Chapter 86

The fall’s first snowfall rolled in just before Parents’ Weekend. It wasn’t so deep that it caused any problems but the roads were slick enough that the four-wheel drive became the vehicle of choice.

Phil’s parents came down early on Friday morning and met everyone for lunch at the house. They had been down to visit once previously but had stayed at a hotel and only got a brief tour of the house before guests to Phil’s party started to arrive. Both were impressed with the house and how it was kept.

“You need some more furniture,” David remarked when he looked in the almost barren room that once was the formal dining room. It was now used for studying and held only a single table in the middle of the room.

“We left it that way on purpose,” Hailey explained. “This is the study lounge. We don’t want any distractions and we don’t want anything that might be comfortable. We use the great room as our main common area. That’s where we play video games or cards or watch TV. The drawing room is used for the rare social engagement with people we don’t know well.”

“How are your classes going?” Beth inquired. She knew Hailey was worried that she hadn’t put enough effort into her freshman studies to succeed as a sophomore.

“It hasn’t been easy,” Hailey admitted. “It helps that Phil and Stacy had the courses last year and can answer most of my questions. I’m having a little difficulty with statistics. Katelyn is in that class with me so we’re slogging through. I’m worried I might get a B, though.”

Beth laughed heartily.

“I got in a B in statistics, too,” Beth admitted.

“You got a B in almost everything,” David added with a wink at his wife. “Don’t let her fool you, Hailey. Beth’s cumulative GPA was probably 3.2. Mine, on the other hand, was 3.8 so if you ever wonder who the smart one in the family is...”

He pointed to himself with both thumbs and grinned.

“This is coming from a man who once set his pants on fire,” Beth replied, hugging herself to her husband. She told the story in great detail, complete with hand gestures and eye rolls. The females laughed uproariously but Phil offered his father a helpless look. David gestured for him to follow him out to the study area and into the drawing room.

“What went on with you and that actress?” he asked pointedly. “You have me a little worried.”

Phil sat across from his father and filled him in on what had transpired over the past two months. David took it all in, nodding occasionally and frowning at other times.

“I can see why you took the steps you did,” he admitted when Phil finished. “You want to watch this sort of thing, Phil. You’ve seen how easy it can be to literally tear someone down. You have access to a lot of money and money can open up a lot of doors to information. That doesn’t make it the right thing to do. How much did you spend on this?”

“A couple of hundred to one of my friends,” Phil said. “I had to force him to take it. I didn’t tell him how I planned to use the things he gave me. I didn’t want him involved.”

“Jesus,” David replied, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you got someone’s medical records for a couple of hundred bucks. The new federal laws make it really hard to access that information.”

“Not if the college leaves it on an unsecure server,” Phil replied. “I put a trojan on a library computer that forwarded anything with our names to me. I wanted to know if anyone was making inquiries about one of us. I expanded it to include anything sent that had Courtney Hollings’ name. The college kept all the medical records from the incoming freshmen on an open computer in the medical center. The academic information came from an email her adviser sent to the dean from an unsecured connection. It had her grades to this point and a message that said just what the tabloids picked up.

“I was surprised to find any of that stuff. It never occurred to me that the college would be so negligent. I didn’t think a professor would send such sensitive information electronically. That is no different than Mom sending quarterly profit projections from a Hotmail account.”

“Here’s a newsflash, Son,” David said, leaning in conspiratorially. “People are stupid!”

Phil laughed at his father’s earnest expression.

“I just don’t want you to think that’s the way to handle every situation,” David said, turning serious. “I also don’t want you to think that it’s right to do this sort of thing without discussing it with ... older and wiser ... people. You can talk to me about things. Situations like this don’t have to exist in a vacuum. OK? That’s all I wanted to say. You have resources beyond money ... and be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking money makes you bulletproof. You might be able to buy your way out of legal consequences but all the money in the world won’t stop guilt.”

Phil nodded gravely.

“I’ve spent so much time where Tonya Stanton works that she probably wonders if I’m stalking her,” Phil said. “I thought this through. I mulled a lot of different ways this could play out. I thought about just letting things go. I considered having a talk with Courtney, laying things out to her. Then she put up that website. After that, well, I decided I couldn’t sit back and wait to see what came next.”

“I get it,” David agreed. “I’m glad you didn’t just react. Your mom and I didn’t know about the website. We started to get concerned when we heard about the movie guy we met in the park that day. She made some discreet inquiries on that. It was the Hollings girl who was feeding most of that to the media. I’m sure you suspected it but now you know. My biggest concern is that you might use something similar to deal with anyone who gives you trouble.”

“No,” Phil said, shaking his head firmly. “That’s not a consideration. I never would have taken this step now if I didn’t think it was necessary.”

“That’s all I wanted to know,” David said. “Why don’t you show me your apartment?”

The women were already clustered around the kitchen table, swapping stories and jokes. They looked up and went suspiciously silent when the two guys walked in.

“Think they were talking about us?” Phil asked in a mock whisper.

“Never,” David replied in the same tone. “These are paragons of virtue and discretion. They would never make fun of us behind our backs.”

That brought more laughter from the table but no guilty looks.

“This is really nice,” David said, looking around. “Do you want to run down with me to register at the hotel?”

“Sure,” Phil agreed.

“You can stay here,” Molly offered. “We made space upstairs for you.”

“That wasn’t necessary,” Beth said.

“Uh, Molly and I only use one room most of the time anyway,” Tiffany said, looking nervous. Phil’s parents’ acceptance meant more to her than her own father’s, she realized. “We’re, uh, we’re dating.”

“Oh, that’s sweet,” Beth replied with a smile. “I noticed how you two would look at each other during the summer. I wondered when you’d figure it out.”

“You’re OK with it?” Tiffany asked.

“We’re fine with it,” David confirmed. “I don’t mind staying here if we won’t be in your way.”

“Not at all,” Katelyn said. “We’re happy to have you. We have some revised drawings of what we’re going to do with the house next summer. We were thinking about expanding it but we think we can use the existing space to make apartments for all of us.”

“I’d like to see those,” David agreed. Katelyn disappeared and came back in with a set of artist’s renderings and architect’s drawings. She spread them out on the table.

“We’ve taken measurements in here and we want to keep everything similar in size,” Katelyn explained. “We’re planning to take some room from the study area and that’s about that. We have only a few interior walls that are load bearing. That’s going to let us move the second apartment to the front. When we’re done living here we’ll expand the bathroom slightly and sell the appliances. The living room will become the bedroom again and the bedroom will be a sitting room and a closet. We’re doing the same thing upstairs.”

“We thought about just doing it to half the upstairs but the contractor says we can do both at the same time for only a little more money,” Tiffany cut in. “We figured that it would be nice to have a guest apartment. You never know when we’ll collect another set of friends or when Beth will finally get fed up with you, David, and send you packing.”

“Ain’t happened yet, Little Girl,” David laughed.

“Don’t mean it won’t soon, though,” Beth countered. “What are you looking at cost-wise?”

“About $150,000,” Phil admitted. “But by re-appropriating the unused space we’ve accumulated it will make it easier to sell. The bedrooms upstairs are really too big as they’re set up.”

“Speak for yourself!” Molly giggled. “No, he’s right. Those girls of theirs must have been spoiled rotten. My bedroom is the size of this entire apartment. The bathrooms are the biggest in the house. My closet is the biggest, too. Phil’s entire apartment is the same size as my bedroom and it’s too much. The rooms upstairs have separate bathrooms, separate closets, separate everything. The only big change is in the downstairs bedroom. We’ll have to move the bathroom but we’ve got access to the plumbing through the coat closet so the contractor says it won’t be an issue. We’re going to keep the same type of décor as the rest of the house.”

“It might make a nice summer home if you all wind up in the city,” Beth suggested. “We might even consider renting that last apartment from you to use when we want a day or two away. We’re going to spend more time away from there, particularly next summer. I’m glad we’ve all got a chance to sit down together for a little while. Do you mind if we talk business for a few minutes?”

“Not at all,” Hailey said. Molly, Tiffany and Katelyn started to rise to make their way out.

“I would like all of you to stay,” Beth said. “I’ve been thinking about what we’re going to do next year. First of all, I think a 400-hour internship is too much. We’re dropping them down to 300 hours and paying an hourly wage for any further weeks. As most of you know or suspect, Hailey has been working for me for the past few weeks, just handling a few things for me as they crop up. That’s why she cut back her hours at the chem lab. I’m going to seek to rehire her as my assistant next summer. Phil is going to get the internship we offered to Hailey last year. First off, I don’t want to pay him. It would hurt his feelings if I made him work for minimum wage and secondly it will let me work him like a dog without losing money.

“I’m going to offer Tiffany and Katelyn spots with our accounting and marketing departments – providing your grades are acceptable. Again, we’ll decide if these are internships or straight summer jobs. Molly, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve ensured that you will have a spot with the Youth Orchestra again next summer if you want. They were really impressed with your talent and your temperament. You’re going to be offered a position with the adult orchestra during their summer session.”

“They contacted me last week,” Molly said. “I’m going to audition in late January.”

“And you didn’t tell us?” Hailey asked. She jumped up and hugged the startled redhead. “I knew it! You are so wonderful.”

“Congratulations,” Phil said with a smile. “You’re going to kick ass. You know, I was thinking about soundproofing that storage area upstairs for your practice room. That’s not going to change when we renovate. We can probably get that done in the next few weeks. We can add a drop ceiling and put in thick carpet. We can change out the door and double set the walls with soundproof insulation between them. That would save you having to drive into the music department during the winter and fighting for a room. What do you think?”

“That would be awesome!” Molly said. “I was thinking about asking how big a hassle it will be.”

“No hassle at all,” David offered. “I can probably get it done next week if you want.”

“David!” Beth said, glaring at him.

“Oh, haven’t gotten that far, I guess,” David answered, unfazed. “Uh, we’re going to stay in town for a week. I have some time I need to use and your mom needs to be away from the office for a few days. There is a process server who has become a nuisance.”

“You’re being sued?” Katelyn asked.

“I’m always being sued for something,” Beth said wearily. “That’s the American Way. If you can’t hack it, find someone to sue. This one claims patent infringement. He’s started to hang out at the deli down the street. It’s garbage and they’ll never win but he pissed me off by ambushing me at a social event. I’m going to make him look like an ass to the jerkoff who hired him. Then I’m going to have my attorneys crush them into tiny little pieces and watch them blow away with the breeze. Anyway, would it be an inconvenience for us to stay around for a few days?”

“Never,” Tiffany answered. “It’s a shame we don’t have the upstairs done. I’m sure you’d rather have an apartment.”

“We’ll be fine,” Beth assured her. “A room here is a lot nicer than a room at a hotel. Thank you for inviting us. I really enjoyed spending time with you last summer.”

“Us, too,” Molly said.

Having David and Beth in the house didn’t change much for the college students. The Parents’ Weekend festivities brought Bob’s parents down for a visit. Just as Phil had predicted, they took to Katelyn like she had been around forever.

Bob’s 15-year-old sister thought Katelyn was the greatest thing to come along since Post-It Notes. She latched onto Katelyn and the group – which also included Ted Billings, Stacy Thomas, Emma Thomas and Aaron Feldman and their parents – and enjoyed her weekend as much as her parents.

The group treated the Prohl family to a lunch before they headed back home on Sunday. They left to a round of hugs and pats on the backs. Bob grinned his thanks and gave Katelyn a warm kiss as he led them away.

Tiffany’s father joined them for Sunday lunch and Phil found him to be a remarkably charming man – if a little scatterbrained. Katelyn’s family did not attend the luncheon nor did Hailey’s mother. Molly’s cousins came out for the day and so did Ted’s family. Stacy and Emma’s parents had a prior engagement so they sent their regrets.

It was the first time the group had put on a full spread for people who weren’t college kids and it went well. That led to a discussion later that night.

“Why don’t we have Thanksgiving here this year?” Phil wondered. “That will let everyone be in one place. Tiffany can spend the holiday with her father and us. Molly can do the same thing. Do you think you can come back down in a few weeks?”

His parents exchanged shrugs and then nods.

“It makes perfect sense,” Beth agreed. “We’ll be the only ones out of town. We might even get Katelyn’s family to join us. Would you mind giving up your study area for a day or two? We can find a table large enough to fit everyone. It sounds like a good idea.”