The telephone call that Trisha had been patiently waiting for had apparently come. She stood up from her chair and walked over to silence the phone whose ring filled the small room that she and Jeannie shared in the AOPi Sorority house.
Jeannie, now Trisha's roommate in the sorority house after Amber transferred to SCAD in Savannah, was flying in from New York's LaGuardia Airport. She had gone home to Queens for a few days to help with her older sister's wedding plans and attend the gift shower that was held the night before.
Trisha had graciously agreed to make the 150-mile round-trip trek down from Athens to Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport to pick her up and bring her back to the sorority house.
"Hello"
"Hey Trisha, I'm about to board the plane here - and we're only running 30 minutes late."
"What's your ETA in Atlanta?"
"It's a 2 hour flight, so if you could be in the gate by 2:30, that'd be great!"
Trisha examined her watch and saw it was a quarter past noon, which meant she'd have to leave in 15-20 minutes in order to get through the traffic, find a place to park and find Jeannie's arrival gate on one of the two Delta concourses. She returned to her chair and tucked both bare feet under her thighs and continued to munch on the Quizno's sub she had grabbed on the way back from the Laundromat this otherwise quiet and lazy Saturday at the University of Georgia.
About 15 minutes later, Trisha took a few sips that remained on her Diet Coke (no Pepsi allowed for this Coca Cola executive's child) and freshened up in front of the bathroom mirror. She walked by the closet and jammed her feet into her new pair of black Cole Haan 'Charie' slides. Her mom, Lisa had found these for her at half-price and decided they would make an appropriate birthday present. They still cost about as much as 4 pairs of Trisha's other shoes. They were very comfortable slides with a 1" heel and a genuine Crocodile upper that made them very soft and comfortable. The upper consisted of two 1" straps joined in the middle by a short vertical strap making a sideways "H" shape.
Trisha felt very confident as she locked her room and glided down the stairs in her pretty new mules that showed off her just completed pedicure and fresh coat of bright red toenail polish.
The rest of Trisha's outfit was casual but sporty - a pair of pleated blue slacks, cuffed at the top of the ankle, therefore exposing it's pretty shape as it tapered down to her well-shod feet. Her top was a sleeveless white knit blouse adorned with an unbuttoned, sleeveless floral print shirt. Trisha's dark brown hair was in a ponytail and garnished with a pretty blue hair bow.
Trisha went out to the parking area to get in her Honda to begin her drive to Atlanta. She soon realized that she had never driven in this particular pair of slides. These shoes were living up to their namesake each time she sent to press the brake pedal. Her right foot came half way out of her shoe a couple of times before she casually, toed the offending slide off her foot and drove with her bare foot only. She carefully slid the shoe under her seat with her left foot so it would not aimlessly drift on the floorboard and get caught under the accelerator - which had happened before almost causing her to wreck.
Around 1:30, Trisha took the Airport off-ramp off of I-75 and began what was typically a difficult search for good short-term parking. After a few minutes of circling, she finally located a red Caprice backing out of a spot, about two-thirds of the way from the arrival entrance. She decided it was the best she could do, so she took it.
Trisha gathered her mule form under the seat of the car and replaced it on her foot before walking toward the entrance to the airport. She really loved those mules and she wore them today mainly to help "break them in". Monday night was AOPi chapter meeting and it being the second week in April that meant it was chapter president election time. Trisha wanted to wear these new mules to the meeting and accent the new dress she had purchased to make her pre-vote speech and hopefully her victory speech afterwards.
Trisha's competition was long time friend and foe, tall blonde Shelley Sullivan from sunny Orlando who was hoping her recent selection as next year's Head Cheerleader for the Varsity team and her Broadcast News internship with WAGA-TV in Atlanta (the same way UGA grad Deborah Norville got her start) would make her an appealing candidate over the more popular but less statuesque Trisha Kendrick.
Trisha located one of the terminal information screens and saw that Jeannie's flight was due into the gate in 45 minutes - meaning she was early enough walk to Gate 21 on Concourse C and casually wait for her arrival.
Jeannie had been very excited about the wedding of her sister, Laura, for some time now. It was going to be the fourth weekend in June. Some of her family who still lived in Puerto Rico were coming up to New York for this major event. Laura and her fiancé wanted a small wedding, but her mom wanted a traditional Catholic ceremony in a church will all the trimmings. The couple realized who was paying for the wedding so they graciously accepted the offer. Jeannie sometimes felt displaced in Athens, Georgia - in the heart of the antebellum south. It was quite a change from the neighborhood back in Queens where she had lived all her live as had her parents who had each been first generation Americans. Jeannie attended an accelerated school for the fine arts in Queens and was an accomplished dancer and had earned her a full scholarship to UGA. The pretty Jeannie, who had naturally curly black hair and sort-of favored Melina Kanakaredes from the popular TV show Providence, had recently played the part of Maria in the UGA Spring Musical "West Side Story" and was still two years away from finishing her degree in Dance Education.
Trisha took a seat near the gate, on the aisle, and opened the magazine she had brought to keep her company, in case she was early. She lost herself in the articles on the latest spring fashions and especially the cover story celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the come back of the mule - Trisha's favorite style.
While reading, she crossed one leg and slowly began to dangle one of her slides off the end of her toes. With grace, she bounced the mule against the bottom of her foot without it ever falling. Across the way a young gentleman, about 25, began to notice this pretty coed with the pretty legs, feet and slides. His name was Mitchell and he was a fashion marketing representative for G-III who markets the Nine West and Cole Haan lines of clothing as well as several other related lines including Kenneth Cole. He immediately identified Trisha's shoes as their premier Cole Haan slide offering - the crocodile leather Charie. He was taken by how much she seemed to be enjoying wearing them as gauged by her seemingly relaxing shoeplay. He watched as Trisha got up and walked toward the restroom. She looked so relaxed and confident. He just had to talk with her so after she walked off, he got up from his seat across the walkway and sat down 3 seats to the right of where she placed her magazine.
A few minutes later, Trisha returned to where she was sitting earlier. She looked at her watch - noted that Jeannie was not due for 20 minutes - and crossed her legs again and resumed her shoeplay, now in much closed proximity to the very interested Mitchell.
Mitchell feigned reading his own magazine - the latest Newsweek - and took some good glances at Trisha's lower legs, feet and shoes. He decided she must be about a 6 1/2 or maybe a 7 - perfect for what he had in mind. Her manicure was impeccable and her foot's contour was smooth and free form defective bumps or unsightly veins. Her heels were narrow, yet shapely.
Not normally shy, Mitchell finally took a deep breath and turned in Trisha's direction and tried to strike up a conversation.
"You headed up to New York?"
Trisha, at first, looked to make sure this nice-looking impeccably dressed gentleman was speaking to her. After confirming he was, she turned her head slightly toward him, smiled and answered, "No - just picking up a friend."
Trisha resumed her magazine article and her shoeplay, but Mitchell did not let up. He slid one seat to the left - a little closer to Trisha. Then he spoke again, "Excuse me for sounding forward, but that's a very nice pair of shoes. Are they Cole Haan?
Trisha was undecided on what was more strange - that a guy commented on her shoes or that a guy knew they were Cole Haan. She hesitated but responded, "Thanks... and yes, they're Cole Haan."
Mitchell tried to clear up the mystery, "I know that sounds strange but you see, I'm a Fashion Marketer for G-III and I am responsible for coordinating ad campaigns for Cole Haan, Kenneth Cole and Nine West ladies' footwear. Here's my card - my name's Mitchell Malone."
Trisha suspiciously took the business card and verified his name and company. It looked official enough, but she feared this was one of those weirdoes who use a front to get a look at ladies feet. Trying to play along, she asked, "So what does a Fashion Marketer do? By the way, my name's Trisha...Trisha Kendrick."
Mitchell moved over one last seat, right next to Trisha and responded. "It's a pleasure to meet you Trisha. I'm in charge or setting up catalog and print ad campaigns, finding the models, dealing with the photographers and their crew. Stuff like that. We have a studio at our Manhattan headquarters."
Trisha took all this in very casually and simply thought the guy was flirting with her, which was flattering. Then she got hit with a surprising question.
"You ever modeled?"
Trisha was surprised by the question. Being only 5'4", she did not consider herself tall enough to model. She thought of herself as attractive and maybe even pretty, but felt far form glamorous - those were questions that girls like Shelley got, not her. "No, I haven't."
Mitchell then explained, "I think you'd make a good footwear model for our three major shoe brand lines for the upcoming fall campaign. I watched you sitting here and when you walked and you wear those slides well - you seem to have fun wearing them and you walk with an air of confidence."
"How do I know you're legitimate? Aren't models usually...taller and very thin"
"I can tell you that you're wearing the Cole Haan "Charie" slide with a genuine Crocodile upper that retails for $395. Okay - maybe I could have memorized that. Would you like to call my admin up in New York? As for your height and weight, our catalog and print ads are mostly from the knee or lower thigh down. There's no runway modeling involved either. "
"I guess that I trust you - unless you ask me to do something strange or give you money."
"Give me money? Are you kidding!"? Mitchell wrote her an advance check for $200 on an official-looking G-III check and handed it to her. Here's an advance check for 2 hours work. Call me in New York on Monday and we'll talk. If you're interested, cash the check after that and we'll go from there. If you're not interested, consider it a gift and buy some more shoes with it if you like."
Trisha began to believe this was really happening. 'I'm being asked to be a footwear model!' Trisha thought to herself. "I've got a few minutes before my friend, Jeannie's, plane arrives, we can talk now if you like. Is your flight leaving soon?"
I'm pretty early - I don't leave to go home to New York for about an hour. Let's go to the cafe and talk."
Mitchell and Trisha walked over to the airport diner and took a booth in the corner. "Are you a size 6 1/2, a 7?"
"Sometimes either - depends on the shoe style and the manufacturer."
"That's good - we like size seven models. If you feel comfortable doing so, I'd like to examine your foot for its contour. I did not get a real close look before."
Trisha hesitated, but realized no one was looking her way. She wiggled her right foot out of the slide and placed it on the seat to Mitchell's left.
Mitchell looked down and said, "Don't worry I'll respect you by only looking without touching. I don't want to damage my credibility. I can gather what I need to know by looking - that's what the camera sees and last time I looked, cameras don't have fingers."
Trisha laughed and began to loosen up. "You've already coaxed me to take my shoe off and place it next to you - I must trust you at least somewhat."
Mitchell took 2 or 3 minutes examine every detail of Trisha's foot - he saw no visible flaws and she appeared to be acceptable for his upcoming ad campaign. In fact she had one of the most attractive feet he's ever seen.
"So, tell me about yourself. What do you do?"
"I'm a junior at the University of Georgia majoring in Accounting and Management Information Systems."
"So you're a student, what's your time availability? Weekends, breaks, summers?"
"I work 3 days a week at a bank up in Kennesaw during the summer. Some weekends are busy and others are not."
'Well, we can talk more later, but if you'd like some extra spending money, we'd be willing to hire you for a weekend a month and once during the summer we'd bring you up for a 2 week session. A typical weekend would be about 15 hours work which at $100/hour would be about $1500 a weekend - and of course, we'd fly you up there and back and pay your room and per diem."
Trisha was floored. She took over a month to make that at Wachovia. And over half the summer back at Frankie's back in high school. She then realized her dad made about that much in a week at Coca Cola. "How many weekends a year would that be? And is any of your work in Atlanta or on location"
"Nine weekends will be during the school year and six during the summer - maybe 15 total. And right now, your shoots will be in New York, but as you gain experience, you may go on location with some full body shots, but I can't promise that."
Trisha, who still had her bare foot on the booth next to Mitchell, did some quick math and realized that a year of that would be about $22,000 - about 80% of what someone in her major made right out of school per year. "Sure..We'll talk on Monday - nice to meet you, Mitchell. I need to go meet Jeannie."
"No, Thank YOU! The pleasure is all mine. I look forward to your call."
Trisha got up and took a couple of steps then realized in her euphoria, she'd left her shoe behind under the booth. Seeing what had happened, Mitchell grinned, reached under the table and handed her the shoe back.
Trisha replaced the crocodile slide and walked with even more confidence to Jeannie's gate, just as she got back to where she had been sitting, she saw Jeannie coming out of the plane walkway and passing the information desk.
Trisha and Jeannie hugged hello and Trisha humbly started by asking all about Jeannie's sister's shower and wedding plans.
Jeannie was excited about all her news and Trisha showed genuine interest. But she could not keep her good new contained for long.
"Jeannie, something happened here just before you arrived."
"Well, Trisha, don't keep me in suspense - time's a wasting."
"I got an offer to be a part-time weekend footwear model up in New York."
"Is this legit? You got discovered in the Atlanta Airport? Yeah right?" The street-wise Jeannie was skeptical of this unusual scenario. "Did he take photos of your feet? Did he fondle them? Did he ask you for money?"
Trisha confidently replied "No" to each question. "He understood my doubts and was a perfect gentleman. He did nothing that made me think he was just a pervert with a slick scheme. Here's his business card. And here's he check advance he gave me."
A surprised Jeannie, saw the $200 and was shocked. "No pervert's going to write you a check this big. And Manhattan does have the 212 area code. Hey, why don't I call this number now and see if it's real."
"I don't know Jeannie - what if someone answers?"
"Let me take care of that."
Jeannie took out her cell phone and called the number. The recorded message was as follows: "Hello, you have reached the desk of Mitchell Malone with G-III Fashion Marketing. I will be out of the office until Monday. Please leave your name and number a the tone."
"Well, the message was legit, Trisha. Wait until the other sisters hear about this. Let me be there when you tell Shelley. I want to see her squirm. She wants to be the next Leslie Visser or Melissa Stark or that airhead Jill Arrington but this is even bigger!"
"Wait a minute. Let's keep this quiet...for now. The election is Monday and I don't want to use this news to sway anyone's vote. If I get elected, then we'll celebrate both good things. I'd rather people vote for me because they thing I'd make a good president, not because I'm going to be a model."
"Trisha, you know you have my vote no matter what! I can't imagine Shelley beating you. Sure, she has her clique who will follow her anywhere and are impressed by her being head cheerleader and a weekend sports reporter for Atlanta's Fox TV affiliate. They also are impressed by her family's money down in Orlando."
"Lets not he too hard on her. She's a very beautiful girl and a good cheerleader and a good sports reporter. She earned all of that. I do wished she'd be a bit less snobbish at times. "
"Trisha you're a better woman than me. I'd probably pulled her hair out at the root by now after all the competition she's made with you. I'm just glad you've beaten her most of the time."
"Jeannie, I just want everyone to get along and have a nice friendly sorority where we can grow sisterhood and be there for each other."
"Put that in your acceptance speech, will you?"
Trisha and Jeannie continued their conversation after claiming her luggage from the conveyor belt and walking to Trisha's Honda. They had a nice chat all the way back to Athens and Trisha again swore Jeannie to secrecy.
On the way back, Trisha again, slipped her right slide off and placed it under her seat. Jeannie noticed this and asked, "What's you do that for?"
"Sometimes when going for the brake it wants to come off."
Jeannie reached under Trisha's seat and took a closer look at the discarded shoe. She analyzed the grain of the upper and the quality of the sole. "This is a very nice looking shoe. Where did you get them?"
"Mom took me to one of those early-bird sales at Macy's and got these half-price as a birthday present. We had to get there by 6AM to get them."
"What material is the upper? It's very soft and smooth."
"Crocodile."
"Not REAL crocodile!" exclaimed Jeannie.
"Yes...its real."
"I wouldn't wear those in New York.."
Trisha partially interrupting, added, " I know - getting on and off the subway, crossing those busy streets, the crowds, one might come off and get lost, or.."
"I didn't really mean that, although with your history, that's a good point. No, there are some animal rights nuts that might harass you. They're the ones who pour red paint on ladies wearing real fur coats."
"That's crazy. Crocodiles are more plentiful than they once were. Floridians are begging hunters to thin out the herds that have been trying to invade new residential areas."
"Try explaining that to one of them. There's some girls in our sorority who lean a little that direction."
"Really, Jeannie? Not the ones who pour paint..."
"No, not that extreme, but if I were you, I'd act like those were fake crocodile. You might be safe. You're not known to spend over $100 on a pair of shoes anyway and I'm sure those were."
The conversation drifted back to Laura's upcoming wedding and Jeannie's plans related to that. The girls returned to their AOPi house and met up with some of the other girls for a trip to dinner at Ryan's Steakhouse. Trisha did not wear her crocodile mules out to dinner. She placed them safely in her closet - not to be revealed again until Wednesday niight.
Monday, after returning to the AOPi house from her last morning class, she nervously picked up the phone and called the number on Mitchell's business card. His Admin, Nancy, answered and directed her call directly into Mitchell. Trisha repeated some of the same questions that she had back at the airport and all were answered in the same manner. She continued on with some of the details - things she was told to ask after chatting with her mom and dad.
"Will there be any training involved?"
"The first trip up here, we'll do a 90 minute introduction to G-III and make sure you know how things work around here. A lot of it will be us telling you to sit, stand, walk, and flex your foot or leg - stuff like that. : We'll take a lot of rolls of film when we shoot you and use what we need."
"I guess I'll have to sign a contract. Can I have a copy sent down here so I can have an attorney look it over?"
Mitchell was impressed by her maturity on that one. "Of course, that's no problem. What's your address - I can still make the afternoon FedEx shipment."
Trisha obliged and continued her questions. "How will we determine my schedule? Will it be say the second weekend of every month, or how does that work?"
"We do shoots every weekend except holidays and we'll work with you and the other models to see what works out best. With the contract, I'll include an information packet and a plane ticket for you to fly up here a week from Friday. Will that work for you?
"That's the twentieth. Sure that's fine with me."
Mitchell and Trisha ironed out a few more details, then called her dad at work to let him know that she'd have the contract ready for his attorney to review over the weekend. Charles and Lisa were surprised, skeptical but excited when Trisha told them about this opportunity. They agreed to support her as an adult and let her make her own decision as to what she wanted to do. Trisha appreciated this cutting of the apron strings and she thanked Charles for getting his attorney to help her sort things out.
Monday night came and still Jeannie was the only one who knew about her modeling job. Trisha had not told even called her best friend Amber down in Savannah, in fear she would accidentally let it slip out. Trisha put on the new dress she'd bought for this exciting night and took her new croc mules out of the box and placed them carefully on her feet - making her outfit look stunning - like a breath of fresh spring air. She finished putting her hair into a ponytail and added a hair ribbon that her friend Rochelle had given her last summer during her visit to see her in Australia. She walked out of the room with Amber to go down to the basement for Chapter meeting.
Going down the stairs she met her competition, Shelley, coming out of her room from the first floor. She faked a smile and a nice hello to Trisha who returned the same, but hopefully not as much of a fake. Trisha thought Shelley looked stunning in her outfit - with her strappy pumps she was nearly 6' tall. She was "dressed to kill" and looked ready to stand on the sidelines of the next pre-season Atlanta Falcons football game and do their sideline reports for WAGA-TV.
Being jealous of the tall, blonde, gorgeous, athletic and talented Shelley was always tempting. Trisha was a mere 5'4" and not more than 5'7" with her highest heels. She was a brunette and not a blonde and she was not as athletic or talented. But Trisha did excel in the classroom - keeping a 3.4 GPA on a 4-point scale and she was well liked by most of her AOPi sisters. She was known for being willing to help out anyone in need and for performing her sorority duties with a good attitude.
Most of the time, Trisha handled the competition well. Actually, in head-to-head Sorority points - which determined who got certain perks like trips and special privileges, Trisha had done better overall than Shelley - this further fueled Shelley's jealousy of the well-liked Trisha.
Shelley sized up Trisha as well. She thought that Trisha was cute and that her outfit tonight was simple but nice. However, Shelley was convinced she had much more to offer AOPi because she was Head Cheerleader and a TV Sports Reporter. All her life, Shelley had gotten pretty much what she wanted. Her family was pretty wealthy - they were land developers in what she wanted. In high school, she was the Homecoming queen, the head cheerleader, and voted the most beautiful in her class. She was a debutante and she drove a BMW. This internship with WAGA was the first job she'd ever had. Growing up, summers meant sitting out by the pool getting a tan and playing tennis or golf - not working a minimum wage job to earn some extra spending money. Even in her social life, while Trisha had several off and on dating relationships with some reasonably good guys, Shelley was seriously dating the star quarterback for the UGA football team.
The meeting began with group singing and announcements. Soon, the Marshall called the business meeting to order and the election process began.
Soon afterwards, the speeches and voting began and both candidates felt confident in victory, although neither would admit it. Shelley's speech was pretty good, but to the subtle ear, there was a tone of arrogance and a condescending attitude toward her sisters. She felt like she deserved to be chapter president because of her connections. Trisha walked onto the stage with the same confidence that she had displayed to Mitchell in the airport. Her feet glided in her new mules down the aisle and up to the podium. While speaking, she playfully dipped in and out of one shoe and at times rubbed her bare toes on the shag carpet on the basement floor. Her speech promoted unity and sisterhood and working together as a team to build friendships and offer service to their community. She highlighted the AOPi commitment to their national philanthropy - Arthritis research as well as their local chapter's annual Habitat for Humanity home building for the poor. She did very well and the applause was very satisfying.
After Trisha's speech, several of the girls whispered to each other about her outfit and especially her pretty mules. No one could see them close enough to realize they were crocodile leather, but all thought they looked very nice.
The membership was given a secret ballot to complete and soon all the votes were in and taken away to be counted. The chapter meeting continued with more singing and officer reports and finally the results were read.
AND THE NEW AOPi CHAPTER PRESIDENT FOR THE 2001-2002 SCHOOL YEAR IS.......
TRISHA KENDRICK...
There was a victory cheer from the sorority and Shelley gave her a half-hearted, insincere congratulations hug that was nevertheless appreciated. She gave a nice acceptance speech and on her return to the crowd, Jeannie got word to her to be changed into something more casual in 10 minutes for a surprise.
As soon as the meeting was closed, Trisha ran up to her room and replaced her pretty slides in the box and placed on the floor of the closet. She changed out of her dress into a pair of jeans and a lightweight garnet red sweater. She slipped her bare feet into her favorite pair of brown clogs and went out to join Jeannie downstairs.
"Where are we going?"
"It's a surprise!"
Soon Jeannie pulled into the Beta Theta Pi House, which was where Jay lived and there was a small crowd on the front porch waiting, cheering and holding congratulatory signs. Trisha was dumb-founded that a victory party was being held in her honor. About 2 dozen of the brothers - mostly Jay's closest friends - were present and soon a few carloads of Trisha's closest friends form AOPi were parked and part of the party.
"I can't believe this! Who do I thank?"
"Hey - we wanted to do something nice for you - no one is more deserving. You'll be a great president," Jeannie said with tears in her eyes. "I was chatting with Jay one time when he called you and you were gone and voila - this is what we came up with."
By now Trisha had tears also and gave Jeannie a hug. She also did the same for Jay and soon there was a big hug and tear fest occurring on the expansive BOPi front porch.
"Let's go inside," Jay suggested as he took Trisha's hand and took her to where the punch, pizza, Guthrie's' chicken fingers and congratulations cake was on a large table.
"What would you have done with that cake if Shelley had won?"
Jay teasingly replied, "I had some extra icing and a writing tool."
Trisha playfully hit him on the shoulder and Jay smiled and came back, "We were confident in victory! You're the best!"
Everyone began to dive into the food and after a few minutes, Jay sneaked into the kitchen and brought out the champagne that had been chilling on ice.
"Trisha, we all chipped in for this celebration and this is the pinnacle - a toast in your honor. Have a seat. "
Everyone, who wanted a glass, got one and Jay began to pour the champagne. After everyone else was served, he surprised Trisha by reaching down and slipping off her left clog and pouring the champagne inside for a toast."
Trisha protested, but only a little. She knew somewhat about Jay's shoe "interest" so this was not all that unusual. After everyone finished their drinks, one of Jay’s frat brothers cranked up the stereo to the sounds of Glenn Miller. The Betas pulled back the furniture and one of they announced, "Let's Swing!"
Jay tossed the champagne clog onto the misplaced couch, took Trisha's hand and pulled her with an unbalanced limp over to the dance floor. When she got there, she kicked off her remaining clog sending it flying to the side of the room. Just as they had done 3 weeks earlier, they went into their often-practiced dance routine as everyone watched and clapped along.
"Come on and join us," Jay yelled over the loud music. Everyone paired up and attempted to swing dance, some knew how and others didn't. For a couple of hours, the snack food was devoured, there was a lot of dancing - The Swing music gradually aged about 25 years to oldies as he night wore on and the dancing became more up-to-date too. Others who weren't dancing sat around and enjoyed the night of socializing and celebrating.
At the end of the evening, Trisha, Jay and Jeannie were the only ones left and Trisha thanked her two best friends again for a fun night. She walked over to where she had kicked one clog and replaced it on her foot. She started looking around for the other one and then remembered the champagne Jay had sipped out of it.
"Hey Jay, where'd you put my shoe when you finished drinking out of it?
"Let me think...Oh..I threw it on the couch."
Trisha walked over to the couch and it was nowhere to be seen.
Jeannie suggested, "Maybe it's under a cushion."
Soon all three were tossing aside cushions, feeling in between the cracks of the couch and looking underneath and all around. It was nowhere to be found.
"Where could it have gone?"
Jay suggested, "Well I guess there was a lot of activity and someone must have moved it. We can look around some more."
Trisha conceded, "I'll tell you what. It's 12:30AM and we all have class tomorrow - I'll come by tomorrow and look some more.< But we better find it - these are my favorite pair of clogs."
"Okay Trisha - see you around 3:00."
Trisha walked out of the Beta house with only one clog and Jeannie drove her back to the dorm and they walked up to their room, Trisha carrying her remaining clog in her hand.
It was now 1:00AM and the two girls finally settled down to sleep - only to be rudely awoken by the 7:00AM Tuesday alarm clock. Trisha and Jeannie got up and ready for their 8 AM class. Trisha went to put on her outfit from the night before and got the single clog on before remembering the other one was lost. She went to her closet and put on a pair of flat mules instead.
Meanwhile, Jay awoke a little later and went to the common refrigerator in the downstairs kitchen to get some OJ. He was amazed to see Trisha's missing clog in the back corner of the refrigerator. One of his frat brothers, Shawn, came down and Jay showed him the shoe.
"Yeah, I think I was in the kitchen when it happened."
"So how'd it get in there?"
"Somehow it got taken to the kitchen in an empty pizza box. One of the girls thought the champagne would make it smell bad if it got warm so she put it in the 'frig. I guess she forgot to tell Trisha about it."
"Well, at least it was nothing malicious. You know that she had to go home in one clog, though."
"That's too bad - at least it wasn't too cold. Hey, how are things going between the two of you?"
"Well, we're practically best friends. We hang out together a lot and go out casually. But she still is not completely over Tim."
"Jay - remember what happened last fall after she broke up with Chuck? She still just wanted to be friends and wait on Tim to come back from Florida in January. Then they dated for 3 months. Now, she's not dating him either and you're her closest male friend. Maybe she's up for more than a simple friendship."
"I hope so, but I need to not rush her or make her run like a scared rabbit."
The conversation continued as Shawn also grabbed some OJ then a bowl of Corn Flakes. As a few more brothers came down to eat, the conversation became less of a personal nature.
Jay was waiting in the living room when Trisha stopped by to visit.
"Well Jay, did anyone find my shoe?"
"Actually I did. It's in the refrigerator."
"It's where! How'd it get in there!"
"One of your sisters thought the champagne would make it smell. She must have left early and forgot to tell you."
"So let's go get it, where'd you put it?"
"It's still in the 'frig. I was afraid it really might smell if it got warm."
"So it if can't get warm, how am I going to wear it?"
"Here's my idea, Trisha. I'll drive us out to the Alps Shopping Center, drop it off at Alps Shoe Repair place and let them clean it and I'll pay for it. I'll also buy you dinner at Chili's nearby just hang out."
Trisha was okay with that plan. She took this opportunity to tell him her good news. She started with the short version but he also wanted to hear the long version too.
"So you're going to Manhattan to become a model! I'm very happy for you. I hope you don't mind me asking but are they going to pay you pretty well?"
"I ought to be able to play for my last year of college on my own and if I decide to go to grad school, I'll be able to pay for that too."
Jay was indeed happy for Trisha, but he now feared that this would make him even less appealing as someone to date. Not that she would become arrogant, like Shelley, but that she would be exposed to more suitors and get taken out of circulation again before he could turn things around for his fortunes.
"I'll want to hear all about your trip when you come back on the 22nd."
"Of course - your my bud'."
Jay never knew whether to be happy or sad that she had become such a good friend instead of more. But with less that 2 weeks before her first trip, he decided to see what progress he could make in that direction before then.
That afternoon, Trisha called Amber down in Savannah to give her the good news about being elected sorority president and about her job as a model. Before they got off the phone, Amber asked Trisha to come to Savannah the last week in April to visit her. Trisha readily and happily accepted her invitation.
