Streak - 24. Chapter 24

October 26, 2002

Goodwell

Charlottesville, VA

Wade

Alex and I walked the horses along, with Goodwell off in the distance, and as we neared it, it seemed that Alex’s dilemma loomed larger on him. “So what are you going to do?” I asked him, more as a prompt than with any intention to pry.

“I think that in order to make it up to JJ, I must fly to Spokane, even though I really have no idea where that is.”

I laughed at that. “It’s in Washington State, which is just south of British Columbia in Canada,” I explained. “It’s on the other side of the country.”

“It’s on the west coast?”

“The state of Washington is located on the west coast, but the city of Spokane is farther inland,” I explained. “I’ve only been there once before. It’s not among my top ten destinations.”

“As I am not going for the scenery, I don’t think that will matter much,” he said. “I wonder how long it would take to fly there.”

“I would guess it would take you at least five hours,” I told him. “Let’s look up some flights online, and we’ll do our best to get you there. Once you’re there, you can just fly back with JJ.”

“I appreciate your help,” he said with a soft smile. “Navigating the ins and outs of American airlines is a bit new to me.”

“Well, you’re here to get an education,” I joked pleasantly. “Why don’t you go upstairs and get ready, and by the time you’re done, I’ll have figured out a way to get you there.”

“I am once again in your debt,” he said.

“If you don’t make it, and JJ does badly, then my life at home will be hell for at least a couple of weeks. It’s worth it for me to turn into a travel agent for a few minutes.” I thought briefly about my demeanor with Alex. I was cheerful and jocular, characteristics I didn’t usually exhibit. It dawned on me that my mother wasn’t the only one who relaxed when coming to Goodwell. This place was so much more than just land and a house.

Alex hurried up the stairs to get ready, while I went into the study and began to tackle the challenge of flying from Charlottesville, Virginia to Spokane, Washington on a Saturday morning. It took me 45 minutes to get everything arranged, but our timing was so good that he strolled into the study just as I was finishing up.

“I have managed to put myself and my things together,” he said.

“You did that very quickly, and that’s a good thing,” I said. “Come on.”

I led him out to the front entry, where the driver brought up the big Suburban limo we used to shuffle ourselves to the airport and back. “I did not get to say goodbye to everyone. Will you apologize for me?”

“Absolutely,” I told him. “Here’s the plan. You’re going to take my plane to Denver. There you can catch a direct flight into Spokane.”

“I feel bad using your plane,” he objected.

“It’s the only way to get you there fast enough. I’d have them take you all the way, but we may run into issues with air time when they take us back to Boston tomorrow.” The driver took his bag and put it in the limo for him.

“Thank you,” he said, and then he shocked me by giving me a really nice kiss. Alex was a good kisser, really good, and I’d experienced and enjoyed his oral skills in the past, but this one wasn’t like the others. This one had no passion, it was only friendship.

I smiled. “You’re welcome. Now hurry.” He got into the limo and it took off down the road. I watched it go, and then turned around to find Matt glaring at me.

“What was that?” he demanded.

“Alex is flying out to Spokane to see JJ skate.”

“So that was your cue to make out with him in front of the house?”

“I wasn’t making out with him,” I said, and felt myself getting annoyed with him. “It was just a friendly kiss.”

“It looked a little more than friendly.”

“I don’t know how it looked to you, but as one of the people doing the kissing, I’m telling you that the only emotion there was friendship,” I said firmly, and saw that piss him off. I was escalating this, and the last thing I wanted was to ruin our time here. “Are my pants tenting out?” I asked with a silly smile.

He smiled back, then reached out and grabbed my dick. “Nope.”

“The only way I would sleep with someone else was if I was forced to,” I told him sincerely.

“I’m sorry,” he said, relenting. “It’s just that I almost lost you to him, so it makes me nervous.”

“You probably felt kind of like I felt when you went out with the guys after practice and didn’t call me,” I said.

“Yeah, but I’m not nearly as bitchy about it,” he said, making me laugh and annoying me at the same time.

“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely. “Now that I know that it bothers you, I’ll keep some physical space between Alex and me.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I trust you. I think I was just a little freaked out about him being with Mary Ellen.”

“We’ll see if he explains it to JJ, and how that ultimately turns out,” I said with dread. I didn’t see JJ as the kind of guy to forgive a cheating boyfriend or girlfriend, even though he and Alex didn’t seem to have a formal commitment.

We strolled into the kitchen to eat and found my mother there. “Good morning,” she said pleasantly.

“Good morning,” I responded in a similar tone. “Alex had to fly to Spokane, and had to leave somewhat abruptly. He asked me to say goodbye for him.”

“You must tell him how much I enjoyed his company. I have not enjoyed an evening like that for some time.”

“It was fun,” I agreed, and then got a little nervous because I was letting my guard down around her.

“If it is not too much trouble, I think I will stay here and go home tomorrow,” she said. She barely hid the irritation at having to ask me.

“You are welcome to stay,” I said automatically.

She sighed. “There is an anti-war demonstration in Washington today. The last thing I want is to be delayed by those people.” She said ‘those people’ with a sneer, as if referring to the unwashed masses.

“I think that if we actually do go to war, you had better get used to it,” I told her.

“It’s not a question of if we go to war, it is a question of when,” she said authoritatively. I was tempted to argue with her, but she was well-connected in Republican circles, and they’d be the drivers of an invasion of Iraq.

“We are going to start an unnecessary war?” I asked pointedly.

“We have to fight terrorism at its roots, Wade,” she said, as if she were lecturing a student. “We cannot risk letting those terrorists use Iraq as a base, only to strike at us again like they did on September 11.” Matt sat there eating and saying nothing, but I knew he was paying close attention to our conversation.

“Please save the sales pitch for the press,” I said coldly. “You and I both know that Iraq doesn’t have ties to Al Qaeda, and you know there’s no proof they were involved in those attacks. This is a fabricated war.”

She arched an eyebrow, which was her way of conceding that point. “That region is unstable yet vital,” she said, only now her tone had become almost evil. “This is a way for us to ensure access to oil, while taking out Saddam Hussein at the same time. We can bring democracy to the Arab world. Is not toppling a tyrant a good cause?”

“It is not a good enough cause to go to war,” I said. “This is going to cost a fortune, both in lives and money. This is going to be a disaster.”

“It is not going to be a disaster,” she said. “It is going to be glorious, and profitable. You may want to consider diverting some of your assets into defense and oil companies.”

This was an argument on which neither one of us would find common ground. Going to war served her interests, so she would advocate for it, even if it meant lying. “Regardless, enjoy your time here,” I said.

“Thank you,” she responded, and both of our shields went back up, at least to the degree that we had let them down in the first place.

October 26, 2002

Spokane, WA

JJ

I’d only tossed and turned last night for a little bit, until the sleeping pills kicked in. They’d sent me into a blissful state of sleep, one that was slowly being interrupted by very annoying voices. I drifted along, willing them to stop, until someone slapped me really hard on the left cheek. And with that, I was wide-awake, and very pissed off. “What the fuck?!” I yelled.

Tiffany and my bodyguard were looking at me with panic in their eyes. “How many of these things did you take?” she demanded, shaking the empty sleeping pill bottle in my face.

“I took two,” I said.

“Is that all?” she challenged.

“I took two,” I said firmly. “What the fuck are you doing in my room, and why the fuck did you hit me?” That came out as more of a scream.

“You didn’t answer your phone, the hotel phone, or respond to a knock on the door,” she said. “It’s noon, and I was worried about you.”

“I am just fine,” I said through clenched teeth. “I was enjoying a good night’s sleep, relishing this opportunity to sleep in, one that you fucked completely up.”

“We were just worried,” the bodyguard said. His name was Bill, and I’d never really noticed him before; he’d just been an amorphous person. But he sounded really caring, so I actually looked at him, and decided that he was kind of cute if you liked hulking body builders with light brown hair and grey eyes.

“Well I’m fine,” I said. “Get the fuck out of here.”

“Fine,” Tiffany said in a snit, and stormed out of the room. I heard the door slam behind her, but that didn’t bother me. She could be pissed off if she wanted to. I didn’t do anything wrong. I suddenly realized Bill was still in the room.

“You sure you’re OK?” he asked. He ran his hand across my cheek in an affectionate yet soothing way. “She hit you really hard.”

This guy was totally hitting on me, but rather than annoy me, it was actually rather sweet. “Thanks Bill, but I’m just fine,” I said, shooting him a rare smile. I stared at him meaningfully until he took the hint and got up to leave, pausing to adjust the tent in his pants even as he blushed. I mean, he was adorable, and that was really sweet, but I wasn’t Will. No way I was sleeping with the help. He left me alone and I lay there, annoyed at them for waking me up, until the annoyance was replaced by anger when I remembered how Alex had totally blown me off yesterday.

Ironically enough that made me think of Will. He gave me shit about how I carried grudges, which was absolute bullshit. It wasn’t bullshit because I didn’t carry them, because I did, it was bullshit for him to suggest it was wrong to do it. I wasn’t willing to do what he did, just blow off all the shit people did to him. If someone was going to treat me like shit and piss me off, that person was going to know about it. Paybacks were a bitch, and that meant that I was going to pile as much shit on them as I could. That way, people wouldn’t fuck with me. Besides, why should I forgive someone unless they apologized? If they did something wrong, they should try to make it right. It was all very simple; I didn’t get why it was so hard for him to grasp the concept. He’d go to bed and sleep on it, and wake up the next day all happy and chipper, ready to start out all new. He was like a fucking puppy all happy, trying to lick your face. I rolled my eyes when I thought about how apt that description was, based on how big of a slut he was. I didn’t work that way. For me, if the other person didn’t apologize, I couldn’t go forward with him or her, and that meant that I couldn’t let go of the anger. So if I slept on it, when I woke up in the morning to find things still weren’t resolved, I was even more pissed off, and that’s what had happened this morning.

Food motivated me to get up, so I plugged in the phone I hadn’t ripped out of the wall and called for room service. I knew that would take a while, since they hadn’t been very fast yesterday, so I took a quick shower and actually managed to throw myself together enough that I was dressed by the time they brought the food. That was less about my speed than their inefficiency, but I tipped the room service guy well anyway, and ate this food that was mediocre. The alternative was for me to leave the hotel and try to find something, or to order a pizza, and I was in a mood to take the path of least resistance.

I thought about pulling out my phone and checking for messages, but changed my mind. I was too pissed off to listen to anyone, especially Alex. I decided to be lazy and just lounge around, savoring my righteous rage. It felt good to be pissed off and to have a legitimate reason. It felt good to be right. Those feelings ultimately managed to outweigh the anger, and I calmed down. I collapsed on the couch in my sitting room and flipped on the television, watching mindless Saturday afternoon drivel. It was boring enough to lull me back to sleep. Being pissed off took a lot of energy.

I was awakened by a loud knock on my door. I opened my eyes slowly and noticed that it was dark outside. I must have slept for another four or five hours. I yawned and stretched, even as the knocking resumed. It was probably the room service people wanting to get their tray. God, they were obsessive about that. Was there a fucking room service cart shortage? I got up and walked over to the door and opened it, and only after I started to pull the door open did I ponder how stupid it was to do that without looking through the peephole. I almost instinctively slammed it shut when I realized my error, but a hand on the other side forced it open and pushed me backward. I was scared and pissed off until I saw who it was, then both of those emotions vanished.

“I hope you don’t mind me just barging in,” Alex said. I backed up as he came in, pushing the door closed behind him.

“What are you doing here?” I managed to ask that without sounding bitchy, which was pretty impressive for me.

“I treated you badly, by ignoring you when you needed me the most,” he said, as he took my hands in his. My weird, twisted mind told me that I should still be pissed at him, but then logic and emotions overwhelmed that. I felt myself smiling at him. “I am truly sorry about that.”

“So you flew out here just to see me?”

“I flew out here to apologize, to make things right between us, and to watch you clinch first place tomorrow in your free skate,” he said. I couldn’t decide if he had figured this out on his own, or if someone had coached him, but regardless, he was playing me perfectly. I liked it.

“All of those things will probably happen,” I said as I grinned like an idiot.

“I really am sorry,” he said.

“I know you can’t always be with me, but you’re so important to me. When you didn’t call me, I felt like I was alone, and there was no one there for me,” I said. It was an added bonus that those feelings made me seem even more like a delicate flower.

“I found myself in the country, riding a wonderful stallion, and let myself get absorbed in it. It was like I was on a drug, and as soon as it was over, the high faded,” he said. That was an explanation, but that’s not what I wanted. I wanted an apology, which I’d gotten, but I needed one more thing. And in the way that he had of reading my mind and what I needed, he gave it to me. “It will not happen again.”

I smiled, and then gave him a really nice kiss. Damn, he was good at that. “It was nice of you to fly out here to be with me.”

“It was the least I could do,” he said.

“No,” I objected, “it was a really nice thing.”

He kissed me again, only this time with a lot more passion. He pulled away from me then nuzzled my ear with his nose in a sexy way. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” I said, but it was more of a moan. Then I led him back to the bedroom, and let him show me with his body how sorry he was.

October 27, 2002

Escorial

Will

“How old is Claire?” Zach asked, as we walked up to the dining room for Aunt Claire’s birthday dinner.

“She’s 38,” I told him.

“Doesn’t look that old,” he said.

“She doesn’t,” I agreed. “This actually worked out really well.”

“Why?”

“Grand has been a little down lately, and he likes big family events, so this should cheer him up.”

“What’s he down about?”

I shrugged. “He hasn’t really said anything. He spends a lot of time in his study. I went in to try and cheer him up the other day, and he all but threw me out.”

“He threw you out?”

“In his own way,” I said, chuckling a bit. “He’s polite until he figures out that you don’t want anything, and then he shuts down and makes things pretty uncomfortable until you leave.”

“That would probably freak me out enough to get the fuck out of there,” he agreed.

We walked into the dining room and found it more crowded than usual. Stef and Grand were there, as was my father. Zach had come down here with Frank and Grandmaman, so they were here too. Aunt Claire, Uncle Jack, Marie, and John were here as well. Uncle Ace and Aunt Cass were in Italy on some trip connected with the winery, so they were gone, and Courtney must have been with them. I greeted them all cordially, and then took a seat at the table in between Zach and John, and across from my father and Stef.

“This is quite the gathering,” Claire said. “It was nice of all of you to make the effort to be here today.”

“It’s just a short drive,” Zach said, shooting Claire his grin.

Grand stood up and raised his glass to make a toast. “Here is wishing you a very happy birthday, and a very good year,” he said to Claire.

Grandmaman stood up and raised her glass as well. “A very happy birthday,” she said in French. Everyone murmured agreements as we lifted our glasses and drank to Claire.

“Thank you,” Claire said, in a chipper way, then she changed her voice to its more usual tone. “Has anyone heard how JJ did in Washington?”

“He did very well,” Dad said. “He took the gold, his first international gold medal.”

“That is just marvelous!” she said. Aunt Claire was pretty into JJ’s skating career. “I am so disappointed that I did not get to see him.”

“I’m sure he would have been happy if you’d been there, but I think Alex showing up clinched the deal for him,” I said.

“I thought Alex couldn’t go to Spokane?” Marie asked.

“Evidently Alex committed the sin of ignoring JJ on the day of his short program, and that got JJ worked up enough that Alex flew out to make it up to him,” I told them.

“How did Alex ignore him?” Marie asked.

“JJ called Alex to tell him that he won the short program, and Alex didn’t call him back until late that night,” I said. It seemed like he was being a huge diva about this, but I was proud of him for winning gold, so I didn’t point that out.

“He’s pretty high-maintenance,” Marie said. We were having this conversation and I’d kind of spaced out and forgotten there were a lot of other people in the room.

“That is a high pressure situation, so it makes sense that he would need moral support,” Stef said, defending JJ. He did that a lot these days, now that he and JJ had bonded during their various shopping sprees. I didn’t say anything, because it really didn’t matter to me. JJ was how he was; he could be a royal pain in the ass, but I still loved him.

“I get it,” Zach said. I gave him a relatively surprised look, asking him to explain. “Even though Alex couldn’t go, JJ probably felt like he was there with him. I’ll bet that the first thing he wanted to do when he was done was call Alex and tell him how well he’d done. He probably really put himself out there, doing his best to try and impress Alex. When Alex didn’t call him back, he probably felt like Alex wasn’t with him, and that he was alone. And he probably figured that if Alex didn’t care enough to talk to him, he probably didn’t care at all.” I stared at him, amazed at that revelation, and that turned to intense introspection when I thought about how he did that with me. When he won a game, if I wasn’t there, he usually called me right away. That must be how he feels when he wins. This was a pretty big deal to him. I made a mental note to make sure I was available, at least by phone, after his games.

“That sounds pretty accurate,” Dad said, chiming in to try and shut down this line of conversation. It wasn’t like him to dodge gossip, which told me he must have been pretty irritated about this whole thing. He was trying to be OK with JJ and Alex being together, but it was tough for him. As protective as he was of me, he seemed even more protective of JJ.

We had a really nice dinner, with light conversation, and all of us seemed to be having fun except for Grand. After dinner, we went into the television room and Aunt Claire opened her presents. She mostly got jewelry and perfume, and none of it was too exceptional. After that, we went back into the dining room. The staff had cleared off the dinner plates and had set it up again for cake. They brought out a big cake with 38 lit candles, and we sang the happy birthday song to Claire. It was all very typical of how our birthday celebrations went.

In fact, everything was pretty much perfect except for Grand’s mood. I kept looking at him, watching him trying to enjoy this celebration, even though he was clearly upset. I decided that if no one else was going to call him on it, I would. “What’s bothering you?” I asked him.

“Excuse me?” he asked me, and gave me a dirty look as he did. That look would floor most of the people at this table, but he and I had gotten a lot closer since I’d moved up here, so I didn’t let it bother me.

“You’re not being very charming,” I said to him bluntly, even though I smiled at him to take the edge off. Stef and my father looked at me nervously, wondering what had possessed me to start a fight with Grand.

“I did not realize I was required to entertain you,” he said acidly. That comment, mixed with his unusually acerbic tone, told me and most of the people here that he was pretty upset about something.

“You’re being a buzz kill at a party you’re hosting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you do that,” I said, continuing to prod him. “It’s not like you to make people at your table and in your house feel unwelcome.”

Now he was really pissed off, because I’d cornered him. I’d called him out on being a bad host, and on being rude, so he couldn’t just blow the whole thing off. “Then perhaps I should not be here amongst you all,” he said, trying to sound menacing so I’d leave him alone. It didn’t work.

“Or perhaps you should tell us all why you’re so agitated,” I said sincerely.

“Didn’t we hear earlier how important it is to have those you love around you when you need support?” Aunt Claire asked him sympathetically. He didn’t give her a dirty look, but instead directed his anger back at me. And then, as if by magic, it seemed to evaporate.

He sighed and put down his fork, then looked around the table before re-focusing on me. “History has an unfortunate tendency to repeat itself. I watched this country stumble into a civil war in Vietnam. I spent the bulk of my academic career in an attempt to show what folly that was. I lost two of the men I loved to that conflict. The only salve to my psyche was that I had assumed we had learned from that mistake, and we wouldn’t do it again.”

“Your papers on Vietnam were excellent,” I said, because they were, and to gently encourage him.

“Thank you, but it seems it is all to be for naught. We are about to go to war with Iraq for no reason at all. At least with Vietnam, we were naively drawn into it. We are going to invade Iraq, using nationalism to inflame the populace and blunt their logic. We are selling a war to the American people that we do not need to fight, and we are doing it so powerful interests may profit from it.”

“I can see why you are so upset,” Aunt Claire said gently.

“Who will profit from this?” I asked.

“Those who run companies in the petroleum and defense industries,” he said, “and presumably those who invest in them. I would think that Halliburton would be a prime beneficiary, since the Vice President has recently been their CEO.” When he said that, his eyes glanced at Stef and my father, and then twitched in irritation.

And then it became all too clear. I zeroed in on Stef and my father. “How much money have you invested in Halliburton and companies like that?”

“I don’t have to disclose to you how I invest my money,” Dad snapped, which all but answered my question.

“Alright,” I said calmly, even though I wasn’t all that tranquil inside. “How much of my money, which you manage, is invested in companies like that?”

“I’m not sure,” he lied.

“Have you been increasing how much I have invested in those companies?” He didn’t say anything. “I have a right to know!”

Grand gave me a dirty look, but only because I had been a little loud. I resolved to control my volume. “It seemed like a good opportunity, and a wise investment, to put more money into promising sectors,” Stef said.

“So you guys are like war profiteers,” I said snidely.

“Taking advantage of investment opportunities does not make me a war profiteer,” Stef said so loudly it was almost a shout. “You have never questioned our investments before.”

“That’s not true,” I said, unwilling to be cowed by him. “When you guys decided to risk polluting the oceans by drilling offshore, I questioned you then.”

“We have invested heavily in Triton,” Dad said. If anything, he was even more pissed off than Stef. “They are a defense company. You didn’t have a problem with that!”

“With Triton, you were building a company. That’s how you made your fortune, or at least that’s what you said. You made money by giving capital to start-up businesses, creating jobs and innovation,” I said, paraphrasing from their marketing materials. “So is that what you’re doing with Halliburton? Helping them to be more successful?”

“You are not looking at this from a business perspective,” Stef said. “We are merely increasing our holdings, not funding new ventures.” He was furious with me, but I was just as mad.

“I’ll bet the carpetbaggers used that same reasoning,” I said.

“I do not deserve to be treated so rudely!” Stef said.

“How much money is enough?” I asked him. “How much?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Dad demanded.

“I mean that you’re willing to invest in these companies who are going to make millions, if not billions, if we go to war. You’ll get to share in those profits. Do you really need the money? Really?” Stef’s eyes bulged. “Is it worth it?”

Before Stef or my father could say anything else, Grand stood up and put his napkin on his plate, indicating that he was done eating. He looked directly at me, letting me see the anguish in his eyes. “And now you know what is bothering me,” he said, and then walked out of the room.