Senior Year Box Set

The menu expounded on how they locally sourced only the finest ingredients. It mimicked the spiel you would read on a snooty menu in Malibu. Their rib-eye steaks were hand-cut and aged to perfection and served with taters. They would get a glowing review from me just for that.

The steak was every bit as good as the one I’d eaten in Houston. You could cut it with a butter knife. They also had fresh-baked sourdough rolls that were to die for. And the taters … they did a twice-baked variety that made all other potatoes seem like a crime.

Then they served dessert. It simply came with the meal, and you didn’t get a choice. I took a minute to remember the best dessert I’d ever had. I literally closed my eyes and leaned back in my chair so my mind could flip through all the fantastic dishes I’d eaten. When Tracy and I had done the episodes of Dessert First, we’d come across a few. I’d also had some stellar choices on my travels.

None of them compared to what they brought us at the Green Door Bistro. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a cranberry curd bar with a walnut shortbread crust. They’d sprinkled the top lightly with powdered sugar and garnished it with a candied lemon peel curled up in the center.

The irony was that if I’d had a choice, I wouldn’t have ordered it. I’m generally not a big cranberry fan. I eat them once a year at Thanksgiving. When I thought of cranberries, I envisioned that jelly-like stuff you added to your plate simply because it was what you always do at that time of year. I discovered that I didn’t know how good they actually were.

“Damn, David. If I’d known that going on a date with you meant food like this, I would have knocked Brook off a long time ago,” Cassidy said.

She had a dreamy look as she savored another small bite of her dessert.

“Am I forgiven for telling my mom on you?” I asked.

“Don’t ruin this moment for me.”

“You know you love me,” I teased. “Just say it. David is forgiven.”

“This is nice and all, but you did tell on me,” Cassidy pondered.

“What if I took you parking?” I suggested and waggled my eyebrows.

“How’s that supposed to help me? It seems to me it would be a little one-sided.”

I looked at her in mock horror.

“You poor thing. You just haven’t been dating the right guys. Have you forgotten our Caribbean vacation? All the women I date always beg for more.”

“Oh, dear God! Do you hear yourself?” Cassidy asked.

Her dismissive attitude confused me. After all, I knew Cassidy wanted me. I was offering to make her dreams come true.

“Young man, if she won’t go, I will,” an older lady sitting next to us with her husband offered.

Cassidy and I broke out into laughter.

“Take her … please,” her husband added.

I took a closer look and smiled at the wife. Cassidy threw her napkin at me and signaled for the server to bring the check.

Once we were in the car on the way home, Cassidy snuggled up next to me.

“Thank you for tonight. I had a good time.”

“So did I.”

“And David?”

“Yes.”

“You’re forgiven.”

Was there ever any doubt? Now, where should we go parking?

◊◊◊

Chapter 17 – Panic Button Saturday April 8

My hound was funny sometimes. Usually, when I came back from my run, I’d let him into the house to get his morning loving from my parents. Duke must have missed me because today he decided he would rather go to my apartment. But then he was a bad dog because when I came out of my shower, I found him spread out on my bed.

“What am I supposed to do with you?” I asked Duke.

His tail thumped against the mattress in response. I got on the bed with him so I could rub his chest and ears.

I heard my mom and Tami come out of the house. Before my run, I’d opened my window because the forecast said it would get up to the mid-70s today, and I wanted to air the place out. I decided I would eavesdrop while I gave Duke the attention he craved.

“I saw your mom at the grocery store the other day. She said you have offers from Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, and Stanford. Have you decided where you’re going?” Mom asked.

“The ride to Stanford includes medical school so long as I keep my grades up and pass my MCAT. They also offer shadowing and clinical experience as an undergrad, so I can figure out if being a doctor is what I want,” Tami said.

“I thought that had always been your dream.”

“It was.”

“Was?” Mom asked.

“Is,” Tami said, sounding confident. Then not so much when she added, “I don’t know.”

They became quiet for a moment, and then Tami started to explain.

“I’ve spent a lot of this past year reevaluating everything in my life. It was about this time four years ago that I began to lose David, when he ran off the rails and started taking drugs. And, well … you know the rest.”

“What really happened with you two? I expected you guys would end up together,” Mom said.

Tami made a strangled sound halfway between a laugh and cry.