Crushing on the Geek(27)
“Dad, this is Hayden. He's in the Chess Club,” Tamara said, pretending the previous conversation hadn't taken place. “This is my dad.”
“You can call me George,” Mr. Page extended his hand.
“Nice to meet you,” Hayden said, grinning at Tamara.
“You too,” Mr. Page said, “I'm going to see if they have the appetizers out yet.”
“See you later, Dad,” Tamara laughed.
“You look nice tonight,” Hayden said, “Not that you don't always look nice….”
“Thank you,” Tamara cut him off before he made a fool of himself again, “Let's get something to drink and find somewhere in the back to sit.”
“In the back?”
“Yeah, that way we can talk why they make their speeches and we won't look rude.”
“Fair enough,” Hayden laughed.
“You haven't been to any of these parties, have you?” Tamara grinned.
“No,” he shook his head.
“Attend enough of them and you'll be texting under the table. I usually bring Amber along, but she's..”
“Fighting with Mr.Kissy Face.”
“Yeah,” Tamara nodded.
“A soda please,” Tamara said to the bar tender.
“Make that two.”
“Sure,” the bartender said, and handed them each a can of soda.
“Where to?” Hayden asked.
“This way,” Tamara lead him through the maze of people. Stopping now and then to say hello to people she had met at previous parties.
“You know everyone,” Hayden laughed.
“Not everyone, just most of them,” Tamara said, sinking down into a chair at the back left corner of the room. “It's a job hazard of being a child of the firm.”
“Child of the Firm, that sounds like a horror movie.”
“Feels like it too sometimes. It's full of thou shalls,” Tamara took a sip of her soda, “Thou shall participate in our scholarship fund. Thous shall do whatever it takes to complete the program.”
“Dad wants me to enroll.”
“You should,” Tamara nodded, “As long as they don't disband the chess club you should be fine.”
“Well, if we lose another tournament they might,” he laughed.
“I hope not,” Tamara shook her head, “Greg would never let us hear the end of it.”
“Welcome!” a microphone magnified voice said from the stage at the front of the room, “We're glad you all could come out and join us in celebrating yet another victory!”
“Here we go,” Tamara whispered.
“How are you going to make it through graduation? Hayden stifled a laugh.
“I'll be toward the middle section because of my last name. I'll just make snide comments then too,” she giggled.
Her dad shot her a dirty look over his shoulder and Tamara fell silent. She watched Hayden as he listened closely to the senior partner speak, mildly amusedly that he was actually listening. When she was younger Tamara would listen too, but after a hundred dinner parties all the speeches blur together into a bundle of melancholy. Her father expected her to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer, but Tamara couldn't imagine being forced to endure these dinner parties for the rest of her life. Glancing around she noticed the tables of adults dotted with wine glasses and liquor cups. Was that how they endured the mandatory attendence at such parties?
Tamara wiggled around in her seat trying to get comfortable. Hayden grinned at her and draped his arm around her shoulders and whispered, “It won't be much longer.”
“You don't know them very well, do you?”
Hayden chuckled softly and returned his attention to the front of the room. Tamara's ears rang and she rubbed their backs trying to rid herself of the buzzing.
“You hear it too?” Hayden asked, sticking a finger into her left ear.
“Yeah and I don't like it. It reminds me of the noise I heard when I found the hand prints on my mirror.”
“I think it's going to rain and the air pressure can cause a ringing in the ears,” he whispered.
“Yeah, but it's really loud. Why isn't it happening to anyone else?”
“They're probably ignoring it.”
A shattering crash sounded from behind the bar, startling the crowd and urging Tamara to her feet. The crowd turned the heads in unison, most wearing an expression of annoyance with the bartender who was busy trying to prevent another shelf of bottles from toppling over like its neighbor to the left had done, causing the resounding crash.
“A little help!” he shouted to the waiters, who were frozen in terror. The hiss of champagne, wine, and liquor spraying from over two dozen bottles nearly masked the noise of the tiny laughter, but Tamara could hear it. Through the showers of alcohol Tamara caught a glimpse of a pair of tiny shimmering wings.