Foster's Fall (Foster's Life)

by Jake Williams

  I pictured a devastating hit to the lobster and Angus-beef supply of the country. “I don’t know, I mean,” I cocked my head at Spence, “do I even have that kind of money to spend?”

  Spence considered the question and then nodded. “It could be done, but that’s out of my league. We’d have to talk to my father’s firm about doing something that...big.”

  Dave scribbled on the napkin. We all know she’s done something that big.

  I looked at my father and told Spence, “Go ahead and make the calls, but if you have to sell anything make it my shares in the family business.” My father turned ghost white and Dave jotted down Well played, Prince Foster.

  Megan beamed and exclaimed, “So all this boring talk about money is over! We can all just get back to...having fun!”

  The napkin was passed back to me. Your father’s sleeping with a dumbass, or maybe a space alien. I nodded and crumpled the napkin and pressed it into a glob of the mysterious sauce oozing off my untouched chicken breast.

  One of his Secret Service guys walked over to our table and whispered in my father’s ear. He nodded and turned to me. “Well, Jake, the fellas, the agents, would like for us to head back over to the club. It seems someone may have leaked our location to the press.” He raised an eyebrow and stared at me and my friends.

  “I haven’t said a word about anything to the press, don’t look at me.” I studied Megan’s face and she looked down at her lap.

  She sighed and put her sunglasses back on. “I just can’t believe the press is acting like this, don’t they have anything better to cover? When will all of this...attention, when will it be over?” I didn’t say anything out loud, but I knew she was hoping the media circus would never end.

  My father patted her hand and I suddenly wanted to do something drastic—start a food fight, hop on the table and strip, scream out the loudest rebel yell this hotel had ever heard, or just come right out and ask him Why this? Why now?

  The other thing I thought would end this dinner with a bang would be to give a vivid description of Megan’s tattoo on her upper thigh, or how she squealed like a hamster when she had an orgasm, or how she spit rather than swallowed.

  Instead I stood up and offered my hand to my father, and when he shook it I gave him the best thing I could muster up that vaguely resembled a smile. “We’ll get that account set up as fast as we can, let me know where you two love birds end up. Send me a...postcard or something.” I gave Megan a quick hug and whispered into her ear, “He’s kind of a douche, but you’re a world-class skank. Give him a month or two of delusions before you hook up with somebody else.”

  Megan winced a little and said, “That’s sweet, Jake.” She looked at my father and then told everyone, “I’m so lucky.”

  There was a clusterfuck at the door as the Secret Service jockeyed for lead position. Rob shrugged and backed away, he stood beside me as Megan and my father were escorted out the door to the parking lot and within ten seconds the car squealed away.

  “So,” Dave asked, “does anybody else want to head down the hall and see if there’s any more wine?” We followed him to the lobby but when we got there it was deserted. “Should we go out to a bar? I bet the front desk could give us a recommendation. Or maybe that Jeff guy could show us around?”

  I looked around and noticed there were doors in the back of the lobby leading out to a pool. There were little groups of people out there with plastic wine glasses and cans of beer. “I bet Jeff would be more than willing to take you out and show you around.” I studied Rob’s face and added, “But I think I’m under house arrest until we head back home.” Rob nodded and I sighed.

  Dave looked around with some visible disappointment on his face. “Jeff’s probably gone home by now. Maybe he and Susan are already on the phone with TMZ or somebody. Let’s regroup and hang out by the pool for awhile.”

  Nobody said a word as we went back to the hotel room. I could hear Spence and Dave talking about something but when they walked into my room they went silent. Once we were all dressed in shorts and t shirts I noticed Rob looking around the room. “I can’t tuck my gun into my shorts—I have a major phobia about accidently shooting myself in the balls.” We all nodded at that wisdom.

  I walked into the bathroom and grabbed a damp towel off the floor. “Here, just fold this and tuck the gun in it.”

  Before we left Rob double checked the sliding glass doors and pulled the curtains shut, then we all headed out to the pool with the cooler sloshing around between Dave and me as we lugged it down the hall. When we got outside Spence nodded at a table in a semi-dark corner of the concrete patio. As we passed a laundry cart I snagged a stack of fresh towels and we all sat down in the shadows. There were a few little groups gathered around other tables—some younger guys who were probably in town for the game, some other tables that must have been attending whatever business meeting was going on, and a couple of senior citizens watching a kid in the pool.

  Spence lit a joint and leaned back in his chair. Rob looked at me and said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, Foster. But somehow I pictured a little...nicer, maybe?...a more upscale hotel, I guess.”

  I shrugged. “I’ve stayed in plenty of places like this one. You know, away games, a few road trips with my brother. My stepdad’s taken us fishing and hunting and we usually stay in hotels like this—it’s just easier sometimes.”

  Two women approached the table and I tucked the joint below table level. One of them shook her head and said, “Don’t hide that, please. That’s why we came over here, if you have any to share—if you don’t mind or anything.” I saw a flash of a white smile and could make out blonde hair in a short, simple haircut. The other woman had longer, darker hair and both of them had on bathing suits with shorts over them.

  I passed the blonde the joint and asked her, “Are you two out here to tan? I wouldn’t worry about sunscreen if you are.”

  The dark-haired girl laughed and took the joint from her friend. “Ha! No, we thought about going for a swim but Cindy decided she didn’t want to get her hair wet.” There was a little bit of an awkward pause but then we stumbled over each other as we made introductions.

  The other girl’s name was Dawn, and they were here for the seminar, How to Achieve Success in a Global Market. They were in some kind of inside sales office and were excited to be travelling away from home. Dawn said, “We probably won’t get too much out of this bullshit, but we just wanted to get away from home.” The white teeth disappeared into the gloom as she said, “I guess this place is as good as any other to get out and have some fun.” As my eyes adjusted between the pool lights and the shadows we were in I could see that they were both middle-aged and really did look excited to be hanging out by the pool.

  Rob spoke up, “We’re here for the...game. You know, we just decided to skip some classes and come out early.”

  Cindy looked around the table and said, “Dawn and I guessed you were here for the game. You’re all playing in the game, right?” She pointed at Dave. “Dawn said that guy, Dave or whoever, that he was too small to play football but I told her he’s probably a kicker or punter or whatever. They’re usually the really small guys.”

  We all started laughing and Dave stomped down on my bare foot. He shook his head. “I’m not that small! And no, none of these guys are on the team, you have to be reasonably sober to play college ball and they didn’t make the cut.”

  He said that with just enough hostility to make the girls get quiet. Cindy finally broke the silence and stood up. “Okay, well...thanks for sharing the joint.” She looked at Dawn and she stood up, too. They both wandered to the other side of the pool and sat down in a couple of lounge chairs.

  “Look!” Rob sounded excited. “There’s a decent-size hot tub over there. I think everybody could use a little tension relief after that din—after today. And this is a good place to hang out—plenty of privacy and limited access.”

  We took the cooler and walked over to the hot tub.
I reminded Rob, “Your gun’s still on that table. And don’t forget the towels.” He sprinted back and grabbed everything and when he got back we were getting into the tub.

  “This was a good idea, Rob,” Spence said as he cracked open a beer.

  Rob looked at the shorts and some underwear tossed on the concrete. “Whoa, fellas, I didn’t know skinny dipping was part of this plan.”

  “Just ease your shorts off on the edge and slide in, nobody’s going to see anything. We can slide back into them or just use towels to get back to the room,” I explained.

  He nodded and in about two seconds shucked his shorts and splashed into the gurgling water between me and Dave. I reached under the water and pinched Rob’s bare ass and he jumped about a mile and scowled at Dave. Just as we were settling in and I was shedding a little stress the girls showed up and stared down at the hot tub.

  Dawn looked at Cindy and said, “I’ve read about shit like this happening at these business meetings, ha ha.” She had a grin that was almost reaching the back of her neck and I wondered how often she got high. “You guys don’t mind if we join this little party?” She eased back on the grin. “Or is this some kind of private sword fight?”

  Cindy was staring at the clothes tossed on the deck and shook her head. She frowned at Dawn and said, “We were just coming over to ask about maybe...I guess to see if you had a few extra beers.”

  Spence pointed at the cooler. “Absolutely! And you should join us in here, it feels great.” Dave and I both frowned at him.

  The two girls looked at each other and it was obvious they were communicating telepathically, the way close friends do. Dawn grinned and said, “Sounds good to me!” She looked at Cindy. “And we definitely don’t get a chance to hang out with a bunch of hot young guys like this at home.” She pulled her shorts down and as I watched her I noticed how white and frumpy her legs were. Cindy did the same, and that made me feel good. She was obviously the shy one and would get more thrill out of this than Dawn would. I could picture her having a conversation with her cat, Toby or whatever, and telling him about how bold, how adventurous she was on her business trip. Toby would be purring and rubbing against her in approval.

  Dawn plunked into the water between me and Spence, and Cindy gingerly used Dave and Rob’s shoulders as she eased in between them. I figured Dave would be pissed that she had separated him from his latest crush, but he smiled and seemed to be enjoying her tentative excitement.

  I felt Dawn’s hand start at my knee and slowly slide up my thigh. She started studying our clothes next to the tub and gave me one hard squeeze mid-thigh and yelled out. “You dirty guys, you’re buck naked! Just what kind of trouble are you fellas looking for tonight?” I noticed the steam from the tub was beginning to cause her makeup to get a little fuzzy. Cindy looked like she was one heartbeat away from a massive coronary and I gave her my best everything-will-be-okay-we’re-not-rapists smile.

  I saw Spence jump a little and watched his face turn exceptionally red. Dawn looked like she was studying the parking lot lights or something when I felt her hand continue its journey up my thigh. Her hand started to wrap around my dick and it was my turn to jump.

  “Oh, dear God!” She turned her full attention to me. “That’s almost scary, that’s almost too much, but I’m always up for a challenge.”

  Cindy frowned a little and asked her, “What are you making such a fuss about, Dawn. People are going to start looking at us.”

  “I’d tell you what’s got me so freakin’...excited, Cindy, but you’d probably faint or something.”

  I pulled her hand away and was surprised when Rob’s hand settled on my other thigh. “Fellas, ladies, I hate to cut this short,” he looked around the tub, “but we have kind of a long day tomorrow. We’re doing some sight seeing, you know, maybe take a tour of the campus or something.” He managed to ease out of the bubbling water and slide a towel over himself with minimal exposure.

  Dawn nodded and gave me one more tug. “Maybe some of you would like to hang out a little longer. It’s not that late.” She had a little lost-battle tone in her voice and I knew she was getting the message.

  Cindy used Dave’s shoulder to climb out and she told Dawn, “We have a breakout group, or whatever it’s called, at eight in the morning. We should probably call it a night, too.” She took one of the towels off the pile and Rob’s gun clunked onto the concrete. She backed up and Dawn hopped out of the hot tub and for a second I was afraid she was going to try and take my dick with her.

  Rob slid the gun next to him and gave the girls a weak smile. “That’s not what it looks like.”

  Dawn shook her head. “My last boyfriend was a crack dealer, and it sure looks like a gun to me.” She grabbed Cindy by the arm and they disappeared through the lobby doors.

  “If I had known she’d react like that I would have shown her the gun earlier,” Dave said. Spence looked a little disappointed but the rest of us nodded.

  I climbed out of the tub and started drying myself off. Spence just wrapped a towel around himself and stood next to the cooler. I tossed my towel on a chair and pulled on my shorts. I laughed a little when I noticed Rob and Dave doing some kind of dance as they pulled their shorts on while they kept the towels covering themselves.

  “Bros, there’s nobody else out here and you two are suddenly shy about getting dressed?” Rob pointed above us and I could see Dawn on the balcony of her room and she had her phone aimed straight at us. As I looked around there were about another dozen or so women, and a few men, all staring down at us. “Dammit, I guess we need to get out of here early tomorrow.”

  I fell into bed when we got back to the room and wondered if Dawn, Cindy, or somebody else had recognized me and I felt a little violated. I could hear the rest of the guys in the bathroom rinsing off the chlorine and murmuring about something that I was fairly certain involved me. After a few minutes the bathroom went dark and I felt Rob climbing into the bed.

  “Maybe we should leave now,” I suggested. “The shit’s gonna hit the fan sometime, but I’d rather it be at the house than in the lobby of a hotel.”

  Rob gave my shoulder a light squeeze. I couldn’t see him in the pitch black of the room, but I could feel the bed getting warmer and his breath close to my face. “Just get some sleep, Jake. I doubt we could round up the crew and get the jet off the ground until the morning, anyway. The pilot said any time we wanted to leave after seven would be okay.” He went quiet for a minute and then asked, “Hey, I just wanted to know...”

  “Wanted to know what?”

  “Well, and it’s none of my business, but how do you feel about seeing your dad and Megan? I mean, you got in a few burns, but I guess I was expecting a little more...emotion.”

  “I’ve been asking myself the same thing, and I haven’t come up with a good answer, yet. I mean, he’s still my father. This whole Twilight Zone scene has me flustered, maybe a little angry, or hurt, or disappointed. But I couldn’t give a rat’s ass as far as the campaign goes, and evidently he’s decided the same thing. He’s been a single guy for a long time, so it doesn’t really matter, I guess.”

  He put his arm over my back and I knew it wasn’t anything sexual, it was just a simple gesture of someone who cared. “He’s at least twice as old as she is,” Rob said. “She’s really betrayed her parents, when you think about it. She’s lobbed an atomic bomb into the election, and let’s not forget the fact that she was screwing around with both of you at the same time.”

  “Yeah, and he’s made a few giant mistakes in the last few months himself. I guess I look at my mother’s friends—actors in rehab, actors overdosing, people going bat-shit crazy in that whole West Coast bullshit scene. And then I look at my father and his whole deal with the DC crowd, and there of plenty of meltdowns there, too. And maybe I have it in my genes, too. I mean, when you’re in New York, and you’re standing in Times Square, and reporters are asking questions while you’re standing in front of a billboard of yourself with e
verything on display it makes you question things.”

  “I remember when they took that billboard down after a week, people were complaining about it being pornographic.”

  I sighed. “And underwear sales skyrocketed after that. And someone’s rehab sells more books or movies. And the more coverage a reality show gets the more the people on it just become some kind of fuckin’ cartoon of who they were. I’m not stupid, I like having money. But I also like coaching kids, and working out, and partying at the house, and pretending like everyday is a snow day. You know, all the rules are suspended.”

  Rob laughed. “Snow melts, and then you have to make up the days at the end of the year.”

  “Not if you go to private school.” I rolled over and fell asleep.

  I woke up to the sound of the shower running and it was still pitch black in the room. I stumbled over to the curtains and pulled one corner open, there was just a hint of the sun rising behind some trees and according to the alarm clock on the nightstand it was six. I wandered into the bathroom and it was packed with everybody getting cleaned up at the same time, it reminded me of the house. I squinted in the bright lights and grabbed a random toothbrush off the counter to scrape some beer-flavored fuzz out of my mouth. “Next,” Dave said as he got of the shower and Rob took his place. Spence finished taking a leak and I took his place in front of the toilet.

  Once we were all dressed and our suits were lying across the back of the couch Rob said, “Stay put for a few minutes. I called the airport and the jet’s ready.” He was wearing a crumpled hoodie that he must have found in the bottom of my duffel, and it really didn’t do much to hide the shoulder holster. “I’m going around front to grab the car, the room’s paid for so we don’t need to go by the front desk. Wait right by the exit at the end of the hall and dive into the car when I pull up. Don’t screw with taking the cooler, it’s too bulky. And whatever you do, don’t forget my disco gunfight suit.”