Junior Year Box Set

That was a reasonable question, and I had thought about this. I gave Yuri a half smile as I reached into my pocket and handed him a three-strip of condoms. He looked at them and then smiled at the implication. I had a sneaking suspicion that Yuri was a virgin.

“Do you think she’ll go for this?” he asked.

I caught Jan’s eye across the room and motioned her over. She seemed nervous. I figured the direct approach was the best.

“Could you help Yuri out with a problem?” I asked.

She looked at him and then back at me, a little confused.

“Could you help him lose his V card?” I asked.

Jan made a big production out of checking him out. Yuri, being my Alpha Male-in-training, just grabbed her hand, and they ran upstairs. I was nervous about what might happen, but I was sure that Yuri would do his level best to screw the shit out of her. I thought that was precisely what Jan needed; that, and someone to help set some boundaries.

After I’d played Dr. Love and hooked my friends up with each other, I just sat back to see if what I considered obvious connections would actually work out. Several potential couples did make it to the dance floor. I noticed Tracy tapping her foot, so I asked her to dance.

I had a great time. A little sex, a lot of flirting, and by the end of the night, it looked like everyone had a good time. Well, not everything had been a success. Phil was still mad at me, but both Ed and Yuri disappeared and came back with huge grins on their faces. Jan and Kylie both had that after-sex glow to them as well. Roc and Piper didn’t look disheveled, but each of them looked like they’d found a friend, and they were holding hands when they left the party. I felt Dr. Love’s work here was done.

◊◊◊ Sunday November 8

While on my morning jog, I reflected on the last two weeks. I was glad that Cal had finally been pushed into a corner and backed off. Ms. Dixon had been a serendipitous choice to help me get through the mess. What amazed me was that if Cal had just backed off to begin with, his life would be very different. He wouldn’t be facing a divorce, losing a great job, or having to pony up for my defense expenses. Something I learned from this was that if you needed to get lawyers involved, don’t back down.

The other problem I had pushed into the background, because of football and the death of Jeff, was Devin Range. To this point, I’d played nice since New Orleans. I couldn’t care less that he and Cora ended up together. At the time, he’d fired me, but Sandy had worked with their Board of Directors to get me back under contract. Our agreement was that I wouldn’t have to work with Devin. At the time, I knew that would never be the case because Devin couldn’t step away from his business and let Sandy handle a photo shoot alone.

What irked me was that he hadn’t changed. I couldn’t trust him, and once that trust was broken, it was hard for me to forgive and forget. The sad part was that I liked Devin. Hell, Devin had some cool toys and let me play with them. Okay, the wingboard was a bad idea. I still got a little queasy when I remembered the death-roll I’d experienced. I should be dead after that one. But in the back of my mind, I could imagine more toys, and I would want to be the one to test them.

The way I viewed it was that Devin hadn’t suffered any consequences for his actions. If it had been Pam instead of Cora, I wouldn’t have an issue with stealing her back from Devin. The problem was Cora would end up being his first divorce. I just hoped he had a hell of a prenup, or she’d take him to the cleaners. I needed some way to balance the scales. If I could, I’d feel a whole lot better about being the face of Range Sports.

Two other tasks on my to-do list were to make calls to Todd Davis and Tami Glade. Todd was someone that I’d started to get to know, and he and I were going through a lot of the same stuff. It was also possible that we could end up at Alabama with Jim. I’d received a text from Bo that confirmed that Jim had accepted their offer. Jim wanted to wait until practice on Monday to announce it.

Tami was a completely different ball of wax. I worried that we were on the verge of losing our friendship. While I would never forget what she and Alan had done, I felt it was still possible to be friends. Alan, on the other hand, might not have a chance with me. He had changed over the last six months, and I didn’t like the person he was becoming.

Then I thought about my half brother Phil. If I ever wanted to be part of his life, I needed to make more of an effort. The only problem was, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make that effort right now. Maybe when I returned from LA after the first of the year.