We had breakfast at Granny’s West. It gave me a chance to say goodbye to all my family and friends who had come to support me at the State Championship game. When I came in, the first person I saw was Tami, who’d been my best friend since childhood. Recently, we’d distanced ourselves from each other. She was with her mom and Tim, her boyfriend and one of my best guy friends, and his family. She got up and hugged me.
“I have to say I’m torn. My classmates thought they would win yesterday, but I’m happy you won. I might be one of the few people who can say that I saw your first and last game at Lincoln.”
In our freshman year, Tami had had the opportunity to transfer to Wesleyan. It was a college preparatory boarding school that catered to the well-to-do. Tami had been awarded a scholarship to attend there. They were the team we played yesterday for the State Championship in football.
“It seems like that was forever ago, doesn’t it?” I asked, referring to my first game.
“It does. There’s something I want to say that I should have said a while ago: I’m proud of you. Sometimes I forget that you’re not the same boy who invited me to play softball at recess my first day. You’re no longer the one who let me boss him around and run his life for him. I see what you’ve done since I left, and I’m simply amazed at what you’ve accomplished. I should have stayed out of your life sooner,” she said with a crooked smile.
“Maybe you should have, but what’s the old saying, ‘What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger’?”
“Come here,” she ordered and pulled me into a fierce hug. “I’ll see you at the first of the year when we come out to visit. Go be a movie star and have fun doing it. Just know, we’re all proud of you.”
That afternoon, I was on my way to LA to shoot a ‘J-drama’ or Japanese miniseries. Apparently, I was big over there, and they loved the first one I’d done. My girlfriend, Brook, had arranged for our friends to fly out after New Year’s to spend a week with us.
My throat tightened with emotion her kind words evoked. So, I just nodded and moved on to talk to others. Sometimes my old feelings for Tami came to the surface. To hear her say, in essence, that I was good enough hit too close to home.
I hadn’t realized that old grievance still lingered, and how her saying we couldn’t date because I needed to grow up continued to make me a little crazy. It was funny how certain people found their way into your heart, and there wasn’t much you could do about it. Fortunately, that was when Brook found me and kissed me.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
I blinked and then shook my head to focus. She had started to figure me out, and I wasn’t sure if that was good or not. A guy wants to have some secrets.
“I am now,” I said, and it was her turn to squirm because the implication was that her presence made life better for me. “Come on. Let’s tell everybody goodbye.”
Before we could talk to anyone, Sarah came bounding up and hugged me. She, too, was a student at Wesleyan and also a model. I’d met her at a modeling camp we’d both attended. She and I had a history; we’d hooked up a time or two. She now dated another one of my best guy friends, Wolf.
Behind her were Adrienne and Tyler. Adrienne was
“I take it you found us work,” I said.
Caryn, the woman who ran my businesses, suddenly appeared and smiled at me. I was surprised when Adrienne nodded to her to tell me what they’d done.
“We’ve put together several deals. The first is a modeling gig with Range Sports that will feature you and Sarah. They’ll also be doing product placement in your J-drama.”
I’d wondered how they’d gotten me golf clubs so fast. Despite working with them for years, I didn’t know that Range Sports even made them. It turned out that they had partnered with a well-known golf equipment company and had branded clubs of their own.
Dad had been impressed with the clubs when they arrived. He ran the golf course at a local country club and knew about this stuff. It was all wasted on me because I doubted I would ever use them again after the miniseries was shot. When I’d expressed my opinion on the matter, Dad’s expression seemed to say I would eat those words.
“We’ve also worked to get product placement for Jade and Dakora in both the J-drama and Halle’s movie,” Caryn said.
Jade and Dakora were two of the clothing lines besides Range Sports that I modeled for. Somehow, that must have made me money, judging by the pleased looks I saw on everyone’s faces. I could only guess that they had gotten their foot in the door through my contacts on the productions. We had a ‘finder’s fee’ arrangement when business got generated that way.
