Jeff finds himself in Silicon Valley where he is asked to investigate claims by a gregarious Frenchman that his neural network electronic technology actually works. He meets up again with the enchanting Nancy, the FBI agent he had worked with in Atlanta where they fell in love while he was still married, and again in Washington DC Kathy puts romance back into Jeff’s life as he finds himself hounded by financially-desperate Europeans so determined to push their questionable technology―men so desperate that they will stop at nothing, even Jeff’s murder. The excitement will make the reader gasp, tragedy will make the reader cry, romance will make the reader sigh.
Chapter 3 of Silicon Gulch ... Kathy appears!
Monday, 7:06 PM: Get a Room!
Jeff decides he is definitely not going to the singles mixer in the hotel, but then he shows up an hour early to the dinner. With an hour to kill he goes to the singles mixer anyway...and he meets Kathy!
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- Chris Lamela
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Author contact: chris@chrislamela.com, 707-566-8790 PST
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Monday, 7:06 PM: Get a Room!
Jeff
glanced at his watch, knew he would have just enough time to get a shower to
get downstairs, so he stripped quickly walking to the shower. He decided to
shave again so that his face would be silky
smooth for Nancy
Twenty minutes later he walked
to the elevator, a minute later was in the lobby looking for the restaurant, walking
up to the greeter. Jeff craned to look into the restaurant seeing that there
was obviously no big dinner going on. He turned to the greeter asking. She said
she didn't know anything about a big dinner but to check with the front desk.
Thanking her, he turned walking toward the
front desk passing a large sign board that made him stop, SINGLES MIXER the
sign declared from 6 to 10, Monday May 12, 1997 – California Ballroom. Jeff
smiled looking down at his watch which said the bewitching hour had arrived,
smiling to himself remembering the singles mixer that ended up getting him into
so much trouble in Washington
DC
Yeah, maybe not.
Nope, no mixer for me tonight!
He laughed to himself walking to the front desk clerk who directed him
to Parlor Three for the dinner. He followed pointing fingers from behind the
hotel clerk's desk across the lobby to the entryway for all meeting rooms.
He walked into the meeting room area. There was another sign for the
singles mixer, a long table along the wall on the left. He noticed Parlor Three
directly across from the table, going up to the door which was closed. A sign
on the door announced the dinner he was expecting. Pulling the door open he
expected to see people sitting in the room, but instead there were staff still
laying table cloths.
"Excuse me, there's a dinner here tonight?"
"Yes sir, hosted by Neurotek."
"Yeah, I guess that sounds right."
"It doesn't start until eight o'clock."
"Really?"
"Yes sir, it is in some kind of European fashion of starting later."
"So that's in an hour?" Jeff looked at his watch, "Huh,
okay, guess I'll come back then," turning back through the door.
In a second he was back in front of the registration table for the
singles mixer with a small crowd of anxiously relaxing singles passing money
across the table getting the backs of their hands stamped.
"Okay," Jeff said to himself, "why not?" stepping
forward, handing over twenty dollars, receiving five drink tickets, proffering
up his hand for the stamp.
Continuing around the corner Jeff saw the same mix of nervously cool bodies
standing by a door with music bouncing into the hallway. Turning right into the
room Jeff saw the bar along the left wall. Holding his drink tickets he walked
up to order a Cuba Libre, handing over a ticket, turning around to see clutches
of people standing anxiously relaxed, a few couples making epileptic movements
to the music on a small dance floor.
He walked away from the bar, stood near a group of people, a couple women
looking over to him with inviting glances so he decided what the hell walking up to them. The circle opened up helping him
feel actually welcomed. Realizing he forgot to put a name tag on him, he glanced
at his hand stamp showing it, introducing himself as "Trigger" which
the stamp said for some unexplainable reason, the group laughed.
The woman to his right turned to him, "Hi, I'm Shirley. You live
here?"
"No, actually, I'm from out of town. Seattle
"Out of town, huh?" He expected her to be dismissive but she
cocked an eye looking him up and down, glancing at his bare ring finger, "Is
this a one-shot deal or do you get here regularly?"
"I've been coming down here a lot lately. Stay at this hotel when I'm
down."
"Really," she smiled,
Jeff hearing only one word in his head: SCORE!
Suddenly hands reached around
Jeff's head clasping over his eyes. He jumped in surprise, almost spilling his
drink, calming when he realized it must be Nancy
He heard a female's voice whisper in his ear, "This is a voice from
your past. Guess who?"
Jeff laughed, "Frosty the Snowman? Roger Rabbit? Wait, I know, Idi
Amin!"
A tickled laugh came from behind him, the hands continued clasping his
face, "I'll give you a hint, Washington
DC
"Oh, why didn't you say so? Newt Gingrich?"
"You're not playing fair! Would Newt Gingrich get naked in your
hotel room? Have you naked in mine?"
Naked in my hotel room? Nancy didn't get naked in my hotel room in Washington DC
Naked in my hotel room, naked in
hers?
Oh my god it's her! spinning around shocked eyes trying to focus on the
apparition before him.
"Kathy ?"
"Surprised?"
"Surprised! Yeah, that's a word for it. What are you doing here?"
"I live here! I told you I live in Santa Clara
Jeff's head spun like some little toy you wind up so its head spins
round and round and round―he'd never seen such a toy but if one existed that
would be him right now!
"But…"
"But what silly, didn't you read my note?"
"Note?" suddenly he remembered her note, the one that said next time we lay naked together, words
that were so endearing to his wife when she found the note pinned to his dry
cleaning. "Oh, yeah, your note."
"Come on, let's go out into the hall, it's too noisy in here,"
she tugged at Jeff's sleeve. He turned to the woman who had been making eyes at
him with a shrug noticing her shoot evil eyes to Kathy .
A few seconds later they were in the hallway, she pointed to a bench seat.
They walked toward it sitting down.
"So are you surprised to see me?"
He took a long drink of his
Cuba Libre, "Yeah, you can say that again."
"Actually, I was never supposed to make contact with you. Did
covering your eyes count as contact?"
He laughed sipping his drink, "Yeah, well I doubt there's any FBI
lurking around here keeping score." They both laughed. "But really, I
never thought I'd see you again."
"You mean you never wanted to
see me again."
"I didn't say that, did I?"
"No you didn't." She leaned her head on his shoulder, he felt
a funny twinge in his chest that surprised him.
But then it didn't.
She looked down at his glass, "You know, I could use another drink,
do you promise not to go anywhere?" He nodded, she got up disappearing
back into the room.
He sat there wondering if she got up deliberately so he could leave
without shame. That seemed like a good idea actually, glancing at his watch
seeing that he still has forty-five minutes before the dinner.
No, he would stay. No idea why,
mind you, he thought, maybe he would just be giving her a second shot at
poisoning him. He remembered how she knocked the poisoned beer bottle from his
hand, how she had broken down admitting that she that she had been paid fifty
thousand dollars to put the two little white tablets into his beer. She had
lost her nerve. No, she never really had the nerve. She was just extremely
pissed off about how Nancy
Then his need to go to see her
that very night, only hours after that. What was that? And that wonderful hour
they got to spend together with armed men outside the door. All the times he
thinks about her. Still. She is the reason why he has started to question is
sanity lately. He saw her, what, over a year ago, and they only spent that
single hour together alone. There was something about her, though, something
that was really special. In a weird
way he didn't mind being kicked out by Donna after finding Kathy's letter.
He laughed that less than an hour ago he told himself he would never see
her, and yet somehow he knew he would see her again. He just knew.
Now here she was.
Maybe she went back into the mixer to ditch him he thought watching the door. Couldn't blame her, really. Soon she came back out holding two
glasses with a pleased expression, a warm inviting smile.
"You waited!" she smiled handing him his drink, "here, it's
a double. Like that night on the phone, do your remember?" He smiled
remembering how he had assembled a double Cuba Libre out of his mini-bar while
they teased each other on the phone that night.
Jesus, that crazy week.
"Yeah, I remember," they tinked their glasses in a toast.
"So what are you doing down here?"
"Business, here for the week."
"The week, wow, you could
get yourself into a lot of trouble in a week," toasting him again.
"Yeah, but you know, it's a little weird seeing you again after
what happened in DC."
She gave a guilty-looking downcast of her eyes. "You know, I think
a lot about all that. All the time. I don't know what came over me." She
looked back up to him, "But you know that I wouldn't hurt you, I couldn't
hurt you."
He laughed, "I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about the hour."
She looked back to him with misty eyes, "Oh, right. Yes. The hour. Our hour. Yes, that was pretty special."
He looked into her eyes, their deep brown, so deep in color that he
could barely see into them. Chocolate with that bright green ring around them. He
was captivated by her dark eyes and their halo of green. He was only every
attracted to women with light colored eyes. His wife had sparkly blue eyes; he
used to call them her crystalline eyes. Nancy
"There is something about you mister Jeff…I mean something really
special. I would never hurt you." She laughed poking his shoulder, "And
I would take an hour with you anytime."
"Even with two armed men at the door?" She laughed. "Yeah,
but I know." He set his drink down reaching for hers setting it down,
turning to her taking both of her hands in his, looking into her deep dark
eyes. "Kathy , I have thought a
lot about what happened back there. And honestly, I never expected to see you
again." He smiled, turned away, back to her again.
"What?" she said playfully.
"It's too strange, you're going to think I'm a freak if I tell you."
"What?" she flopped his hands gently, "what? Tell me!"
"I never…I mean…I mean I never expected to see you again for the
rest of my life. But I have thought about you so much that it has been kind of driving me crazy."
He shook his head reaching for his glass sipping it, "No, I'm crazy
for thinking about you so much! Especially because I thought I would never see
you again."
"That's sweet, I think about you every day. So I guess you could
call me crazy too. The difference between you and me, though, is that I knew we would meet again."
Looking to the ceiling, back to her, "I even practiced what I would
say to you when I did see you again. Or when I didn't."
"No, that's not strange." She laughed softly with a demur
smile, "I've been thinking exactly the same," she smiled, "or
maybe I didn't…I think…but now I'm confused!" They laughed.
"Okay, then, you go first," he smiled, "what would you
say to me when you never saw me again for the rest of your life?"
She laughed, "Okay, when I never saw you again…" she laughed
again, "I would tell you that I was so hurt when that woman barged in on
us because…well…now you're going to think I'm
a freak!" He shook his head, encouraging her to continue, "That night
at the bar, then on the phone, my god mister Jeff, all I could think was this is him! That you were the man I
have been looking for my whole life! And then when you came to my room after
what I did, came back to me in the middle of the night like you did, all I have
been able to think is that you are the most special man on earth."
He laughed out loud, "Do you go around poisoning all the men you
find after looking for him your whole life who is the most special man on earth?"
She punched him in the arm hard, "Ouch! Okay, fair enough, or
rather unfair enough."
"Okay, your turn. What were you going to say to me?" she
demanded smiling.
He let her hand down to pick up his drink, taking a long gulp, put his
drink down again reaching for her hand. "Let me see. When I didn't see you
for the rest of my life I was going to tell you that my life back then was really complicated. You know how you had
to sign the non-disclosure, that you would never talk about what happened in
DC?" She nodded. "Well I think I need one of those for my whole life!"
They both laughed together as she waggled
his hands.
"No seriously, my life was sooooo
complicated, that week was so insane. I couldn't describe that week even if
they did allow me to." He shook
his head, "But more, my marriage was wrecked and she was confused about
wanting me back or not, I had met another woman―"
"The one who barged in on us, huh."
"Yeah, how did you know?"
She gave a wry knowing smile, "Jeff, in case you didn't notice, I
am a woman. Anyway…"
Note to self…Kathy is also a
woman!
"Yes,
the woman who busted in on us. She and I have tried and tried to have a
relationship―I shouldn't be telling you this, should I?"
"We've earned this. Yes, you can tell me. We're just friends,
right?"
He looked to her nodding, "Yes, we are. Anyway, there was a lot of
magnetism. Like us."
Her face brightened, "Magnetism? Like us?"
Oh no, Jeff thought, the US
He looked down at his hands holding hers, smiling, "You're right. Yes,
like us."
"Listen, I know you are staying at the hotel, but I have a
townhouse across the freeway, about two miles from here. I'd really like it if
you would let me cook you dinner. Let's see where this can go, what do you
think?"
"Dinner!" Jeff looked down at his watch, five minutes after
eight. "Oh jesus, Kathy , I
would love that, but I'm supposed to be at a dinner right now." She
flashed a disappointed smile. "But here," he pulled out his pen
rustling around his pockets looking for a piece of paper, looking up at her
holding her cell phone.
"Give me your cell phone number."
He told her the digits one-by-one while she poked them into her phone, a
second later his cell phone rang from his coat pocket. Reaching into his pocket
he pulled out his phone answering it, "Jeff's love connection!"
She laughed, "There, now you
have my phone number and I have yours." He repeated back her same words, they
both laughed at the funny echo effect from the delay of the phone as they both
clicked buttons to disconnect.
"So how is your schedule tomorrow night, care for some home-cooked
food?"
He paused a quick second to reflect that if he got to be with Nancy Kathy tomorrow night?
"Yeah sure, as long as arsenic is not on the menu!"
She punched his arm again, "Ouch, the same spot, you're going to
leave a bruise!"
They started to stand, she reached to him kissing him on the lips, "Listen
mister Jeff, you are going to leave my townhouse black and blue tomorrow night,
so get used to it! And it will take longer than an hour."
Impulsively he reached to her pulling her to him, they embraced in a
long passionate kiss pulling away only when somebody walked by with a joking
voice.
"Hey you two," laughing.
"Get a room!"
"Get a room!"
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NOW READ THE NEXT EXCITING CHAPTER OF
SILICON GULCH!
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