CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Ambition is Not the New Black
28
Hacker Geek
Commandment(s) Broken:
7- He shalt not lie to me
8 - He shalt not covet porn
9 - He shalt not cheat on me
I let out a sigh of relief when I saw Nick at the boarding gate. Until I saw Tandy beside him, with a cute pink carry on and a look of triumph.
“Do you have an assignment in Silicon Valley, too?”
She enjoyed my worry for a moment longer than necessary before she said, “Just more than enough airline miles for a free trip. So when Nick suggested I join you, I thought, why not?”
I could have listed a hundred reasons why not. But instead I sat down, opened the book I’d brought with me, and started reading. Nick couldn’t have been clearer if he’d made a list of his own. It didn’t matter that I planned to burn the book.
Nigel met us at the airport in his rickety Volvo that had been a gift from his parents when he went off to college. He looked exactly the same as he had in college. Shorts, a t-shirt with a few random holes, sandals, long hair. His eyes were red, whether from weed or lack of sleep, I couldn’t tell.
He gave me a bear hug when he saw me. “Diana. So great to see you, dude.”
He stepped back to scrutinize me from afar. “You did it. New York City and a writer. Good for you. I always knew you could do it, dude.”
I introduced him to Nick and Tandy. Nick greeted him like an old buddy, even though he was still giving me the silent treatment. I wondered if the feeling of our kiss still lingered on his lips like it did on mine? Probably not. Tandy’s lips had probably rubbed off any memory pretty thoroughly.
Nigel had a way of making me feel like I was on vacation, so it didn’t feel odd at all to pile our suitcases into the back of his Volvo and drive along the coast to the resort I’d booked for our weekend reunion. We’d had a lot of fun in that car during our college years, but… “I would have thought you’d have a nice new Beamer by now.”
“I keep meaning to, but I hardly get away from Sunspot. There’s always a game that has to be rolled out on deadline. I thought my boss was going to have a cow when I told him I’d be gone this weekend. We’re supposed to get the update to Endless Nightmare VI out by Monday.”
Since Nigel was a video game and TV junkie, I thought a weekend of hiking and horseback riding would be the perfect getaway. Perfect, except for one thing. There was no reason a fourth couldn’t be added on to the activities. So Tandy was able to join us. For everything.
“Horses are big, aren’t they?” I eyed the huge monster I had been assigned to ride.
“Haven’t you ever ridden one before?” Tandy was already up and mounted on hers. “I used to ride for show when I was a girl. Had to give it up when I moved to the city.”
Of course she had. I let the stablehand give me a boost up into the saddle, from where the ground looked far away. Horseback riding always looked so romantic from a distance.
Nick was still giving me the cold shoulder, but Nigel offered encouragement from the back of his horse. “Think of it as if you were riding a surfboard. Hang on, keep your balance, and don’t throw up.”
“Will do.” I clutched the pommel of the saddle tightly, glad that I’d only arranged for a docile, two mile ride around the resort property. I could have had Tina book the whole weekend as a horseback trip into the desert and back. That would have been a disaster.
<<>>
“No way!” Emily’s squeal made me shove the cell phone away from my ear.
Someone at the edge of the pool nearby even turned his head to look at me. I suppose cell phone conversations and poolside enjoyment didn’t mix well. Tough. I needed to talk to Emily.
“Yes way. Right now Nigel and Tandy are having fun the old fashioned way.” I couldn’t help the little giggle that escaped me at the thought. Served Nick right. Traitor.
“You shouldn’t be so happy, Diana. Nick liked her.”
“He just lost him mind for a minute, that’s all.” I refused to believe he really had liked her. “He said she was fun.” I thought of the horse ride, and the mini-golf, and had to grudgingly agree that she had been fun. “Apparently, Nigel agreed. And we both know his appreciation for fun.”
“Poor Nick.” Emily stifled a giggle. “Where are they?”
“In my room.” That was the only downside to the fact that Tandy and Nigel had decided to go have fun together halfway through our evening game of mini-golf. Well, first they had shared Nigel’s joint behind every potted bush and water feature. Then Nigel had offered to show Tandy the not-quite released version of his company’s new game while I finalized the arrangements for the parasailing adventure we had scheduled for the next day.
Because they did really seem to know how to have fun together, and Tandy had said she was curious about the game, I hadn’t thought twice about it until I got back to the room and noticed the sock on the doorknob. “He did the sock on the door thing.”
Emily let out a shocked gasp. “Shades of college days. You’d think he would have grown up by now.”
“I don’t think working for a game company actually requires you to grow up.” The sock was how Nigel and his roommates clued each other in to a girl in the house. It was also how I found out that Nigel considered monogamy optional. Emily knew that story, she’d been there when I’d come back, after having sent a very angry break up text while standing outside the door listening to what was going on inside.
“Where are you?”
“At the bar.” I said. “Wait. That sounds bad. Let me be clear, the resort bar is surrounded by a pool and cabanas and lots of gorgeous eye candy to please men and women of all persuasions.” I didn’t want her to worry about my state of mind.
“So. You’re mellow. I guess that fits where Nigel is concerned.” She laughed. “Where’s Nick?”
“He disappeared when they did. For all I know it’s a threesome — and don’t ask me to go find out. Whatever happens in California stays in California.”
She groaned. “Please don’t put that visual in my head.”
I was already busy wiping it from my own. “Yeah. Let’s hope there won’t be any pictures for Olivia to view.”
“What are you going to do?”
“What I always did with Nigel — mellow out, dude.”
Emily sighed. I could tell she was shaking her head. “What did you ever see in him?”
That was an easy one. “Fun. I never had so much fun as when Nigel got some oddball idea and we went off to try it.” I thought of Nick and Tandy. Maybe I could understand why he’d like her. The traitor.
“I remember the time he got you to bungy jump, and then I had to scrape you off the walls for two days afterward.”
“It wasn’t the bungy jumping, it was bungy-falling that upset me.”
“Glad you’re taking it better this time.”
“We aren’t dating this time. And I could tell, you know. I could see there was nothing there anymore. Of all the guys I was serious about, I think Nigel is the one I wish I’d just stayed friends with. He’s a great friend for an adventure, but not the best boyfriend material. He never met a commandment he wanted to keep.”
Emily laughed again. “Remember when he said that all games had cheat codes, and relationships should have them too?”
“Yeah. He never tried to play Monopoly with my dad. There were no cheat codes in our house.” Well, not that I knew about until my parents′ big d day.
“Enjoy the beach. You have it better than Nick. I think he really liked Tandy.”
“I wish you were here. You could console him.”
“You can do it.”
“I don’t know. Things are still weird between us. I wasn’t even sure he was going to show up, and then he brought Tandy. I really, really wish you were here.”
“I’m glad I’m not.”
There was a lilt in her voice that took me out of my problems and back to her life. “Why?”
“Phil and I are…having fun being idiots together.”
The rush of relief brought tears to my eyes. “Emily….” For a minute I couldn’t finish, there was a lump in my throat. “You go make another little idiot for me to love, okay?”
“And you go give Nick a hug. Say it’s from me.”
“Will do.” Not. I hadn’t confessed to Emily that Nick had kissed me, so her suggestion had been innocently meant. A friend hug. A comfort hug. A sorry-your-fun-girlfriend-dumped-you-for-my-ex hug.
But she was right. Nigel ditching me for Tandy was not the same thing at all as Tandy ditching Nick for Nigel. I needed to go find him, even if things were weird between us.
He was the only one who would understand what it meant that Emily and Phil were being idiots together. Even if he was still mad at me, he’d be glad for them. But I had no intention of giving him a hug. Of any kind.
<<>>
Nick’s room was not nearly as nice as the little bungalow Tina had booked for Nigel and me. She must have liked Nick, though, because the room had an ocean view, and, unfortunately, a view of the bungalow where Nigel and Tina were now having fun.
I walked along the path that went by balcony of his room and saw him sitting there, staring out to the sea watching the sun set. I called out. “Want some good news?”
He gazed down at me for a little while, as if he were trying to figure out who I was, before he said. “Only if it doesn’t come with a side of I-told-you-so.”
I took pity on him. “I just talked to Emily. She and Phil made up.”
He was silent for so long I thought he wasn′t going to answer. Then he said, “Want a beer?”
I held up my wine glass. “I’m BYOB.”
He nodded. “My kind of guest. Come on up.”
We sat on the balcony until the sun was below the horizon and not even the glow could be seen. The white sock on the bungalow doorknob, however, was still visible. After a while, I said, “I should probably get another room. I don’t think that sock is going to move tonight.”
He took a swig of his beer. “Isn’t that kind of a college thing? What did you ever see in that guy?”
“Fun.” Like Tandy. I bit my tongue before I said it out loud.
“Ah. Yes. I suppose I can relate.”
I felt bad for teasing him. No one liked to get dumped. “Emily sent a hug, I forgot to tell you.”
“Did she have any suggestions on what we say to them tomorrow when we go parasailing? I assume we’re going to keep this from Olivia and your readers?”
I shuddered at the thought of what Olivia would say if she found out about this. “Well, if Nigel is true to form, he’ll act like this was the way it was supposed to go.”
“What about Tandy?”
“If she wants to keep her job, she won’t spill the beans to anyone at work. How she’ll deal with you and me tomorrow? Your guess is as good as mine. I didn’t even know she was fun until you told me and Nigel confirmed it.”
“Is that your way of sneaking in an I-told-you-so?”
I put my hand on his knee. “I would not have predicted this in a million years, so I can’t tell you I-told-you-so. I’m sorry. I really am.” I joked, “And not just because my nice bungalow is now occupado and I have nowhere to sleep.”
He laughed, a little reluctantly, but real. “You can stay here. There are two beds.”
The weirdness was back in the air, triple thick. I wanted to ask him what he meant by that. But all I managed was, “Thanks. The expense account will be grateful.”
He stood, a darker shape in the darkness of the balcony. “We should have turned on the lights.”
“Lights only bring bugs. I like the dark.” I stood up too. Small rooms have small balconies. We were practically touching. “I really am going to burn that book. I promise.”
“You should.” He tried to brush past me.
I blocked his way. “Kiss and make up?”
“Diana…” His hands were warm on my elbows, moving up toward my shoulders.
“What happens in California stays in California.”
We kissed and made up.