America 1982-Chapter 496 - 94: For Justice

At 8 a.m., after a morning run and a refreshing shower, Tommy came down from his suite at the Four Seasons Hotel to enjoy breakfast. As expected, he saw Stephen seated at a table with two sultry Cuban beauties sitting across from him. It makes sense; how could a wealthy man visit Miami without experiencing the sweet nectar of Cuban girls?

Picking up Cuban girls has almost become a mandatory cultural experience for rich men from other parts of the United States who visit Miami, Florida.

However, Tommy observed the attire of the two women and felt that Stephen might not succeed. That bastard’s approach to picking up women was straightforward and crude but only effective with women who were interested in cash.

Dressed in his British best, Stephen was genteelly eating breakfast while expounding his views on life to the two women, "I’ve always pondered philosophical questions about life. You know, girls, in our lives we can only ever possess the present moment. Experiences from the past are like rings hidden within the trunk of an oak tree, tucked away in the recesses of our memories as scattered fragments. You can try to piece together the past in your mind, but never expect the days gone by to reappear. Just like when we cut down an old oak tree, we can’t hope to know what it has experienced; we can only gaze at its concentric rings and imagine."

After his speech, Stephen placed a small piece of local honey bread into his mouth. Then he noticed Tommy walking toward him. While the two women were still pondering this profound topic and hadn’t noticed Tommy’s approach, Stephen gave him a look that said, "Get lost, don’t mess with my charm."

The waiter hurried over with the menu and politely inquired, "Just one, sir?"

By now, both women at Stephen’s table had turned to look at Tommy, causing Stephen’s eyes to almost pop out of his sockets. Tommy eventually chose a seat two tables away from Stephen and nodded to the waiter, "Yes, just me."

"I think what you said makes sense," one of the young ladies withdrew her gaze, giving Stephen a confirming response and nodding appreciatively, "The past can never be relived."

"And the future, just as well, is nothingness," Stephen, buoyed by the girl’s affirmation, slightly raised his voice, "Think about it, the future is unknown. Maybe you dream of becoming a poet, and I aspire to be a philosopher, but that’s just our beautiful fantasy. God knows whether it will come true. At any moment, accidents can happen altering our dreams. What if Florida is hit by a massive tsunami today, and we happen to be sitting right now in this beachside hotel’s restaurant, any bright future would then be no more than a frothy illusion, fit only to be a lamentation from the priest’s mouth as we are laid to rest, never to be realized. Accidents can occur at any moment, so we need to live in the present, carpe diem, not wasting a single second we have now. Ladies, I heard from the hotel staff that there’s a beach volleyball four-person team competition happening today. We just need to find one more lucky man and we can head out. The champions will win a whole night’s stay in the Four Seasons Hotel’s best sea-view suite. Of course, second place isn’t bad either, but I assure you we will still secure the champions’ prize..."

Tommy, having ordered his food and listening to Stephen chatter away, wasn’t surprised when the two women, without much hesitation, turned down Stephen and then stood up to leave in the direction of the lobby.

"What went wrong? This approach used to work wonders in Los Angeles. When I first sat down in front of them to strike up a conversation, it was going well, but why did they leave?" Stephen walked over with his coffee and plate, sitting down opposite Tommy and grumbled discontentedly.

Waiting for the waiter to bring his coffee, Tommy methodically added sugar and stirred it, and seeing Stephen still glaring at him inquisitively, he began regretfully, "If I recall correctly, your spiel about living life to the fullest was plagiarized from me, although I’m not the original author either—I can’t remember which book I borrowed it from—but that doesn’t stop me from asking why you’re using my lines to hit on girls and then have the audacity to ask me what went wrong when you strike out?"

"What else?" Stephen took a bite of his bread, "Didn’t you know? Bert damn well took notes on your little speech, and if he didn’t think it was too long, he’d probably have it tattooed across his chest. Even now, he can’t believe that a penniless member of the White Robe Society, without spending a dime and just with a bunch of flowery words, managed to make his beautiful Literature-major girlfriend, who wanted to compete in Phoenix Society’s annual United States Sweetheart beauty contest, break up with him. She’s become the queen of living in the moment, stamping her way through your society’s members, who’ve all had ’deep conversations’ with her, and they even had the nerve to send us a group photo, crushing his hopes of winning the United States Sweetheart Championship with her."

Stephen dropped out midway through his term at Stanford to join the Phoenix Society’s Stanford branch, unlike Tommy, who had completed four years at Stanford and also advanced within the Fraternity. In fact, when Stephen heard from his contemporary Bert about how Tommy had outmaneuvered the Phoenix Society after graduation, he felt somewhat relieved that he had left school early; otherwise, that bastard would have never let him off the hook.