Chapter 45

Dan looked up when the bell over the door rang. It was during the middle of the evening rush. He looked over at Cory and said, “Pour a mug of root beer for my friend.”

“Sure,” Cory said getting out a frosted mug from the freezer.

Waving to Tom, Dan shouted, “Get your root beer and order a pizza.”

Tom gestured to the two women who were with him and said, “I’ve got two friends with me.”

“Well, bring them over here so that they can order something too,” Dan said with a grin. The two women with Tom were very attractive. Dan couldn’t help but think that Tom had done pretty well in the girlfriend department. Glancing over at Cory, he said, “Add two more root beers.”

Tom walked over to the pizza station, followed by the two women. One of the women appeared to be more interested in the mural than in meeting Dan. As he approached the counter, the kid behind it was holding out three frosty mugs of root beer. Tom asked, “Are those for me?”

“Yes they are,” Cory said.

“Excellent,” Tom said. He grabbed them and handed one each to the women with him. Winking at Amanda, he said, “This is heaven. You walk in the door and they greet you with a root beer. Can it get any better than that?”

Amanda rolled her eyes and said, “You don’t act that excited when I greet you with a kiss.”

Dan laughed at the comment and said, “Let me finish cooking a couple of these pizzas and I’ll join you over at the table.”

Unimpressed by what she had seen of Dan, Terry looked over at Tom and said, “So this is the famous Dan we’ve heard so much about?”

“Yes,” Tom answered.

“He doesn’t look like much,” Terry said with a frown. She glared at Amanda when the other woman nudged her. She wasn’t too happy about how this entire trip was turning out.

“He greeted you with a frosty mug of root beer. You can’t get a better ‘hello’ than that,” Tom said glaring over at Terry.

“This is a nice place,” Amanda said gesturing around the pizzeria.

Ignoring Terry’s remark, Dan said, “Thanks. The first order of business is to order a pizza. You might want to check out the mural while it’s cooking.”

“How does this work?” Terry asked looking at the pizza station. It reminded her of an ice cream parlor. For the first time since leaving Austin, she was actually interested in something.

Having heard that question hundreds of times, Cory said, “If you want a pizza or calzone, you tell me what you want on it and I prepare it for you. Dan will cook it and then one of the waitresses will bring it over to the table for you. If you don’t feel like a pizza, then you can have anything else off the menu.”

“Oh. I want a pizza with everything on it,” Terry said as Tom and Amanda shared a look.

Cory asked, “Personal size?”

“Sure,” Terry said.

Cory bent to the task of making the pizza. Despite herself, Terry enjoyed watching him build her pizza. When it came time to add black olives, she said, “A little extra on those.”

“Heavy on the black olives,” Cory said as he reached over and grabbed some more diced olives.

Dan removed a medium pizza from the oven, cut it into six slices, and put it on a pizza tray. He turned to call one of the waitresses over, but Cathy was already there. She picked up the tray and said, “I’ve got it.”

“Thanks,” Dan said. He turned back to the oven and removed another pizza. This one went into a box and then into the warmer. He called over to where one of the delivery people was seated, “The delivery pizza is ready.”

The man came over and picked up the warmer. He glanced down at the address and said, “Another pizza for the coder.”

“That guy orders one every night,” Dan said.

About three weeks earlier, a guy at a little internet place started ordering pizzas every night. Seven nights a week he called with the same order.

Dan added, “Take a bottle of soda for him. Tell him it’s compliments of the store.”

“At least he tips,” the man said as he left the store carrying the warmer and a bottle of soda.

Cory handed Dan a paddle with Terry’s personal pizza on it. Dan slid it into the oven and said, “Ask Sandra to take over for me.”

“I’m here,” Sandra said startling Dan.

“Sorry,” Dan said stepping back. Cory was holding out a paddle with another personal pizza on it. It suddenly seemed a little crowded behind the counter.

“Got it,” Sandra said taking the paddle. She slid Amanda’s pizza into the oven with ease and nudged Dan out of the way with her hip. It was normal for her to get him away from the oven using that little hip nudge.

Getting the hint that he wasn’t needed any longer, Dan went over to the soda fountain and poured a mug of root beer. He stepped out from behind the counter and made his way over to where his friend was requesting pepperoni on his pizza. Tom finished his order and raised his mug. With a smile on his face, he said, “It’s good to see you.”

Dan tapped mugs with Tom and said, “It’s good to see you, too, Tom.”

“Allow me to introduce you to Amanda and Terry,” Tom said.

Turning to the two women, Dan said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Tom has told us so much about you,” Amanda said glancing over at Terry. Her lover had suddenly found something interesting to look at on the mural. She wanted to hit Terry.

“All lies, I’m sure,” Dan said with a smile.

Tom nudged him in the side and said, “When the truth won’t do, you have to lie.”

Dan and Tom laughed at the joke, as the foursome went over to a table. Once they had all taken a seat, Tom asked, “How’s business?”

“Business is good. I’m ahead of my business plan and the business is still growing. I can’t complain,” Dan said with more than a little pride evident in his voice.

“That’s great,” Tom said pleased to hear that things were going well for his friend. He gestured to Terry and said, “She’s a business major at UT.”

“Oh, that’s great. Maybe we’ll have a chance to talk and you can give me some advice,” Dan said looking at Terry.

“Yeah, sure,” Terry said looking around at the pizzeria. She didn’t think that what she had learned was going to be of much value to a little place like this.

Seeing that his attempt to get Terry out of her bad mood wasn’t working, Tom asked, “How are your girlfriends?”

“They are great. Alison came back this morning from college and is moving in with us. Ann’s mural business is picking up and Sally is thinking of going back to school for Nurse/Practitioner,” Dan answered.

Amanda stared at Dan wondering how he managed to juggle three women. Tom hadn’t told her about that. All he had said was that Dan’s relationship with the three women was almost as complicated as theirs. She looked over at Terry, but the other woman was lost in her own world of thoughts.

Tom asked, “How do the four of you fit in that little apartment?”

Dan laughed and said, “We moved into Ellen’s house.”

“You did?” Tom asked surprised by the news. Ellen hadn’t mentioned that when she had talked about moving out of it. He glanced at Terry and then back at Dan thinking that he may have found a solution for his little problem with Terry.

“Yes. Ellen moved in with James Vic and leased the house to us. It was really sudden the way it happened,” Dan answered. They had been living there for just more than a week, but he found that it had been a very good decision. He often took a swim in the pool on returning home from work and had a short workout in the morning in the gym.

Tom leaned forward and said, “Is there any chance that you could take Terry in for a little while? The only place that she has to stay at is my parent’s house and she isn’t all that wild about the idea.”

“Why wouldn’t she want to stay at your parent’s house?” Dan asked with a frown.

Rolling his eyes, Tom answered, “She’s a lesbian and is afraid that my parents will throw her out when they discover that.”

“You son of a bitch!” Terry said in a low growl.

“What’s the matter?” Tom asked looking over at Terry.

“Nothing,” Terry said getting up from the table. She had to get out of there before she hit Tom.

Dan watched her storm out of the pizzeria. He looked over at Amanda and could see the indecision on her face. He could tell that she wanted to go after Terry. It was obvious to him that the two women were lovers. He wondered how Tom had managed to get into such a complicated relationship.

Looking over at Amanda, Tom asked, “Did I say something wrong?”

Amanda glared at Tom and said, “No, asshole. You outed her in front of a stranger.”

“Amanda, I didn’t mean anything wrong. Dan understands these things,” Tom said frustrated.

Terry had been perfectly horrible during the entire drive from Austin. She had complained about everything. He had stopped at the pizzeria hoping that she’d cool down before taking her to meet his parents.

Dan said, “Let me go talk to her.”

Knowing Terry better than anyone, Amanda was pretty sure that Terry would bite Dan’s head off. She said, “No, don’t. I’ll talk to her.”

Dan waved a hand at her and said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to her.”

“She’s mad,” Amanda said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Dan said rising from the table.

“Let him talk to her,” Tom said taking Amanda’s hand. He hoped that Dan could save the situation.

When he stepped outside, Dan didn’t see any sign of Terry. He looked around and then heard a quiet sobbing sound from around the corner. He went over to the corner and found Terry seated on the curb crying.

In a soft voice, he said, “Tom didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

“He’s a fucking bastard. I hate him,” Terry said.

Dan shook his head and said, “You’re just upset because he told me you’re a lesbian.”

“No. I really hate him,” Terry said. She cursed the day that he had entered Amanda’s life.

“Oh,” Dan said taking a seat next on the curb next to her. He asked, “Do you want to tell me why?”

“No,” Terry said. She wiped her eyes and tried to keep from crying. She hated crying in front of a stranger.

“That’s your right,” Dan said. He glanced over at her and said, “I’d like to take you out for a drink after I close up shop.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Terry said looking over at Dan. She couldn’t believe the guy was trying to pick her up after learning that she was a lesbian.

“No. A couple friends of mine own a lesbian bar. I thought you might want to talk to one of them,” Dan answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

“I’ve got a girlfriend,” Terry said in a low growl.

“I figured that out based on the way Amanda reacted when Tom mentioned that you were a lesbian,” Dan said in a matter of fact voice. He shook his head and said, “You love Amanda and Amanda loves you. Tom loves Amanda and Amanda loves Tom. Tom likes you and you hate Tom.”

“Yeah,” Terry said. She looked at Dan surprised that he had figured out the dynamics of her relationship so quickly.

“That’s a tough relationship. That’s a little more complicated than my relationship with my girlfriends.”

She asked, “So what is so complicated about your relationship?”

“Well, Ann and Sally love each other. They also love me and I love them. Alison loves me and I love her. All three of the women like each other, but Alison is straight while Ann and Sally are bi,” Dan said. He shrugged his shoulders and added, “At least they like each other.”

Terry asked, “What makes you so special that you have three girlfriends?”

“I don’t know,” Dan answered looking over at her. He’d been asked that question too many times and had never come up with an answer.

Having expected him to give her some macho bullshit line, Terry stared at Dan. When he shrugged his shoulders, she said, “You’re serious.”

“Right. I’ve never understood how I ended up in this situation,” Dan said.

“So you know a lot of lesbians?” Terry asked.

“Yes,” Dan answered. He rose from the curb and said, “You’re pizza should be done by now. It tastes best when it’s hot.”

Terry rose from the curb and followed Dan into the pizzeria. She didn’t quite know what to make of him. She decided that Tom hadn’t thought he was doing anything wrong by telling Dan that she was a lesbian. Of course, that didn’t mean that she had forgiven him. He had promised that he’d find her a place to live.

After getting home from work, Dan walked out to the pool area and sat down in one of the chairs. He looked over at Tom taking in the miserable expression on his friends face.

He asked, “What are you doing out here?”

“I’m in trouble,” Tom said shrugging his shoulders.

He had been sitting there ever since they had arrived at the house. It seemed like he had spent five minutes visiting with Dan’s girlfriends and then he was sent out of the house.

“So I gathered,” Dan said.

As soon as he had arrived at home, Alison had kissed him, and then sent him out to the pool to talk with Tom. Shaking his head, he said, “You know better than to tell people that she’s a lesbian. It’s her choice to decide who knows about her sexual preferences.”

“I know that, but I was talking to you,” Tom said gesturing in Dan’s direction. He glanced back at the house and said, “It slipped out when I was talking to Ann, Sally, and Alison.”