Todd grinned and waved a breakfast sandwich under Zach’s nose, prepared to jump out of the way if Zach hurled all over the floor.
“What?” Zach mumbled without opening his eyes. He swatted his hand aimlessly in front of his face before finally sitting bolt upright. He squinted at Todd like the light hurt his eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Hangover cure,” said Todd. “But if you’re not man enough for it--”
Zach grabbed the sandwich and, looking green, crammed it into his face.
Todd laughed. He just couldn’t be in a bad mood.
“What the hell?” asked Zach around large bites of egg and cheese. “I guess you had a good time last night.”
“Best Spring Fling ever,” said Todd.
“Gotta hand it to you,” said Zach. “She was hot. She feel as good as she looked?”
“A gentleman never tells,” said Todd primly, neatly getting out of admitting that nothing had actually happened.
“What the--”
Heavy footsteps came thundering down the stairs. “Thank God, Todd, you’re back.” Powell grabbed Todd by both shoulders, and Todd wanted to back away. Whatever Powell wanted with Todd, there was no way his eyes should have been quite that frantic.
“You are way too keyed up for the morning after the biggest party of the year,” observed Todd needlessly. “If that didn’t relax you, I don’t know what will.”
“The dean has been calling all morning. Last night, too. He wants to see you, and he wants to see you yesterday.”
Todd shrugged. “What’s he gonna do? Put me on probation and take me off the football team? They did that already.”
“They could expel you.”
“Not any worse than what already happened,” said Todd.
“They could want to tell you you passed the calc exam after all,” said Zach. He shoved the bag of food at Powell. “Have some. You’ll be more optimistic.”
Powell pointed at the door. “Go!” he ordered Todd.
Since it was the dean’s office or a plane to Chicago, Todd went.
The dean’s office was in an old-fashioned building in the middle of campus. There were a few small classrooms on the first floor; they, like everything else on campus, were quiet and dark. Todd loped up the ornate staircase and proceeded straight to the receptionist’s desk. “Todd Manning,” he told her, and she started to babble about how relieved the dean would be that he’d finally turned up. Thirty seconds later, Todd was seated in an enormous chair looking across an enormous desk at the dean.
“I was afraid you’d already left,” the dean said. “Many of the underclassmen have.”
“I almost did. Dad isn’t too happy about that calc exam, as you can imagine.” Todd did everything he could to look helpless, innocent, and obedient.
The dean smiled benevolently. “But your father was quite happy to learn that your grade has been reevaluated when I spoke to him last night. He even mentioned something about a new car.”
Todd’s heart was in his throat. He had hoped that Coach would get the dean or the president or the board of trustees or someone to lean on Professor Nader, but he’d thought that the time for that had passed. “Re-evaluated how?” he asked.
“You got a C. That keeps you off of academic probation and on the football team, which is exactly where all of us want to see you.”
“I asked Professor Nader and he said that that wouldn’t happen,” said Todd. He knew he should have left well enough alone, but he couldn’t help but be curious about what had gone down.
“Then we’re lucky he changed his mind,” said the dean noncommittally. “But, Todd, his concerns about your attendance and your comprehension of the material are legitimate. We all understand that there is an extra level of pressure on our student-athletes and that you should have been advised against taking such a difficult course to begin with. But it might be an appropriate gesture if you were willing to consider summer school.”
The day before, Todd would have politely replied that such a thing was impossible because he already had plans. (He would not have mentioned that those plans involved beer and Fort Lauderdale.) The day before, Todd would have been too busy seething at the implication that he was too dumb to have been taking calculus in the first place to even consider the option of taking yet more classes. Today, he knew how very close his life had come to making an abrupt and bizarre turn. Today, he knew that Blair would be in Llanview this summer and that this would give him a chance to see her again without coming off as a stalker.
“I guess I could do summer school a little,” he told the dean, and was rewarded when the man stammered with surprise and thrust a packet of forms and pamphlets into Todd’s hand.
Todd ran down the stairs even more quickly than he’d run up them. He ran the rest of the way back to KAD and flung open the door. Unsurprisingly, Powell was cleaning up the mess the party had left. Zach was slouched in a chair perusing the latest Playboy.
“Fellas, you’re never gonna believe this!”
Powell snapped to nervous attention. “What’d the dean want?”
“Remember the calc final, the one that got me kicked off the football team for next semester? The F that shook the world?”
“Yeah,” drawled Zach, standing up, magazine abandoned.
“Presto changeo. It’s a C.” A smile spread across Todd’s face. It was more real now that he was telling Powell and Zach.
“You passed!” Zach high-fived Todd.
“How’d that happen?” Powell wanted to know.
“I don’t know. As far as I can tell, the coach must’ve gone to Professor Nader and put his hand around his neck and said real calm, real soft, that I was the best defensive back on the team and that if he didn’t reassess my grade, bad things might happen.”
“No, no, no. You know what probably happened. The coach probably talked to the administration, and they put the pressure on Nader, man.” Zach clasped Todd’s hand again. “The Llanview Lions smack attack is back!” Zach thrust his chest at Todd, and Todd knocked him laughing onto the couch.
Powell remained sullen, and in Todd’s happiness he felt the tiniest twinge of regret for having scared him so badly the day before. “Hey.” He punched Powell on the shoulder. “What’s the matter, Powell? Ain’t you happy for me?”
“Congratulations,” said Powell flatly.
“What’s up with you?”
Powell kept cleaning, so Todd and Zach left him to it and found a football and a few beers that had survived the previous night.
An hour later, Kevin drifted in. “Isn’t it a little early in the day to start partying again, guys?” he asked, old woman that he was. It obviously ran in the family, Todd mused, watching Powell bury himself in a textbook.
“I dunno, Kev. If it were up to me, I’d party all day. I’d party all night. I’m invincible! Nothing is ever gonna get in my way!” He let out a primal scream at how good life was when it had been so bad twenty-four hours earlier. He updated Kevin on his meeting with the dean.
“Professor Nader raised your grade from an F to a C?” asked Kevin dubiously.
“It’s amazing what a little extortion will do,” Powell chimed in.
“Not only am I back on the football team next season, but my old man’s gonna come through with the car. Come on,” he clapped Powell on the shoulder. “Best party ever didn’t cheer you up, breakfast didn’t cheer you up, we’ll try lunch. I’m buying.”
“Big spender,” said Zach. “McDonald’s again?”
“Country Club. We’ll put Powell back in his natural element.”
“I’m meeting my mom and my sister there,” said Kevin. “I’ll give you a ride.”
Kevin’s sister Jessica was all of twelve years old, and while Kevin was still parking the car she dragged her mother over to say hello to ‘Cousin Powell.’ The kid actually addressed Powell that way, like ‘Cousin’ was some kind of royal title. Kevin and Powell’s family belonged to another century.
“Hey, guys, here’s Kevin’s mom,” came the quick, muttered warning. They all jumped to their feet, Kevin-worthy manners at the ready.
“Hello, Powell. Hi, Todd, Zach, how are you. You haven’t by any chance seen Kevin?” asked Victoria Lord Buchanan with appropriate regality.
“We’re meeting him for lunch, but he’s late, as usual,” piped up the cherub. Todd felt oddly inclined to like her. He’d never heard anyone criticize Kevin before, except for Rachel, and that didn’t count because Rachel didn’t like anyone but herself and maybe her parents.
“That’s our fault,” said Powell. “He gave us a ride over here and he’s parking the car. We’re sorry.”
“No harm done.” She turned the whole of her attention to Todd. Proper breeding had no doubt taught her to find something to say to each of her cousin’s friends. “How was the Spring Fling party? Was it a big success?”
“Absolutely,” Todd told her. Then he realized that this was an unexpected opportunity. “We got to meet an old friend of Kevin’s. Blair...” And with horror, he discovered that he didn’t even know her last name.
“Blair Cramer? Dorian’s niece? I didn’t even realize that she was back in town.”
“Blair Cramer,” Todd repeated, committing it to memory. “Apparently Blair wants to stay in Llanview and start up her own business and her aunt wants her to go to graduate school. From what Kevin says, it sounds like Blair’s aunt usually gets what she wants.”
With interest, Todd detected the slightest twitch of irritation under Mrs. Buchanan’s composed mask of politeness. “Dorian and I have had our differences over the years, but I would never deny that she raised two lovely girls. Blair and Cassie both are wonderful young ladies.”
Todd hadn’t needed to be reminded about the lovely part.
“Cassie works for me at my newspaper, in fact,” Mrs. Buchanan continued. “And Blair graduated with honors last year, so I don’t doubt that Dorian wants to see her reach her full potential.”
“There’s Kevin,” announced Jessica, putting an end to her mother’s very interesting musings. Todd decided to forgive the kid since she was clearly just hungry.
“Pumping Kevin’s mother for information about your babe from last night,” said Zach as he plopped back into his seat. “Smooth.”
“You have to take opportunities when they present themselves,” said Todd, not bothering to deny it. He was rather impressed with himself.
“You got her into bed without even knowing her last name?”
“I never said anything about a bed. There may have been a park bench.”
Zach whistled and high-fived Todd. Powell folded his arms across his chest.
“You don’t approve of that, either, Powell?” asked Zach. “The lady was a consenting adult.”
Todd shoved aside the irony. Not only had nothing happened for Blair to consent to, but he had almost done something to Marty that he knew for a fact she didn’t want. Marty would have deserved it, but still...
The irony wouldn’t be shoved. Blair’s and Marty’s faces flashed before his eyes in a dizzying spiral.
“I’m going to go find our waiter,” said Todd, and he hurried toward the bar and away from Zach and Powell.
He wasn’t the only one at the bar. The bartender was explaining to a small cluster of patrons that there had been a minor problem in the kitchen, but that it was resolved and the waiters would be out momentarily. “It won’t affect your food at all,” the bartender promised. “It’s not that kind of situation. We’re sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“I should hope not,” grumbled various would-be diners, shrillest among them a red-haired, middle-aged woman. Todd turned to her with instinctive dislike, and that was when his eyes met Blair’s.
He couldn’t stop the goofy grin from spreading over his face. Of course she came here; perhaps they had even been in the same room before and he hadn’t noticed her because he’d been thinking about football or Marty or KAD or something stupid.
“Hi, Todd,” she said, green eyes impossibly wide.
She remembered his name. She was announcing to the world that she knew him. What a difference day made; yesterday, he’d been the joke of the party.
“Hi, Blair. How are you this morning?”
She drifted closer to him and he found himself lightheaded as the perfume-scented air moved around them. “Tired,” she purred. “We were up all night after all.”
The older woman-- this must be the famous Aunt Dorian-- rolled her eyes. “Really, Blair?”
“Todd is a student, Aunt Dorian. At least, only just got expelled yesterday. You wanted me to be a student, so I went to him so he could teach me what students do.”
“You could have just told me that you felt that strongly about not going back to school right now.”
“I did. You didn’t hear me.”
“Message received,” Dorian snapped. “You will stay here and start your Melador, and I will support you in any way I can. Come along.”
“In a minute.”
Dorian raised an eyebrow.
“Really. Just a minute,” Blair said, and Dorian left them alone after shooting a final glare at Todd.
“I’m sorry for using you to make a point to my aunt,” she said.
Todd was sorry that she’d used him too. For fifteen wonderful hours, he’d thought that she was different. He’d thought that she wasn’t like Carole, who’d called him a freak; or Marty, who’d turned on him; or Emily, who’d laughed at him. But she was just one more woman who thought he was a loser, a joke, stupid. His father had always told him to beware of women, and over and over he made the same mistake. Maybe he was just as dumb as they all said he was.
Damned if he’d let Blair know that. “Babe, you can use me any time you want,” he told her. “As long as we go for someplace more comfortable than a park bench in the rain, if you know what I mean.”
“That’s not what I meant!” Her hand was warm on his arm and he wanted to shrug it off but couldn’t bring himself to do it. “Last night was nice. I really like you. I went out to annoy Dorian, but I went with you because I wanted to.”
“Whatever,” he told her.
“It’s just that this morning the timing was so perfect. It’s not personal, you know. She hates every man who looks at Cassie or me.”
“Even the minister?”
“Especially the minister. I really didn’t want you to think-- you’re so young--”
Todd laughed. “Please. You’re two years older than I am.”
She eyed him critically.
“I have my sources,” Todd told her.
“Two years is a lot when the woman’s the older one. There are probably people in this room talking about how I’m a cradle robber right now.”
“You care what they think?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Good.”
“What about you? How soon do you have to see your father?”
He smirked. “Not this summer. They changed my grade. I’m not on probation and I’m still on the team.”
“Todd, that’s great!” To his complete and utter shock, she flung her arms around him in the tightest, most enthusiastic hug he’d ever had off the football field.
“Blair!” her aunt’s voice sang out. “You’re keeping us waiting!”
Blair disentangled herself and scrambled across the room.
Zach, too, was gesturing that Todd needed to hurry back now that the waiter was at their table. Todd threw Zach an obscene gesture. He didn’t like to hurry, not when his nether regions were suddenly hard and hot and tight.
No football hug had ever done that to him.
Fifteen hours and ten minutes were all it had taken Blair Cramer to complicate the shit out of his life.
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I love this story. I was looking for some old school T&B and this delivers
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