America 1982-Chapter 376 - 39: Unless there is a Change of Variables
Zoey Winters stepped out of the airport to see the lights coming on in the early evening, and she looked at the airport sign with puzzlement, "San Francisco? Shouldn’t it be Los Angeles?"
"Mr. Hawk and Mr. Binns have booked a restaurant and hotel for you near Berkeley," Page said, introducing the situation briefly.
Page helped Zoey open the door of a waiting business van, and after she got in, he took the passenger seat and instructed the driver to head to a parking lot in the small town of Berkeley.
Stepping out of the vehicle, Zoey surveyed the quaint little town.
Zoey had always lived on the East Coast, and in her mind, California was supposed to be bathed in brilliant sunshine by day and be a hub of glittering nightlife, but at this moment, the night view of Berkeley was the complete opposite.
The night breeze gently blew away the day’s restlessness, noise, and the various academic, artistic, or whatever other qualities that had filled the small Berkeley town, leaving only tranquility and leisure,
Even the gloom and irritation from the pause in her work began to dissipate with the peaceful scenery before her, making her feel a newfound sense of relaxation.
At the end of the cobblestone road in front of her was the restaurant Tommy and Stephen had booked, Casa de Pampas. Its exterior looked no different from an ordinary residence, with its simple and unadorned stone walls and wooden signs and fences. If Page hadn’t pointed out that this building was a restaurant, Zoey would have thought it was a private house.
Pushing open the wooden door of the restaurant, she was surprised to find that most of the tables were empty, except for one small table where two young men were sitting. Hearing the chime of the wind bell on the door, both of them stood up, looked up, and greeted Zoey with bright smiles.
They then came over and each gave her a warm hug.
"I bet this restaurant was Stephen’s recommendation," Zoey said, sitting down at the table and speaking confidently to the two men sitting across from her.
Stephen happily responded, "That question was too easy, right, Zoey?"
"Why couldn’t it have been my recommendation?" Tommy asked, a bit annoyed.
Zoey replied with a smile, "Because you, being the miser that you are, Tommy, are unlikely to have this kind of taste." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
Zoey was spot-on in her guess; Tommy’s idea was to find a well-known upscale restaurant in Los Angeles, but Stephen insisted on booking a place in this inconspicuous restaurant.
Tommy had heard of this restaurant back when he was studying at Stanford University. Some foodie or artist had highly praised this place, touting it as the perfect marriage of art and cuisine, the chef being lauded as a culinary Leonardo da Vinci. Thus, it became quite a draw in California, attracting many from Los Angeles especially to come taste its offerings. Even a New York food magazine had sent a reporter to interview the place, giving it considerable fame on the East Coast.
In Tommy’s opinion, however, the taste wasn’t particularly superior to other restaurants; it was just that the restaurant had a very artistic vibe to it, the food was more exquisitely plated, as it claimed to grow all of its vegetables.
As for the magazine interview, it must have been that the journalist took some money to help run an advertisement.
After the waiter served the food and they had a few drinks, Zoey, who appeared elegant and intellectual, began to let loose and expose her true self in front of her two friends.
She bitterly spoke about the jerk who sent a bomb-shaped chocolate to the TV station, causing her to take an unexpected vacation, and due to that guy’s behavior, she might have lost her chance to compete for Massachusetts’s local social news investigative award of the year.
With a casual glance at Page not far away, Tommy then smacked his lips and consoled Zoey, "Look on the bright side, Zoey, he at least brought you a vacation and two handsome, rich friends."
"The two of you are worthy of the words ’handsome and rich’?" Zoey asked, looking back at them skeptically.
"Wow~" Together, Tommy and Stephen reacted with a sound and exchanged looks, after which Tommy said to Zoey, "I take care of being handsome, he takes care of being rich. Does that description suit us better?"
Hearing Tommy’s words and looking at their expressions, Zoey couldn’t help but laugh joyously. Then, she sighed and said, "It’s so good to see that neither of you has changed much since back in the day."
"What’s even better is that Stephen is going to make a movie, incorporating our stories. He’s brimming with dreams of filmmaking and eager to share with someone, and as a journalist, you’re the best person to tell," Tommy said, patting Stephen’s shoulder. "You can start now."
And so, Stephen eagerly began to share his film ideas with Zoey, who listened with great interest, offering suggestions from time to time and recounting small but memorable incidents from her days at summer camp, reminding Stephen to include them in the film.
With a smile on his face, Tommy quietly listened to their conversation, until Stephen, excited and slightly drunk, went off to admire the kitchen garden where the restaurant grew its own vegetables, and the table suddenly fell quiet.
"Don’t you have any interesting stories to share, Tommy?" Zoey asked curiously, cradling her wineglass and swirling its contents as she looked at Tommy.
Tommy speared a piece of chicken with his fork and put it in his mouth, waiting until he’d completely swallowed the food before looking up at Zoey, "How about, you come work for me, Zoey."
"Your Black-owned TV station?" Zoey laughed out loud.
She knew Tommy had founded a Black-owned TV station.
Tommy shook his head slightly, "No, I’m preparing a cable news network, and I need a lot of reporters. I mean, you can totally leave that rural area in Worcester for a bigger stage."
Zoey laughed at Tommy’s words at first, then looked at him seriously and saw that he wasn’t joking. She hesitated, "If I get that local social news investigative award this year, my boss will be pretty much ready to retire. Then, I can take over his job, becoming the head of a local TV station’s news show, and after working hard for about three to five years, winning a few more news awards, by that time my resume should qualify me to enter the news department of the big three networks, or work at a major newspaper."
While eating, Tommy kept nodding: "You’ve always been angry, right? From the first day I met you, I knew you were a girl with a lot of anger inside."
As he spoke, he wiped his hands with a napkin and then boldly reached out to grab Zoey’s left hand, lifting it to examine the ring on her middle finger.
Zoey believed that Tommy wouldn’t blatantly flirt with her because he didn’t have the guts, knowing that if she turned on him, he knew what would come next. So, she let Tommy seriously examine the ring on her finger without pulling her hand back.
Looking at the ring, Tommy asked, "How is that guy? Same kind of slacker as the rest of us camp buddies?"
"He’s shy and introverted, manages a flower shop of his own," Zoey said as she also looked at the engagement ring on her finger. Although she didn’t know why Tommy was shifting the topic to her ring, she still spoke tenderly,
"Most importantly, he can tolerate the nasty curse words and bad moods I bring home after work."
"I can guess, he must be a kind and considerate man to wrap you up softly like warm seawater around a bad girl," Tommy released her hand and continued eating with a fork and knife,
"And then, as time goes on, your inner anger at the world will diminish, and in the end, it will be completely dissolved by this kindness and thoughtfulness."
Zoey was stunned by Tommy’s words.
"I’m not saying you have to join; I’m just presenting you with a choice. I’m starting a news network, and I need trustworthy friends by my side. And your inner anger needs to be unleashed. You don’t have to obediently follow behind those old guys to grow yourself in the supposed right way. Here, you can grow wildly in your own way. Pick a place on the world map, tell me, and you can choose your team members and set up a journalist station there. Do you want to continue covering the local social news that no one is interested in, winning obscure Massachusetts news awards, or witness significant moments in this world, interview famous personalities, and have the Pulitzer chase after you to award you Journalist of the Year?" Tommy looked at Zoey,
"That’s the choice you have. You can go back to Worcester and let your florist fiancé teach you with his gentleness that you don’t need anger to face the world and make peace with it, or you can try to maintain your anger and make sure everyone in the world hears it."
Zoey looked at her ring for a moment, then her eyes lingered on Tommy’s face for a while before she lowered her head and said, "I don’t know if I can complete this so-called wild growth on my own."
"Have you seen how I’ve grown? If I can do it, why can’t you?" Tommy took a sip of his drink and asked,
"Stephen shot this movie, and actually, I didn’t want to agree. But since he was willing to cajole the bank into loaning me money in the end, I didn’t oppose it."
"Do you know why I didn’t agree? Because I felt it wasn’t the right time. As the real-life models for these characters, we don’t have any impressive records worth adapting, right? But what about years from now? Those actresses would fight to play you, a world-known news reporter, instead of now, when only unknown small actors are willing to take the pay to play a small-town TV station reporter and florist’s girlfriend."
"It’s been a long time; your eloquence has improved a lot since high school, Tommy." Zoey said with a somewhat forced smile.
Tommy stared at her intently, catching the subtle expressions on Zoey’s face, and immediately said, "You’re blaming me for not being frank enough, aren’t you?"
Hearing Tommy’s last words, Zoey reevaluated him, and nodded slightly without denying, "Yes."
"You’re thinking, this opportunity could be given to someone else, so why does it have to be you? Well, actually because I need to meet the father of the actress playing you in Stephen’s film. And having you work by my side would make everything fall into place naturally."
"Just like back then when you let us manage your trainees for free." After listening to Tommy’s words, Zoey remarked with a hint of emotion and then smiled, "That’s the Tommy I remember. If I work for your news network, have you chosen the first place for me to grow?"
"East Germany, underneath the Berlin Wall. You will be the first journalist in the world to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall," Tommy said.
"You make it hard to find a reason to say no, but can I go back first to complete my investigation?" Zoey thought for a moment and said to Tommy, "I don’t want to leave it unfinished."
"Of course, you can," Tommy said with a radiant smile, "No one likes to leave things unfinished."
Zoey also smiled and then continued to eat her food while Tommy looked at Page, who gave Tommy a nearly imperceptible nod.
"Unless something unexpected happens," Tommy added after getting the answer from Zoey.
