Blast From The Past 2 (4 page)

Tommy and I went on to make plans for later that same evening. We arranged to meet at a place on the East End of Pittsburgh, just past the area where we went to college. It seemed a fitting place to meet up, and it was a pretty happening area, so I was thoroughly looking forward to the evening.

But as soon as I got to the club we’d decided upon, I was a little overwhelmed by everything, including by surroundings. The Soapbox was a tall place, rather than a long one. It had three different floors to it, and I didn’t know on which Tommy would be waiting—if he was waiting at all. And, if he wasn’t waiting, I didn’t know which floor
I
should wait on.

I looked around the first floor and didn’t see anyone who looked like Tommy, neither how I remembered him nor how I saw him on the computer. I made my way to the second floor and, again, couldn’t find him.

Third time’s the charm
, I thought, ascending the final flight… But, of course, Tommy wasn’t there either. I sat down and ordered a martini, which wasn’t my usual drink but seemed fitting, and I pulled out my phone to check the time and see if I had any messages. It was 6:10 p.m., ten minutes after I was supposed to meet Tommy, and my inboxes were empty.

I finished what was left of my drink, which only took a few minutes, and then I got up to leave, figuring I’d do a quick sweep of the other floors before calling it a night. Just as I was walking down the steps, a group of other patrons were walking up them—and, lo and behold, Tommy was among them.

He smiled at me from below, then nodded his head upwards. “Upstairs is better,” he said keeping up his pace and walking further up the steps towards me.

“Okay,” I said, turning and going back into the bar area from which I’d just exited.

“Sorry,” Tommy said, entering the room a moment later. He looked like the Tommy from my computer, not my memory. “There was some type of accident on one of the back roads near my office, and everything was tied up for a while, diverting traffic. I got here as fast as I could, and I’m sorry if I kept you waiting.”

I looked at the clock on the wall, and it wasn’t even yet 6:30, so Tommy wasn’t
too
late, I figured, and he had a good excuse. We can’t control accidents and traffic, now can we?

“It’s okay,” I answered, still trying to convince myself that it was. “But you sure picked one hell of a place to meet… A bar with three floors—don’t you think that’s a little confusing?”

“Maybe it is,” he said. “But you still found me.”

“You have a point,” I said with a smile. “Now let’s have a drink.”

Tommy walked me over to a small, round table that sat high above the ground, and he pulled out my stool for me. “What do you want?” he asked. “Drinks are on me—for the inconvenience of making you come to this ‘confusing’ place.”

“Thanks,” I replied. “I’ll have a martini.”

“All right,” Tommy said as he turned to the bar. “I’ll be right back.”

I watched as Tommy went over and ordered our drinks from the bartender. There was something smooth and cool about him, and he seemed so unlike the Tommy I used to know. This was no geeky college kid. This was a man, and he had a real presence about him.

“Here you go,” Tommy said, placing my martini in front of me. He sat down on a stool beside me—not across from me, but beside me.

“Cheers,” I said, raising my glass. And, “Cheers,” Tommy replied, raising his. I took a sip of my drink, and it was much stronger than the first one I’d ordered.
I guess it takes balls—actual balls—to get a decent cocktail in this place
, I told myself as I swallowed the salty, sour liquid.

“So, like I said,” Tommy started, setting his drink down, “I’ve been thinking a lot about you recently… I don’t know why. I guess a guy never forgets his first love—or his first time… I still remember that night, you know. It was so special.”

I strained my brain to think of my first night with Tommy, and, for the life of me, I couldn’t remember it in any detail. I know a girl is supposed to remember her first time, too—perhaps even more so than a guy—but the whole thing had just been very… uneventful.

Not like I was gonna tell Tommy that! Instead, I looked back at him and smiled before taking another sip of my martini.

“You said a lot has changed,” Tommy said, leaning closer to me. “And it certainly has. Back then, I was probably horrible in bed—and, today, I’d like to think I’m much, much better… and, I’d be willing to prove it, if you’re interested.”

There was something undeniably sleazy about what Tommy had just said, but there was also something undeniably sexy about it. It had every nerve cell in my body standing on edge, and it made me think of what J.R. had said the night before, about living out a
Penthouse
fantasy letter. There was something so “erotic” about the idea of a former lover coming back all beefed up and ready to prove himself—it’s not just hot, but it also makes you feel important.

As much as I wanted to drop my panties and tell Tommy to show me what he had, I acted more within reason. I pulled back, shook my head, and told him, “Tommy, no, it’s not like that… I’m not trying to get back together or hook up or any—”

Thankfully, Tommy interrupted me before I could go on, though what he said wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear.

“Calm, down, Patty,” he said, pulling back as well. “I’m not stupid. I know why you were looking me up online, and I know why we’re here… I figured I’d just try to have a little fun with you before we got down to business.”

“First of all, Tommy,” I said, sitting more upright, “it’s Trish… And, second of all, what do you mean you know why we’re here?
You’re
the one who asked me here, not the other way around.”

“It was only a matter of time,” Tommy said, leaning even farther away from me and even closer to his drink. “The minute that shit went down at rEcore, there was chatter all over the net about it, and your name was going around like a pair of Molly Ringwald’s panties… That’s a
Sixteen Candles
reference, by the way.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it,” I said. “So, what, all the geeks think they know my story, and they’re on the lookout for me?”

“Exactly,” Tommy said, taking a chug from his mug, then wiping his lower lip. “There’s a lot that’s being said about you. I don’t know how much of it is true, but there’s a lot that’s being said… And there are a few people out there offering rewards for any information on you or this situation at rEcore.”

A
few
people?
I thought to myself. I’d known J.R. put feelers out there—but who else could have… or would have?

“As soon as I heard your name—even though it was Trish, instead of Patty—I figured that, if you got in deep enough, you might reach out for a lifeline. And, I thought, maybe, just maybe, you’d come looking for me—whether it was to help you finish destroying rEcore or to help you save your name, I knew you had some kind of insatiable investment in this… And, like I said, it was only a matter of time. I knew you’d come looking for me—and, you did… I just decided to invite
you
out to have some fun and ease you along in the process.”

I looked at Tommy, a little flabbergasted. He seemed to have this all figured out, but he had it figured out all wrong.

“So which one is it, Patty?” he said before correcting himself. “I mean, Trish… Which one is it—are you here to ask me to help you destroy rEcore or save yourself? The suspense is killing me.”

“Actually, Tommy,” I said, “it’s neither. I don’t need your help—at least not as far as any tech stuff is concerned. I’ve already got that taken care of and am working with some friends on figuring this mess out… What I need from
you
is information.”

And just as I asked for information, I realized that I’d given a bit too much away.

“You’re working with friends on this?” Tommy asked. “Who? And what are you working on? If you want information from
me
, you’re gonna have to give me something in return, you know.”

I realized that Tommy had a point, and I’d already dragged him too far into things. At this point, it was better to give him
some
explanation than to give him nothing.

“Let’s just put it this way,” I said, looking at Tommy intently. “I didn’t study my ass off in college and work my ass off in Cincinnati for six years just to come back to Pittsburgh, start a new job, and lose it a week later. Do you really think I’d try to kill an app like that? And, if I did, do you really think I’d be so blatant about it?

“I was in no way involved with what happened at rEcore, but I’m going to find out who is. I have some other people who are helping me do that, but I’m not going to tell you who they are. I’ve already told you too much, and I’m not going to tell you any more.”

“Wow,” Tommy said, crossing his arms in front of him. “No need to be so James Bond about it—what, is this table going to self-destruct at the end of this conversation?”

“Listen, Tommy,” I said, leaning in for a view that could kill. “Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate your pop culture references, but, right now, I’m more interested in something else.”

“Which is?” Tommy asked, arching his eyebrows.

“Tell me what you know about Gretchen Gordon.”

“Gretchen Gordon?” Tommy asked.

“That’s what I said,” I answered.

“What about her?” Tommy asked.

“I thought
I
was the one supposed to be asking the questions here,” I fired back.

“Who said that?” Tommy fired right back, not missing a beat.

“I did,” I stated firmly, putting an end to our childish banter. “Gretchen Gordon was my supervisor at rEcore, and I know that you used to run a MUDD with her.”

“That’s right,” Tommy admitted. “And?”

“
And
,” I replied, “I was hoping you could tell me more about it.”

“Okay,” Tommy said. “Well, let’s see, it was your standard RPG platform, with third person dynamics. It really wasn’t that different from a lot of the lambda projects that were out there, but—”

“Tommy, please, stop,” I interrupted. “You know that’s not what I meant. I meant tell me about you and Gretchen.”

“We ran the MUDD together,” Tommy said swiftly. “And you already know that.”

“I don’t know why you’re giving me a hard time,” I said, trying to look Tommy in the eye. “All I want is the answers to a few basic questions.”

“I don’t even see why any of this matters,” Tommy said, allowing his eyes to meet mine, finally. “You found out that Gretchen and I ran a MUDD together? So what? Is that all you’ve got? Why are you coming to me and asking me about
that
? You think
that
makes
me
involved with all this shit somehow? Think again. That’s just tangential information.”

Not a second later, my phone started buzzing in my bag. I looked at it and saw a call coming in from an “Unknown” number. It was around 8 p.m., and I knew that J.R. would be contacting me, though I didn’t know when, and I figured it might be him. I quickly reached into my purse, grabbed the phone, and answered. “Just a second,” I said into the piece before pressing “mute” and announcing, “I’ll be right back. I have to take this.”

I ran off toward the bathroom, pulling my phone to my ear as soon as I was out of Tommy’s earshot. Indeed, it was J.R. on the line.

“Is this a bad time?” he asked.

“Until we get this all figured out, every time is a bad time,” I answered with a slight burst of laughter, perhaps brought upon by the martinis. “But I only have a few minutes to talk right now… so, what’s up? Did you find anything out today?”

“Just that six employees were let go over the past year,” J.R. said, “and that Gretchen was responsible for all of their dismissals.”

“Six people?” I asked. “That’s
a lot
, isn’t it? There are only two dozen or so people on staff at any given time—six is a quarter of them.”

“I know,” J.R. went on. “But, like I said, we never thought anything of it. It happened so quickly, and they were so quickly replaced—there was no disruption to the flow of business, and it really went unnoticed… I’m not surprised nobody said anything.”

“Who would?” I quipped. “They were probably too afraid to… They knew that Gretchen would fire them.”

“I’m still looking into it all though,” J.R. said. “And I’ll have to share it with you. I mean, everything is very thoroughly documented here—and, even though six
is
a lot of people to replace in that short a period of time, it seems to be documented that all six were replaced for good reason… What about you? Did you find anything today?”

“I’m still working on it,” I said, not telling J.R. even half of the story. “I’ll let you know what I find out tomorrow.”

“Okay then,” J.R. said, sounding a little reluctant to end the conversation. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow… Enjoy the rest of your night.”

“You too,” I replied. I hung up the phone, looked in the mirror, and tossed my hair around a bit.
Time to get back to Tommy
, I told myself, and, for a split second, I didn’t know what I meant by my own comment.

When I got back out to the table, Tommy was fussing with his cell phone too. He swiped his finger across it and pocketed it as soon as he saw me coming.

“Who was that?” he asked. “One of those
friends
you’re working with?”

“Maybe,” I replied. “Who was
that
?” I added, nodding my head toward the cell phone in his pocket. “What’d you do—sell me out to one of those people who’s offering a reward for info on me?”

“No,” Tommy said, quite bluntly. “I didn’t sell you out—and I’m not gonna.”

“Why’s that?” I asked Tommy. “You don’t want to get a big payout so you can retire young?”

“I already have a lot of money,” Tommy said. “But what I don’t have is a lot of friends… or at least, not a lot of friends who really matter. I’m not going to sell you out because I don’t want to do that to you. Whatever you’re doing, do it. I won’t interfere—and, if you want my help, I’m here.

“But as far as Gretchen Gordon is concerned, I can’t really tell you much else about her.”

Tommy look at me, and, for a moment, beneath all the muscles, tattoos, and sexy grown-up features, I saw the young twerp who’d courted me for months and months, and I was moved by him.

“Okay, Tommy,” I said, eying my old boyfriend. “But don’t think this means you’re gonna get in my pants.”

“I know,” Tommy said, reaching out to take my hand in his. “It took me over a year to get that far before, and I’ll wait just as long this time if I have to. You’re worth the wait.”

I couldn’t tell if Tommy was being serious, kidding, or both, but there was something about his statement that I liked, even though I knew I shouldn’t.