Chapter 104: Inflection Point

Saturday, April 2, 1983 (continued)

Angie and I chatted in the car on the way back, of course. I hadn’t planned on mentioning our living situation to Jane, but she (correctly) reasoned that there might not be enough time for Jane to make anything happen if we’d waited.

When we got home, we both changed into slightly nicer dating clothes. I could tell that Mom was just a bit ... um ... amused? curious? ... about Angie’s change. I’m not sure what the rules were for girls dating girls, and if I didn’t know, Mom certainly wouldn’t.

It occurred to me after a bit that Mom might, perhaps, also have been wondering if some previous outfits hadn’t been intended for a boy. That was, of course, correct, but I doubted Angie had owned up to it. It was an interesting line of thought, at least.

Our plan tonight was for me to borrow Angie’s car and Angie to borrow Mom’s. Mom’s back seat was too small, but that wasn’t a problem — Jas would take care of access to a bedroom. I could’ve done the same, but it felt awkward for me to ask my girlfriend to help with a place to fool around with my date. Plus, as awkward as it would feel for me, I imagined it would feel very awkward for Linda. Linda’s house was completely out, of course.

Borrowing Angie’s car (as nice as it was) had gotten old for both of us. By this point, I was getting annoyed waiting for the insurance people to get their act together. I’d started browsing likely replacement cars, and there were some good ones out there, but they’d go away if I didn’t get the settlement soon.

I headed off to the mall wearing a forest green button-down shirt, black slacks, and loafers. We’d decided to meet at the mall because of the risk of parents getting involved otherwise. Oh, I’d dropped her off a few times, but there was always the risk of being invited in.

And ... if Linda’s parents invited me in (which would certainly have been reasonable) I wouldn’t lie about my situation (though I wouldn’t put it front and center, either). I didn’t know if they knew I was dating Jas, but I had to assume they did. I wasn’t exactly keeping it a secret, after all.

That could put Linda in an awkward position. I’d be fine. I didn’t have to live with them; she did.

She’d considered riding her bike to the mall, then riding it back, or having me drive it near her house, but ultimately rejected that. Instead, she planned to catch a ride with another cheerleader to the mall, then leave with me, and I’d drop her off at her home.

We met just inside the doors near the food court. She’d worn a pink blouse and a knee-length black skirt. She moved to hug me, and I hugged right back.

“Good to see you!” she said.

“Good to see you, too!” I said.

“So ... plans?”

“Dinner and ‘we’ll see?’ sound good?”

“That sounds very good,” she said. “Lead on, Sir!”

I offered my arm, she took it, and we headed off to Angie’s car. I helped her in, then got us on the road.

“It’s similar to a topic from last night, but ... not the food court?”

I chuckled. “I’ve done that on many a date, and it’s fine, but I felt like we could do a bit better.”

“You haven’t disappointed yet.”

“So, how was your school holiday?”

She chuckled. “I slept late! Then I caught up some on homework. Then I read a bit, and talked much too much on the phone. They got me my own line two years ago because I was almost never not using it.”

“Girls do talk.”

“We do! I think it’s even worse among cheerleaders. None of us are the quiet, shy, anti-social type. Oh, it varies how social each of us are, but we’re all ... you know ... gossipy. I think it’s because we get gossiped about so much, the best thing to do is stay in the loop.”

“Makes sense to me.”

“I talked to The Boss a bit. She said that, of all the guys she knows, you understand the gossip culture the best, including the limits of how much boys can know.”

I nodded. “Probably. I learned a bunch from Angie — no state secrets, but she gave me some of the outline — and then more from watching Jess navigate the gossip currents while we were dating.”

“I watched that from afar. Well... everyone watched that! It was the best show at Memorial. No one expected her to ask you to Sadie Hawkins — that was a stroke of genius, though, and I mean, I knew it was then, before I’d met you at all. You checked all the right boxes except sports — handsome, good manners, charming, smart, all that — and it’d be a change of pace for her, which is always good. But then you turned her down! You have no idea how much phone time was spent on that!”

“I have some guesses.”

“Whatever they were, they’re too low! Anyway, I mean, you know all that, obviously, but ... it’s more ... you fit right in, doing the right things to help her control the story and come out smelling like a rose. Angie taught you well.”

“And so did Jess.”

“Sure, but you didn’t screw it up before she could start teaching you. That was pretty much a green light for the rest of us. If you can handle the spotlight with Jess, our reputations are safe. It’s just that I’m the only one so far. But mostly that’s because you’re so busy! I am, too, but it’s hard to see that from the outside. How much work could Debate be, right?” she said, giggling. “And then I took it and ... okay! It’s a ton of work! I’d say that, if you were a slacker, you’d have dated a bunch of us, but then if you were a slacker Jessica never would’ve asked you out. That’s one reason none of us are slackers. If The Boss can just keep going, we can just keep going, too. She’s superhuman, but we all want to follow her example.”

“She probably wouldn’t like being called superhuman.”

“I know!” she said, giggling some more. “And I know she’s really not. And I mean, on looks we’re going to disagree. She just is, there. Period, end of subject! But the rest ... we can all do that. She’s just really disciplined. But there’s a reason she’s The Boss and none of us have any interest in challenging that. It’s not because she’d take revenge or anything, it’s just ... she’s the best at what she does.”

I nodded. “I can definitely see that.”

“So, enough about that. It’s a Saturday and we’re heading away from Memorial, so I probably won’t draw gossip about wherever we go.”

“Hopefully not, though I’m not planning a big journey away from our part of town.”

She nodded. “Unnecessary. Everyone who matters knows we’re going out.”

“And?”

“There’s a lot of curiosity. The ‘open relationship’ thing is new. Guys date, or ... um... ‘date,’ for some of them ... cheerleaders when they can. I mean, even if they have a girlfriend. That happens. We’re used to that. It’s unusual for the girlfriend to know and approve and be a friend. Not bad — I can handle it just fine — but unusual. Jasmine is a really cool person, and I like her a lot.”

“I doubt we’ll set a trend. Jealousy is pretty much natural. I don’t seem to have much of it, and neither does Jasmine, but most people do. Trying to just have an open relationship without planning it out and understanding where the issues are would probably be a disaster.”

“Honestly, there are some girls who are expecting a knock-down, drag-out, things-flying-through-the-halls fight at some point with one or both of you going nuts with jealousy. That’s despite the fact that you’ve been at this for more than a year and even Jessica didn’t bring you down.”

Though she could have, I thought to myself. Fortunately not, and it wouldn’t have been Jessica’s fault, but ... still.

Aloud, I said, “Yeah. I don’t think we’d do that. If it happens, I don’t expect to be throwing things back.”

She giggled. “No ... I can’t imagine you doing that.”

I pulled up to a Red Lobster — the same one I’d been to a few times before.

She grinned. “Good choice! I like seafood. I’d say ‘But, then, who doesn’t?’ except, say, Shelly Meers is deathly allergic to shrimp. I mean, seriously. She got one by accident in junior high and they had to call the paramedics.”

“That’s not something to mess around with,” I said. “Some of those can be really bad.”

“Yeah. I’ve never had a problem. She’s the only one I know who’s that bad.”

I parked and we headed in. While they were busier than I’d expected, we only waited a few minutes for a table. Our waitress appeared shortly and took our drink orders (Diet Coke for both of us).

She grinned after the waitress left. “So ... there’s an old saying. One about lobster implying sex. As in, ‘Well, he did buy me lobster... ’”

“So that’s what Jess was hinting at with her jokes about lobster dinners,” I said, chuckling.

“I know she’s immune to that ploy! If she wasn’t, she’d be ahead of Vickie Quinn. Way ahead!” Linda said, grinning.

“It’s funny, and there’s probably a kernel of truth in it, but we’re actually treading near an old joke.” Even by my standards, it’s still an old joke.

“I’m nervous, but ... tell!”

I was interrupted by our waitress’ return. She gave us our drinks and took our orders (fish for Linda, shrimp for me, crab cakes to share).

“You were saying?”

“So...” I said. “This joke has been attributed to Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, Groucho Marx, and others. I’m pretty sure it didn’t originate with any of them, anyway.”

She nodded. “Got it.”

“A man asks a woman, ‘Miss, would you be willing to sleep with me if I gave you a million dollars?’ She’s shocked, of course, but considers it and agrees.”

Linda was already nodding along. I suspect she’d skipped to the essence of the punch line already.

“He then asks if she’d sleep with him for five bucks. She almost slaps him, shouting, ‘What sort of girl do you think I am?’ His reply is, of course, ‘We’ve already established that. Now we’re haggling about the price.’”

Linda giggled, grinning. “I honestly couldn’t have imagined any boy making a prostitute joke with me over dinner.”

I shrugged. “That’s because you’d guess most of them saw at least some truth there. You already noted the ambiguity — is there some formula that requires sex in exchange for dinner? Is a woman ‘obliged’ to have sex after a certain number of dates, or a certain number of meals, or after an expensive gift or two? My answer is ‘no,’ which you already knew. Well, either that or the grapevine has let you down.”

“It hasn’t,” she said, smirking. “That, and, I’ve already kinda more than hinted that I sometimes do trade some level of sex for a date.”

“I’m not sure that’s what you hinted at.”

“Really? Because I think I did.”

“Nah,” I said. “You made it clear you could get out of it if you really didn’t like the guy. So, with that, it’s you deciding you like the guy enough to do ... something ... for whatever reason. It doesn’t matter what the reason is, as long as you don’t feel forced or required or obligated.”

She cocked her head to the left a little and bit her lower lip. It was a pretty cute look. “Huh,” she said. “I ... like that. I’ve certainly never promised anything, and ... you’re right. I always felt like it was my choice.”

“Which is a bit of a worry, just because there are some guys who are very charming, right until they decide they want more than you want and also decide that they’re big and strong enough to get it.”

“Yeah, well, they wouldn’t have figured on The Boss making sure we all knew some basic self-defense and carried some spray to blast them with. Or, at least, I hope they wouldn’t have figured on that!”

I nodded, which was enough for her to grin.

“Yes,” she said, “I know it was your idea.”

“It was collaborative,” I said. “My worries got Jess thinking about what to do if ... things ... were to happen. Because ... things do happen.”

“Especially if girls won’t give it up after lobster,” she said, grinning.

“Bear Spray is a lousy dessert.”

“I imagine it must be!”

We shifted to more mundane topics — our classes, State, another round of ‘Which colleges are you looking at?’ and so forth — while waiting for our meal to arrive.

When it did, the food was great, as we’d expected. We continued to avoid heavier topics for a while, but I think we could both feel the tension slowly growing between us. That sort of tension can be a good thing, and I think it was, tonight.

The waitress came by as we were finishing and asked about dessert. Both Linda and I declined. I thought I caught a look in Linda’s eye as she declined, but ... who knew? Linda, I suppose.

As she was bringing back my credit card after I’d paid, the waitress paused and said, “Y’all make such a cute couple!”

I said, “Thank you!”

Linda said, “We do, don’t we?” with a twinkle in her eye.

I raised an eyebrow once the waitress had gone.

Linda grinned, and said, “Just messing with her. We do, though.”

“I can see that,” I said, rising and offering my arm.

She chuckled, then took it, and I led her off to Angie’s car.

Once we were both in the car, I looked at Linda.

She shook her head a little, then winked. “No discussion. Just drive where you think we should go.”

“Dangerous,” I said, chuckling just a bit.

“Only if you get it wrong,” she said.

“Guys are very good at getting it wrong.”

“True enough, but ... I think you’re safe there. Pretty sure, anyway.”

With all that in mind, I was pretty certain that she was angling for Martin Park without actually having to say it. Well, that and some of the previous discussion. And ... I could certainly pass, no question. But I didn’t want to, and perhaps more to the point, I didn’t think she wanted to either.

It was one of those inflection points (a term that would be lost on the great majority of people in the 1980s). Heading to Martin Park would say one thing. Heading to another, similar, make out-and-more spot would say something similar, but perhaps slightly different. And, heading to a less ... aggressive ... make out spot would say yet a third thing. Taking her home, or to something like mini-golf, might close the door on anything ... more. I could close that door and have no problem with it, and she could, too. But neither of us wanted it closed.

In short: any action would change the nature of our relationship going forward.

With that in mind, I headed towards Martin Park, though taking some care to not take the most obvious (nor the fastest) route. Along the way, we continued the earlier conversation, this time branching out into what classes we’d take Senior year (mostly the same) and a bit more about college.

When it was clear I could really only be heading one place, Linda grinned just a bit.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d...” she said, then stopped, grinning.

“I could still ... not,” I said, grinning back.

“But...”