemed to be getting more data than he had previously. He studied the data and finally ran a query on the number of devices represented. He was surprised to find three more than his own collection.
That was when the light turned on. His partners all connected directly to the server through the VPN. That was considered within the one degree of separation he had defined. He hurriedly checked to see if anyone connecting to the website had been “infected” by his app, but the website, even though served by the same server, was not considered a direct connection. That was encouraging. His app would not just continue to spread. It was contained.
Henry’s phone alarm sounded and he realized he had spent the entire afternoon in the study and it was time to go to Lisa’s party.
Henry texted Lisa when he arrived at the sorority house. “I’m coming up the walk. Do I need to announce myself to someone?”
“I’ll meet you at the door,” she sent back.
The door opened as he approached and a guy held it open for him.
“I’m here to meet Lisa Hartwell,” he said.
The doorman looked at him curiously and then at a stunning brunette just inside.
“Lisa? I mean, like, wow!”
“I hope that means you approve.” She gestured to her hair and dress. “It took forever.”
Her braces flashed when she spoke and Henry quickly adapted to the ‘new look’ Lisa.
“You look spectacular. I wasn’t expecting anything so elegant and lovely.”
He quickly re-evaluated his entire assessment of his classmate. She was obviously still shy, but once freed of the baggy casual clothes he’d always seen her in, she blossomed into a beauty.
“Um ... Thanks, I think. It’s not exactly my style. My mother bought it for me to attend a cousin’s wedding last year. I tried four-inch heels so we’d be more the same height, but I couldn’t stand them. Hope this is okay.”
She wore a pair of matching green pumps with about a two-inch heel.
“I think you’re perfect.”
“Don’t spread it too thick. I might need my image bolstered later,” she laughed.
She looped a hand through his arm and they walked in to the main room of the house. The party had already spread to the dining room and kitchen. Henry thought he heard some voices up the stairs. Lisa introduced Henry to those she met, but got them through to the refreshments.
“Would you mind opening a can of sparkling water for me?” she asked. “I don’t trust anything here not to have been tampered with.”
“This must really be stressful,” Henry said, opening a can of water for her and a pop for himself. “Whatever inspired you to pledge a sorority in the first place? It seems so unlike you.”
“My mother,” she sighed. “She was everything in college I’m definitely not. Sorority president, queen of the ball, society maven. But she turned around and married the biggest geek in the school. I was the result. She did her best to pressure me into joining the sorority. I guess I take after my father more.”
“He must be pretty cool to have a daughter like you.”
“God, Henry! Are you just a natural born flatterer?”
“I didn’t mean that as flattery,” he defended himself. “I personally think being queen of the geeks is superior to queen of the ball.”
“Queen of the Geeks. I like that. Considering I’m the only woman in our year in the program. Simon might contest the title of Queen, though,” Lisa laughed.
“He did kind of stake a claim to the word early on, didn’t he?”
“He loves it! I couldn’t invite him to the cotillion, though. He’d have been prettier than me.”
The benefit of holding hands at the party—Henry suddenly wondered when her hand had slid down his arm to rest in his—was that with a drink in the other hand, they didn’t have to shake hands with anyone; they just nodded and smiled.
“Tell me more about your family. I realized that I don’t really know much about you after we talked yesterday,” Henry said.
“Last summer, I got hold of my mother’s letters and diary from when she was in school here. She talks a big game about how great sorority life was, but she did some pretty nasty stuff before Dad latched on to her and straightened her out. And I mean got her straight, too. By the time she was a senior, she either needed to get married or live on the streets.”
“I’m sorry you found out about something like that. I hope it hasn’t destroyed your relationship,” Henry said.
“No. It wasn’t that great a relationship to start with. Now I know I need to deal with an adult who faced some of the same trials and temptations we all face. She’s more real now. I don’t want to talk any more about it.”
“Yeah. I understand. If you ever do want to talk, I’ll listen,” he said.
As they circulated around the party, they spent a little time dancing, but most people were more caught up in the football team’s homecoming victory earlier in the day. Henry had only been to one football game the previous fall. He and Carol had stayed for only half of it and then went to the car to make out.
There were obvious temptations for some around the party. Alcohol and weed were plentiful, even though Henry estimated most of the party attendees were underage, like he and Lisa were. Harder drugs were found in corners, usually with a boy convincing a girl to try something. Most of the guys had frat pins on their lapels and didn’t seem to be with any particular girl. Many of the girls were apparently unattached as well, and moved freely from boy to boy to boy—sometimes dancing and sometimes just trying to occupy the same space at the same time.
Henry had just led Lisa off the dance floor again to get fresh drinks when a large guy shouldered his way between them.
“Hi. I’m Brad and I’ll be your date tonight,” he said with a swagger as he faced Lisa. “What say we go find a room and celebrate the victory today. Did you see me sack their quarterback? It was listed as the play of the game.”
Henry tapped him on the shoulder and lightly pushed the huge linebacker aside.
“You’re dicking around with my girlfriend,” he said. “Fuck the hell off.”
“Oh, listen to you.” The alcohol on the guy’s breath was enough to make everyone in the room drunk. “Pretty woman like this deserves a real man. There’s a couple skanks here who’ll do anyone—even you. Now get lost.”
“I said, move aside,” Henry said. He gave a tug to Lisa’s hand and she spun to his side as if they were still dancing.
“You’ll regret that, punk.”
“Bite me.”
“Hey, Brad! Inverteds!” a guy shouted from a few feet away.
Brad spun on his heel and headed toward his friend waving a bottle of rum in the air. Henry immediately got Lisa on the other side of him and they moved to the refreshment table, leaving Brad to have rum, lime juice, and soda poured into his mouth.
“Hey, Lisa, are you okay?” a young woman asked as she came up to them at the table.
“Hi, Miss Susan. I’m fine. Uh ... Susan, this is my date, Henry Pascal. Henry, this is our sorority president, Susan Barkley.”
“Happy to meet you, Miss Barkley.”
“Let me introduce Eric Jones, president of Omega Rho,” Susan said about her date. Eric didn’t try to shake hands but bumped fists with Henry.
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