“God damn it, David! What am I supposed to do? I love her.”
“I understand, but I don’t see how you can come back from this one. You admitted to sleeping around on her when you go to away games. It was obvious that you and Penny had been together before. If you were going to do that, you needed to talk to Sage before it ever happened. You can’t expect her to take you back after you didn’t man-up and tell her what you either planned to do or did,” I said.
“See, that’s why you’re abnormal. No guy in his right mind would ever tell his girl he planned to have sex with other girls at away games. He most certainly wouldn’t tell her about his threesomes with Ridge and Penny.”
“I don’t know what to tell you then. The reason I’m ‘abnormal’ is that I don’t want something like this happening to me. Let me give you some advice because we’re friends: the best way to get over this is to find someone and spend the day in bed with her. I’m sure Penny would be willing to help you out. Believe me, you’ll feel much better afterward,” I said.
“I call bullshit.”
“Perhaps, but what do you have to lose?” I asked.
He actually laughed.
“Screw you, Dawson,” Bill said and hung up on me.
“What was that about?” Caryn asked.
I told her about the weekend, and my friend getting drunk, and him both revealing secrets and having sex with one of his girlfriend’s friends.
“So, your advice was that he should have told her beforehand?” she asked.
I explained my theory on communication and how you wouldn’t know what you could or couldn’t do unless you talked about it. Caryn didn’t believe me, so I had her call Harper, and let Harper explain about the sorority party we’d gone to.
When they rang off, Caryn turned to me with ‘the look.’ I was beginning to believe it was the one truly devastating weapon every girl in existence had honed to a killing edge.
“Caryn, open communication is everything. While I agree that you need some secrets in a relationship, I believe it’s important that you and your partner agree on what’s acceptable. You’ll never know until you talk.”
“It’s been my experience that anytime someone wanted to ‘talk,’ it was to pressure me into doing something I usually wouldn’t do.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“What do you mean, like what?”
“Like a for-instance.”
“I don’t know. Maybe something like, I don’t want to do anal sex,” Caryn said.
“Have you ever tried it?”
“Shut up! When did this become about me?” she asked.
“I was just trying to find out if you’d had a bad experience. Maybe he didn’t know how to do it right,” I said.
“Screw you, David,” Caryn said and ignored me the rest of the trip.
◊◊◊
I discovered I had an accent. Even though I said the words exactly like on the tape, they told me I had an accent. I spent the first hour on set working with a dialogue coach to get rid of my accent. I’m not joking, I said it precisely the same way, and they were happy. My opinion was they were just messing with me.
I was never really clear on what the ad was about. They had me stand in an alley in a rumpled suit and then put on their sunglasses. They did a close up of me with a goofy grin on my face. The next shot I was in a crisp suit on the beach with a bevy of Japanese babes. It seemed the sunglasses had some kind of magical powers.
Then for some reason, I had to fight off twenty guys. I had a blast with that part. They hooked me up on wires, enabling me to jump and fight through the sky. I guess that was popular in Japan. What I couldn’t believe was that I made as much as four Range Sports week-long modeling gigs, working for just one day making a commercial.
At the end of the day, I met with a representative of the company. He presented me with a briefcase that held six pair of women’s sunglasses and six men’s. They were a combination of platinum and gold and were their high-end signature samples that they only made a handful of each year. It was a gift of thanks. His assistant told Caryn that the sunglasses were the equivalent in status in Japan to wearing a Rolex watch.
◊◊◊
I was out of it for the rest of the day. At the dojo, I couldn’t concentrate and had my head handed to me. Fritz sent me to the showers for fear I’d get hurt. After dinner, Caryn pulled me aside.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I don’t know. This all just seems a little surreal.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Looking back to middle school, I was a nerd headed down the wrong path. I understand that I worked hard to get here and made the choice to do all this. What I don’t know is what’s next. I’ve always worked hard to become the best at anything I do. When I started playing football, I got the coaching and trained to become a top-flight quarterback. I’ve worked with tutors and studied my butt off to get good grades. When I was asked to do a movie, I took a college acting class and trained so I wouldn’t embarrass myself. As a model, I’ve worked with some of the best and learned so much from Adrienne. Probably my greatest love is baseball, and I’m getting hitting instruction from a major-league hitting coach. Heck, I’ve even gone to a hooker to learn how to be better in bed.
“I guess I’m searching for clarity. Where’s all this leading to?” I asked.
Caryn gave me a sober, thoughtful look.
“Do you know why I really took this job? It wasn’t because I was pissed at Devin and Cora. Well, that did play a role in it, but it was because of you. Devin Range admires you. He says there are only a handful of people in this world like you. Most people have dreams and plans for their future. Some even partially succeed. Devin told me you were different. He said that if you decided to do something, you’d do whatever it takes to get it done. He marveled at how intelligent you were to seek out and find the right people to help you. Devin said you surround yourself with like-minded people and build relationships to achieve your goals.
“I’ll be honest, I had doubts that a junior in high school could do everything Devin told me you’d done, so I checked you out. The reason I took this job was because of your potential. I could’ve taken a job with a large firm and worked my way up the ladder. I have my MBA from UC Berkeley. My counterparts with whom I graduated are all pulling down high incomes, but they’re just cogs in some big corporate machine.”
“Are you saying you need a raise?” I asked.
“No. In all seriousness, money isn’t what motivates me. What you pay me is more than enough to cover my expenses and allow me to take a nice vacation if I want. What I want to do is help you take that potential and turn it into something truly grand and truly lasting.
“Today was a perfect example. You made a ridiculous amount of money for a day’s work. You’re not stupid. If they want to give you that kind of money to wear their sunglasses, I’m sure you’ll do it. I also know that you’ll want to use that money to do something productive, be it your charity work or possibly buying that farm.
“I understand you feel adrift. Making a large amount of money, and the attention you get in this town, can be overwhelming. You can handle it. You mentioned you were searching for clarity. For me, that means creating a plan,” Caryn said.
That caught my attention. I hadn’t forgotten my life goals, but Uncle John had said that as I got older and things changed, I’d need to revisit them and make adjustments. Caryn and I spent the rest of the evening talking about my goals. At first, she was surprised that I had them, but she began to see how they helped me remain focused and keep my eye on the prize. Caryn explained that I needed to create a new set of goals and a plan for my business. She assured me she would help me do that.
I was discovering that hiring Caryn was a much better decision than I’d initially realized. I knew we had a lot to learn, but I felt we could do it together. After our talk, I better understood how she would fit in and help me. I didn’t exactly have clarity yet, but now felt that I saw a path to getting it.