Missed Connections by Tan-ni Fan Read Free Book Online Page A

named Jack, but the weekend was too full and chaotic. The environmental studies commencement ceremony was smack in the middle of the day on Sunday, and took place, naturally, in a former quarry tricked out to resemble an amphitheater. Rob warned his family to wear hats and bring water bottles, because "all that rock reflects the sunlight right into your eyes," but about half of them were still complaining about headaches by the time the interminable ceremony done.
    But then it was all over and they were trooping up the long, fortunately shady, path to the shuttle bus that would take them to the remote parking lot where their cars lay waiting in the sun. Rob's mother looped her arm through his.
    "Mom, you're skipping," Rob complained. "Stop it."
    "Nope. My firstborn is all graduated, I can skip if I want to!"
    "There's not enough seatbelts," Rob said at the car.
    "Just drive carefully," his mother said. "We'll sort it out after we have lunch."
    Rob had organized the whole weekend like this, choosing places where they wouldn't overwhelm the waitstaff and sending everybody menus beforehand so they could pay upfront into a pile his mother could pay the restaurants from. At the last big meal, Maria decided she wanted an order of tempura on top of the sushi she had already ordered, but when she dug into her pockets she found a bit less money than she needed. When six people jumped forward with the difference, it fell to Rob to negotiate who was going to be allowed to fund Maria's appetite.
    Afterwards, his mother said, "See, that's why you're going to go very far in your career. People trust you to make decisions about anything."
    "Sera, don't keep saying things like that to him, you'll give him a swelled head," Maria said.
    "Too late," Emily said. "He already thinks he's God's gift to men."
    "I do not," Rob said.
     
    Intermezzo on the beach
    There was no special reason for Rob to leave town right after graduation. He was working on snagging a job, if not a career, and access to the University's resources was as helpful as anything. But there were only so many hours a day he could haunt Monster.com or scan the government HR pages, so to be completely honest Rob was spending a lot of time hanging out. That meant, largely, coffee shops and beaches.
    Maria and Emily came with Maria's wetsuit. "That was fast," he said to Emily.
    "There was an opening in a class two days after your graduation," Emily said. "I figured I better snag it before I lost momentum."
    Rob went to the surf shop with them and waited while they signed up for a dive for the next day and Emily rented equipment. Then they went to a restaurant right on the beach and watched seagulls and otters while they ate burgers. Rob felt like a real grown-up with his little sisters whose enthusiasms were still unmarred by the grueling strictures of college. But it was pretty clear that, on subjects pertaining to the ocean, they both thought that he was the less-developed one. He got several lectures about sustainability, life in the kelp forest, and the life cycle of anemones. He took it like a grown-up, smiling indulgently as they condescended to him.
    Until his attention was shattered by the sight of Jack huddling at another table with a burly fellow in a flannel shirt. Jack was gracing the guy with a fantastic smile, and Rob couldn't help just looking. Jack was that good-looking. Unfortunately, Rob didn't look away again fast enough and Jack noticed him and gave him a scowl like the one at the professor's party. And that spoiled Rob's mood. Whatever could he have done, in the brief semester's time he had barely known Jack, to make him hate him like that?
    They were about done, anyway. Rob felt justified in calling for the check and hustling Maria and Emily out the door as fast as he could. They walked along the beach for a while, and then Rob took them out for ice cream. Then the girls wanted to spend some time wandering around downtown, and Rob felt like he ought to put in at