Short Fiction: The Setup
A blind date ends with a revealing back story.
Two characters from previous short stories meet up.
By Vince Wetzel
Copyright OT Press
“How did I let you convince me to do this?” Leslie said.
“What? You’ve worked yourself so hard this past year. It’s time for you to have some fun,” Justine said. Leslie felt Justine interlock her arm with hers as they walked down College Avenue in Berkeley toward a whiskey and beer bar.
“Javier’s a good guy,” Justine’s boyfriend Callum said. “We think you’ll like him.”
Leslie just focused forward on the uneven sidewalk. She was sensible enough to wear flats to trek the mile from her and Justine’s apartment near campus to the bar. But she spent an hour picking out the right outfit, somewhere between dressy and casual, and another putting on the makeup she dreaded wearing. All for some guy that she didn’t know.
Since she broke up with Robbie nearly a year ago, she had not been out on a date. It wasn’t for lack of offers. However, one of the reasons she and Robbie hadn’t worked out was her focus on her final season on the Cal women’s golf team and finishing her criminology degree in hopes of joining the FBI.
“I spent six months working with him during our internship with the A’s,” Justine said. “He was always nice and handled pressure well. He also had a semi-serious relationship, and it seemed he treated her well. But they broke up because she was at UC Davis or something.”
“Oh great, a rebound,” Leslie said. “If you recall, Robbie was a huge A’s fan, so I don’t have a great track record with the green and gold.”
“It’s just one time out,” Justine said. “No commitments.”
Javier sat at the table with a pint of Drakes's Best Coast IPA in front, waiting for his former coworker Justine, her boyfriend, and her roommate to show. He was sure he was meeting this Leslie too soon after breaking up with his semi-girlfriend Heidi. Only a month ago, she told him she couldn’t handle a relationship right then.
At the very least, hanging out with Justine and Callum would be good. Since the end of his epic internship, life had returned to boring normalness. He went to class, went to his on-campus job in the dining hall, then came home. Javier couldn’t wait to finish his final year at Cal State East Bay and move into sports media relations. The internship told him what was possible and confirmed his desire to work in this field. If his time with Heidi taught him anything, he didn’t want any distractions. This time was for him.
Javier sipped his beer as the door opened. There was Justine, Callum, and this woman with straight dark hair and an olive complexion. He recognized her. But where?
Justine’s eyes went wide with recognition, her mouth wide, and she waved. Justine was always so expressive. She had hoped the internship would help her obtain an on-camera television sportscasting job by providing her insights into the behind-the-scenes operations of a major sports organization. And there was Callum, tall, fit, his hair trained in mini dreadlocks atop his head.
But his focus stayed on the woman. He was sure he had met her before. Was it in class? Nope.
At first, Leslie didn’t see him. She followed Justine’s eyes and waved into the bar. When her eyes met the young, clean-cut Latino man dressed in a blue polo and jeans, the memories returned instantly.
Oh crap.
She searched for his name, but Justine ensured she didn’t have to work too hard.
“Javier,” Justine said, embracing him as they reached his table. “So good to see you. It’s been like forever.”
“It’s been a month,” Javier clarified with a grin.
“But after the season we had, everything seems so long and boring.”
Leslie hid behind Callum, hoping that everyone would forget her. She peaked around Callum’s broad shoulders, searching for recognition in Javier’s demeanor. His eyes betrayed nothing, and Leslie hoped Javier had forgotten all about her.
“Javier, this is my roommate and good friend Leslie,” Justine said, grabbing Leslie’s hand, pulling her from behind Callum, and thrusting her toward Javier. Suddenly sweaty, she stuck out her hand, and Javier took it gently and shook it once. He smiled. Was that a slight squint and raised eyebrow? Was he searching his memories for her familiarity? She wasn’t going to help him.
Javier was sure he didn’t know her from school or his childhood in Hayward. As they sat down, Callum and Justine were on one side of the table, and he and Leslie were on the other side. They ordered a round of pints, with Callum and Javier both ordering pints of a double IPA, Justine a pilsner, and Leslie a stout, which was a surprise.
“So, roommates?” he asked Leslie. “Do you go to Cal?”
“You’re looking at the retiring top woman’s golfer at Cal? She wants to give it up to focus on the FBI or something like that.”
Javier’s eyes went wide. Of course. Cal. Golf. Robbie. Robbie’s apartment. Oh crap.
Leslie watched the flood of recognition wash over Javier’s face. She was fascinated by watching it in real time. He tried to control it, but she knew, and as she nodded, he now knew that she knew. But Justine and Callum were still oblivious. It was best not to let them know. It was too embarrassing to reveal on a blind date.
Javier recovered well, Leslie thought. He sipped his beer to regain his composure before moving on.
“Why not go play golf professionally?” Javier asked.
“I have played my whole life. Competitively for twelve years,” Leslie said. “I’m ready to move on. Not so much the competitions, but practice was feeling like a burden. It was time for me to back off the edge and focus on something else.”
“Something easy like joining the FBI?” Javier asked with a knowing smile. At least they had moved on from their embarrassing shared experience.
“Well, I’m not there yet. My application is in, and I’m waiting to see if I receive an interview for their young recruit program.”
“She’s got it in the bag,” Justine said. “She’s awesome, and there are no embarrassing skeletons in her closet.”
Javier almost spit out his beer as he drank it in. While it wouldn’t affect her chances with the FBI, he was certainly embarrassed by their shared experience. He was surprised Justine hadn’t figured out his connection with Leslie. Justine had all the pieces. Robbie was the linchpin she wasn’t seeing. Neither he nor Leslie, it seemed, were going to share. He would pull the conversation away from Robbie as much as possible.
“I bet that program is hard to get into,” Javier said. “And once you get in, that’s no picnic either?”
As Leslie described the level of recommendations and background checks she had to provide just to submit her application, Javier was impressed with Leslie’s drive. She was intense, a common attribute she shared with Brett Austen, the Oakland A’s all-star and legend he and Justine had the opportunity to see up close for six months. Javier understood why Robbie couldn’t keep up. He didn’t have the drive for anything else other than watching baseball and drinking beer.
Javier knew Robbie as his neighbor, living one floor from him at the Foothill Canyon apartments. Robbie was also Javier’s ex-girlfriend Heidi’s cousin, which was another piece Justine should have put together before inviting him on this blind date. Javier thought she must get better at drawing the lines if she was going to be some type of TV personality.
Javier wasn’t a bad guy, Leslie thought. In fact, he might be someone with whom to get another drink sometime if they can get past the embarrassing circumstances of their last meeting. Of course, Robbie was in the middle of this whole thing. Normally, she didn’t regret much. Part of life was making mistakes, but Robbie was so wrong for her. He was clingy. He was jealous. He was obsessed with the A’s. He drank too much. His friends were also drunk, high, or playing video games. They were not compatible, and it was only their sexual congruence that kept them together for as long as they were.
But she was sure that the images she and Javier shared of each other left an indelible imprint on each other.
“Javier, are you still living in the same apartment?” Justine asked. Javier’s eyes went wide as he stared straight ahead. “I just remember you telling me about the crazy parties your neighbor Rob—”
There it was. Justine finally got it. She looked over to Javier and then back to Leslie. Her hand went to her mouth.
“Oh my god,” Justine said. “I totally didn’t realize…”
“Realize what?” Callum said.
Poor Callum, Javier thought. Now he was the only one out of the loop. In the grand scheme of things, telling Callum over a beer with just the two of them could be a funny story. Or for Justine to say after the fact. But now, it was almost cruel. Everyone knew the punchline except Callum, who was waiting for the rim shot.
Javier looked at Leslie for a signal of where to take the conversation. She rubbed her forehead and nodded. “Go ahead. I’d like to hear your perspective anyway.”
Callum leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table.
“Well, now you know, I lived in the same apartment complex as Robbie, Leslie’s ex-boyfriend. Robbie, you know, he likes to party, often with my roommate Marcos. And yeah, sometimes I threw some back playing beer pong or whatever.”
He looked over at Leslie, who shook her head. “Keep going.”
“Well, one night, Robbie and Marcos had a two-apartment rager. And folks kept going from our apartment to his. I think we had the hard stuff, and Robbie had a keg. At some point, I go to bed and usually don’t sleep with clothes on. And um…”
Leslie interjected. “Their apartments have the same floor plan. And Robbie’s and Javier’s rooms are in the same place in the layout.”
Javier nodded. “Well, needless to say, we both saw more of each other than we expected.”
Callum tossed his head back and laughed with such exaggeration that the entire restaurant turned to the table. Shortly, Justine began to giggle, followed by Javier and finally Leslie.
“You didn’t recognize that it wasn’t Robbie’s bed? You didn’t know it wasn’t Robbie’s apartment?”
Leslie shook her head. “I just shot a four-under-par to win a tournament against Stanford. I was celebrating, maybe a little too much. But I just found myself walking into the room and going to bed. I figured I’d get some private sleep while the party went on.”
“And I didn’t notice her in the bed as I got in.”
“I can’t believe that,” Justine said. “When Leslie told me, I didn’t know Javier. Later, when Javier started dating Heidi and told me about her cousin Robbie, I hadn’t made that connection. Until now. And to know that was you?”
“Wow, small world,” Callum said. “And you haven’t seen each other since?”
Leslie shook her head. “I broke up with Robbie soon after. So yeah, this is my first time seeing Javier fully clothed.”
Javier raised his pint glass. “An improvement for sure. Here’s to that.”
Javier was the focus of the Lose Yourself prequel serial The Intern. Leslie appears in the novel Friends in Low Places and also is the main character in the short story Tough Choices.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, events, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Side of Mustard
This past week, my novel Lose Yourself picked up another award!
The BookFest 2024 selected Lose Yourself as the winner of its Fiction-Inspirational award.
Lose Yourself was also given an Honorable Mention in the Sports Fiction category in The Readers Favorite Awards last month.
While the writing process brings joy, these awards bring confirmation. Along with reader reviews and individual comments to me, I am proud of the work I’ve put in for Lose Yourself.
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