Authors: Sharon Hamilton
Cooper stepped back and wouldn’t allow Irv to take the piece from him. “Let’s fire her up and perhaps I’ll pay you a little more.”
“Nope. Not doing a thing until I know we have a deal.” Irv held his hand out for Cooper to pass the drone back to him.
Coop wasn’t budging. Then he finally nodded his agreement to the terms.
“Okay then, gentlemen, next we go down to Lake Coulton Resevoir. About a half hour from here. We’ll try her out and you can see what you’ve bought. That sound good?” Irv had that annoying way he scrunched up his upper lip and right eye, like he was figuring something in his head while trying to talk. And he didn’t do it very well.
Yeah. Dumb like a fox.
Fredo and Coop agreed.
“You drive.” Irv said. Coop liked how this guy was wiggling to get his price, and not spend a dime more on gas or anything else to cut into his profits. He could almost say he admired him, if it wasn’t for the fact that Irv’s demands were going to cost Cooper more money.
They jumped into the beater, Coop sitting in the back seat, still holding his new toy. Irv barked directions to Fredo, who more than once screeched the brakes to barely make it around a last minute corner. Cooper was thankful his Team buddy kept his mouth shut, but knew he’d get a load when they were back on the road.
The resevoir parking lot had only three cars in it. They walked down a man-made soft earthen dam towards the water’s edge. A dry spanse of greenish mucky area lined the edge of the reservoir a few yards across.
“I’m going to show you how it works, but I gotta warn you, if you put it in the water, you go and get it, okay?”
Cooper nodded.
“But there’s one other thing. You get caught swimming in there and it’s a $250 fine and that’s also on you. And if you don’t get the drone, you owe me the grand anyway. Are we square on this?”
Cooper could see Irv was way more of a salesman than he originally thought. And Irv was just getting started.
Cooper tried to sound casual, but his irritation picqued. “You just better show me how it’s done right, then. I have no intention of swimming in that water.”
Irv waved a hand in front of his face. “Whatever. It’s easy peasy. You play video games?”
“Occasionally.”
“You’ll do fine.”
Irv grabbed the drone right out of Coop’s hands. He flipped a lever and two spindly legs clicked down, with small rubber wheels at the ends.
“These are optional. I usually don’t use them. The drone will land anywhere, but you’ll scrape the hell out of it if you don’t land on grass, or something soft. Today, we use the legs.” Irv showed him the controller unit and flipped another switch. “You got your off and your on.”
Two screens lit up. One on top was small and in black and white, giving them a view of Irv’s canvas slip-on shoes. The other screen had a green background, displaying a map, indicating the resevoir, where they were located. It also showed streets and some other designations.
“One other thing. If you crash it, that’s on you too. So try to land it safe. Whatever scrapes you make, they’re yours. I can get replacement hulls if you crack ‘em. I do it all the time.”
Of course. And if lightning should strike, well that would be on me too. Coop could understand how Irv could sell the U.S. Government things out of his garage. What he couldn’t envision was seeing him at a briefing or a meeting of top military procurement officers.
Irv held the drone in his right hand, the controller unit in his left. He flipped a recessed toggle switch on the body of the craft and Coop heard the whir of a tiny motor.
“Brushless,” Irv said.
With a long reach back his arm threw the drone, propelling it ahead of him. They watched as it glided up into the sky. Irv used the square box below the larger screen, moving his fingers to make the drone turn, to make it rise and lower in elevation. He did a couple arching “U”s to the left and the drone turned around. He lowered his finger on the pad and the drone swooped down and nearly clipped the top of Cooper’s hair as it swung overhead and buzzed them.
“Jesuz. Would you be careful with that thing?” Fredo began to swear in Spanish.
Irv maneuvered the drone to a perfect landing a few feet behind them. He passed the controller over to Cooper, who ran to his new toy. He gingerly picked it up and launched it into the air like he had done many times in Afghanistan. The drone dipped dangerously low to the water, then corrected itself. He maneuvered it back and forth, up and down and then eventually sent it headed right in their direction. Irv and Fredo dashed to the sides on their bellies as it got dangerously close. Cooper reached up and caught it mid flight.
It was love at first sight. And the feel of her quivering, humming plastic flesh in his hands almost gave him a boner.
Irv broke into a big smile. “Yeah you’ll pay me that grand, and not a penny less. I’ll throw in the triple A batteries at no charge.”
Chapter 2
Vesuvio’s Restaurant was not Libby’s favorite, but it was good comfort food, and her advisor, Dr. Gerhardt was paying for it, so he always got to choose. She’d brought the flash drive that contained the papers she’d graded for him, and a printout of the class roster, indicating the grade she’d assigned.
“I hope I wasn’t too harsh,” she said over the candlelit table. “This Freshman class is very bright, but a number of them seemed rushed, not up to their usual standards.”
Dr. Gerhardt smiled, tapping his fingers against his lips, his elbows forming a tripod on the tabletop. The edges of his grey-green eyes were crinkled with laugh lines Libby had always liked. The wispy white and silver hairs at his temples contrasted against his tanned complexion. She’d always thought of him as an attractive man, but tonight there was a different air about him. Their meeting seemed less business and more personal.
“More wine?” he said without addressing her comment.
“One. Only one. Last time—“
“You had two, and I could have had my way with you.”
She stopped taking a sip of her ice water mid air. He laughed and then she realized he’d been joking.
“You are dedicated, and do Santa Clara proud, but sometimes you have to lighten up a little. I was just trying to add some levity.”
“I know,” she apologized.
An extremely tall gentleman brushed passed her on his way to the men’s room. She watched as the giant’s broad shoulders tapering down to a tiny waist and impossible narrow hips ambled his way through the cluster of little tables, sending titters throughout the restaurant by most of the female population, including the wait staff.
Dr. Gerhardt turned in his seat and watched where her eyes had followed. He nodded and gave her a smirk. “So, you’re getting up early tomorrow morning.”
She realized then she’d been staring at the closed men’s door. “Yes. Megan and I are hitting the road before eight to get down to the Aquarium when it opens at ten.”
“You’ve been there before, of course.”
“No. Megan has. I went to the one in San Diego many times growing up.”
“Well, shall we go, before you throw yourself at that monster?”
“Trying to rescue me? Maybe I don’t need rescuing.”
Dr. Gerhardt’s eyes grew darker and she noticed a quick uptick in his breathing. “Libby, I only want what’s best for you. I have a vested interest in your cause.”
His eyes telegraphed something else, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was she saw there. Concern? After weighing it, she came to the conclusion that Dr. Gerhardt was indeed considering her for the internship in his clinic, which was right around the corner from the University. Wonderful.
“Come.” He stood and took her hand. She blushed at the touch of their fingers. This also had never happened before.
“Of course.” She stood, but took the first opportunity to drop his grasp. Libby slipped her jacket over her shoulders and felt Dr. Gerhardt place his hand up at the back of her neck. Libby shivered and raised her shoulders in a slight involuntary reaction. Dr. Gerhardt removed his fingers. He opened the door for her and smiled, as she slipped by him. There wasn’t much room, and she could have imagined it, but thought he took a quick inhale as she brushed past his shirt. His musky aftershave and the slim space made her feel uncomfortable. Libby couldn’t return his gaze, and peered down at her feet.
The two of them turned to the left and walked past the fogged up small paned windows of the restaurant. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a large shadow sit down at the table on the other side of the glass, but she couldn’t bring herself to look upon the giant stranger who lurked behind the moist windowpanes.
Cooper agreed with Irv’s recommendation of this restaurant, but he hardly ate a thing. Fredo had finished both entrees. He’d had way too much ice water, which was a surefire sign he was nervous. He’d be pissing his way to Monterey, if they didn’t stay over.
He hadn’t paid so much for anything, he thought as he sat back down and watched Fredo shove the last piece of French bread into his mouth. The little SEAL could eat him under the table, since Cooper didn’t drink anymore.
He’d never wanted anything this bad before, like he’d wanted that drone. He simply had to have it. It was a matter of wounded pride that he’d actually paid the full thousand dollars.
The air was still infused with a jasmine scent, probably from that beauty with the auburn hair that was leaving the restaurant with the old guy. It made him sick how older men could scoop up all the nice women. But then, anyone who would be interested in older men probably wouldn’t be the kind of woman he liked to spend time with.
Besides which, he was not nearly ready to consider such things. Still, her full red lips barely protruding out from flowing red-brown hair that hid her face from him were definitely kissable. He liked women with full lips.
Pillows of flesh. He’d read that term somewhere in a men’s magazine. One of those articles about erotic romance and how men were buying it now.
My own mind can do that. Don’t need a book to help me, either.
He and Fredo would go to the Monterey Aquarium tomorrow, then head home, probably driving the rest of the trip without stopping for anything but gas. He couldn’t wait to go for a swim, and then hit the sack at his motor home by the beach. If he were lucky, Daisy would drop by with her cuffs and fetish for uniforms and stuff. He didn’t mind playing along. She knew she was entertainment. He sure as heck didn’t mind being hers, either.
So, he and Fredo would have to finish up, and he’d just have to dream about little miss red pouty lips while he lay awake in the motel room and listened to Fredo snore. Yup. They’d done it many times before. Maybe he’d make up a story in his mind. Thinking about those lips he could sink into, suck on. Those red lips on his private parts, about her white teeth and tongue that could explore places. Thinking of the places that would rise to the touch of his fingers and his mouth, and turn deep pink.
She’d be pink, all right. And she’d probably wear white, which made him smile. It also made him hard.
“You having another one of those erotic dreams?” Fredo said across the table, bringing Cooper out of his reverie.
He didn’t understand at first. “Sorry?”
“You have all the girls back in San Diego all over you all the time. Why fantasize about someone who belongs to someone else?”
“You think I was fantasizing about her?” He pointed his thumb out the window and saw the couple hug. Then he watched her get in her own car and drive off.
Looks are deceiving. So, she hadn’t belonged to him after all. He felt a little sad he had only seen her profile.
He heard fingers snapping in front of him and realized he had been staring out the window, watching taillights on the car disappear into the night air.
“Yo. What is it with you and Kyle? You two get your bead on a woman and that’s it.”
“Kyle’s a married man, now.”
“I rest my case. He was lookin’ real hard for Mrs. Kyle.”
Cooper laughed.
“Come on, you know how he used to be. He even swore off girls just before he met little miss Christy big eyes. He was bad, but I think you’re worse. You not getting’ laid enough, Coop?”
“Why, you offering?”
Fredo pulled his white oversized napkin from his throat and threw it at Cooper across the table.
“That’s it, man. Dis me when I drove all the way up here with your bony ass so you could buy a toy airplane.” He got up and stormed away. Cooper paid for the meal and joined him in the truck. He knew Fredo’s nasty mood would last about five minutes.
They traveled the freeway all the way to Monterey and found a cheap motel outside town. Cooper had stashed the drone under Fredo’s customized front seat. The front metal kick plate had been removed, leaving a compartment big enough to slide the case under the seat. They snapped it back in place so the metal piece covered the hole.
Cooper lay back on one of the two double beds, inserted earplugs connected to his iPhone, slipped off his shoes and closed his eyes.
“Good night to you too,” Fredo said as he stripped down to his superman shorts and tee shirt and tucked himself under the thin bedspread.
“Sorry, man.” Coop said and then fell back on the bed. The music annoyed him a little and he wondered why. Then he thought about his new toy, resting in the cold front cab of the beater.
Not right.
Coop got up, and without putting his shoes back on, grabbed Fredo’s keys from the little bedside table between their beds, and dashed out the door to the parking lot. He swung open the passenger door, and pulled aside the metal protective covering. Grabbing his new toy’s black coffin, he yanked it by the handle and then replaced the metal plate. He locked the truck up and danced in his bare feet to the door.
It was locked.
He banged on it several times, calling out Fredo’s name. He felt like a shit that he’d forgotten his room key.
Fredo opened the door wide and examined him carefully as he rushed passed his friend. Coop set the case on his, opened the flaps and took out the drone.