Triptych
Thirteen
MY MONDAY WAS JAMMED. I met Cary Randolph at the registrar’s office at SCU and he got me through in record time. Having an official escort when registering for classes was great. One of the courses we’d agreed on was already full and Cary had a signed permission slip from the instructor to allow me to register. We finished and went to the financial aid office to sign all the papers there. I realized right away that SCU was cheaper than PCAD.
After registering, Sam Jacobson met us and we went to lunch. Two of my new professors for fall joined us. Sam introduced me to Dr. Dennis who would be my Human Anatomy professor and Professor Strait who would teach Critical Reading in the Humanities. Cary must have really been pulling strings to bring in two professors during summer break, but they both asked me some good questions and I discovered that admission to the Critical Reading class was supposed to be by interview only. Professor Strait had pre-approved my admission even though the class was full.
Sam got right to the point of having the profs there. He wanted to know if there would be any problems with me missing some classes to go to tournaments. He had the dates for Opens in October, and the two national tournaments in March and May. Of course, I might not even have these professors by spring, but I hadn’t thought about what a big deal it might be to miss a week of classes in October. By addressing the issue up-front, Coach was helping me get the permissions of the professors for my two most critical classes before the term even started.
“Racquetball must take a lot of hand strength,” Dr. Dennis said. He reached over to shake my hand and I gripped it firmly.
“Grip is certainly important,” I said. “That’s true of many sports.”
“How many bones are in your hand?” he asked. Weird.
“Twenty-seven, counting the wrist,” I answered. I’d had to draw every single one of them in high school art class.
“Which are called…”
“The bones in the wrist? You mean the carpals?”
“Right. And to what do they connect?”
“The metacarpals.”
“Other direction.”
“The radius and the ulna.”
“Class dismissed. You’re free to attend Opens,” Dr. Dennis smiled. “I don’t think we’re going to have any problems with you missing material that early on, but you should find a study partner.”
“There will be a paper due that week,” Prof. Strait said. “I’ll give you the assignment in advance.”
“Thank you.”
Dr. Dennis and Prof. Strait had both been briefed about the dual degree program and I wasn’t the only student from PCAD they were meeting with, though I was the only one that had both of them. I could see that this fall was going to be very different and if I complained of boredom, something would be very wrong. In the end, they both agreed that I would be able to attend Opens without falling behind in classes. I left lunch actually looking forward to classes this fall.
My other class at SCU was a PE class and Coach assured me that I would have no difficulty getting the time off for competition. That meant that I only had to deal with my one studio class at PCAD with none other than Doc Henredon as my professor in 2D Studio Arts. I knew Ms. Brock was going to be ticked that I wasn’t doing 3D, but there was always next year when I assumed I’d be spending most of my time at PCAD again.
I felt pretty good and thanked Cary for all the work he’d done. He excused himself and headed out to meet another student. He was scheduling each of us for half a day of registration.
“Let’s head up to the club,” Sam said. “You’ve got court time scheduled for you and Lissa this summer, but we really haven’t worked out a team practice time. You and Lissa will have to work with the other team members and we need to schedule tournaments. This isn’t like a varsity team, so we don’t have the ability to put pressure on the athletes that we have with NCAA sanctioned sports. It’s going to be largely up to you and your team manager to set the schedule and determine what events you’ll play in. I’m guessing that there won’t be much in the way of interclub tournaments until at least December since you’ll need that much time for people to learn how to play effectively.”
“Well, fortunately, we can rank each player and put them in the division that’s appropriate for their skill level,” I said. “We don’t all have to play against elite players.” I hesitated a moment. “Uh…is Bree still our team manager? I haven’t seen her since I got back to town.”
“Yes. Sorry to saddle you with her, but she seems to be taking this seriously. She’ll meet us at the club to go over what she’s got for a schedule.” Coach stopped on the sidewalk before we entered the club and I turned to face him. “She’s my daughter, Tony, but I’m going to depend on you to be honest with me if she isn’t working out. I never know for sure what her agenda is anymore.”
“We get along,” I said. “I’m sure it will be fine.”
She was waiting for us in the lobby of the club with John Gilbert.
“Tony!” Bree exclaimed as she came up to give me a hug and a modest—for Bree—kiss on the cheek. “John says you’ve been working out for the past three weeks and I didn’t even know you were back in town. You should have called me.”
“Well, a lot has been happening. We didn’t even really start practicing until more than a week after we got back.”
“We?”
“Yeah. Lissa and Melody and I all live together now,” I said. There was no sense in trying to keep this knowledge from her. That could come back to bite me in the ass. I saw her face harden a little.
“Well, John and I have agreed to Tuesday/Thursday evening practice for the team if it works for you and Lissa. It’s a little odd having a sport that practices at seven at night, but we’re not at a school facility. We have to be thankful for what we can get.” She gave John’s arm a little squeeze. Oh no! I thought. She’s putting the make on him now.
I guess I needn’t have worried because John seemed to accept the gesture as if it was no more than a handshake. Either he was completely oblivious or he was simply ignoring her.
I was going to have to add Tuesday and Thursday night workouts with the team to my schedule.
“Have you talked the practice time over with Lissa?” I asked.
“I covered it with her when she came in to set up your practice time. You guys are going to have more hours in the club than I do before long,” John said.
“It seems like a lot of time to me,” I said. “Especially if we don’t have any players.”
“I’ve recruited six now,” Bree said. “Posters are going up all over campus in time for orientation. I had a flyer included in the freshman welcome kits. Two of the people who want to play actually have experience and the other four at least know what the sport is. I think we’ll have ten players by the time we have our first competition.”
“Hey! Speaking of competition, did you manage to find out anything about doing a doubles competition, John?” I asked.
“We’ve scheduled it for the weekend before Labor Day,” John said. “It’s a bit of a push, but the clubs have events planned for after the holiday. It’s being advertised as a doubles warmup tournament and we’ve held the price way down saying there would be club privileges but little in the way of other awards and hospitality to encourage players. It seems to be working. We’ve got four teams signed up already. We may play a round robin with no regard to whether it is men, women, or mixed. It depends on how many entries we get.”
“Coach, I haven’t had a chance to talk to you about this, but John suggested that as long as I was going to Opens to coach Lissa, we should enter mixed doubles, too. I know that doesn’t qualify as an intercollegiate event. Do you have a problem with our playing together?” I asked.
“I’ll check the rules again, but as long as you don’t play in the pro division, I believe there is acceptance of college team members playing in the Opens. Could be good for the sport at SCU,” Sam said.
“But who will go as your coach/trouble-shooter?” Bree asked. “If you and Lissa are both on the court, you should have a coach representative with you.”
“I guess we’ll have to work that one out,” I said.
“Well, if worse comes to worst, I’ll do it,” Bree said firmly. “At least that way you’ll have clean uniforms.” I chose to laugh that one off.
“Hey, Tony!” Bree called to me as I was walking out the door. “Got a minute?”
“Sure.”
“Look, I know we got off to a rocky start last spring, but let’s put it all behind us and start fresh, okay?” she asked.
“Bree, I think we’re on the way to having a good friendship. Whatever we did wrong last year, let’s forget it.”
“Okay. Um… with that in mind… I’d like to invite you to a party on Friday night. I have a bunch of friends around campus and this would just be another opportunity to get to know people. No obligations or being on a date or anything. Just an opportunity to get to know people. Want to go?” she asked.
“Aw, Bree. Honestly, I would but I’ve already got a commitment Friday night. Really. I’m not brushing you off on this and if I hadn’t already agreed to something else, I’d at least call home and consult with the wives. But I can’t do anything this weekend.”
“The wives? Shit, Tony, you are really pussy-whipped. Okay, we’ll try again some other time. So, call before the warmup tournament and we’ll put together a team party to send you guys off to Opens.”
“Say, Bree. I know it’s probably none of my business, but why did you decide to take on managing a team that isn’t even varsity? How is that going to work out with cheerleading and everything else you’ve got going on?”
Bree suddenly found the pavement very interesting. She scuffed at some chalk marks where kids had been drawing on the sidewalk.
“I quit cheerleading, Tony,” she said at last. “It’s fun, but it’s not a career. I’ve got to get serious about my life. I’m a year ahead of you in school and the thought of being completely out on my own in two years scares the shit out of me. I’m picking up more courses in exercise science and am thinking about moving into the pre-physical therapy program. I’ve seen my fill of football players. I thought I’d try your sport for a while. I plan to learn to play, too.”
“That’s a huge move, Bree. It’s probably really egotistical of me, but you aren’t doing this just because I’m in racquetball, are you?” I asked.
“Yeah, that’s really egotistical. You aren’t exactly the center of my world, Tony. I’m not a stalker and I’d like you to keep that in mind. If you are too dense to see what you could have here, I’m not going to be chasing you around. This is strictly a career move.”
She was a little huffy, but I supposed I deserved it. She said a curt ‘goodbye’ and I walked up to PCAD to change my registration there. Cary figured I could handle that by myself. Lissa picked me up at five and we went home. What a day!
At the Tuesday board meeting, we all had things to talk about. We’d been busy all day. Melody had been to talk to Professor DeWitt about the mass dying project that we needed to do. There was good news and bad news. The bad news was that it was a bigger project than she could allow us to do at the school where there were limited facilities. The good news, however, was that Melody could get class credit for the project and Professor DeWitt would ‘advise’ her on-site during the setup and initial stages. All we needed was a place to do the work.
That’s where my report came in. Jack set up an appointment for me to meet with the manager of Elliott Bay Work Lofts down on Elliott Avenue. What a find! The management company was having a hard time getting tenants at the moment and was willing to cut a deal that would give us six months’ rent free over the course of a three-year lease. So we’d only pay ten months’ rent each year. I learned more about rent, leasehold improvements, triple net, and options in an afternoon than I ever wanted to know. I still didn’t know everything and couldn’t remember half of what I hadn’t written down. There was no question that we needed the lawyer to go over any lease we signed and I’d be asking Jack to help negotiate. I was just plain over my head.
But the space was incredible. It wasn’t huge, but 800 square feet that is completely empty with tall ceilings seems like a cavern. The manager said they’d put in a ventilation fan since we really wouldn’t need much of any other improvements. It had an industrial sink, garage type door, and cement floor with a drain. Almost a glorified garage. We could have the space if we could commit to a three-year lease.
That was sobering.
There’s a big difference between pledging your love for the rest of your life and being excited to live together and fall into bed together, and actually signing a lease that says you’ll pay rent for three years. We all looked at each other as that sank in and I could tell Lissa and Melody were thinking the same thing. Being ‘married’ was really theoretical. Even our partnership agreement could be dissolved, though none of us had ever considered the possibility. Still, signing a lease…
Then Lissa upped the ante.
“I know how to finance the business,” she began. “I spent the day at the Credit Union. They’ll loan us $190,000.”
Melody and I both let our mouths gap open. Holy shit! Not only would we have a lease, we’d have a loan for about five times what I thought I’d owe for my entire college education.
“They’d just loan us that much money? We’re all unemployed!”
“No. They won’t just loan us the money. But it actually helps us along if we are really committed. This is kind of the last easy opportunity to… to back out… of our… family.”
“I’m not backing out no matter what,” Melody said.
“You’d better listen to the deal.”
“Okay.”
“This house is still in my name. But our partnership agreement says that we all put our assets together,” Lissa explained. “The house is worth about $950,000.”
Oh my god! I had no idea. I was beginning to get overwhelmed. Lissa can’t just sign over two-thirds—well technically, the way we wrote it up it was two-fifths—of her home to us. Two-fifths would be held in trust for our children, including Damon and Drew.
“Lissa, I didn’t know what you were doing when you signed the partnership papers. You can’t put your whole house in the partnership. It’s not fair,” I said.
“It is fair and that part is already done. I signed it and even if we dissolved the partnership today, I’d owe you each $190,000 for your share. Less the amount of the mortgage.”
“How much is the mortgage?” Melody asked. She looked as shell-shocked as I felt.
“Nothing… yet.”
“I really don’t get it, Lissa,” I complained.
“The Credit Union is willing to loan us up to twenty percent of the value of the home or $190,000. In the process, title would officially be transferred to the partnership. According to the partnership agreement, we would share the liability in thirds, but your share of the asset is only twenty percent each because the children’s trust shares none of the liability and two-fifths of the assets,” Lissa explained. “If we go through with it, we’d each be liable for about $63,000 on the mortgage.”
“I think this has to be a unanimous decision,” I said.
“I vote yes,” Melody said immediately.
I looked at Lissa and she held my gaze in silence. We were each waiting for the other to vote. I didn’t want to do it because I still felt it was unfair to Lissa. But saying no would sound like I wasn’t committed to our relationship and I was. I envied Melody’s simple enthusiasm. I was being torn up inside.
“Come on, you guys. Do we need a secret ballot?” Melody said.
“What’s the problem, Tony?” Lissa asked.
“Remember what you said about how I was trying to divide up the sale of the Rhapsody Suite?” I asked. “You told me that my friends would all feel terrible if they thought I was giving them all money to be charitable to them. I’m feeling terrible that you are just giving up your biggest asset so that Melody and I can be full partners. I want to be your full partner in absolutely every way, but it feels like we should have a prenup that excludes all your work before we got together. I’d be okay with you maintaining ownership of the house and taking out a mortgage, then the partnership borrowing that money from you, but I’m not comfortable taking your house from you.”
Lissa looked at me sadly moisture began to gather in her eyes.
“Darling, I love you,” she said. “Some things aren’t about business, they are about love. On the business side, you are getting a third of the liability for a fifth of the assets. Is that the kind of fairness you are talking about? Washington is a community property state and if we got married, you’d automatically own half the house unless it was explicitly covered under a prenuptial agreement. I will never sign one again. When Jack and I divorced, he pulled out a prenuptial agreement that he’d had me sign. I didn’t even know what it covered, but Jack was my manager and he said to sign it. He’d been investing my earnings as a model in accounts that were exclusively in my name while we were living off his income. It’s not like he was destitute when we divorced, but it was so unfair. And there is nothing I can do to give him any of that money. Most of it went into this house. That’s why there’s currently no mortgage. The remainder went into a separate trust fund for the boys. That’s why I worked for a living. I won’t sign a prenup again. My partners are my partners and we will jointly own everything or we won’t be partners. I vote yes.”
“Lissa…” I couldn’t say anything. I held out my arms and she came into them and Melody joined us. “I vote yes,” I said at last.
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