Streak - 2. Chapter 2

 

August 28, 2002

Boston

 

Wade

 

I was so relieved that Craig Fester, the contractor I’d hired, had finished today. He had been all grins and smiles, justifiably proud of having achieved a small miracle by building out the house by the deadline I’d given him. “Welcome home, Mr. Danfield,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said, shooting him my best smile. I knew that if he’d have missed this deadline, I’d have had hell to pay from JJ and Tiffany, and the last thing I needed was to have them here, bitching and moaning at me.

“Let me show you around,” he said. I had a million things on my schedule for today, but this was important, both to make sure everything was done, and to humor his need to proudly show off his craftsmanship.

“Awesome,” Matt said. Craig led us through the ground floor, where not much had been done beyond painting, until we got to the kitchen. There, we’d completely redone it, with new cabinets, countertops, and appliances. “This looks really good!”

“Thank you,” Craig said. “There are quarters here for two servants.” We looked briefly at those, even though I had yet to hire a staff, then he guided us up the large staircase that led to my level. There was a huge bedroom, with a separate room for studying. I’d gone big on this, and had put in huge closets, and a bathroom that was way over the top.

I got to what was supposed to be a closet, and found it blocked off. I wandered around the room, frowning, until I found the entrance off the bathroom. “I don’t remember this closet being configured in this manner,” I noted with no small amount of irritation. I’d gone over these plans with him at length. It was incredibly annoying that he got that wrong.

“I made a change to the plans,” Matt said. That got Craig off the hook, but that just made me shift my irritation from him to Matt. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Fine,” I said, with a decided lack of grace, but pulled myself out of my mood and went up to see Tiffany’s area, complete with rooms for Riley, Maddy, the new baby, and a couple of nurses. We caught the elevator up to JJ’s level, and found his rooms done just as he’d specified, although I wondered if he’d find them acceptable. Alex’s bedroom looked to be in good order too.

“You did a fantastic job,” I said to Craig. I handed him a check to cover the balance of the costs, plus the $50,000 bonus Matt and I had promised him if he’d gotten the job done.

“Thank you,” he said. “If you need anything else, just call.”

“I will do that,” I said. We escorted him out, and were visited almost immediately by the decorator. The house was done, but there was no furniture in it at all. I was wondering how long it would take for that to happen, but as soon as the decorator got here, furniture started arriving. It seemed as if the house was gorging itself full of things, as truck after truck came and deposited its load. Matt, the decorator, and me, armed with the master list we’d compiled, guided the movers to take the various things to their rooms. I’d botched this project in the beginning, but once I’d pulled my head out of my ass, I’d applied my usual hyper-organization to it.

I hadn’t hired any servants yet, but we’d engaged a housekeeper to help us get the bedrooms set up with bedding, and to clean up the floors and everything after the movers went through the house. She was a nice woman in her 30s named Josetta. I liked her.

And so our day went on, with an almost constant influx of people bringing things, or coming in to install fixtures like drapes. I had gotten the timetable pinned down as much as I could, but without Matt’s help, and that of the decorator, it would have been impossible to keep up with things. The elevator had turned out to be a godsend, and we were lucky that it was big enough that most of the furniture fit in it.

“JJ, Tiffany, and the kids just landed,” Matt said. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 6:00pm. I’d been going non-stop since this morning, only taking a small break around noon for a sandwich, and now that I’d paused for a bit, I realized that I was exhausted, and so were the rest of us.

“Do we have the beds set up?” I asked the decorator.

“We do,” she said. “I can come over tomorrow with my crew to assemble and place the rest of the furniture.”

I didn’t really want to stop, I wanted to get it done, but a look at Matt told me that I was pushing everyone a bit too hard. “That sounds fine. We’ll see you at 8:30?”

“We’ll be here,” she promised.

I thanked her and the housekeeper, then ushered them out of the house. “I ordered pizzas,” Matt said.

“Thanks,” I said, smiling at him. “You have been such an amazing help. I don’t know how I would have done this without you.”

“Aren’t you glad you begged me to take you back?” he asked. I rolled my eyes at him. “You can make it up to me next Thursday.”

“Next Thursday?”

“Hockey,” he said, winking at me.

“I don’t know,” I said dubiously, but he gave me a pouty look, and to be honest, the thought of being on the ice sounded like a blast. “How far away is it?” I wondered if that would give me a good reason to blow it off.

“Two miles,” he said. I frowned. “Sucks for you that it’s so close.”

“Fine,” I agreed, caving to the inevitable. With the decorator gone, we had a moment of peace, fifteen minutes to be exact. That peace was interrupted by the arrival of JJ, Tiffany, Riley, Maddy, and two nurses. They had another van with them, hauling all the boxes they’d stored on the plane. I directed the guys to just set them inside the door. We’d tackle them tomorrow.

“We made it,” Tiffany said unnecessarily.

“Maddy and Riley cried for half the flight,” JJ complained.

I picked up Riley, while Tiffany took Maddy, and we walked to the elevator with the nurses. There wasn’t room for all of us. “Let’s take the kids upstairs, then we’ll send the elevator back for you guys,” I said to Matt and JJ.

JJ gave me a dirty look, just as the doorbell rang. “Hang out with me, JJ, while I pay for the pizzas, then we’ll go up and check out your room,” Matt told him.

“Fine,” he agreed grumpily, as the elevator doors closed.

“How you doing, Riley-boy?” I asked him as I head-butted him. He just buried his head in my shoulder. “You’ve probably had a long day.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Tiffany said, “but we have a lot of work to do to get settled.” The elevator doors opened, and we all walked out into their new world. I put Riley down, and Tiffany did the same thing with Maddy, and they immediately began to explore around, tailed by their nurses.

“We tried to get things set up, but this is as far as we got,” I apologized, as we looked at the chaos around us.

“That’s fine, Wade,” she said in a friendly way. “You got a lot done. We’ll finish up over the next few days.”

“Matt ordered pizzas,” I said. “You want me to bring some up here, or you want to go down and eat?”

“Let’s see how this goes,” she said, as she walked around and checked it out. “You did a good job,” she finally said.

“I’m glad you like it,” I said. “I want you to be happy here.”

“Are you happy here?”

I thought about that and smiled. “I’m happy here.” She gave me a peck on the cheek and smiled.

“I think that if you’re happy, it will help the rest of us be happy too. So remember that when you get all moody.” I gave her an irritated look, because I usually wasn’t all that moody.

“I’m going to eat some pizza. Join me when you can,” I said, and then I went down to the kitchen.

Matt appeared about twenty minutes later and immediately started wolfing down food. “JJ found a few things about his room he doesn’t like.”

“There’s a surprise,” I said, rolling my eyes. “We can call Craig and make some changes if we need to.”

“He actually seems pretty pleased,” Matt said. “I think he’s happy to be here.”

“Stunning,” I said sarcastically. “Did he have major issues?”

“No,” Matt said. “He didn’t like the handle to the shower and the shelves in his closet were too high.”

“Then truly the world is about to end,” I joked, getting a chuckle from him. “Let’s go up and see how messed up our room is.”

“If it’s not, maybe we can mess it up,” he said suggestively. We walked up the stairs and I looked around in disgust at the mess. I’d focused on everyone else’s room but mine. The only good news was that the housekeeper had made the bed.

“What’s with the change to this closet?” I asked, remembering that he’d done that.

“That’s my room,” he said. “I’m important enough to get my own room, aren’t I?”

“You are,” I said. “But no windows? And it’s not all that big.”

“Big enough for a sling,” he said, and winked at me. My eyes bulged at that, and he laughed. “I didn’t get to use the one in Chicago, so I figured I’d build one here.”

My sense of propriety caused me to instinctively rebel against the idea of having a room dedicated to sex in my house, but that lasted almost no time at all when I remembered how much fun I’d had with Brad and Robbie’s room in their house in Malibu. I smiled at him and shook my head. “Could be fun.”

“Could be?” he challenged. “Dude, when I have you all tied up, you’ll definitely think its fun.”

I thought about that, then I started to get excited, and when I looked up, he was smirking at me, because he got it. “I probably will.”

He walked up and grabbed me in an authoritative way, and kissed me roughly. “Get in the shower. Let’s see if it works.”

I swallowed hard, feeling the excitement rising in my body just as my dick rose with it, and followed him into the bathroom. There, we spent the last bit of energy we had christening this new house.

 

August 30, 2002

Chicago

 

Will

 

“Dude, this place rocks!” I said, as the elevator opened up into the apartment Matt was supposed to live in. He’d been planning to move to Chicago and go to school here, but since he and Wade had gotten back together, he’d decided to move to Boston instead.

Stef, Dad and I walked in with Geoffrey, the interior designer, who was excited to show us what he’d done. There was a large open area for the dining room, living room, and kitchen; with really high ceilings and exposed stainless steel ventilation ducts. “This is really well done,” Dad said.

A large staircase curved upward toward a door, with the whole last part of the rise enclosed in a glassed area to keep out the elements. “Keeping the staircase open was JJ’s idea,” I pointed out. “You did a great job with that,” I added, giving Geoffrey kudos for making it so nice.

“Thank you,” he said. We decided to go upstairs and look at the deck, which was just as cool as the apartment. The deck had a large sitting area, complete with one of those nifty fire pits, a table and chairs, a full outdoor kitchen, and a hot tub. Geoffrey had even managed to work in a small bathroom. We could look out and see the whole neighborhood, since buildings here weren’t too tall.

“This is really incredible,” Stef said. Geoffrey just beamed with pride. He led us back downstairs where they’d actually ended up creating three bedrooms, which worked out well for us. He’d claimed that there was plenty of room for them, and he was right. Each of them was really nicely done, with its own bathroom that could have been part of a spa.

“You should have seen this place when we first came through,” I told my father. “There was carpeting and appliances that were at least thirty years old. It was nasty.”

“Hard to imagine that,” Dad said.

“I took some ‘before’ pictures,” Geoffrey said, and showed them to us.

“This is one of the more striking transformations I have seen,” Stef said.

“I took ‘after’ pictures too,” Geoffrey said, “for my portfolio.”

“If you need a reference, you have but to ask,” Stef said.

“I’m glad you like it,” Geoffrey said. “It’s a shame Matt won’t be living here.”

“Maybe,” I said, “but what a great place to stay when we come to visit.”

“Perhaps,” Stef said.

“What are you planning to do with it?” I asked him.

“I have not decided yet,” Stef said.

“Don’t sell it,” I said. “Before you do, let me know.”

He gave me a thoughtful look. “If I do, I will let you have the option to buy it first.”

“Cool,” I said. I didn’t want to let such a good place slip away from us. We picked bedrooms, and I managed to snag the one that Matt had been planning to use. I smiled when I saw the room he’d designed as a sex room. I opened it up and found it empty but for a sling hanging from the ceiling.

“What’s in here?” I heard my father say, as he looked over my shoulder.

“A toy for big boys,” I said, chuckling. He rolled his eyes at me, pretending to be annoyed that I might use it.

Geoffrey led us back down to the bar, where Josh was frantically trying to get things ready for the grand opening tonight. It was fun to see him so motivated. “They’ve done a good job with this place too,” Geoffrey allowed. “I gave Josh a little help, enough to get invited to the opening.”

“I am glad you will be there,” Stef said.

The bar looked pretty slick. He’d had the ceiling faceted, so it was really cool, especially with the lighting. I watched as they calibrated the lights, shining them on the facets to change the colors. I checked out the dance floor and the bar, then the bar upstairs and the area behind it. The area behind the upstairs bar was separated by a maze-like entrance, to keep the activity there from being visible from the other areas. The backroom looked pretty slick, with little nooks and crannies obviously designed for more intimate encounters.

“This looks like an orgy waiting to happen,” Dad said.

“It could be,” I said, “but it could also just be a place to hang out that was more private.” The nooks and crannies could easily be used to just sit around and talk, although they probably wouldn’t get much use for that purpose.

“Right,” Dad said skeptically. “Hard to see this as the J-Bar.”

“No shit,” I agreed.

“It has definitely been upgraded,” Stef said.

We went back down to the main bar, and I saw Devon working, getting things all set up. He was a nice guy, and one amazing piece of ass. He’d worked at the other bar we’d gone to in Chicago: the Manhole.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him cheerfully.

“Hey Will,” he said with a smile. I walked around the bar and went up to him and gave him a big hug, and a really nice kiss. “Josh hired me to be the chief bartender.”

“That was a smart move on his part,” I said. “This is my grandfather, Stefan Schluter.”

“I recognized you right away,” Devon said, shaking Stef’s hand. “It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Why thank you,” Stef said. “If your drinks are as good as you are handsome, I will have to watch myself this evening.”

“They are,” he said, winking at Stef.

“And this is my father, Brad Schluter,” I said, introducing Dad.

“I see where Will gets his good looks from,” Devon said, flirting with Dad. It was hilarious to see him get completely flummoxed by that.

“Thank you. It’s nice to meet you,” Dad said stiffly. Stef and I looked at each other and tried not to giggle. They were all busy getting things ready for the opening, so we went back up to the apartment and unpacked.

“Who was that young man behind the bar?” Dad asked.

“That was Devon,” I said. “I hooked up with him a few times when I was here.”

“You have good taste,” he said.

“I do,” I said with a smile.

“And Zach knows you are with these other men?” Stef asked.

That got him a frown. “We’re allowed to be with other people, but I don’t give him details, and neither does he.” I focused on Stef. “We set it up that way last year, after you had that talk with me about barebacking.” Stef had told me that if we weren’t going to be monogamous, we had to set up a deal where we just said we had unsafe sex, and there was no guilt, no retribution; we just wore condoms until we tested negative again.

“I am impressed that you listened to me,” he said, teasing me.

“I always listen to you,” I said. “I don’t always do what you say, but I always listen to you.”

He chuckled. “I am surprised that you did not go to Concord to see Zach this weekend.”

“He’s really absorbed in school and football. I think this program is a lot more intense than it was at Don Bosco,” I said, referencing Zach’s prior school. “If I go up more than once every other week, I think it would distract him.”

“That is nice of you to work with him,” Dad said.

“I’ll go up next week, but we’ll be in Boston on the following weekend,” I said.

“That is your birthday,” Stef noted.

“It’s also Zach’s opening game. They play Mitty at home, but I already told him I couldn’t go to that one.”

“I’m sorry you’ll miss it,” Dad said.

“I’m going to the next one,” I said with a smile. “It’s in Honolulu.”

“That is the one we are all going to, is it not?” Stef asked.

“It is,” I said. “Zach asked me to get a plane ticket for Brent, so he could go. I got him a room at the same hotel we’re at.”

“That was nice of you,” Stef said.

“Zach told Brent that we were a couple.”

“Doesn’t Gathan already know?” Dad asked.

I nodded. “Gathan knows because he was at Stanford when all the crap went down about the Durango, and because of the memorial service, but none of the rest of his family does.” He nodded, to tell me he heard me. “This is more important though.”

“Why?”

“Because Brent is Zach’s favorite brother, the guy he’s tightest with.”

“And by telling him, that makes your relationship even more important,” Stef said, completing my thought.

“It does.”

“I’m going to rest and freshen up,” Dad announced.

“I thought we’d order some pizzas for dinner,” I said.

“An excellent idea,” Stef said. We all vanished into our bedrooms. I’m not sure what they did, but I unpacked, took a nap, then had a nice, long shower and got ready for the big party downstairs. Then I called Zach.

“Hey there,” he said pleasantly.

“Hey yourself,” I said. “How was your day?”

“School was alright,” he said. “Got a bunch of team shit to do this weekend, and maybe a party.”

“That’s cool.”

“How’s Chicago?”

“The apartment is awesome, and the bar is the shit,” I told him. “I’m going to go down and dance.”

“Have fun,” he said, and sounded jealous.

“You too,” I said, and ended the call. I wasn’t trying to make him jealous, but I wasn’t going to lie to him about what I was doing. The pizzas arrived, and I told Dad and Stef they were here, but they didn’t come out and eat, so I went ahead without them. After I stuffed myself, I got in the elevator and went down to Spartacus.

Stef had insisted on putting in sound insulation, so when the music started blasting below, we didn’t really hear it, but I could feel a slight thumping from the bass. It didn’t bother me at all; in fact, I kind of liked it. If I lived here, though, it would be pretty tempting. I chuckled when I thought that the dull thud from the bass was kind of like a church ringing its bells: a call to worship. Even before the elevator doors opened, I could hear the music pulsing, but when they opened, it was like the tunes smacked me. I smiled and wandered over to the bar, checking out the dance floor as I did. It was early, but the place was already packed.

I stood at the bar and one of the guys asked me what I wanted to drink, but I smiled and gestured to Devon. The guy shrugged, went to help someone else, and as soon as Devon was free, he brought me vodka on the rocks. “What’s it like to work at a place that doesn’t water down the drinks?” I teased. At Manhole, the alcohol was easily half water.

“Real good,” he said, winking at me. I was hanging out, enjoying myself, when I saw Cam Heely walk in. He and Matt were friends, so I’d met him when we’d come to Chicago last month.

“Hey!” I said to Cam enthusiastically.

“Hey Will,” he said, and shook my hand. I pouted; he rolled his eyes, and then gave me a friendly kiss.

“Did you eat anything before you got here?”

He shrugged. “A little.”

“Want to take a break and have some pizza?” He gave me an odd look. “If my father has actually rousted himself out of bed, you can meet him.”

“I could eat,” he said, smiling. I downed my vodka, set the glass on the bar, and led him over to the elevator. I pulled out a key card, the kind they had at hotels, and slid it into the elevator slot. The elevator opened, and we got in. I put the key card into another slot and hit ‘3’, for the third floor, and it began to ascend smoothly.

“Slick system,” he said.

“That way I can give out a key to a hot guy, but if he pisses me off, I can go upstairs and deactivate his card,” I joked, getting a chuckle from him. The doors opened and we emerged into the apartment.

“Holy shit. This place is the bomb!” His eyes bulged as he looked around, wide-eyed.

“Want a tour?” He didn’t say anything, so I started heating up the pizzas, then showed him around. When the microwave beeped to tell us the pizzas were warm, Cam handled the pizzas while I grabbed some drinks and we carried them all up to the roof. Stef and Dad were up there eating.

“You remember Cam Heely,” I said to Stef.

They both stood up, and Stef shook his hand. “It is good to see you again.”

“It’s good to see you too,” he said.

“And this is my father, Brad Schluter,” I said.

“Nice to meet you,” Cam said, only when they shook hands, it was like they were frozen in time, and they just stood there, shaking. I looked at Stef and we smiled at each other, as lightning bolts seemed to fly between them.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Dad said, and then they both looked embarrassed that they’d been shaking for way too long.

“Have some pizza,” I said to Cam, to get them beyond that.

“Thanks,” he said.

“You want to go downstairs?” I asked Stef.

He smiled. “I would love to. We will see you two down there.” We walked down the stairs and into the elevator. “That was interesting.”

“Looks like Dad gets into guys Matt has been with,” I joked.

“Evidently,” he said with a smile. I could feel him getting tense was we rode the elevator down. I knew he was nervous about going down to this bar. He used to enjoy them, but that was before he got ‘older’. Anyone over 30 was ‘older’ in a gay club.

“You’ll have a good time,” I said.

“It is not easy to walk into a gay bar when you are over fifty,” he said. I hit the ‘stop’ button and looked at him.

“You look great, not a year over thirty,” I told him honestly. “And you’re richer than God. You will be one of the most popular men in the club tonight.”

“For my money,” he grumbled, letting out his insecurities.

“That’s bullshit,” I said firmly. “They’ll be into you for the man that you are, for the success that you are. What you have achieved: that’s something to be proud of.”

“So you say,” he said, but smiled at me.

“This place is packed,” I said. “And half the reason is that Josh leaked word that you’d be here.”

“He did?” Stef asked nervously.

“He did. And that’s the reason there are three guards here just to keep an eye on you.”

He reached to pull the stop button out so we could continue descending, but he paused instead. “Thank you.”

I held up my finger, the one we’d pricked and held together to become blood brothers. Stef had originally done that with my father, and I had followed in his footsteps and done the same thing. He held his finger to mine; a sign more powerful than saying ‘I love you’ and then I pulled out the stop button for him, sending us down to the ground floor. The door opened and we walked out with Stef going first and me following him. By the time we got to the bar, I could feel the buzz as guys noticed he was here. “They’re all talking about you.”

Devon came up and smiled at him. “I made you my specialty,” he said to Stef.

“And what is that?” Stef asked.

“Sex on the beach,” Devon said, raising his eyebrow, and making us laugh. The music was pulsing and loud, so we had to shout to be heard over it. Stef took a sip of his drink, and a really hot dude with brown hair came up next to him.

“Wanna dance?” he asked Stef.

“But of course,” Stef said. I watched him go out onto the dance floor, amazed at how agile he was, and how well he moved his body.

“He’s got some moves,” Devon said, winking at me.

I motioned him toward me. “You’ll be pretty tired when this is over.”

“I won’t be that tired,” he said, his lips brushing against my ear.

“I was thinking it might be safer for you to stay here.”

“Where?”

“I’ve got a room,” I flirted.

“You do, eh?”

“I do,” I said.

“We’ll see,” he said, playing coy.

“Your call,” I said, acting like I didn’t care. “It’s got a separate room with a sling.”

His eyes bulged. “Maybe you can show it to me when I get a break.”

“Maybe I can,” I said, smiling at him.

 

August 30, 2002

Chicago

 

Brad

 

Stef and I sat on the rooftop deck, eating some pizza and washing it down with beer. “Pizza and beer have to be one of the best combinations ever,” I said.

“Perhaps,” he said with a hint of disdain, since they were both a little plebian for him. “We are going to Boston tomorrow?”

“We are,” I said. “I want to check up on everyone, and I want to make sure that JJ isn’t being a royal pain in the ass.”

“I thought you addressed that problem when you explained to him that Wade was in charge of him and his career,” he mused.

“I thought I did too, but I want to make sure,” I said. “Matt and Wade are doing really well, but they’ll be a little stressed when Alex moves in. I don’t want JJ to do anything to cause them problems.”

“I think they are all doing just fine, but I am willing to go to Boston to see how their house turned out and to visit,” he said.

“What are you planning to do for Will’s birthday?”

“I usually buy my grandchildren cars for their sixteenth birthdays,” he said.

“That won’t work,” I said. “I already gave him my Ferrari.”

“That is a bit much for a first car, is it not?”

“He told me that’s what he wanted, and asked me if he could buy mine. If not, he said he could get his own,” I said. “In this case, he knew what he wanted, and he was going to go get it.” That was typical of Will, and I saw no reason to argue with him about it.

“And you prefer Porsches anyway,” he said, smiling at me, getting that by me agreeing to give Will my Ferrari, I’d need to replace it with a new car.

“And I prefer Porsches,” I agreed. “I really don’t have a problem with it, especially since we completely ignored his birthday last year, and the one before that wasn’t all that great either.”

“I was thinking along the same lines as you,” Stef said. “I think I will give him this building.”

“You’re going to give him this building?” I asked, pretty shocked at that. “A building with a gay bar in it!”

“I think he would appreciate it,” Stef said. “And I think it will be a good experience for him, learning to manage it. He has done quite well with Josh; much better than Matt or I did.”

“Did he sleep with him too?” I asked, rolling my eyes at my son’s sluttiness.

“I do not think so. You can ask him. I would use that same tone,” he said sarcastically, knowing that Will would make my life painful if I pulled that kind of attitude with him.

“I think I’ll just mind my own business,” I grumbled, getting a chuckle from him.

“A wise decision.”

The door opened and we turned to see Will walking out, and behind him was a guy with dark brown hair. He was partially hidden by Will, probably because Will was a couple of inches taller than him. I wasn’t really all that focused on him until Will moved aside. Will re-introduced him to Stef. This was Cam Heely. This was the first guy Matt had been with. I just stared at him, admiring how handsome he was, how attractive he was.

“And this is my father, Brad Schluter,” Will said.

“Nice to meet you,” he said, and then his brown eyes locked onto mine, even as we extended our hands to shake. When our hands met, I felt a jolt so strong it was like I was shocked, only I wasn’t. I was drawn into him like he was a magnet, and he seemed to be drawn into me just as much. I hadn’t felt this kind of attraction for a long time, a really long time.

I suddenly realized that I’d been holding his hand for way too long. “It’s nice to meet you too,” I said nervously. He smiled at me shyly, and God, he was so cute it just about made me hyperventilate.

“Have some pizza,” Will said to Cam, breaking the spell that had captivated us.

“Thanks,” he said. He sat down and took a piece of pizza and started eating it, while I focused on the piece on my plate, but I couldn’t stop looking at him. I heard Stef and Will talking, then I heard them leave, and then I was alone with Cam. “This is a nice place,” he said, pulling me out of my daze.

“It is,” I agreed. “We just flew in for the big opening, and to see how it turned out.”

“I’ve stopped by here a couple of times a week to see the progress, but I haven’t seen it lately,” he said. “It’s been really cool to see it transformed.”

“What do you do?” I asked.

“I’m a waiter, and I go to school. I’m at DePaul, close to here. I got a little delayed, but I’m almost done.”

“What are you majoring in?” I asked.

“Accounting,” he said. “How boring is that?”

“It’s not boring, it’s vital,” I told him. “Besides, you don’t seem boring.”

“Neither do you,” he said, and looked down as if he was embarrassed.

“I’m not,” I joked, making him smile.

“You’re probably anxious to get down to the party,” he said.

“Not really,” I said, smiling at him. “Unless you are.”

“Nope,” he said. “I’m good.”