Chapter 31

The three women emerged from the bedroom looking stunning.

Katelyn were a short, off-white cocktail dress that accentuated her height and her poise. Tiffany’s V-neck gown was gray and it produced far more cleavage than Phil thought she possessed. Hailey came out last, wearing a blue off-the-shoulder dress that hugged her curves and stopped at mid-thigh.

Beth wore a green dress that was slightly more conservative than Hailey’s but not much. Phil and David wore tuxedos – and neither looked comfortable.

“You four look beautiful,” David enthused. “Phil, we are the luckiest men in the world, I think.”

All four women blushed demurely.

“Hailey, darling, could we trouble you to use your car tonight?” Beth asked. “I don’t think showing up in a box truck is the message we want to send.”

“Of course we can,” Hailey said. Her Mercedes CLK550 convertible would fit in well beside Beth’s Cadillac CTS at the restaurant.

She let Phil drive and they followed David and Beth into the parking lot. Katelyn and Tiffany rode in the Cadillac’s spacious back seat. A valet opened the door for the females and took over parking the vehicles. The group boarded a glass elevator for the ascent to the 55^th floor.

“Oh, wow!” Katelyn said, looking out at the majesty of the city as they rose. The maitre d’ greeted Beth and David warmly and led the group to a table – much to the displeasure of several groups of people waiting at the bar. The Warners’ table wasn’t in the most prominent spot in the restaurant but it was still located where everyone could see that Barton’s powerful CEO spent a Saturday night there.

Beth waved at a couple of people who caught her attention but just laughed when Phil whispered “rock star” to her as they sat down.

Phil pulled out a chair for Hailey and Katelyn while David helped his wife and Tiffany.

The young women had done their best not to gawk at the opulence of the room. It was helped by the fact they were the youngest people there – and that Beth and David were probably in the running for next youngest. A quick glance showed a smattering of middle-aged couples – and a few middle-aged men with significantly younger women.

“What’s the old joke?” David asked as they sat down. “When your wife gets to 40 just trade her in for two 20s.”

Only Phil found his father humorous; the rest of the table just greeted him with dead-eyed stares.

“Definitely have to save my wit for a more appropriate setting,” David said, smiling at his son.

“Or not at all,” Beth said. “We’re in the land of equality. There is nothing to stop me from trading you in for a pair of Philip’s friends.”

“Except the extreme ‘Yuck!’ factor,” Phil replied. “I do not want to have to refer to one of my high school classmates as my stepdad.”

“Or one of your female classmates as your stepmother,” Hailey added.

“Depends on which ones and if Dad will share,” Phil replied. His attempt at levity got the same response as his father’s.

“Yes, Dear,” he said.

“Yes, Dear,” David echoed.

“Better,” Beth said. The group ordered an appetizer and their drinks before Beth excused herself and walked to the maitre d’. Phil was facing the room and saw a 40ish man and his decade-younger wife standing there looking extremely embarrassed. Beth returned a moment later with the pair in tow.

“David, you remember Joe Pepper and his wife Annette, don’t you?” she asked. David nodded and stood to shake hands with the newcomers. “You don’t mind if they join us, do you? There seems to be a mix up with their reservation.”

“Not at all,” David said magnanimously.

“Joe, Annette, this is our son, Philip,” Beth continued. As his father had done, Phil stood and shook hands. “This lovely young woman is his girlfriend, Hailey Warren. The beautiful young woman to my husband’s right is their dear friend, Tiffany Grayling, and this stunning young woman is their equally dear friend, Katelyn Gorman. They’re all students at Heilman and home for break.”

“Oh, wonderful,” Joe said, shaking hands all around. “It’s always good to meet the next generation of Heilman alums. We both graduated from there.”

“That should be our new motto,” Phil said. “‘We might not have the old-boys network like Harvard and Yale but we’ll share a table with you when we can!”

This attempt at humor went over much better than the last one.

“I have some of my fondest memories at Heilman,” Joe said, nodding wistfully. “I met my lovely bride there. I graduated from there in 1989 and Annette finished in 1992.”

Phil took a closer look at Annette Pepper. If she graduated in 1992 that made her the same age as his mother. As well as he thought Beth had aged, Annette Pepper looked 10 years her junior.

“Surely you mean in 2002?” Phil asked. He figured her to be in her late 20s.

“Oh, I like your son!” Annette said with a smile. “I’m afraid my husband is correct – although it is extremely impolite of him to reveal my age so gracelessly.”

“He probably didn’t want people to think he’d started to date you when you were nine,” Phil remarked.

The Peppers sat down and a conversation ensued about Heilman and how it had changed in the two decades since the Warners and Peppers had attended.

“You should know that all four of the young people at our table were on the dean’s list last semester,” Beth said proudly. “As you recall, that is not easy for any first-semester freshmen.”

“Impressive!” Annette offered. “I was nowhere close to the dean’s list my first year.”

“Me, either,” Joe added. “I barely had my GPA up in time to join the Beta Club my junior year.”

“Hailey was the freshman representative to the Beta Club,” Phil told the newcomers when it became apparent Hailey didn’t plan to mention it.

“Wow!” Joe said. “That’s a huge honor. The guy who was elected from my class is now on the state superior court. Congratulations!”

“Thank you,” Hailey said. She started to explain how she had sabotaged Phil in order to secure her election but Phil squeezed her hand beneath the table. “I would say everyone at the table will be nominated for the sophomore class and I wouldn’t be surprised if Katelyn or Phil isn’t president by their junior year.”

“I would think you would have the inside track for that,” David said. He had not been invited to the prestigious social club but he knew of it.

“She does,” Phil told them. “She’s just being gracious.”

The conversation continued until the salads arrived then resumed shortly thereafter.

“Are you all studying business?” Annette wondered.

“I’m in political science,” Katelyn answered.

“Ah, a woman after my own heart,” Joe replied. “How is that going for you?”

“If it continues as it has for the first year, I’ll probably change my major,” Katelyn said. “It’s the typical spoon-fed academic agenda designed to convince students not to think for themselves. It wasn’t what I signed on for. I expected an introduction to the workings of our political system. I didn’t agree to a heaping helping of the pabulum that’s going to cause the downfall of America. The professors want a generation of people willing to accept the status quo – and who accept their teachers as infallible. They want indoctrination instead of education and I’m not willing to go along with it.”

Joe Pepper had looked thoughtful as Katelyn began her oratory but beamed when she finished.

“Outstanding!” he said. “We need more people like you in the liberal arts. Right now the people who graduate with political science degrees either want to make a ton of money as attorneys in the private sector or fall right in line with the ideologues that have mentored them. The days of having students rise in protest of injustice are dead and I’m sad to say it’s my generation who’s killed it. It’s nice to meet a young person with opinions of her own – and the conviction to express them.”

The eight people shared an enjoyable dinner and were preparing to leave when a gray haired woman stopped at the table and put her hand on Joe’s shoulder.

“Madame Mayor!” Joe said as he turned around to see who had arrived.

“Joe, Annette,” the older woman said. A distinguished looking gentleman stood with her. “It’s nice to see you. How did you wangle a dining invitation with the Warner family? I’ve been trying for months and we can never work it out.”

“It’s like Philip said – oh, that’s Philip there – he’s Beth and David’s son,” Annette answered for her husband. “We’re all Heilman alums or students. We might not be Harvard or Yale but we’ll always make room for a fellow Highlander at our table.”

The woman nodded as three of the four teenagers looked awestruck. Mayor Melissa Hopkins was one of the most powerful women in America – and a shoo-in to be elected to the U.S. Senate in three years.