America 1982-Chapter 225 - 77: Dating
Jim Manzi was a man of action; the very next day after his chat with Tommy, he bought a plane ticket to Bangladesh. In his words, he wanted to see for himself how Professor Yunus’s bank operated, to identify its strengths and weaknesses, complete a detailed investigative report, and then contemplate how to refine the system to make it more suitable for the United States.
Tony and Ashley, Melanie and Will, brought Bessie along to New York to enjoy the luxurious holiday Tommy had given them.
Since the day the small bar started offering unlimited drinks to the public, Dad had spent all his time there. It wasn’t that he was drunk every day; on the contrary, he was mostly sober, standing at the door with a megaphone, lining up the drunkards who came for free drinks while promoting his son’s generosity. He told them to be grateful, as their free beer was all thanks to his generous son, Tommy—reminding them to thank Tommy as they would thank God who created mankind.
Tommy, dressed in his shirt, stepped out of the house, and there was Dennis, waiting outside in his flashy Dodge sports car.
"To the office of the Newport County Inspector," Tommy said as he sat down in the passenger seat and adjusted the buttons on his cuffs.
Dennis started the car, "What trouble have you gotten yourself into?"
"No trouble. Making the most of a free week, I’m going to try and pursue Miss Odilia Farrell. I like her," Tommy stated earnestly, glancing over at Dennis.
Dennis, gripping the steering wheel, said, "Brother, I like her too, but that’s not a freaking excuse to hitch a ride for a date. As the lover of all eligible women in the United States, I’ll give you a piece of advice: First, you need a car flashy enough that a woman would want to sit in the passenger seat. Otherwise, do you expect her to go out with you on a bike? Two people on bikes kissing are sure to run into a lamp post."
"There’s no need for a car for today’s date. Also, why would kissing on bicycles lead to crashing into a lamp post? Kissing in a sports car also requires stopping the car first; no one kisses while riding a bike," Tommy fired back, lifting an eyebrow, puzzled by Dennis’s concern. What kind of fool would kiss while cycling?
Dennis kept silent for a while as he drove before saying, "Pam and Carly tried it once. They ran into a lamp post. I mocked him for it, but then, out of curiosity, I tried it with my girlfriend, and we, too, collided."
"Joyous that this Stanford prodigy has friends whose intelligence is downright exasperating. If one day I start writing memoirs, I’m definitely not mentioning you and Pam. You would lower the sales," Tommy said, sparing no one from his sarcasm.
But soon he retracted his smile, "I don’t believe it’s inevitable to crash; you probably just lost balance due to a dumb kissing pose."
"I knew you’d be unable to resist your own curiosity," Dennis spoke as if he had anticipated Tommy’s response. "Try it with Odilia. If you hurt her and she breaks up with you, I’ll get my chance to pursue her."
Newport County had an even smaller population than Warwick. While Warwick City boasted eighty thousand residents, all four towns in Newport County combined only accounted for that many, with the county seat of Newport City itself home to merely twenty-three thousand. But this little city was more well-known than Warwick City. While Warwick was known as country, Newport was called the summer White House, where many Presidents would bring their families for vacation during the summer.
In the United States, one of the subtle ways to hint to someone that you come from the upper class is to invite them to spend their summer at your family’s mansion in Newport.
This is because Newport boasts hundreds of mansions built in the mid-19th century, most of which were constructed by Southern plantation owners to escape the heat. Nowadays, nearly all of them have become heritage properties, owned exclusively by the wealthy and the noble. Even if sold, transactions typically occur among friends or peers in the same social class, making it difficult for new money to acquire these estates.
In a small city of over twenty thousand, it’s easy to imagine that the public servants here have no real work pressure, like Odilia at this moment.
... 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦
The Assistant’s Office at Newport City Inspector’s.
Sitting at her desk, sipping coffee, flipping through the latest fashion magazine, waiting for the day to end, work already completed. Her "work" consisted of drafting press releases for her boss, who was also her godmother, Doris Luger, and answering her calls.
As for the courtroom scenes she once envisioned, speaking eloquently alongside her godmother in criminal prosecutions on behalf of the county government, they had never occurred. It led Odilia to wonder, time and again, if she had passed some fake law exam.
It turned out that all the hand-ground coffee beans available on the American market had been tasted by her while sitting in her office.
"Hey, Odilia," the open office door received a gentle knock. Odilia looked up to see Tommy Hawk standing there with a smile.
"Tommy," Odilia straightened up, a smile spreading across her face as she looked up to see Tommy stepping in, surprised, "What brings you here?"
