Chapter 131: Love and Lobster

Tuesday, May 15, 1984

I returned Penelope’s call during lunch period. I hadn’t told Cammie about it, on the off chance that it was a surprise for her. Penelope hadn’t mentioned that, but I could always tell Cammie later if it wasn’t some surprise.

It turned out that it was a surprise, if a different kind. She and David were quite impressed with all of us — even Angie and Paige, and the way she called it out made it pretty clear that she knew about them and had decided it didn’t matter to how impressed she was — but with me in particular, mostly on the strength of how resolutely I’d taken Cammie’s side and how many mountains I’d moved to make sure she was happy and safe.

It apparently didn’t hurt my case that Joseph Clarke was very much not a fan of me. Vocally, and at length. In his somewhat confused presentation, apparently I had somehow stolen his lesbian daughter’s heart and was some sort of evil Lothario. The amusing point was that I had stolen it, perhaps, but only in a platonic sort of way.

Penelope loved her brother, but also felt that he was hugely out of line. From what I gathered, it seemed likely that she knew considerably more of the real story than she had back when we’d been collecting Cammie’s things. Penelope presumably had wheedled the truth of why Joseph and Petunia had been willing to sign our agreement out of them.

In any case, Penelope and David wanted to help Cammie out, now and while at college. Cammie was a bit reluctant to accept their assistance; not firmly opposed, but a bit reluctant.

We agreed that cooling it for a bit wasn’t a bad idea, but that it made some sense. For my part, I thought it was a good thing. Cammie needed people who cared about her who weren’t her age, and who were ‘family.’

She also had wanted to make sure that she and David would be welcome to visit our house in College Station, should Cammie move there. I told her that they would be perfectly welcome as long as Cammie was fine with it, and also that I hoped she would be fine with it. I wouldn’t invite them over her objections — which Penelope had expected — but all of us had met Penelope and David and no one had said anything bad. In any case, Cammie would be living there, and I’d need a damn good reason to bar her friends or family from coming over.

Study Group centered around three things: studying for finals (of course), finishing up any stray papers (naturally), and studying for CLEP and AP tests (which would start tomorrow).

There was a fourth thing for some of us: Connie’s valedictorian speech. Her being valedictorian wasn’t guaranteed — that wouldn’t even be decided until the Friday before graduation — but, if we waited until then, the whole thing would probably be doomed to fail.

So, those of us in Drama and Debate spent part of the time working with Connie on a rough outline and discussing what she wanted to say. It was her speech, and she was perfectly capable of deciding what went in it. We were just the assistants who’d hopefully make it all sound a bit better.

Angie, Jas, Paige, and I also discussed the problem of Cindy. No one had any ideas, and both Jas and Paige wanted a bit more time to think about it. It honestly wasn’t a major issue — even if it was Cindy, all we would gain by knowing was to know. We couldn’t punish Cindy, and what would be the point of doing so even if we could?

Wednesday, May 16, 1984

Our schedule for the day was a total mess. Everyone taking AP or CLEP tests was excused from their morning classes, afternoon classes, or both. Since I had AP English and CLEP Government today, I was excused from both. Tomorrow, I’d have the afternoon off for AP Computer Science.

Others were taking AP foreign languages or either AP or CLEP sciences. I wasn’t, of course.

AP English was ... easy. I remembered having thought that in my first life. I’d aced it then, so the odds were I’d been right then and was right now.

CLEP Government wasn’t ‘easy,’ but I was sure that I’d easily done well enough to get credit.

Most of us felt the same. These were hard tests by one standard, but mostly they were just confirming that we’d learned the things that our other test grades said we’d learned. We had, so they weren’t all that hard.

Jess and I left together after CLEP Government, with Angie taking Paige and Jas home. We both said goodbye to them, of course, but then the two of us held hands as we walked to my car.

That was Jess’s idea, of course. As always, I’d have been fine with anything from intense, brain-melting, rules-defying kisses to pretending we barely even liked each other. Jess wanted to play it publicly like the date it was, so that’s what we did.

Since this was a date, and since Jess had teased about it, I opted for Christie’s Seafood and Steaks. Given its location (on Westheimer, not far from Ninfa’s and a number of other restaurants), Jess was in the dark as I drove there. We mostly talked about the AP and CLEP tests. On my part, that was both to keep her distracted and because I assumed she had an agenda and wasn’t going to dig for it.

When I turned, then parked, Jess whistled and said, “You’re going all out!”

I shrugged, then got out, helped her out, and then said, “You’re well worth it. Besides, how many high school dates do either of us have left?”

“Not many, that’s true,” she said, grinning. “A few. But not many. No one ever took me here. One guy was planning to, I think, but then he figured out that he could buy me a dozen lobsters and it still wouldn’t help.”

I chuckled. “Poor guy.”

“Nah,” she said. “I set him and his girlfriend up, and they’ve been together two and a half years now and will be going to college together. It may yet fall apart, but dating me worked out great for him.”

“Sounds like it! It’s worked out great for me.”

She giggled. “And for me, in so many ways!”

The hostess seated us, and Jess looked over the menu with a bit of a smirk, not saying anything.

“Are we going to have the lobster conversation again?” she said.

“Nah. We already know lobster isn’t magic.”

She grinned. “True enough.”

After a few minutes, the waitress returned to take our orders. Jess and I wound up picking the same thing: surf and turf, with lobster and filet. We had different side dishes, and they were the opposite of what some people might have expected: she went with the loaded baked potato, while I went with roasted Brussels sprouts.

I ignored most of the things I’d learned from Jasmine about wine and went with my first choice, a Riesling. Jess agreed, so we had a glass each. One glass wasn’t going to impair either of us, after all.

She sighed, after the waitress left, and said, “If this whole Hollywood thing takes off, I’m not going to be able to do this, you know. The tabloids will have giant headlines: ‘Starlet Binge-Eating!’ or the like.”

“Sadly true, and completely unfair.”

“Part of the business. I can sneak whatever I want at home. Of course, I won’t be in cheer, so I’ll have to work much harder to burn off the calories.”

“We’ve discussed that, but our situation is very different. We drive to school now, but we’ll be able to walk or bike in college. I think we’ll do okay,” I said.

“I’ll do okay,” she said. “If nothing else, I know that it’s possible for a Jess Lively to do okay, and if she can do it, I can do it.”

“We don’t really know if she was much like you, though.”

“Honestly, from what Laura and you have told me, I think she was. More than not, anyway. She was driven, she got what she wanted, she didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, and she had lines she would cross and ones she wouldn’t. ‘Asshole Steve’ was a lot to take, but she could work with him. Presumably, he had good points.”

“Presumably. Laura didn’t clue me in on many of them.”

She chuckled, grinning, slightly cocking her head. “Oddly, she clued me in on some. He was selfish but also generous, he supported a lot of good causes, and he used his charm and wit to do plenty of good things. He just also stole Laura’s invention and refused to be a parent. On the other hand, considering his personality, maybe he knew that he would warp a child and didn’t want to.”

“Perhaps,” I said, shaking my head. “Admittedly, Laura and I didn’t discuss him much.”

“Because most of what she said, she said when she thought you were him, and after that, neither of you wanted to remind yourselves of him.”

I thought about it, then nodded. “That all makes sense.”

“It’s not urgent, but give Laura a call and talk about it some. It’s all academic, of course — we’ll never meet him. If we did, I would slap the hell out of him — and you probably would, too. Then there’s what Laura would do. Even so, it’s at least very interesting.”

“I’ll do that,” I said. “We’re hoping to get up to Carbondale on our big trip, too.”

She smiled. “It’s a better face-to-face conversation than a long-distance one. Your trip sounds amazing. If I get to be a big star, I’ll probably go everywhere and see nothing. I hear that’s how press junkets are.”

“You’ll always be welcome wherever we are.”

“And you’ll always be welcome wherever I am.”

Our drinks came, and I raised a glass. “To lifelong friendships, and to friends near and far.”

“Hear, hear!” she said.

We clinked glasses, then sipped.

When she set her glass down, she said, “This may come out close to the dread ‘We have to talk,’ but it’s not that. It’s just ... I had my reasons for encouraging this date, and I still do. I’ve had a lot of time to think about them, and I’m pretty set on my thinking.”

“Oh?” I said, wondering. I could guess a number of things, but ... surely not that?

“I’m ... well,” she said, then hesitated. “There are a lot of ways I could do this, and ... you know me. I’ve thought about them all.”

I nodded. “That does sound like you.”

She grinned. “I’ve changed a lot, but not in that way. Anyway ... my decision was that I’d simply rip the band-aid off and just say it.”

Just as she said that, a server appeared with our dinners. Jess blushed, slightly, but smiled, and we put the conversation on hold.

Once she’d left, Jess said, “Whew! Even the way I was going to put that, I’m glad it wasn’t in front of her.”

That sounded ... interesting. I just nodded, though.

“So ... a year ago, and a bit, a certain girl asked you for something which I know was a big surprise for you.”

Oh. My. She wasn’t?

“I ... am hoping you’d do the same for me. Or, with me. To me?” she said, starting to look flustered in a very un-Jess-like way. “With me. Definitely with me. I think.”

She was.

Oh. My. God!

I took a deep breath. “I ... would be honored.”

She let out a breath I hadn’t been aware that she was holding.

I continued, saying, “Since you mentioned ‘reasons’, I’m curious. But ... yes, either way.”

She giggled, somewhere between very happy and quite embarrassed. “I want you to understand. It’s complicated, but ... well ... it’s also ... not? Maybe?”

I nodded. “Sex can be that way.”

She giggled a bit more. “Um ... yes. Yes, it can. Okay ... so. First ... I’m not sure if you knew that I could even request that.”

“I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t at least considered the question, abstractly, but only because I know you and know what you’ve said.”

“I wanted people to think that it wasn’t a question, of course. That somewhere, sometime, someone had ‘gotten lucky.’ Some of the guys eventually knew that I wasn’t planning to actually go all the way until I got married, but they wouldn’t say anything because ... well, better to stay quiet and be thought to have struck out than to speak up and remove all doubt, right?”

I chuckled. “That is the guy way. Honestly, I also support it. Gentlemen shouldn’t discuss ‘didn’t’ any more than they should discuss ‘did,’ unless there’s a very particular reason to discuss that.”

“That’s you,” she said, chuckling. “Normal high school boys ... well, anyway. I really meant that. I was going to wait, find Mister Right, get married, and ride off into the sunset. Case closed. That’s probably what ‘your’ Jess did.”

“The one I didn’t know?”

“Well, yes, but you know she married some quarterback and became a housewife.”

“True enough.”

“The thing is, I’m done with that. I’m not getting married anytime soon, or at least I really, really mean not to. If the exact right person turns up, well ... never say never, right? But I’m either going to be in school for four years, getting my degree, or I’m going to be making movies. If I’m making movies, I’m going to run into charming, handsome men whose whole life is based on pretending to be people they’re not. Quite a few actresses get into stupid marriages, then divorce, and then do it all over again.”

I just nodded. She certainly had a point.