Page 7 of Excitable Boy
“I don’t want a lot of money, Ed. I just want what’s fair, and for him to stop driving. Make their kids teach them about Uber and Lyft, if they don’t want to chauffeur them around.”
“Fair point. I’ll get started on this for you.”
“Thanks.” She ended the call and sat back in her chair as she stared at her rapidly growing list.
Insurance costs.
There had to be a way to find out how many accidents and auto insurance claims were due to elderly drivers.
Although she had a feeling that, considering the snowbird-heavy population of the Sarasota area, this series of articles might be even more of a lightning rod than the series she wrote on BDSM that led her to meeting Tony in the first place.
* * * *
“Is she okay?” Mike asked Tony over breakfast downstairs in their hotel. Tony had just related the story to Mike.
“Yeah. She’s lucky.”
“Bet you’re looking forward to that road trip you’ll take with your new car,” Mike teased.
“I’m looking forward to getting home, period.”
Mike’s smile faded. “How’s your back and shoulder?”
“I’ll live.” Tony stretched, wincing. “I just won’t enjoy it very much.”
“I’m willing to bust some ass to get us home by the weekend,” Mike said. “I’m missing my own bed. Don’t expect to see us at a munch or the club for a few weeks.”
Tony took a sip of coffee. “I’d say the same, except I have a lot of irritation to burn off, and the last time Shayla and I were at Venture, it was more than a little bit of a clusterfuck. I need a do-over.”
Which was an understatement. It was the weekend of his ex-wife’s funeral, and he had to throw out a new member who violated their rules and got mouthy with him and another volunteer…
Said new member who apparently had been drinking in secret, and then walked out into traffic and got herself killed just outside the club.
He didn’t learn that part until later. But it triggered an accident that knocked out the club’s power, and interrupted his play with Shayla.
“I heard about that,” Mike said. “Glad we weren’t there that night.”
The nice thing about having Mike there in Colorado with him was that, for starters, Mike had no interest in edibles—unlike the previous guy, who Tony had to fire, which put him even farther behind on their timeline.
The second nice thing was that Mike was a friend in common and a member of the Suncoast Society.
That meant at least Tony had a truefriendto talk to while stuck out there. One he didn’t need to censor himself with when talking to Shayla on the phone, or watch what he said around him. One he could share inside jokes with and relax while they worked.
They finished breakfast and headed for the data center. Tony hoped the worst of the physical part of this install was behind them. In theory, it was.
But he’d learned to never take anything for granted. The more excited he felt about the prospect of actually being on track to get the hell out of there, the more he reined himself in.
Don’t want to freaking jinx us.
As the day progressed they methodically worked through all the servers with the diagnostics software, in preparation for the new crew arriving tomorrow.
So far, so good.
By nine o’clock that night, they’d gone through all the servers and were breathing a sigh of relief. The next part would begin in the morning, when the new crew arrived to get started. As they stood in the entrance to the server room, Tony held up his hand to Mike for a high-five.
“Home stretch,” Mike said.
“God, I hope so,” Tony said. “I miss Florida.”
“I haven’t even been here a fraction as long as you have, and I miss Florida. I can only imagine how excited you’ll be to get home.”
“You have nooo idea,” Tony told him.
