“You’re never going to get everyone to love you,” Jeff reasoned. “There will always be someone trying to invent a story. Don’t let this bother you. It will get worse the higher up you go in competition.”
That was good advice.
◊◊◊
Cassidy and I took our test and aced it. Brook was landing as we finished.
“Do you and Don want to go to dinner with us?” I asked as we waited.
“You had better spend some alone-time with Brook. Especially if you’re planning to be naughty tomorrow.”
“At no point did I say I was going to do anything like that. People just assume that I’m the same in and out of a committed relationship. I would never intentionally do anything to hurt Brook.”
“What if she wanted to play tomorrow?” Cassidy asked.
“No. I would be the one making assumptions, and it would be that you all forced her to agree to it,” I said as my girlfriend joined us.
“You look serious,” Brook said and then kissed me.
“Cassidy was saying that people expect we’ll join in something wild tomorrow. I was explaining that I wouldn’t even if you told me you wanted to.”
“Not that I want to, but why would you say that?” Brook asked.
“I might be half-serious when I say I would love to have people join us. We both enjoyed our time with Pam, didn’t we?”
“Yes, we did,” Brook confirmed.
“If it happens and we’re in the mood, I’m game. What I don’t want is feeling like we’re being forced into it. I know that if I feel that way, you’re getting it even worse. I absolutely will not be a party to something where I feel you’ve been coerced in any way.”
“What if we’re in LA, and Halle wants to join us?”
“That would be fine.”
“Why’s that different?” Brook asked.
“Because no guys would be involved,” Cassidy offered.
“Didn’t you say you had a date to get to?” I asked.
“Is she right? If Halle brought a guy, and we decided to all have fun, would you be okay with that?” Brook asked.
“I’m not going to lie to you, I would have a problem. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t go along with it if you could make me comfortable with what we were doing.”
“Is that why you don’t want to have fun Saturday? You’re afraid I’ll end up with Tim or Wolf?” Brook asked.
I considered that for a moment.
“You know what? I would probably be okay with them. Tim and I have shared girls in the past, and it worked out fine. Wolf is a good friend. I would trust them to treat you right and you not to fall in love with one of them and run off. Who I would have a problem with is Dare,” I stated emphatically.
That surprised both Cassidy and Brook.
“Again, not that it’ll ever happen, but why would you not want me to have sex with Dare? He’s such a little boy,” Brook said.
I laughed.
“You think Dare is harmless?”
Both Brook and Cassidy nodded. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
“Dare is a guy, if you hadn’t noticed. He’s a guy who’s secretly in love with you. If he had a shot, he would take it without thinking, consequences be damned.”
“No way,” Brook objected.
Cassidy thought about it for a moment.
“I’m with David on this one. It’s the quiet ones you have to worry about,” she predicted.
“You’re both crazy.”
I’m a guy. I knew exactly what kind of deviant Dare was.
◊◊◊
After we dropped off Cassidy, we picked up Chuck and drove to Washington for crab. The waiter suggested that one Dungeness crab was probably enough for two people, so we ordered three because Chuck had to eat with us. The place was packed, and my celebrity only went so far. We were lucky they even seated us.
The crab came out with a wooden mallet, nutcracker, and a small fork. I picked up the mallet to whack the crab.
“Oh, please, no. Let me show you how to do it right,” Chuck said.
He turned his crab upside down.
“You want to remove the shell, clean out the organs, break the legs away from the body, and then break it in half,” he said as he demonstrated.
Once he had it apart, Brook slid her plate over to him and traded. I guess that’s a girl’s birthright. Chuck wasn’t upset at all as he pointed out what she needed to do.
“In the body, you’ll see tiny cavities where the best-tasting meat is. See the liquid inside the shell? That’s crab butter. It has a funky texture, but try it,” Chuck suggested.
To me, it looked like something gross, but Chuck was right, it tasted good. Chuck’s method was much better than using the mallet. It really irritated me when I would get some shell in the meat. This way that never happened. Chuck explained that we could tell these were never frozen because the meat in the legs came out in one piece.
I liked eating crab because you had to work at it to get all the claw and leg meat. It was like an adventure with a yummy reward at the end.
◊◊◊
Chapter 42 – Most Likely To Saturday November 5
After breakfast, I took advantage of Coach Hope’s announcement that treatment would be available this morning. My ribs were on the mend, and I no longer felt the pain from my hip pointer. I’d turned a corner in my recovery and would be fine in a couple of weeks.
