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To The Point 2
Diana
HereIam,trying to seduce him and he tosses me a bottle of herbal dog tranquilizers. The whole afternoon at the beach was a peep show. He wore a deep-cut athletic tee-shirt over almost transparent red jams. If he jumped in the surf the right way, I got a good view of his pecs peeking out. His muscled chest had the slightest blond fur, it was distracting. He dropped his sunglasses on his nose and at one point stood watching the horizon as he adjusted his waistband. Even with the Pacific surf chill, he was delivering a package as my roommate luridly describes. I definitely wanted to see more…
Gideon
She told me later how she was checking me out while I read and muttered. “Mix with food…three drops per pound…I’ll throw in an extra three drops for my peace.” The dog followed Diana into the bathroom and watched her adoringly. I worked like a mad scientist on his dinner and knock-out drops. He didn’t bother me while I was showering. He ate everything but the paper plate and was finishing up as I came from the shower wearing fresh jams. It was uncanny how we got along. Sort of scary.
If she’d been checking me out earlier, I was checking her out now. Diana worked making snacks at the table by the window, MTV playing in the background. I snuck up behind her and shook my head. She gave exactly the reaction I was looking for. “You’re getting awfully fancy with the pepperoni and cheese there.” She jumped. I didn’t plan it that way, but her fine ass collided with my fascinated front. I stepped out of her way gallantly and offered a wine cooler from the igloo.
“Why don’t you take Henri for a quick walk while I make up his wittle bed?” She began arranging pillows.
“Sure.” Even I knew my tone sounded stiff. “Why don’t I do that?” Outside, I glared at the dog as he sniffed around. “Feeling peaceful yet?” The dog teetered as he half-heartedly raised one tiny leg. He peed about three tablespoons onto the base of a palm tree. He was so calm when I picked him up, he rolled on his back and his tongue fell out the side of his mouth. I placed him reverently in the center of the second bed between the pillows. I saw what she was doing. The dog gets a bed, we get a bed.
Our hunger overrode the cheese and crackers and we wound up calling for Fast Eddies Pizza. The dog whistled in his sleep while we dug into the double cheese supreme pizza out of the box on the bed between us. I couldn’t help but feel her scrutiny. On my second piece of pie, I asked, “What’s on your mind?”
She swallowed hard and blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Well, out of the blue you helped me when I was drunk the other night. I can’t even remember meeting you. Now we’re here together, with our pint-size chaperone, and you’re staring at me like I’m a misfiled book. What’s on your mind?”
She shifted uncomfortably. “I’m trying to figure out what you and my brother have in common.”
That took the wind out of my sails. “You’re thinking about me and Duncan?” Well, that’s romantic.
She nodded. “Duncan says you’re the campus enigma.” I raised a brow at her. “I mean, you’re on scholarship, but not for football, baseball, swimming, or something normal but fencing of all things. You live where?”
“I live a few buildings away from Duncan. I have a studio over the pool. I work there.”
Diana cocked her head. “Duncan says you don’t answer to anybody.”
I laughed. “I answer to my boss. I answer to my professors. Of course, I answer to people.”
“Yeah, but not your family. Duncan never hears you complain about that. How does that work? Sometimes that’s all Duncan and I have to talk about.”
Her question was a bit of a gut punch. “Look, I go to college on a scholarship. I’m responsible for myself. I’ve been responsible for myself since I was sixteen. If I’ve got a gripe, I have to talk to me about it.”
“Wow! That’s so mature!” She chewed while she considered this. “So, what’s your major?”
“Psychology. Really, abnormal psychology, criminal psychology.”
Diana picked a large mushroom off a piece of pizza and nibbled on it. Once she swallowed, she shook her head. “That’s really dark. What made you choose that?”
As I reached for a beer, the icy question surprised me. Duncan hasn’t given her the ‘Gid talk.’ “My family was mobbed up. The Sabatini family. Dad went to jail for murder, he was the button man.” I closed my eyes tightly imagining her response. Diana’s jaw dropped and she worked to swallow. “When they grabbed my dad, I guess Mom figured if the Sabatinis didn’t get her the feds would. So, she took off for parts unknown.” I dropped that piece of news and let her nibble on that.
“My God, Gideon, what did you do?”
I shrugged like it was a million years ago. “I hitchhiked from Jersey to California. I knew no one was looking for a sixteen-year-old kid. In case the Sabatinis were looking for me, I changed my name and got emancipated. I got a G.E.D. and got into junior college at seventeen. I got a job at Cardinal Apartments, and after two years enrolled at Stanford. End of story.”
Dumbstruck, Diana sat wide-eyed. “End of story? Whoa!” She shook her head. “Did you come from the factory with all that drive and determination hard-wired into you?”
I shrugged again. “I have nobody else. If I wanna do it, I have to make it happen. I’ll graduate early because of an accelerated course schedule and summer school…” I wondered why she found all this so fascinating. I grinned. “Duncan says your folks ride him pretty hard. Is it the same for you?”
Diana fell back on the mound of pillows. “Hard? He doesn’t know hard. I’ve got a list of social obligations my mother expects me to fulfill. My dad has me earmarked to be a cosmetic chemist for Bauder Beauty.” She ran a frustrated hand through her thick hair. She was gorgeous just the way she was. “I don’t even like chemistry that much. I’m just a natural at it.”
I balled up the paper towel in my hand and tossed it into the trash can. “Why don’t you tell them to go to hell?”
She gave a shiver. “Tell five hundred million dollars to go to hell?”
