Forever Yours
6
Date Night
CONVOCATION THURSDAY EVENING had been much like the other keynotes from the university president, the director of the united university, and the provost, but it had more solemnity and a religious overtone to it. The participants had all worn their black gowns with three velvet stripes on the sleeve and variously colored hoods. They processed up a center aisle and had flags and banners they displayed on the stage.
There was an invocation, a song by one of the university chorales, and the message by a guest speaker who was a graduate from the university. He held an important position in the steel industry and brought home the responsibility of those with an education to share their gift with all levels of society. Henry thought the message was pretty cool.
“Overwhelmed with college yet?” Kaitlyn asked when she met Henry after the convocation.
“I think I’ll know better after classes actually start next week. It seems a little out of sequence to try to convince freshmen to join all these campus organizations and to volunteer for community service when we don’t have an actual understanding of what our workload will be. So, aside from playing golf, I haven’t signed up for any extra-curricular activities. I have about as much as I can handle with my class schedule,” Henry said. “Was it like that with you?”
“No. I can only admire your ability to resist. By the time I was through orientation week, I was signed up for ten different organizations and projects because they all sounded so good. Within a month after classes started, all I was active in was golf and the Chinese-American Club,” she said.
Henry drove Kaitlyn to a favorite restaurant that was inexpensive but just far enough off campus that he didn’t expect a lot of college kids to be there. They were seated and ordered from their waiter before picking up their conversation.
“It seems like there’s always some tension between the US and China being hyped up. Have you experienced problems because of it?” Henry asked.
“I’m not from China. I’m from San Francisco,” Kaitlyn said. “That said, it’s a racial thing. If someone is bigoted about one thing, they are likely to be bigoted about the Chinese, too. Between COVID and the tariff wars, there are a lot of places we aren’t particularly welcome. However, if I’d realized how common Asian faces were here at the university, I probably wouldn’t have bothered joining the club. I thought it was going to be the only way I’d see people who looked like me in this little midwestern town.”
“Midwestern? Wow! I’ve never heard Pittsburgh referred to as midwestern. For most people, the Midwest starts about thirty miles west of here. Most people here try to lay claim to East Coast values, though you’ll find the area a lot more conservative than, say, Philadelphia.”
“True that. So, what’s your big goal in life?” Kaitlyn asked.
“That bypasses all the small-talk, doesn’t it?” Henry laughed. “My plan is to launch a corporation built around some of my computing ideas and make some changes to how people view artificial intelligence. What’s your big goal?”
“To marry a nice guy—or girl for that matter, I don’t care—who will support me for the rest of my life, while I play golf every day.”
Henry looked at her with his mouth open slightly.
“I’m kidding. A little,” she said. “I think I can improve my game enough to join the LPGA. So far, the game has given me enough scholarship help that I can continue to improve here in college. I’m majoring in exercise science so I can reasonably anticipate employability as a coach when I get out if I haven’t made it to the LPGA yet.”
“I think that’s a great goal. Mine is probably a little less defined,” Henry laughed.
Their dinners arrived and the conversation continued along the vein of getting the most out of their time on campus. After dinner, Henry drove Kaitlyn back to campus and her residence hall.
“So, taking the schedule of this week and next into consideration and confirming our golf date for next weekend, would you like to go out again?” Henry asked.
Kaitlyn turned on the steps of the residence to face Henry.
“I tell you what, let’s see how we get along on the golf course and how next week’s golf date goes. We’ve got a Labor Day competition, too. Then we’ll see about how things shape up,” Kaitlyn said. “I have to tell you, though, Henry, I don’t really see a future for us and I don’t just date around. Let’s call this ‘getting to know your teammate’ and not have any additional expectations.”
“I hear you,” he said. “I’m definitely not looking for a commitment of any sort. I’ll be happy to call you my friend.”
“Agreed.”
Kaitlyn entered her residence hall and Henry drove home.
By the time orientation week ended on Sunday evening, Henry felt like he’d been on campus all his life. He’d made two additional practices with the golf team and had met with his classmates in the School of Computer Science and with the smaller group of students interested in artificial intelligence. He was ready to put the orientation behind him and get into his studies.
He’d completed nearly all the required freshman classes except the “Freshman Immigration” course for a single credit. He still couldn’t declare his major in artificial intelligence until the spring term, but he could start taking the classes. His major classes were AI: Representation and Problem Solving, Parallel and Sequential Data Structures and Algorithms, and Probability Theory for Computer Scientists. This gave him a total of only twelve credits, so he piled on an ethics class and a computer engineering elective for another six credits. It was considered a heavy load, but Henry was determined to get deep into his subject and get out of college.
The classes were challenging from the first day. Parking on campus was at a premium and upper-classmen had priority for parking permits, so Henry grabbed a bus from near his house at seven in the morning. He returned about seven in the evening, after golf practice. He happily gobbled down the dinner his mother had prepared while his parents quizzed him about the first day of class.
Then he was off to study. All his classes had a hefty amount of reading to be done and he continued to read until he fell asleep about midnight. In the morning, he was up and back on the bus at seven.
The golf date on Saturday was less a date than a practice session. Henry invited two other team members to round out their foursome. When he found out about the match, Coach Ty asked if he could walk the course with them.
The coach kept the scores and used typical match-play rules with the two girls competing with each other and the two guys competing against each other. The player in each pair who got the lowest score on a hole won a point. All four were well-matched and the scores were close. Henry won his match 3-2. That meant they’d tied on thirteen holes. Kaitlyn beat Carol 6-3, having tied on the other nine holes.
All through the play, the coach had given them subtle hints and critiques without attempting to take over the friendly competition. The golfers were happy with the results of their match and after a late breakfast at the club, were all off to their holiday weekend activities.
Henry’s activity was at Luke’s house where they were meeting with Chastity and Isobel to work on the formation of their business. Isobel had acquired an employer identification number from the IRS and the four went to an appointment at the local bank to open their business account. They deposited their thousand dollar checks and signed the account papers.
“I guess that makes us officially a company,” Luke said. “Wow! I really didn’t expect this at eighteen.”
“No kidding,” Chastity said. “What comes next?”
“I’ve been in touch with the Small Business Administration for some advice,” Luke said. “I asked specifically for advice on incorporating a software company so we could protect our—or Henry’s—IP. It turns out that one of the professors in my department is an SBA consultant and we struck up a good conversation. He’s agreed to work with us at Villanova, and will come to periodic meetings with the group here in Pitt or by Zoom. There’s a lot of preliminary work to be done in the next couple of months. So, we probably won’t have much of a meeting with him until at least winter break.”
“What are the big issues we need to deal with?” Henry asked. “Can we all work on it or is it strictly in your court now?”
“I figure we’ll all have work to do. We didn’t really need to think much about what to name our LLC: Pascal, Riordan, Perez, and Pappa. It’s not really going to be doing any public business. We’re strictly founding owners of The World’s Greatest Computer Company. Which is a name I checked on and it’s already taken. So, we all need to be figuring out what we’re going to call our corporation. We can start shooting names back and forth through text and email, though I’d rather we figure out a company website for PRPP so we have secure email and aren’t using a commercial service.”
“I can set that up,” Henry said.
“Good. I was hoping you’d say that so we don’t need to dip into the funds too deeply. Then the names we generate need to be checked against whether or not they are available and not trademarked,” Luke continued.
“I can do that. It’s similar to what I did to get the LLC registered,” Isobel said.
“I suppose most of the basic stuff like determining the type of business according to the various tax tables, the state of incorporation, which doesn’t need to be the same as the state where we are operating, and the initial stock setup—like how many shares we’re going to authorize and who gets how much is my problem,” Luke said.
“This summer I found out employment laws vary from state to state and county to county,” Chastity said. “I think when we decide on a state of incorporation and place of business, we should be considering local laws on employment. I don’t care so much about whether there is a diversity, equity, and inclusion law as that it isn’t forbidden. If we are going to be an engineering firm, we need to be able to hire the best engineers and that is going to be a diverse population.”
“Well said,” Henry added. “We need that to be a founding policy.”
“I’ll figure out a way to work it into the articles of incorporation or bylaws,” Luke said. “Chas, I’ll be asking for your help on that.”
“Got it.”
“What is it about this business stuff that makes me so horny?” Chastity said, looping her arm through Henry’s as they left the restaurant where the group had dinner. “Want to help me with that?”
“Hmm. It’s Saturday night on a holiday weekend. I’ve been in class or orientation for two weeks, and the only date I’ve had is a ‘Let’s Be Friends,’ teammate on the golf team. I think that makes me completely available to help out a friend in need,” Henry laughed.
“We should enjoy each other tonight, then,” Chastity said. “Goddess knows when we’ll ever have a chance again. I ended up with a full load of classes and I’m still holding my job at the restaurant.”
They went to Chastity’s apartment and Henry spent a few minutes petting the cats while Chastity puttered at putting a few things away and smoothing the bedding. Then they cuddled up on the bed and began seriously playing at getting each other turned on.
“Don’t you like my ass?” Chastity said as she came down from her first orgasm and Henry was getting into position to enter her.
“Of course I like your ass!” he responded. “What’s not to like?”
“We’ve never done it doggie. Why don’t you get behind me and cuddle up against it?”
“Sure. I mean, this is only like our third time together. I was trying not to rush things.”
“Silly! Doing it from behind isn’t rushing things. If you tried to put it in my ass, that would be rushing things,” Chas said as she rolled over and presented her backside to him.
Henry fondled the ass in question and then lined up to enter Chas again. As soon as he started, Chastity pressed back against him, driving his cock deep in her pussy.
“Oh, fuck, Chastity! That almost got me off. Would have been a really short fuck.”
“I got greedy. Told you I was horny. I just love the feeling of your cock stuffing me. I just want to remind you that even in the office, I’m yours for the taking. It’s part of our agreement!”
Henry picked up the speed and even if he hadn’t come as soon as he entered her, it wasn’t long before he began spurting. Chastity was right with him.
“What is it you have against dating and marriage, Chas? We make a great team.”
“Nothing against them in principle. But not us. We aren’t in love. And if I lived with you, I know it wouldn’t be long before I fell out of lust, too. Not going to happen,” Chastity said, giving him a shove to get out of bed. “I’m going to keep you from getting sucked into a relationship because you’re horny instead of being in love. I’m not going to prevent you from finding your one true love or whatever hogwash you want to label it, nor to stop you from fucking whomever you want. But I don’t want to wake up with you in the morning!”
“Hey! I spent the night last time.”
“Barely. You were up and out the door before I had a chance to wake up and throw you out. Just go, Henry. I’m your happy-for-an-hour, not your happily-ever-after.”
Four colleges competed on Monday in two two-way match-plays with men’s and women’s tournaments. It was considered a first of the year mixer in some ways. Henry’s team played against the men from one of the other colleges, but the two women in their foursome were from the third and fourth colleges. It made for a very collegial atmosphere and everyone did well. Henry won his match by a single point, but the university men’s team lost the match. The university women’s team won their match and Kaitlyn won hers by three.
The day was exhausting as the team had a four-and-a-half-hour drive each direction. They didn’t get back to campus until almost ten that night.
Then the rhythm of classes picked up again. Henry was relieved that he didn’t need to play every tournament. There were twelve men and twelve women on the team, but typically a tournament only allowed five per team to enter. An exceptional sixth person might enter the tournament as an individual, but not be counted as part of the team. Henry wouldn’t be playing the varsity matches in the fall and didn’t have another outing with the B-team until the end of September.
By that time, Henry had settled into the routine of college life. After the initial push to get started, classes seemed to even out and there were many discussions with his classmates about the subject matter. He joined a study group with Josh, Lisa, and Dan. They’d identified each other at the first department dinner during orientation as people to work with, then they discovered they had three major interest classes together. The conversations were often lively.
“Henry’s made a convert out of me,” Josh laughed. “I see what you mean about the power issue. With the drive toward electric everything as a clean energy, where are we going to get enough power to run our computers?”
“Thank God we’re not getting power from coal much anymore,” Dan said. “Fifteen percent is still too much, but we continue to cut it back.”
“The attacks on solar and wind generation slowed down the drop,” Lisa said. “There’s so much disinformation about environment and efficiency that people believe burning coal is still providing the bulk of our power. Mostly, that isn’t true except in Texas—which doesn’t make the air over Louisiana any cleaner.”
“Where’s the power going to come from, Henry?” Josh asked. “You got us thinking about this, but what’s the answer.”
“If I had the answer already, I wouldn’t be in college studying all these things. I believe, though, there must be ways to reduce the amount of power needed, not just ways to produce more power. Don’t forget that energy isn’t the only resource being used. All that power usage in computers creates heat. Heat is an enemy of computers. So, they all have to be cooled. For the most part, cooling takes water. A lot of the places where server farms and AI bases are being set up are remote so they won’t be an eyesore. But those remote areas often don’t have enough water as it is.”
“How about using the heat and water to generate more power?” Dan asked. “Doesn’t solve all the problems, but it reduces the dependency on more power from current sources.”
“Reduce, reuse, recycle,” Josh said. “Haven’t we been taught that since we were babies?”
“I think we’ve identified a problem, but we aren’t deep enough into it to identify any real solutions yet,” Henry said. “It’s too bad we don’t have, like, an AI that could come up with a solution.”
The study group looked at him and all started to snicker. Maybe they could create that.
The next golf tournament Henry was involved in was the B-Team Invitational in Meadville. That was only an hour and a half north of Pittsburgh, but it was the last time most of the freshman players on the team would have a chance to play until spring. The two coaches took five women and five men to the tournament for Saturday and Sunday, including meals and a motel room for the night. The major fall competitions were in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Only the top tier players would be flown to those tournaments. Weather would soon become a factor in playing locally.
The tournament started at ten with nine women’s teams. The ‘shotgun start’ meant foursomes would start on twelve different holes around the course at the same time. This was a cumulative score competition, meaning the scores of all men’s team members would be added together. The lowest cumulative score would win the tournament. They would play eighteen holes on Saturday and eighteen on Sunday.
The men started their round at 1:30 in the afternoon. There were eleven teams, so they started on fourteen holes. Henry did pretty well on his round, shooting four over par. That put him on the leader board in sixth place and his team was ranked at third. It was a good round. The women were playing well and the leader board had the team ranked in second.
The hundred players and their coaches were served dinner at the country club’s welcome banquet. The varsity team, Henry supposed, was treated this well at all their tournaments, but this was something special for the B-teams. After dinner, a motivational speaker addressed the group. He was a fairly well-known pro golfer, though Henry didn’t think he’d won any championships. He mused that that was appropriate for second tier golfers to listen to.
“Do you think that was meant to encourage us to stay on the B-team?” Carol joked with him on their way to the bus.
“I guess that would be appropriate. How many of us are going to become pro golfers?”
“I understood that. I’m here to get a Health Sciences degree. Pre-med student. I want to make sure I have a good golf game for my weekends as a doctor,” she laughed.
Carol had joined Kaitlyn and Henry on their golf date early in the month. She was probably as good a golfer as Henry was and better than most of the guys on the team, but the women’s team was pretty high quality overall. She was definitely second tier.
“Computer science specializing in AI for me,” Henry said. “I don’t even know if I’d be able to maintain the schedule if I was a varsity golfer. I don’t see myself taking off for two or three days for every competition. And there aren’t that many tutors in the department.”
“Kaitlyn will go pro. That’s what she’s here for. What you saw of her when we played together was just a warm-up for her.”
“She’s a killer,” Henry said. “I don’t know if Geoff will be dedicated enough to make it as a pro. He’s good, but I think he’s more likely to end up a coach. Nothing wrong with that. I had a great coach in high school. I could end up doing that myself.”
“With a degree in AI? I doubt it.”
“What are we supposed to do for rooms at this place?” Henry asked when they pulled in to the Hampton Inn.
“Oh, the girls came over after our round and checked into the rooms,” Carol said.
“And the guys?”
“Well, there’s five rooms, five guys, and five girls,” Carol said.
“You can’t mean everyone is expected to pair up!”
“No! Of course not. We’ll give keys to two rooms to the guys and three rooms for us,” Carol teased.
“Well, not that I would object to sharing a room with you, Carol…”
“Good. Because it comes out to two rooms with two girls each, two rooms with two guys each, and one room with one of each. If you’re not too aggressive, I’ll share with you. The rooms all have two beds and I didn’t bring enough stuff with me for this overnight to occupy the entire bathroom.”
“Are you serious, Carol?” Henry asked.
“Well… yeah. I mean, I’m not offering to screw you. We’ve hung out a little and I like you, though. It’s possible that we might enjoy each other’s company. But I also know you’re a decent guy. I don’t think you’d pressure me. None of the girls feel that way about any of the other guys,” Carol said.
“If you trust me, I promise to be trustworthy,” Henry said. “I’d love to just hang out for the night and get to know you better.”
“Perfect.”
“Are you a guy who stays up late watching TV?” Carol asked when they got to their room. It was spacious enough that they would have no difficulty sharing. Henry’s duffle bag had only enough clean clothes and toiletries for a night. Both golf bags occupied the closet.
“No. I seldom watch TV. Help yourself if you want. I’ve got my laptop. I was thinking I could study if I didn’t fall asleep too quickly,” he said.
“Yeah. I brought a book. I heard somewhere that being a freshman in college was just like high school without a parent. I never studied this hard in high school!”
“Isn’t that the truth? I came in as a freshman with sophomore standing and my classes are brutal. I didn’t have the opportunity to study anything as in-depth as what I’m doing here,” Henry said. He kicked off his shoes and settled back on the bed Carol had left unoccupied.
“It’s probably our chosen fields. Is it true that you have to be smarter than anything you develop in computing?” she asked.
“It’s a weird thing. My cellphone is smarter than I am if you just measure intelligence by how fast it can compute and find answers. My dad explained it to me years ago. He said a computer was hardware, firmware, and software. But it took wetware to create it and to use it.” He pointed at his head.
“I might start using that term in my human physiology class,” Carol laughed. “So, are you saying artificial intelligence won’t replace me as a doctor?”
“If it does, the world will be a poorer place for it. The computer in all its variations is a tool. You learn to use a tool proficiently. Maybe you can ask the computer questions to help you diagnose a patient that has symptoms you aren’t familiar with. But you can’t let the computer just create the diagnosis. You’d never know if the AI was giving you good information or if it had just made it up from something it discovered in a seventeenth century treatise on women and hysteria.”
“It could do that, couldn’t it?” Carol said. “So let me ask you something less professionally oriented. Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Oh, wow! Uh, no. In fact, I haven’t had a date since our golf outing Labor Day weekend. There just hasn’t been time. How about you? Do you have a boyfriend? Or girlfriend?”
“No. Like you, too busy. I came here from Cleveland and don’t know many people in the area except those who are on the team and those who are in my major. I really can’t imagine dating anyone who’s studying medicine. But if you can, I might be interested.”
“Carol, I think you’re pretty cool. We have a lot of fun when we’re golfing together. I’m enjoying sharing a room with you. Understanding we might not have a lot of dating time, I’d be interested in exploring the possibilities,” Henry said.
“Would you be interested in exploring some of the possibilities tonight?” she asked, tossing the covers on her bed back.
“Is that too quick?” he asked.
“It’s not you being aggressive. I’m offering… to let you check out my wetware.”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
