Chapter 83

Monday, July 16

Another Monday, another week to start. The good news is that I would have all my dates with “interim girlfriends” out of the way in time for Morgan to return. It would be interesting to see how a five-week separation affected our relationship. We just seemed to be making some progress on an emotional level when she had to leave for science camp.

The kitchen was its usual flurry of activity with Mom, Dad and Kacie getting things under way in their respective worlds. I was out the door following my bowl of cereal and glass of pineapple juice, legging it for the driving range. Coach Tucker was “observing” again as he hit a bucket and seemed pleased with the way things were going with me and the kickers despite the time I’d missed.

“You’re actually a little ahead of where guys usually are heading into fall,” he said. “We’ll be able to work with you directly and get you more reps once practice starts. Jed can snap any time we’re not working with the first offense.”

Enough guys were doing their lifting after the running that I was able to get that out of the way. The tradeoff was it was after 10 o’clock before I started on the yard and the temperature was in triple digits by the time I finished. I headed straight for a cool shower once I got everything put away and just stood under the spray for a good 15 minutes. I was all wrinkled before I even soaped up.

I decided to combine lunch with my shopping for Staci Patterson’s present and got dressed in Bermuda shorts, a polo and deck shoes. I swung by the apartment on the way to the mall to grab some cash, then embarked on my journey.

After lunch at Rosa’s, it only took me two tries to find the perfume counter at Dillard’s, where I asked for Marjorie. A pleasant-looking, 40-something woman asked how she could be of service.

“Arlene Jenson said you could help me,” I said. “I’ve got a friend who’s a girl whose Sweet 16 is tomorrow night. Arlene suggested something called an atomizer. I was afraid it had something to do with particle physics.”

“I’ve got just the thing,” Marjorie said, leading me around the corner to a display case.

She pulled out a variety of items in different shapes and sizes. Some looked like lipstick tubes, others like cigarette lighters. I finally figured out they were little spritzers that would easily fit in a handbag. All would hold enough perfume that a lady could touch up throughout a day or evening, then refill it at home using the tiniest funnel I’d ever seen.

We discussed different styles and designs for little cases into which you could slip a stainless steel model that looked something like a Zippo lighter. They actually had little rhinestone chips they could apply to a plain case to create designs. Marjorie suggested red rhinestones to simulate rubies, the birthstone for July. I went with an interlocking SP for Staci’s initials.

I could also get the atomizer engraved, so I ordered “Happy Sweet 16” with the date underneath.

Ever the saleswoman, Marjorie told me I simply must include something with which to fill the device. I had no idea what perfume Staci wore, but Marjorie said that was no problem.

“There isn’t a woman alive who will be disappointed to receive a bottle of Chanel No. 5,” she said.

I could see the dollar signs in her eyes. She knew she had a sucker on the line and she was going to play me for everything she could. I went with the smallest bottle they had — 1.2 fluid ounces — which still cost more than $80.

The atomizer itself only ran about $30. The case, rhinestones, engraving, perfume and giftwrapping ran the total bill up to nearly $200. One way or another, somebody was getting screwed for Staci’s birthday.

Marjorie sent the items to the jewelry department to have the engraving and rhinestones done. I headed over to the men’s department and picked up some khakis, polos and Oxford cloth shirts I could keep at the apartment. I also went into the mall to a shoe store and purchased extra pairs of deck shoes and penny loafers. I only spent a little more on my purchases than I did on Staci’s gift.

It was getting on to 4 o’clock by the time the engraving and giftwrapping was done, leaving me a little more than an hour before I had to pick up Callie for our date. I dropped my shopping off at the apartment, placing my new clothes on the shelf over the clothes bar. I’d see if Arlene would let me wash them in her laundry room before I wore them.

A stop by the house was in order to swap the Bermuda shorts for long pants, brush my teeth an make sure my hair wasn’t too much of a mess. I wasn’t sure I was all that sold on what the hairdressers at the agency decided upon. I could always get a crewcut and let it grow back out.

I puttered around until about 5 o’clock before heading over to the Dawsons. Callie had said she wanted to eat at Familia Benavidez, then catch an earlier showing of the movie. She’d left the pool early and was ready to go when I arrived.

She surprised me when she answered the door in shorts and a dressy little pullover top instead of the dress I’d come to expect. Kacie had told me she would be one who would take a little wooing. With what I was facing on Tuesday with Staci, I was actually kind of glad to have a break.

Callie Dawson was what you’d expect from central casting when you needed a girl-next-door type — about 5-foot-6, slender, light brown hair, brown eyes. Pretty without being too pretty. She could have swapped places with any of a couple of million 16-year-old girls across the nation and only close acquaintances would have noticed something was different.

We got to Familia Benavidez before 6 p.m. and enjoyed another incredible meal. I went with the stacked enchiladas this time. I think I was going to have to come here at least once a week until I’d tried every item on the menu. And I’d probably weigh 300 pounds by the time I was done.

Callie proved to be a pleasant dinner companion, well informed on a number of topics from club gossip — no doubt thanks to associating with Arlene — to world events. She was kind of like me in that she wasn’t a member of any specific social clique, but wasn’t excluded from very many, either.

We got to the cineplex before 7, saving a couple of bucks on the early-bird tickets, and spent two hours watching pretty people bop around a sunny Greek island mindlessly lip syncing to pop tunes. I didn’t know which required the bigger suspension of belief — that Pierce Brosnan could sing or that Cher could have been Meryl Streep’s mother. It was still fun.

I thought it odd that Callie sat close and leaned into me, but stiffened and pulled back when I put my arm along the back of her seat. It wasn’t even a conscious move on my part and I didn’t try to make contact. I kept my hand on top of the seat until I noticed her reaction and removed it.

I offered to take her for ice cream after the movie let out, but she insisted on going to the apartment. I was getting mixed signals from the girl, but I was going to play it safe. She could set the pace and make the moves.

When I let her into the apartment, she headed straight to the bathroom while I cranked the AC. I turned on the TV and sat in the easy chair to await her return. With no baseball tonight, there really wasn’t much of interest.

“Whatcha watchin’?” Callie asked as she returned and sat on the side of the bed.

“Nothin’ much,” I answered, “just channel surfing.”

I turned off the TV and stood up.

“Would you like something to drink?” I offered. “There should be plenty in the fridge.”

“No,” she said. “My teeth were floatin’ by the time we got here. And that was just from a small Coke at the movie.”

Of course, small at the movies tends to be bigger than some restaurants’ large size.

I sat next to her on the bed. That was when things started going off the rails.

“Are you going to kiss me?” she asked.

“Uh, do you want me to kiss you?” I replied.

“I don’t know,” she said, looking at her hands in her lap, “but all the other girls keep going on and on about making out with you and how you made them feel.”

I was rather confused. I mean, she’d lined up to kiss me more than once when the other girls had.

“I hope I was making them feel comfortable enough that they didn’t have to worry about me doing something they didn’t want,” I said. “Even Erin Bennett. If you aren’t sure, I’m not going to try to force you.”