“Kevin will be able to get away with that sort of thing for a few years, especially if he makes it to the NFL. But even then, he’s likely to get a significant suspension before his first contract runs out. You, on the other hand, don’t have that cushion, even in college.
“You need to start thinking about your future. At some point, ‘college fun’ impacts us later. I know for a fact that my HR department checks potential employees’ social media accounts. I’ve read articles about people who’ve been shocked that they didn’t get jobs because of their social media past.
“For my companies, I think of these people as representing me. If they do things that the general public will turn their noses up at, how will the public view me for hiring them to represent me?
“So, my concern is threefold. The first is, I don’t want to see some ‘college fun’ collide with the real world for you. The second is, I suggest you need to slow your roll. Don’t hear that as me saying to stop having fun; I’m just saying that sometimes regular sex is pretty dammed nice,” I said with a smile.
“I agree,” Cindy conceded.
“Finally, you need to dump Kevin.”
“What? Why?”
“He’s a great guy; don’t get me wrong about that. But he’s too much of an enabler. He is never going to regard anything as too much or going too far. You need someone who will tell you ‘no’ every once in a while,” I explained.
“You’re saying Kevin’s a doormat?” Cindy asked with a scowl.
I shrugged.
“I wouldn’t use that exact word. In fact, now that I think more about it, I believe Kevin’s more than an enabler; he’s an instigator. He doesn’t mean anything bad by it, I’m sure. But the fact is, he’s been steadily leading you into more and more troublesome situations.”
“If you ever start a rock band, you should name it ‘Heavy Meddle.’”
“You know me. I don’t do many things by half measures.”
The sidewise look she gave me told me she was trying to decide if she was mad at me or not. Before we could get into a fight, I put my earbuds in and left her alone to her thoughts.
◊◊◊
Fritz met us at the airport to drive us home. I called shotgun and let everyone else ride in the back two rows. On the roof of the SUV, towards the rear, I spotted a box. When I got in, I asked Fritz about it.
“When you called about the problems in Greece, I happened to be in town. I came because Darius has a new drone idea that we decided to implement.”
“I knew he was going to play around with that over break, but I had no idea he was so far along,” I admitted.
“He calls it ‘The Swarm,’ Fritz shared with a smirk.
I saw a theme starting. The drones we’d installed to watch the house were a ‘flock.’ Now we had a ‘swarm.’
I didn’t take the bait and just rolled my eyes at Fritz.
“It’s actually worked out well. In the box on the roof of the car are two stacks of four small drones and one larger control drone he calls the ‘queen,’ for a total of nine. The battery life on the smaller ‘worker’ drones is shorter, so when the swarm launches, you only do four at a time with the controller. Then you swap them out when their power starts to drop,” Fritz explained.
“Do they do the same sort of tasks his original drones do?” I asked.
“Dare claims they do, but he bought some upgrades, so they should do even more. I guess the Russian programmers have been working on new features. I plan to be here this week to test them out. But don’t ask me for details; I had to promise Dare I wouldn’t reveal all his gadgets before he’s ready to show you,” Fritz said.
It sounded like Dare had spent money, and he hadn’t shared that info with either Megan or me. He and I would have to have a talk about that when I saw him next. I would wait until I saw what he bought before I took his head off. There was always a chance it was something I would like.
To be honest, I considered what Dare was doing as fun research. If he exceeded his budget a bit, I was fine with it. I just wanted to make sure he had some constraints in place, or he could spend money faster than Brook on Black Friday. Especially, just like Brook, if he thought he was getting a deal.
On the ride, we caught up. Fritz was based in California and said that my Malibu house was starting to come together. I’d been told my parents would move after I graduated, with everyone else joining them this summer. Greg was going to live in our house. Our cook/housekeeper, Melanie, had agreed to move into my apartment to help my brother with his kids.
He made no mention of Angie, so I let that go. I would ask my dad about it when I got home.
It seemed that my parents had firmed up their plans in the week I was gone. Fritz was called in to help coordinate security at the new place. The idea was to remove a lot of the video surveillance and the drones from our current house when Greg moved in and transplant it to Malibu. If I were Greg, I would want the reduced security. Some security made sense, but he didn’t need the level I seemed to require.
It also sounded like I should start packing up my stuff for the move if Melanie was moving into my space. I would have to figure out what I wanted to take with me while I shot my films and what would go to the new house. Undoubtedly, some of my stuff would have to go into storage.
I had furniture at both grandmothers’ houses, including the walnut bedroom set, as well as the stuff in my apartment. On top of all that, I also had all my awards and trophies, most of which I’d not had the chance to even unpack, let alone display. The big one was my Academy Award.
It was depressing to realize that when school ended, I really would be leaving home and not coming back. I hoped that someday I would, though. I occasionally dreamed about living on the bluff overlooking the river on my farm. That would be a great place to raise my children.
◊◊◊
When we got home, I ran into the house and found my mom and dad in the living room, watching the rug-rats.
“Daddy’s home!” I announced.
All the little ones looked up and cried out in happiness. I got down on the floor so I was at their level and was swarmed. Scarlet and Ashley followed me into the room shortly after that and were promptly ignored. Before they felt slighted, my mom headed them off.
“They need their Daddy time. Let him wear them out for you. When you get back to your place with them, they’ll forget all about him,” she predicted and took the two moms into the kitchen.
It was overwhelming to listen to five little ones try to tell me about their week. I was shown booboos, which had to be kissed, and was told incomprehensible stories—one-year-olds don’t have the best vocabulary. Of course, I provided love and attention to all five.
At one point, I looked around, only to find my dad and even my trusty hound had abandoned me. Watching five one-year-olds was similar to keeping track of all of Precious’s kittens, but I was up to the task. The one advantage I had with the little ones over herding kittens was that my charges wanted their dad’s attention.
◊◊◊
Chapter 16 – Take Her … Please Monday April 3
When I came back from my morning run, I found my parents and Cassidy in the kitchen. Cassidy was getting a cooking lesson from my dad.
“You add olive oil to your butter for flavor. There’s a myth that adding the olive oil will raise the smoke point of butter. The truth is, they burn at similar temperatures,” Dad shared.
“Cassidy got some good news last week,” I said to interrupt.
“What’s that?” Dad asked her.
Cassidy gave me a look that promised a lot, none of it good. I might want to wait until Manaia arrived before doing this. He might be able to at least slow her down if she decided my life would end today. I gave her a cocky look and smiled. Yes, I was asking for it.
“She got a scholarship offer from USC. A full ride,” I shared.