I’d promised I would take Donny and Sana out to celebrate the end of undergrad life, and I realized I hadn’t actually made any plans. Thinking about where to go, I thought of the French Laundry, but that was a two hour drive each way and they had to get home at a reasonable hour because Jassie could only babysit Aaron for just so long.
I thought of the various restaurants Emmy and I enjoyed, but then had a better idea. I called ahead to make reservations just to ensure we would get seats, even though I didn’t think it would be a problem.
When it was time, I called for a Lyft (I was going to drink, and didn’t want to drive) and headed over to their apartment. I’d told them to dress ‘a little bit nice’, not just college student style, and was happy to see that they’d dressed up a bit, but not too much. Sana was wearing a pale blue silk blouse with a pair of nice jeans, and Donny had on long sleeve button-up shirt and a pair of chinos. Of course, he insisted on wearing his Chuck Taylors, but that was fine. We were in Silicon Valley, after all, and Chucks are almost mandatory among the engineers there.
As for me, I had way, way overdressed. I had on an old-fashioned vest over a white cotton shirt with a men’s neck tie, and high-waisted trousers. My jacket didn’t match my pants or my vest, so you couldn’t call it a suit, really, but it gave off that vibe.
It’s funny- all through my childhood and into my teenage years, I’d always preferred pants. In high school, I don’t think I wore a skirt to school even once before Emmy showed up at the start of senior year. Subconsciously at first, but then intentionally, I started dressing nicer, just as a result of her influence.
Then, when I realized I was gay, my wardrobe became even more feminine, in a sense. It took me a while to recognize that the transformation had to do with some sort of rejection of the butch lesbian stereotype that would have been so easy to fall into.
I mean, here I was, a big, athletic lesbian, dating (and then married to) a petite little femme. I even drove a Mini Cooper- It would have been hard to be more of a cliché than that.
So anyway, for the most part my wardrobe moved away from jeans and T shirts to skirts and blouses. If I did wear pants, they would definitely not be men’s Levis. Sure, I had a pair of Doc Martens on my shoe rack, but the butch dyke look just wasn’t really my thing. That night, though, I was going with classic Jazz-age androgyny.
Anyway, Sana and Donny were ready to go, so we all jumped into the Lyft that I’d arrived in.
“Where are we going for dinner?” asked Sana from the back seat.
“It’s a surprise,” I said.
“Someplace nice?” Donny asked.
“I like it,” I said, not willing to give anything away until they figured it out on their own.
When the car drove onto campus, Donny grew even more puzzled. “Just wait,” I urged him.
When the light bulb went off, Donny laughed out loud. “That Thai place! You’re taking us to that Thai place we used to go to all the time when we were freshmen!”
“The very first place you and I ever shared a meal,” I agreed.
“That is unbelievably… appropriate,” Donny said, choking up. I could see tears forming in his eyes, which made me tear up, too. I stopped walking and just opened my arms, and Donny came in for a big, long hug.
“Donny, I’m going to miss you so much,” I mumbled, blinking back tears.
“God, Leah, I’m gonna miss you, too,” Donny said, his voice catching. “I can’t believe we’re going to be, like, fifteen hundred miles apart.”
“Who am I going to have coffee with in the mornings?” I demanded. “That’s it. You guys just need to move to LA.”
“I…” Donny said as I released him from the hug.
“I’m just kidding,” I assured him. “You guys need to live your life, and that means going back home to Seattle. Emmy and I need to live ours, and that means LA. I just want you guys to understand that any time at all you want to come down and visit, we’ll have a place for you, all right?” I said, rubbing Donny’s back.
As Donny swept his mop of curly red hair back from his forehead, I realized that it could be a long time before I’d see that simple nervous gesture I’d grown so accustomed to over the last four years again.
“Leah,” Donny said. “Our budget is going to be tight, and med school is going to take a lot of time and work. I just don’t know if…”
“Don’t worry about the money aspect, Don. If you let me know you want to come down, I’d be happy to spring for the tickets. Or Emmy and I could come up to visit you guys. Maybe you could show us around, be a tour guide for a weekend or something. I don’t know, but don’t worry. We’ll make something work out,” I assured him.
Dinner was better than I’d remembered the food as being. In fact, the curry fried rice was about as good as any I’d had at much, much pricier restaurants over the least few years.
“Donny, why did we stop coming here?” I asked.
“I know, right? I’d forgotten how good the Pad Thai was here!”
“It’s because of me,” Sana said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, Donny cooks most nights, so we eat at home, and when we do go out, he tries to impress me, so we go out to fancy restaurants,” Sana explained.
“I guess that makes sense," I agreed.
We were just finishing up and waiting for the cashier when Ashley walked in with a couple of other girls.
Of course, she spotted me instantly and strode over to where I was standing by the counter.
“Margot Robbie my ass!” she said, poking me in the chest with her finger. “You let me make a fool of myself and didn’t say anything!”
“Um, hi, Ash,” I said, not sure what to do.
“Seriously, when I went back to my room and Googled you and found out you’re married to Emmy fuckin’ Lascaux, I could have just killed myself then and there!” she said, her voice rising a bit, and her finger repeatedly jabbing me in the sternum.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You let me make a fool of myself, and didn’t say nothin’!”
“Um, Ash, nobody knew anything about that until just now, when you shouted it out to the world,” I said, pointedly glancing over her shoulder at her friends, who were huddled together and whispering.
Ashley looked back at her friends and quickly turned beet red.
“Aw, shit,” she groaned. She quickly grabbed a pen and a take-out menu from the counter and wrote her phone number on it. “Remember what I said? It’s still true,” she said, jamming the menu in my hand before turning away to rejoin her friends, and maybe try to explain away the scene.
“What was all that about?” Donny asked, looking at Ashley whispering animatedly with her friends.
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“I’ll explain over drinks,” I groaned.
“Drinks?” Sana asked.
“Yeah, you didn’t think this dinner was it, did you? We have another stop after this,” I said as I led the two out to the street, where the rideshare I’d arranged waited for us.
“Where are we going now?” asked Donny.
“I don’t know if you guys know this place,” I said. “It’s a hipster bar done up to look like a Prohibition speakeasy. It’s pretty cool,” I said.
“Is it the bar where Jeremiah and Yusef work?” Sana asked.
“Yeah, that’s the one,” I admitted.
“Hey, is that cheating?” Donny asked. “Is it cheating to take us out to a place you own?”
I laughed and shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe?” I said. “Have you guys been there?”
“No,” Donny admitted. “I remember Yusef talking about it and I thought it sounded cool, but you know…”
“Well, it is pretty cool, and the idea is working really well. We’re thinking of opening up a few more speakeasy-style bars kind of like it up and down the West Coast. The whole craft beer thing is playing itself out, and all the cool kids are moving on to cocktails these days.”
“Did you know about this?” Donny asked Sana.
“No, the hospitality division is separate from the real estate division,” she said. “I don’t have anything to do with that. It’s even run out of a different office.”
“I never knew you had more than one office,” Donny said to me. “Jesus, Leah, how do you even have any time for all this?”
“I have pros working for me that take care of all the details,” I explained. “I only need to weigh in on the big decisions.”
“How many offices do you even have?”
“Well, three, sort of. Physically, two, but I’m thinking that soon we might have to break loose the VC stuff from the space it’s taking up in the real estate office and set it up in its own location. Plus our SoCal office, I guess…”
“Damn,” Donny said, shaking his head.
“And I’m sure I’m going to have to set up an office on the East Coast pretty soon,” I added.
“O.K., I get it,” Donny said. “You big boss business boss.”
“Pretty much,” I agreed.
We had arrived at a nice steakhouse, and as we stepped up to the stand, the hostess took one look at me and said “Ms Farmer, your table is ready, if you’ll come this way.”
We followed her through the restaurant to an unmarked door near the kitchen out of sight of the dining area. She knocked twice, and it opened to reveal a large man in an old-fashioned pinstripe suit minus the jacket- just the vest over a white Oxford shirt. “Boss! It’s you!” he said, as he tipped his flat hat and stepped aside to let us past.
After a dimly lit hallway, it opened up to a moderately large room with booths around the sides, tables in the open space and a big, round bar under an illuminated dome in the center. On the far side was a small stage, empty and dark at the moment.
“This is fucking awesome!” Donny breathed, looking around as a hostess dressed in men’s suit pants and a smoking jacket led us to our booth.
“Here you go, Boss,” she said. “Your table.”
“When you said this was your place, you weren’t kidding, were you?” Donny asked. “Everybody calls you ‘Boss’.”
“Well, yes, I am their boss,” I agreed, “But part of that is the theme, right? The whole concept is a secret speakeasy run by some sort of mob boss, right? If the guests see somebody walk in looking like they own the place and the staff jumping to attention and kowtowing the moment I walk in, it reinforces the idea.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Donny said as he glanced over the menu.
I was leaning back, looking over the crowd, which was almost at capacity despite it being only a Thursday night, when I spotted a couple of guys headed over.
“Andrej! Hey, good to see you!” I said to the one on the left as they got near.
“Hey, Leah,” Andrej said in his thick Middle European accent. “It’s good to see you, too. I’d like you to meet my friend Mohsin here,” he said, indicating the other guy. “We work together. I was just telling him about you, and how you’ve made me a lot of money.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve made me a fair bit, too, Andrej,” I said, playing up the gangster persona. “Business has been good.”
“So, Mohsin here was wondering if maybe he could invest, you know?”
I waved at the waiter to bring over a couple of chairs for the two to sit. When they did, I leaned forward and shook Mohsin’s hand.
“You’ve talked to Andrej, and he’s explained what I do, right? And what kind of returns you can expect?” I asked.
“Yes, he has,” Mohsin said.
“And he’s explained the minimum investment threshold?”
Mohsin nodded, so I said, “Well, I think we can get something going, then. There’s plenty of money to be made all around, and I’m happy to bring new investors in.”
I waved the waiter over, and when he asked “Yes, Boss?” I pointed at the glasses the two guys had in their hands.
“Another round for these two gentlemen. Oh, and their table drinks for free tonight, got it? And make sure Mohsin gets on the list,” I said, and got a “Sure, Boss,” in return as he hurried away to get their drinks.
Mohsin looked surprised by this, but Andrej had a smug look on his face. “I told you I knew the owner,” Andrej said to his friend.
“Hey, we don’t want to take up any more of your time, Leah,” said Andrej. “I’ll bring Mohsin around to your office next week, all right?”
“Sounds good, Andrej,” I said as the two stood up to go back to their dates.
“You just comped those guys a night of drinking?” Donny asked. “Leah, the cheapest drink on this menu is fifteen bucks, and most are like, twenty-five or more. Those guys and their dates could probably ring up a couple of hundred bucks here!”
“If they go for the top shelf bottle service, it could be a few grand,” I said with a shrug. “But look- that guy, Andrej? He has almost ten million dollars invested in my REIT. He’s a VP of engineering at Google. I’ve made well over half a million dollars off him, so I can afford to comp him a night out. Also, a night out, even an expensive night out at these prices, means nothing to him as far as the money is concerned, right? But he can go back to his table, brag to his date that he has connections and impress the hell out of her and his pal Mohsin. Mohsin, meanwhile, if he’s on Andrej’s level, can buy in at say, five million initial. That means after a couple of years, I’ll make bank off him, too. It’s a cheap investment.”
Donny, his eyes wide, said “I had no fucking idea you were such a… such a player.”
Just then another guy came up to see me. He clapped me on the shoulder and said “Leah, hey, when are we going to get back to the track? I got a new Porsche that hasn’t been, yet.”
“Hey, James, “ I said, bumping fists. “What kind?”
“A Weissach 918,” James replied with a smug expression.
“You’re kidding me!” I said. “Let me know as soon as you can get a date scheduled and I’ll be there for sure!” I said.
“There’s a day at Thunderhill in two weeks,” James replied.
“Email me the info and I’m there. Damn, I’m gonna have to bring my A game for sure,” I replied.
“You’ve been kicking my ass for too long, Leah,” he replied. “I vill haff my revenge! Bwahaha!” he said in a comical German accent, rubbing his hands together. “Bwahaha!”
“Oh, it’s on!” I replied. “It’s gonna take more than the pinnacle of German engineering to defeat the mighty Godzilla!”
“Ve shall see!” James said, barely able to keep a straight face.
After he left, Donny said “Isn’t that car over a million bucks? And he’s gonna take it to a track to race you?”
“Donny, that guy is a billionaire, or close to it. He could wreck the shit out of that car and laugh it off.”
“Holy fuck, Leah. Holy fuck.”
Sana, who had been quiet through all this, asked “What was that about the list earlier?”
“You want to know the secret to this place?” I asked. “It’s invite only. There is a ‘member list’ and nobody knows how to get on it except for being invited. This means that the club keeps its exclusivity, right? That makes it more desirable. If you look around, at any given table here there’s likely to be only one member, and the rest are his or her invites. The member gets to brag that they are ‘on the list’ and so on.”
“That’s funny as hell,” Donny said, looking around. “So what gets you on the list?”
“It’s a combination of things, honestly,” I answered. “You have to get a member to vouch for you, and then we have a guy who does a sort of background check. The person has to be wealthy and have some sort of name recognition. Not necessarily famous,” I said as Donny was about to interrupt. “This is Silicon Valley, so being a VP at Google or Apple does the job. As long as the person’s an industry heavy hitter, that counts.”
“So somebody like me could never get on the list,” Donny said.
“Except you know the boss,” I said with a laugh and raised my glass.
When Donny clinked his against mine and we both took a sip, he said “The big boss.”
Our evening was interrupted a couple more times by people coming over to say hello, but otherwise it was a lovely evening of reminiscing and chatting about the future and what it may hold. Emmy and I weren’t actually going to pack and leave for a few more weeks, and neither were Sana and Donny, but this felt like a sort of goodbye and thanks for all the good times. When the rideshare dropped the two of them off at their place I didn’t go in, just continued on to my empty townhouse.
Settling in to a hot bath (not Emmy level hot, but hot for me), I reflected back on the night, and really, the last four years. I could never have predicted where I’d ended up, or what I’d done in that time, but now Emmy and I were going to transition into a new phase of our lives. It wouldn’t be all that different for Emmy. For her it would just be a different home, really. Her band mates didn’t actually live in the Bay Area any more, just got together to rehearse and record once in a while.
For me, though, I was leaving Stanford, leaving the volleyball team, and leaving the Bay Area’s business contacts I’d built up. Well, I wan’t actually going to abandon the local business scene, since I was still planning on being here about a quarter of the time, but still… for me it was going to be quite a change.
Four years before I’d set out for Palo Alto with only what could fit in the trunk of Mom’s car, and now I’d be headed back to SoCal with a truckload of stuff- even though we weren't taking any of the furniture.
The hi-rise condo I’d rented us in Century City was furnished, and besides, Michael and Jassie were going to move into our townhouse and they needed the stuff we were going to leave behind. It was time for them to move up from the mostly IKEA furnishings of their place in Sunnyvale.
It was time to say goodbye to this place and move on.