Variation on a Theme, Book 7
Copyright© 2026 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 33: Reflexion
Thursday, September 25, 1986
The Operations Management exam wasn’t overly difficult. Or, at least, it wasn’t for us, but we’d spent enough time studying that it shouldn’t have been overly difficult. Some people looked considerably more upset with it than we were.
Besides that, things were pretty much calm. We talked with Lynn and Kip before Democratic Theory, and very briefly with Peter and Susanne after class, but none of it was all that meaningful, except in the way slowly growing friendships are meaningful. Things grow bit by bit, and we had time to do just that.
Or, at least, I thought we did. Lynn’s wedding hadn’t been until my senior year, I was nearly certain. I’d known her quite a while before there was a wedding under discussion, and it had been a while between that and the actual wedding. It might have even been a bit after graduation, though I couldn’t be certain.
If that was the timetable, we had months to build a friendship. If it wasn’t, we needed to move faster. For the moment, at least, there was no way to know.
After class, I headed home and changed quickly. After giving Lexi a quick call, telling her I was hitting the road, I kissed Jas, Amy, and Paige goodbye, hugged everyone else, and took off for Austin.
A bit over two hours later, I made it to the Hilton. I didn’t see Lexi in the lobby, so I checked in and put my bag in my room. It turned out to be less grand than the suites we’d stayed in for the celebration, but still a definite upgrade. If I took Lexi up here, she would likely be impressed.
I called Jas from the room and let her know I’d arrived safely and was heading downstairs to meet Lexi. She teased me a bit about settling in with Amy for ‘recreational activities’ in a few hours. I wished both of them a very pleasant evening.
I headed downstairs after that. Lexi was sitting in one of the lobby armchairs. She had her hair in the usual ponytail and was wearing a green blouse and khaki skirt that showed off her legs, with low heels that matched the blouse. She was, in other words, highly attractive, and was also clearly dressed for a date.
As I headed over, she spotted me and stood up, calling, “Steve!”
“Lexi!” I replied, hugging her and picking her up just an inch or two.
She giggled and hugged me right back. “I’ve missed you!”
“I’ve missed you, too!”
She kissed me quickly, giggling again as I put her back down.
“I hope I didn’t make you wait,” I said. “I went ahead and put my bag in my room.”
“Nah!” she said. “I just got here about five minutes ago.”
“Hungry?”
“I could eat!” she said. “I still keep pretty busy. Gotta burn off those calories!”
“Yeah,” I said. “Our campus is huge, but I also do martial arts and just keep busy in general. Any dinner suggestions? I’m up for most anything.”
“There’s a Chelsea Street Pub in the mall. Nothing fancy, but it’s cool, and ... I dunno. It just feels like a college date place. For that matter, like somewhere we could’ve gone way back when.”
“Sounds good!”
“Should we just walk? It’s not that far, and it’ll burn off a little of the meal,” she said.
“I’m not the one wearing heels.”
She grinned and lifted a foot, wiggling it. “These are easy!”
“Lead on!”
Her hand found mine before we were even out of the lobby.
We talked as we walked across the parking lot of the Hilton, crossed the street, then walked across the mall’s much larger lot. In that time, I found out that Lexi was between boyfriends, after having three while at UT. Only one girlfriend since Memorial, and that had been much more of a ‘fuck-buddy’ thing. From the way Lexi put it, I suspected they weren’t done. But she said it had always been non-exclusive, and I trusted Lexi on the point. She knew the rules, and she knew how upset both Jas and I would be if she crossed any lines.
In turn, I told her a bit about Amy. It was clear she already knew about Amy, but not some of the details. As with Jas yesterday, Lexi wouldn’t know the terms I might use to describe Amy, but I could describe her as ‘unusual’ and use Wednesday Addams as a crutch. She’d heard about the speech patterns, and was interested to know it went deeper than tone and phrasing.
As we walked, I could see this area decades later, the Hilton turned into a DoubleTree (after spending years as a Holiday Inn, which amused me) and the mall turned into an Austin Community College campus. I had shopped here only a few times, once with Mom and Dad and a handful of times with my ex-wife, and occasionally with my kids.
This was the 80s, still the heyday of malls, and Highland was going strong. We walked in, passing a pet store and looking around the atrium. Lexi led me down through a few turns, and shortly we were being seated at the Chelsea Street Pub. It reminded me of TGI Fridays and a few other chains that had aged better. The crowd was disproportionately young, likely college students and professionals. We fit right in.
Lexi said, “Tell me about this trip of yours!”
I chuckled a bit and said, “So ... this is still ... well, it’s not top secret, but it’s kinda ... quiet.”
“Got it!” she said, grinning. “I’ll zip my lips. Not literally! I expect kisses.”
“Kisses are good,” I said, grinning back.
“Very!”
“Anyway, we wound up investing in an Austin business a couple of years ago. It’s doing well, but there are always issues. One of those issues is big enough they’re having a retreat in California to get some people together and hash things out. Since I’m both an outsider and an insider, they wanted me to go along, so here I am.”
“Very cool!” she said. “Practical stuff in your major!”
“I know, right?”
“Dunno if you know, but I’ve wound up majoring in psychology. Surprised me, so I imagine it surprised everyone else. I just ... well, in a way, you helped. Looking back at where my head was, and how much better I felt once I got my thoughts figured out, I thought, ‘Maybe I can do that for other people!’ Not your way — pretty sure that violates professional ethics! — but still.”
I’m sure I was at least a trifle red. “That sounds really good. I hope it works for you.”
“Thanks!” she said. She giggled and added, “Me, too!”
The waiter showed up, which reminded us that we should have been looking at the menu. Lexi wanted a margarita, and I joined her in ordering one. One drink each wouldn’t impair us or make consent an issue, so why not? Not something pesky like our both being underage, that’s for sure!
After ordering drinks, we browsed the menu. I settled on a patty melt, while she opted for a chef salad.
“The salads are huge!” she said. “I’ll never make it through the whole thing.”
“Is that required?” I said, grinning.
“No! Fortunately!” she said.
“Anyway, where was I? Oh! Psychology. It’s pretty fascinating stuff. We — people, I mean — are so complicated! I don’t know what I want to specialize in, but there’s time to figure that out. You pretty much need a Master’s Degree, at least, if you want to get into counseling. A PhD is better. Oh, there’s plenty you can do just to get a job, but I’m better than that.”
“You definitely are.”
She smiled and said, “It took me a while to figure that out. I always knew Dani was smart, and ... I mean, yeah, I had decent grades when I wasn’t crashing out because of drama. Which, if you remember, was half the time before high school.”
“I remember,” I said, smiling.
“Just not crashing out only gets you so far. Missing National Merit sucked, but it actually helped, maybe. I mean, I was close! I kicked ass on the SAT and got a solid scholarship at a great university.”
“Which itself is kinda what you’re saying. You took what could have been a downer and turned it into motivation.”
“Yes! I’d love to help other people to do that! Maybe it was also Connie. It’s not like I wasn’t fairly certain of psychology before her speech, but that whole focus on making things better was ... well, this is that, maybe,” she said.
“I’ll pass that along to Connie. We’re still in regular touch.”
“How’s she doing?”
“Great! Kicking ass at Yale, and she and Jimmy Barnes are getting married next summer,” I said.
“Cool! The wedding bug is biting a lot of people. Not me, not yet, but I’m certainly hopeful.”
“You should be. You’re definitely a catch.”
“I am, and I know it. If I need a pep talk, I’ll call. You, Jas, Angie, Paige — all of the above,” she said, grinning.
The waiter returned with our margaritas and took our orders. Once he left, I raised my glass and said, “To absent friends, and to friendships renewed.”
“Yes!” she said, clinking glasses with me.
We both took a sip, and she said, “Ooh! That’s good! A bit heavy on the tequila, I think.”
“It’s good,” I said, nodding. “And ... might be.”
“Just in case it matters,” she said, batting her eyelashes, “I’m not drunk yet, and it’s ‘yes.’”
I chuckled and nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Do that!”
We both knew I wouldn’t proceed if she couldn’t say ‘yes’ later, too. But it mattered that we were at ‘yes’ now. It would make it clear the alcohol hadn’t changed an answer.
She updated me some on Linda. She’d been dating Todd Stafford for almost a year now, and was pretty sure they were a good match. Linda was, per Lexi, just slightly bummed that she wouldn’t get to catch up with me ‘that way.’ That might well have been teasing, though.
We traded stories about classes, professors, friends, and the like, both before and after our dinners arrived. It felt like she had a busy life, and a happy one.
As we were finishing dinner, she said, “So ... Darla. I imagine that was a surprise!”
“I can neither confirm nor deny...”
She giggled. “Something I appreciate about you! I have my sources. Chasing her through a hotel? Naughty!”
I chuckled and said, “I ... can neither confirm nor deny.”
“I’ve also heard you and Angie introduced her to a great guy.”
“More Angie than me. She’s the expert.”
“You nailed Sheila and Amit,” she said.
“I have never ‘nailed’ Amit!”
She giggled. “Oops! Bad phrasing! Only Sheila! But you paired them well.”
“It seems like it.”
“I’ll be at the wedding, and so will you, I think. So ... yes,” she said.
“And, hopefully, you and they will be at ours.”
“Yours will be national news!”
“I kinda hope not. Just because the proposals were...” I said.
“I won’t put it past you, anyway.”
“The way things are going, I wouldn’t, either.”
We declined dessert, with Lexi joking about ‘perhaps having some later.’ I paid the check, and we walked back. Her hand found mine again, and we walked through the mall, talking.
As we headed outside, she said, “You know ... we all thought Jasmine was just a bit crazy when she went out with you. I mean ... no offense. You were cute and smart and all of that. But ... you know ... boring. Straight guy, debater, nerd ... all that.”
“I might have heard that before,” I said, chuckling.
“I probably said it! Dunno. Anyway, we’re all really glad she took Angie’s suggestion.”
“Starting with me!”
She giggled and nodded. “Either you or Jasmine has to count as the biggest winner, with the other in second place. But we all win.”
“Back to Connie’s thing. That’s the best — things where we all win.”
“You know ... I kinda wonder about that. Like ... let’s say you or Jas decided against it. No offer, or no date. Jasmine would be with someone, I bet. So would you. Are those people the losers?”
“Maybe?” I said. “But maybe they’re with each other, and maybe that’s a better match for them than we would have been.”
“That’s interesting. Maybe true!”
“This comes up a lot. Meaning, just ... pondering it. For instance, there’s so much luck in rounds. A different judge assignment, and we lose a round instead of winning it. Or we get a few more speaker points — or a few less — and it changes who we hit in elims. A little change like that at Nationals and someone else wins. Is their life better? Is ours worse?”
“Also interesting. And ... see ... I can actually apply that to counseling someone. Like, if I had a patient who was depressed after a close loss or something. The whole ‘No matter how much practice you have, luck can factor into your results’ thing,” she said.
“Cool! That’s an interesting idea. I don’t know if there’s ... hrm,” I said.
“What? What are you thinking?”
“I was going to say, I don’t know if there are enough ‘high achievers’ to build a practice around. But it’s an interesting niche, especially if you cover things like Impostor Syndrome.”
“Well, hell, you would have to cover that!” Lexi said. “Looking back on it, I think most of us had that to some extent.”
“Makes sense. If there’s a hotbed of Impostor Syndrome, it’s probably places like Memorial.”
She nodded quickly. “It would be cool to help people through that.”
“I think so, too.”
We reached the Hilton.
“Before you ask, I will,” she said. “Shall we head up to your room and ... talk ... a bit more?”
“I would like that,” I said, squeezing her hand.
“Good! Because that answer is still ‘yes.’ Rather emphatically, too!”
I smiled, squeezed her hand again, and headed to the elevator. Once we got in, and I pressed the button for the top floor, Lexi said, “Ooh! Someone’s a big shot!”
“Before you see the room, just remember that I didn’t book it. Nor am I paying for it. You can thank Victoria, the big boss’s secretary.”
“We’re not just talking, right?”
“You said you were emphatic,” I said. “So ... I wouldn’t think so.”
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