Fifteen minutes later, she entered the law library and began to look for Jay, but not before removing her shoes to keep the slapping noise of her mules from disturbing those trying to focus on their work. Trisha liked the rough feeling of the carpet on her toes as she walked toward where Jay was seated, carrying her mules on the tips of her index and middle fingers. She came up behind him and laid her mules on the table next to him. She then placed her hands on his shoulders and kissed him on the cheek before sitting down next to him.
"Oh, Hi there. I was so engrossed in this case I did not see you walk in."
"I guess I'm much quieter without shoes. Last time you could hear my slapping mules all over the library and I got a few dirty looks, so I decided to enter in 'quiet mode'."
Jay did not mind 'quiet mode' since it gave him a chance to see her perfectly manicured feet and toes and seeing her shoes on the table next to him was an extra dessert. "Let's go into the lounge are so we can talk for a few minutes. I do have a study session at six," Jay noted while observing that his watch read 5:37PM.
Trisha gathered her shoes and followed Jay out of the main study area where monstrous stacks of law books were kept. As they got to the lounge area, Trisha paused to replace her shoes before walking over to one of the couches to sit down together and chat. Trisha, naturally, crossed one leg and went in to an immediate dangle.
"So, hey, how did your presentation go today? By the way that red outfit is really hot!"
"Why thank you, I think it went pretty well. We had to scramble early on to get the lab set-up - the guys who were supposed to set it up were called away on something else. The folks from the Charlotte office were particularly impressed."
"Jay replied, "That's great - I hope they weren't too impressed, I'd hate for them to try and steal you away from the Colombia office."
Teasingly, Trisha replied, "Oh, would that be a problem?", then patted his leg.
Jay laughed and reached over to tickle Trisha on the side which caused her to jump and kick her dangling shoe across the lounge. Jay obliged by walking over and returning her shoe back to Trisha down on one knee.
"Wow, that's the first time that's ever happened," Trisha waxed sarcastically. "Oh, yeah, there’s something else I was wondering. What exactly is a paralegal?
"They work for attorneys and do their research and paperwork. Attorney's can't justify charging $200 an hour for that kind of stuff. I guess it's sort of how nurses do stuff to relieve the doctor. Why do you ask?"
"You know Katie, our System Admin?"
"Umm, yeah, that little blonde who sits in the entrance to your bay at work." Jay almost said 'cute' little blonde but decided not to add the unnecessary adjective.
"She met a guy in our building who is a paralegal and I wondered what he did. He works for SCANA."
Jay responded, "Oh yeah, they're our utility company. Those kinds of entities have to have their own legal staffs to manage all the work they have."
"Sounds like he's got a decent job. He seemed nice enough."
Jay remembered something he'd been meaning to ask Trisha. "Before I have to go, would you like to come my advisor's house over by Lake Murray. He's having his students over for a get-acquainted party."
Trisha thought it was sweet that he asked instead of just assumed she'd go - even though the latter was true since they were dating steady now. "Okay, sounds fun. What's the expected attire?"
Jay was never sure how to answer this question that style-conscious Trisha always asked. "Whatever the female-equivalent of Khaki pants, loafers and a dress shirt without a tie happens to be, ought to be fine."
Trisha started to reply back with an actual answer, but instead just said, "Alright," then in her mind put together a outfit that included a silk top that had horizontal black and white stripes, a pair of black cropped pants and a pair of her black Cole Haan flat-heeled mules. Although it was unspoken, Trisha knew that Jay loved the combination of cropped pants and low cut mules and Jay hoped that his description of the evening's attire would lead her to choose such a combination. Continuing to show interest, Trisha asked, "So how many students does your advisor mentor?"
"About 30, I suppose."
After a pause, Trisha continued, "Oh, I spoke with Jeannie the other day."
Jay responded, "Really, how's she doing? She still on tour?"
"Yes, she said they were coming to Charlotte in June. Maybe we can go see her."
"Not that it matters, but who is she touring with?"
"She's in Grease playing the part of Rizzo."
"Wow, that's a big deal. We will have to see her in that!"
After a bit more small talk and final plans for when she'd be picked up, Trisha said goodbye and walked back to her car to go home without incident. While in the car her cell phone rang and it was Shelley.
"Hey Trisha, its Shelley."
Trisha recognized her voice right off without help and replied, "Oh, Hi Shelley, how's things in Charlotte?"
"Pretty well, but I'm coming into town Saturday and wondered if you'd like to meet over eggs at Cracker Barrel?"
"That sounds good, what time?"
Shelley thought for a moment and decided on, "Nine-thirty okay with you?"
"Sure, sounds good..."
Trisha was going to ask more questions and chat more but Shelley interjected, "Oh, got in heavy traffic. Gonna have to let you go. See you Saturday, bye-bye."
Trisha said 'bye' then continued on her way home.
Katie and Stan's coffee date went well, so he asked her out that Saturday night. After lunch the next day, Trisha saw Katie return to her desk with a shopping bag - by the shape of the bag it appeared that Katie had been shoe shopping. Trisha loved to look at new shoe styles and she was excited about Katie's new date, so she wandered over to her office to investigate.
"So your date with Stan went well yesterday I presume?"
"Oh, we had a great time getting more acquainted. I told him about my job here at Wachovia, my year trying to be a college student at Furman University and all about growing up in Greenville. I found out that he is originally from Sumter, where his dad was a Colonel in the Air Force, and went to Carolina and majored in Political Science and went to law school there for a year before dropping out. He then went onto Paralegal school at Midlands Technical College. (Katie continued to tell more details for several minutes.) He asked me out for tonight."
"Is that package in any way related to your date this weekend?"
"Actually I did buy a couple of new pairs of shoes but I don't know which one to wear." Katie kicked off her left shoe, pulled out one of the boxes and put on one shoe from one of the pairs. "This shoe is an ostrich slide, it's by Fieramosca. It feels very smooth going on."
"That's a beautiful shoe. I wish I was a size 5 1/2 like you so I could try it on myself," Trisha enviously replied.
Katie slipped off her other shoe and placed one of the other shoes on that foot. "This is a Kenneth Cole Reaction shoe called Pic Nic."
"Wow, that's really a colorful and intricate shoe. It's quite a dazzling style. Kenneth Cole was one of the designs I modeled in New York, but I don't remember that one being available."
"The sales clerk said this was new for the season." Katie stood and tried to walk and model the two shoes - she was a little lopsided since one heel was higher than the other. "I guess I won't decide until right before it's time to leave which one I'll wear."
Mr. Allen walked by where Trisha and Katie were chatting and they realized that their lunch hour was rapidly coming to a close.
Around 6:45 that evening, Stan left his apartment in Forest Acres, east of Columbia to pick up Katie, who lived in an apartment in Cayce, just across the Congaree River from downtown. After parking his car near the stairwell to go up to her apartment, he briskly climbed the stairs and rapped on Katie's door. When she opened it, he handed her a single rose.
"How sweet!" Katie replied and kissed him on the cheek. "Come on in."
"Nice place," Stan noted while scanning the room and specifically Katie who was wearing a tight-fitting casual party dress. Her purse was sitting on the counter and her shoes, a very detailed-looking pair of Kenneth Cole Reaction high-heel slides, were on the floor below her purse. "You look very pretty tonight."
"Why thank you," Katie could already tell that Stan was a gentleman and one of the 'nice' guys. She liked that to a point but was afraid she might find him boring.
"I thought we'd go back down to the Vista Congaree and grab a pizza then go dancing."
"Sounds like a perfect evening to me."
As Katie slipped on her shoes, Stan glanced down to take note of the very complex design they had - there were several criss-crossed little straps connected by multicolored flowery-like tassels and a main strap across the toes that looked like snakeskin. The whole shoe was accented in bright pink - except the sole which was blue. His brown Timberlands were plain by contrasting comparison.
Down the stairs, Katie slapped loudly and the echo reverberated in the breezeway. Stan helped Katie into the car and the two were off to the Vista. Along the way, the two took time to talk about their families, where they grew up and went to school, things that were not discussed over coffee during their first date.
"So Stan, where's a good pizza place?"
"I thought we'd try the Mellow Mushroom. I've heard its pretty good."
They chatted more over a medium pizza with all the toppings and a couple of frosty cold Coronas. Katie was really starting to like Stan and Stan also liked Katie and he appreciated how pretty she was as well. Katie played with her shoes a lot under the table - spinning them around, dangling them off her toes, etc... This fact was not lost on Stan, either.
"So why did you leave Furman after a year?" Stan asked, risking a personal question.
Katie did not mind the question. I guess college life did not suit me well. And I got off to sort of a bad start. I had a wreck and totaled my car the first week. Then I had a trip to the emergency room the day of our Freshman President's picnic."
"Oh my, get some bad chicken salad?"
"No, actually nothing that easy. For this picnic, all the girls had to remove a shoe and put into a box for each of the guys to choose one and they'd be our date. On the way to the lawn where we were going to meet our dates, I stepped on a bee and it stung my big toe. Suddenly it swelled up like a grapefruit and I was in the emergency room getting a shot. I never did get that shoe back either."
"That's too bad. I think you're very smart and articulate and would have been a good student. It's never too late you know?"
"I know. And you, it's never too late to go to law school. My friend Trisha, who you met in the parking garage, her boyfriend is a first-year student at Carolina. "
"Does he like it? Oh, yeah it’s not October, yet."
"What happens in October?"
'Well, Trisha will be lucky to see him once a week if that. First-years get put through a myriad of research papers and case studies. He'll be studying 100 hours a week by Columbus Day."
"Sounds intense! Is that why you quit?"
"Yes and no. The hours were excessive but what I discovered is that I really only liked the research itself. I never saw my self before a judge or a jury or dealing with criminals or prosecuting them."
The conversation continued to go well and Katie and Stan were fairly-well acquainted by the end of dinner.
Jay was coming over any minute to pick up Trisha and she hurriedly began to get dressed. Suddenly the overhead light bulb in her bedroom went out so all she had left to rely on was a table lamp next to her bed with a 40 Watt bulb. Kneeling on the floor. Trisha found one Cole Haan low-heeled black mule and tossed it into the middle of the bedroom floor. Trisha paused to remember that she and Shelley had bought matching pairs of this shoe in Dillard's back when they were roommates. She was looking forward to seeing her again in the morning. There was a knock at the door, obviously it was Jay. Trisha scrambled and found another Cole Haan low-heeled black mule and placed it on her foot as she stood. In stride, she drug the other mule with her toes, finally getting it completely on while walking toward the door.
Trisha opened the door and walked out, knowing that Jay was in a hurry to be on time to Dr. Steadman's home. She kissed Jay a peck on the lips and they walked hand in hand toward Jay's car. Trisha asked, "You didn't need to go in did you? I knew you were in a hurry.”
"No, this is great; we should be just on time. Dr. Steadman is a fairly prompt person. He has a well-organized large home with 4 teenage children and a wife of course."
Jay opened the car door for Trisha and as she sat down, one of her shoes knocked against the doorjamb and came off and landed slightly under the car. Jay picked it up and laid it on the floorboard of the car and noted, "Good thing we weren't parked next to a grate."
Jay ran around to the other side and began to drive toward the house on Lake Murray for the party. Trisha told Jay about meeting Shelley in the morning for breakfast and Jay talked about this huge research paper that Dr. Steadman had assigned to their class and how this party was an annual event that was symbolic of the end of their free time for awhile. Trisha became concerned that once again, she and Jay might see less of each other again, but not tonight!
After dinner, Stan suggested, "Why don't we go over to Jillian's. They have a dance floor, video games, pool tables, stuff like that."
"Sure Stan, sounds fun."
Stan paid the bill and the two of them walked out onto the brick sidewalk. Katie's right heel caught in a crack and she stumbled, coming almost completely out of her shoe.
Stan quickly leaned over and began to pull her up by the shoulders. Katie came the rest of the way out of her shoe and rested her toes on the sidewalk while she recomposed herself. Then she felt around and replaced the shoe on her foot and replied, "Thanks, but I'm okay. Still got my dancing legs."
Stan and Katie entered Jillian's and it was pretty busy. It was half past 8PM and they discovered the dance floor did not even open until nine. Stan noted, "I guess we have some time to look around first, play some games, whatever you like." Stan placed a $20 bill in the token machine and received a pocket full of tokens to use in the games. They walked hand in hand - partly just to stay together through the crowd, but partially because they were feeling more comfortable with each other.
While they walked they came upon the pool table area, one happened to become free and to Stan's surprise, Katie asked, "Do you play pool?"
"Every now and then, wanna play a game or two?"
Katie was a pretty good player. She had grown up with a table in her home and had played in clubs and bars a lot since being out on her own. "Rack 'em up."
Stan placed the required number of tokens in the slot, removed the balls from the area underneath the table and racked them up for Katie to break. Katie proved to be a pretty good player. Being only a thumb-width taller than five feet, she had quite a number of long reaches. Stan enjoyed the sight of her leaning over the table, sitting on the edge. Once she had one foot several feet off the floor and her shoe slipped off and bounced away. Not to break her rhythm, she took her remaining two shots to close out the win without the shoe before limping over to recover it and get a victory congratulatory kiss on the cheek from Stan.
After playing part of a second game and calling it a draw, Katie and Stan decided to check out the dance floor.
Upon their arrival, Jay and Trisha exited the car and walked hand-in-hand leaving the driveway and walking across the grass to the front door of the house. The front door area was dark but they could hear a noise around back. Jay suggested, "I guess we should have stayed on the driveway and gone around back."
Trisha nodded in agreement before they hurriedly walked back toward the driveway. Jay was pulling her slightly and suddenly, Trisha took a step and realized her bare foot was touching the grass. Letting go of Jay's hand and stopping, she shrieked at a whisper volume, "My shoe came off; help me find it."
Jay immediately stopped and it was quite dark so the two of them felt around for a couple of minutes before Trisha finally located her shoe and replaced it back on her foot before proceeding onward.
As they cleared the side of the house, the backyard opened up to them. There was a large deck off the back of the house and that is where everyone else was standing around mingling. The back edge of the deck was about 8 feet off the sloping terrain with tall grass and weeds. A single path to the edge of the lake was cleared where a boat ramp had been built. The deck area was dimly lit by tiki torches that served a dual purpose of warding off the mosquitoes. Jay and Trisha arrived and were immediately greeted by Marilyn Steadman, the lady of the house, who was carrying a large bucket.
"Your two are just in time for our get to know one another mixer." Marilyn raised her voice and got the attention of everyone there. ”We’re going to play a little game to get to know one another a bit better." Marilyn placed the bucket on the deck in front her as she finally had everyone's attention. "Everyone take off one shoe and place it in the bucket. Then when we pass it around again, take one shoe out and meet that person and get acquainted."
There were some mumblings amongst the group that it was a silly game but soon everyone formed a line and deposited one shoe in the bucket. Soon there were close to fifty young adults mingling on the deck looking to find their shoe and return the shoe in their hand to its rightful owner.
Almost immediately, a pretty blonde came over to Jay with his other Bass Weejun. Ironically it was his classmate Erin who happened to have a crush on him. "How about that; I had your shoe."
"Thanks Erin." Jay replied. "Hey Erin I'd like you to meet my girlfriend Trisha. Trisha, Erin is one of my classmates as you may have assumed."
"Nice to meet you Trish. Actually we're not just classmates, were in the same 'Gang of Three', Erin replied and gently touched Jay affectionately on the shoulder."
"Actually it's Trish-a; short for Patricia," Trisha said under her breath but continued; "Nice to meet you too. By the way, what is the Gang of Three?"
Before Erin could speak again, Jay replied, "All first years are put into groups of three to help get acclimated to Law School; and for this semester, we have a group project and a group term paper to write."
Before Erin could say anything else another student came over carrying a red strappy sandal with a stiletto heel. "I presume this is yours, Erin?"
"Why thank you, Luke, what a handsome Prince Charming you are." She slipped on her shoe without rebuckling the ankle strap.
"Luke, I'd like you to meet my girlfriend Trisha."
"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Trisha. Jay's said so much about you - and most of it is good."
Trisha felt at ease with Luke's demeanor. Jay continued, "Luke is also in our 'Gang of Three'. And get this...remember that game back at UGA when South Carolina came into town and beat us your senior year, Trisha?"
"Of course, Shelley was dating Beau and he was the losing quarterback."
"Well, Luke was South Carolina's quarterback - what a small world."
"Shelley was my roommate and sorority sister.
Erin felt left out and chimed in, "Is that the Beau who plays for Tampa Bay, now? I bet he's making millions. Luke why didn't you go pro?"
"Well, one win does not make a career. I came back down to earth pretty quickly. Actually the Titans signed me as a free agent but I only lasted a week. I decided to follow in the footsteps of my cousin. He's an attorney and works for the Governor of Georgia in the District Attorney's office. We all in the family think he's going to be the first African-American governor of Georgia one day."
"Luke was a first team Academic All-American."
Erin was tired of not getting any attention from Jay who was too busy bragging on their friend Luke. She walked away, still without replacing her ankle strap. Trisha began to look around for her other shoe.
Katie was a pretty good dancer and although he was no Fred Astaire, Stan managed to keep up pretty well. He loved the sight of Katie as she smiled and laughed out loud. He liked the sight of her skirt twirling to and fro and seeing her heels rise up and down in side the partially-confining slides that seemed to defy gravity as they stayed on her feet despite there being nothing holding them on her heels. Dancing was one thing that Katie did well and had few clumsy tendencies.
While walking around after their good time dancing, Katie saw the exit to the volleyball area and asked, "Can we look out there? I'm obviously not dressed to play but I'd like to see what it looks like."
"Let's go."
Moments later they were our back and realized that the volleyball area was not lighted so no one was playing. In fact the area was pretty dark. They began to look around and soon realized they were on the sand, damp and cool from the rain of a couple of days prior. Looking behind her, Katie pointed out to Stan, "Hey look at my shoe print. The floral design in the wet sand made an imprint - how neat!" Katie felt the grit on her toes and leaned over to each side to take off her shoes and gather them in her hand. There was a nice view of the river and the city skyline. Katie prompted Stan by leaning her head on his shoulder. Stan took the cue and gave her a nice little kiss. Katie lightly put her arms around Stan and unknowingly dropped one of her shoes in the sand.
Shortly afterwards, a Jillian's employee came out and said, "Sorry, gotta lock up the back."
Katie and Stan regained their composure and walked toward the door. Once off the sand, Katie wiped her feet on the mat but kept her shoes (or actually shoe) off. As they entered, Katie happened to look down at her hand and saw only one shoe. "Hey' my shoe fell out of my hand, I've gotta go back out."
The employee rolled his eyes and Katie hurriedly went out and found her shoe with little trouble. She came back inside, wiped her feet off again, and continued to hold her shoes in her hand. "Wow, Stan, that was close!" Katie said that as if she had times that were more than 'close' and indeed that was true.
They resumed walking around the game room area. The crowd was large. As they entered the video game area, someone bumped into Katie's arm and one of her shoes fell off and landed inside one of the arcade cars and landed in the floorboard. Young student, Liz, took her turn to drive in a virtual Monaco and after it was over, she saw a high heel in the floor. 'I bet this belongs to that b*%^h Lauren (who she could see was standing barefoot nearby) who tried to hit on my man. I'll show her!' Liz then took the shoe and tossed it in-between two of the arcade car rides - in an area where it would not be easily found or seen.
Unknowingly carrying one shoe again, Katie and Stan walked around the place some more and found Dance Dance Revolution.
Katie was excited and said, "You ever done this?"
"No, but I'm guessing you have. Wanna take a turn?" Stan placed the required tokens in the slot and Katie handed her purse and shoe to Stan, who did not notice how many shoes he was holding. Instead the sight of Katie jumping and spinning in perfect rhythm to the lights and music was quite nice.
"Wow that was great Katie!"
"You want to try, Stan?"
Stan handed her purse and shoe back to Katie and right before Stan got the tokens in the slot again, Katie shrieked, "Hey, where's my other shoe? You playing a joke on me?"
Stan looked down and all around and replied, "No, I'm not. Maybe it fell off somewhere around here, but there's really not far it could have gone."
Soon both were on hands and knees looking all around and even a few in the area helped to no avail.
Stan suggested, "Maybe it fell off somewhere walking around somewhere. We can retrace our steps and..."
"We'll never find that needle in a haystack. Let's get in some more dancing and then see if someone turns it in by the time we leave."
Stan agreed with the plan and they got in another hour of dancing with barefoot with her shoe survivor stuffed into her purse.
One of Jay's classmate's dates came by bearing a Kate Spade flat-heeled mule. Trisha, at first thought her problem was solved but then she realized, "Oh it's close but you can see that your mule has a thinner tie, a patent-leather cap toe and a smaller heel than mine."
Jay and Luke has no idea what she had just said but to the girl carrying the shoe it made perfect sense and she went on trying to look for its owner. Trisha was running out of people to ask and shortly after that, Marilyn asked the group who still needed their shoe and Trisha raised her hand. Then she asked who still had a shoe and the girl from before raised hr hand with the shoe in the air.
Marilyn, thinking the problem was solved said, "Okay, there you go."
Trisha met the girl in the middle near Marilyn and they told her that the shoe did not match. Marilyn suggested, "You ought to try it anyway."
Now everyone, including Erin, was looking on as Trisha tried on the shoe and it was a perfect fit. Marilyn asked, "Did you get dressed in the dark?"
Slightly embarrassed, Trisha replied, "Actually the light bulb in my bedroom did go out." The group got a good laugh out of it but soon afterwards, it was time to eat and the incident was practically forgotten but Erin took note.
Just after Stan and Katie went to the dance floor, Liz saw Lauren wearing both shoes and realizes she has made a mistake. She went back to recover the shoe and turn it into lost and found.
Again Stan and Katie this time decided to go out on the wood deck and dance in the moonlight. Everything was going great for about half an hour. Then suddenly, a sharp pain came over Katie and she sat in a nearby chair to grab her big toe. Stan came to her aid.
"Splinter, I got a splinter in my big toe. Can you get it out?"
"I'll try," Stan replied and he knelt at her side and placed her foot on top of his thigh. He looked closely and he could see a small piece of wood protruding out of her big toe. After a few minutes he was able to wiggle it out and restore Katie to health.
"Thanks a bunch!" Katie told Stan and kissed him in gratitude. "You ready to go. I think we've had enough dancing for one day."
After the splinter incident, that was eerily similar to the bee incident at Furman, they decided to leave and report the lost shoe to the front desk.
Speaking to the desk clerk, Katie took her shoe out of her purse and showed it to her, "I was wondering if anyone has turned in the mate to this shoe?"
The clerk immediately recognized it and replied, "Why yes, someone turned it in about 30 minutes ago." An elated Katie replaced both shoes on her feet modeled in them briefly and grabbed Stan's hand as they walked out to conclude a fun but eventful evening.
Jay enjoyed introducing Trisha to all his classmates and the dates of the ones who brought one. They enjoyed looking out over the lake that began only a few feet out from the dock. In between was a marshy area with tall weeds. Erin did not care much for the sight of Jay having fun with his girlfriend. With this, she resolved to do whatever she could over the course of the semester to break them up so he could be hers.
Suddenly, while walking across the deck, the heel of Erin's shoe, the one without the ankle strap buckled. The heel became wedged in a crack. It was tight enough that her momentum pulled her foot out of the shoe and she nearly fell over. Suddenly she was the center of the group's attention - not something she wanted - at least in a negative circumstance like this one. Luke was standing nearby and reached down to pull on the shoe. At the first pull, his hands came away empty. "Wow. It’s really stuck!" he replied. A second tug pulled the shoe out of the crack but quickly the shoe flew out of his hands, bounced off the railing of the deck and over into the dark marsh several feet below. Erin stood there dumbfounded not knowing what to do. She rushed to the edge to look down but it was totally dark.
"Luke, look what you've done?"
"Is that the thanks I get for trying to help you?" He paused and looked at Erin and tried to frown but it was so funny it was more of a smirk. "Okay, how about I go down and look for it?"
Marilyn suggested, "Luke, there's a flashlight we keep out here in the corner. You can use that if you want."
Luke appreciated the help and proceeded to climb down onto the grass below shining the flashlight all-around. Erin was a captive audience up against the rail. She pointed in a few different directions for Luke to look. Everyone else gathered in a semi-circle to watch the proceedings. A couple of minutes later, Luke replied, "Found it!" and suddenly a red strappy sandal got thrown over the railing and into the crowd. The person who caught it quickly handed it to Erin while Luke climbed back over the railing. His shoes and pants legs were wet and slightly dirty now.
"That's not my shoe! You'll have to go back down there."
"Not me. I think I saw a water moccasin slithering around down there."
Marilyn interjected, "I'll have my husband look for it in the morning. Maybe that shoe will fit you for the rest of the night. One of my daughter's friends lost it here last weekend during a party. One of the guys was teasing her and took one of her shoes and began to play keep away with it. One errant catch, by a wide receiver on the football team ironically, sent it over the railing just like your shoe. We couldn't find it then but Luke just lucked up tonight."
Luke considered the 'irony' of a former quarterback 'throwing' a shoe into the lake but decided to keep his mouth shut. A dejected Erin handed the shoe to Marilyn and said, "Here's the shoe. I guess your daughter can give it back to her friend."
"Actually, you might as well wear it during the rest of the party if it fits. Her friend threw the surviving shoe far out in the water. This one's no good to her anymore.
Erin took the shoe back and slipped it on and tied the ankle strap. "Actually it fits okay. I guess I could wear it until I get home."
So now, both Trisha and Erin were wearing mismatched shoes!
About an hour later, the party began to wind down and Jay suggested to Trisha that they could stop pick up a DVD at Blockbuster then stop off at by Starbucks and get some coffee then go back to his place for awhile. So, after saying their goodbyes, around 9:15PM that's what they did.
[There is a true story found in Webshots where a college student form Maryland named Risa packed two different but similar-looking shoes to go to a formal. See in these photos: (1) (2) (3) that the shoe looks similar at the vamp but one is a thong slide and the other is a sandal with an ankle strap.]
Jay and Trisha chatted a little as they made their way back from Lake Murray into Columbia. On their way back into town they stopped at the Blockbuster Video store on Broad River Rd. As Jay started to get out, Trisha decided to be a little flirtatious, "Jay, I'm not properly dressed. My shoes don't match."
Not initially catching onto her game, Jay replied, "You're fine. They look a lot alike to the untrained eye."
Trisha then suggested, "I don't know. Maybe I should leave one in the car."
If Jay had been chewing gum he probably would have swallowed it. Trisha turned to the right and dangled her feet out of the car. "Come over here and help me decide which one to leave in the car."
Jay hurried around to the other side and his heart was pumping very quickly. He looked at the two choices. Trisha subtly lowered each shoe down her foot a little to where her toes began to show slightly at the back of each shoe vamp. "Well let's see. Blockbuster is sort of casual so maybe we should leave the cap toe shoe in the car."
"Okay, that's the one." Trisha said while dangling her cap toe shoe onto the parking lot. Jay picked it up and slowly and carefully placed it on the floorboard inside his car. He suggested. "Do you want a lift to the door; it's not a good parking lot for a bare foot."
"Sounds good to me!" Jay leaned over and Trisha grabbed his chest around his neck from behind. Jay reached back and grabbed her thighs and hoisted her upon his back. At 123 pounds, she was not too much for Jay to lift. However with the adrenalin rush she had created in Jay, she could have probably weighed 200 and been okay carrying her.
Jay carried her about 30 yards to the door and as they entered, Trisha's foot bumped against the doorway, knocking off her only shoe. Before she could let Jay know, the door closed behind them.
"My shoe came off!"
Jay acknowledged her and tried to go back outside but the door was locked. Then he remembered, "That's right you have to go past the scanner on the other side of the counter to go out." Jay put Trisha down and suggested, "Why don't you go ahead and look for a movie while I go get your shoe."
Trisha walked toward the end of the new releases section that was all along the inside wall, enjoying the feeling of the short, tightly-woven carpet on her toes while she did. Jay circled around the cashier station and went back around outside to the front door. He picked up Trisha's shoe and went back inside, expecting to see Trisha off to the right, browsing the new releases. She was not there.
Trisha had decided to play a little game with Jay by hiding out in one of the middle aisles, forcing him to look silly looking in and out of aisles holding her one mule. She crouched down in the comedy aisle and waited. Jay finished circling the store's perimeter looking for Trisha in the new releases section then decided she must have decided to look for an older film. Jay happened to look toward the ceiling and saw the security mirrors that circled the store. He noticed Trisha kneeling in an aisle appearing to be hiding. 'I bet she's trying to play a game with me. I'll tease her a bit.' Jay slipped down the aisle two rows behind her and lined himself up perpendicular to her. He placed her shoe on the floor and kicked it forward. It came to a stop against her feet. Trisha let out a slight squeal of surprise then turned around to see her shoe. About the time Jay got there, Trisha was putting her single shoe on to get serious again about looking for a movie.
Trisha got more funny looks for wearing one shoe than she did wearing none. However there were not very many other customers in the store in the first place. Trisha felt secretly vulnerable as she enjoyed the one shoe state. After looking around for several minutes, they both settled on the Renee Zellwinger/Ewan McGregor movie Down With Love.
Jay considered getting the car to pick up Trisha at the door but he decided to just carry her back out to the car, just as he had carrier her in. It was much more fun that way. Soon they were on their way to the Starbuck's location on Saluda.
Again, Trisha repeated her flirtatious mantra, I'm not properly dressed. My shoes don't match. Maybe I should leave one in the car."
Jay followed suit, "Why yes, I believe you should. But this time, you need to be slightly more formal. Wear the cap toe shoe and leave the other one inside."
"Why Jay, that's a lovely idea." Again Trisha dangled her feet out of the car and when Jay arrived she dangled off the shoe she had work inside the video store onto the parking lot. Jay was about to carry her but Trisha had another idea. "Why don't we try something else this time. I'll put my bare right foot on top of of your left shoe and we'll walk in arm in arm - sort of like the three-legged race."
Jay thought that was just about the best idea he had ever heard so they did just that. It took a little coordination and they had to get through the crowd a little but once they got in line it was a piece of cake. They got a few strange looks but no one said anything to them. Jay decided to be a little flirtatious himself. "Now if you take your foot off, you'll have to go out and get your other shoe."
"I can't fail then. I can't be improperly dressed." Trisha was pleased that Jay had loosened up enough to have this kind of fun with her.
Eventually, Jay had his vanilla Frappuccino and Trisha had her White Mocha Latte and they were on their way back to the car - again three-legged style.
A few minutes later they were at Jay's apartment and Trisha wore both her shoes this time. They enjoyed their drinks and the movie and they kissed a little too. Soon it was quite late and Jay drove Trisha back to her place. After a nice goodbye, Trisha went into her room to see what had caused her fashion faux pas that evening. She looked in the closet and found the mate to the cap toe mule pretty quickly. She placed the matched set into one of her vacant shoe caddy slots. She then looked for the mate to the plain toe mule - the one she intended in wearing in the first place - and it was not to be found. She looked under the bed and again no mate. Looking at the clock and remembering she was meeting Shelley at 9:30, she went on to bed.
The next morning, Trisha left out wearing a white top, red cropped pants and a pair of Red Kenneth Cole Mules with a flat heel. She had not seen Shelley since she had moved to Charlotte and she was anxious to see how she was doing.
Shelley was coming to Columbia to see Kevin who was now the Assistant Engineer for WACH-TV in Columbia. They had an odd relationship where Kevin considered Shelley out of his league and Shelley considered Kevin beneath her but like an adorable puppy, she kept finding herself drawn to him. She was going to meet Kevin to spend the afternoon around town then go out to dinner that evening. She wore a light blue knit sweater top and a pair of dark slacks and the Kate Spade black mules that she had purchased form Dillards with Trisha and the same pair, actually one of the shoes, Trisha wore the night before.
Outside Cracker Barrel, Shelley and Trisha arrived at he same time and parked next to one another. They exchanged sorority-style hugs then stood a couple of feet apart holding both hands with the other, then they hugged again. After some typical greeting small talk they were about to go inside when Shelley said, "Hey, wait, while I have you by your car I have some of your stuff."
Trisha was puzzled, "My stuff, I'm not missing anything."
"Well some of this is not too important." Shelley began to pull out some things to show to Trisha then she dropped them back in the bag. "This is your comb - see how that tooth is crooked. This is one of your nail polishes I borrowed. here's another, and another, and another. Here's your 'Sixpense None the Richer' CD. This is a pair of workout shorts - I washed them. But here's the biggest mystery. When I went to put on this pair of shoes I'm wearing today, there were three of them. Somehow your 6 and a half left got mixed in with my pair of eights."
"Thanks, I'll have to tell you a funny story about that. You want to go inside first?"
Trisha placed the bag of stuff in her car and she and Shelley walked in together and put in their name for a table. While they waited about 20 minutes for a table, they browsed the store and Trisha told her about her party the night before where she wore two different mules and that she just last night realized one was missing.
Over breakfast, the two of them began to reflect. Shelley began, "It's hard to believe that it's been six years since we went through rush together and pledged Alpha Omicron Pi. Now we have careers and we're, like, real grownups."
"I know, I know. We saw a lot of change. Amber left and went to SCAD in Savannah then she married Doug, but not before I briefly dated him myself - what an odd thing to happen."
"Have they settled into a place for Doug to sell Insurance?"
"Actually, Doug's finshed school up in Illinois and has begun interning for a State Farm agency in Kennesaw"
"That's good. (pause) When I think back to college I think about how I got to be a cheerleader then head cheerleader then I dated Beau."
"He's still palying for the Tampa Bay Bucs, right?"
"Yes. He's starting this year but he's having a mediocre season. Actually I don't care anymore. I'm over him and I want him to be successful. I may have been just a little bit prideful back in those days but I realize how wrong that was." Trisha crossed her feet under her chair at the ankle and dangled one of her mules off her toes.
Trisha was further imporessed with her maturity. "Of course, Jeannie is touring with the traveling production of Grease."
"Yeah, they're coming to Charlotte in the Spring."
"She told me that when she spoke. Jeannie's doing pretty well for herself. Hey, as for your trip here, how about Kevin?"
"You know it's strange. I feel drawn to him despite the fact he's not an athlete or the type I usually go for. He's just a nice guy - sort of like Jay I suppose. Speaking of Jay, how are things with you and him?"
"Things are good. We both stay busy of course but we have a good time together. I'll pull no punches. I love him very much."
"Do you think he'll propose?"
"I don't know what he's thinking. He just started Law School and I have my Wachovia internship. Financially it would be wise to wait until 2007 at the earliest." Trisha dangled her mule just out of reach of her toes. She tried a few momemts to recover it but she decided to sit there one shod for now.
"You may be surprised to know this, but I am going to tell you something I don't think I ever told you. I know my family is very well off, but my mom and dad married when they had barely had two nickels to rub together. They worked hard together to build up their real estate development business and eventually it was very successful. The love they had to rely on in the early days is what they often reflect on as the 'fun' days. You two may want to not make the prudent choice."
Trisha scooted back enough to scuff her feet in and out of her mules while considering Shelley's suddenly wise words. She had a lot to think about. She wanted to be Jay's wife and maybe it should be sooner than later. Things suddenly seemed different. However the next 6 months would not be an easy road.
Back at Jay's apartment, his phone rang and it was Erin. After exchanging their hellos, Erin suggested, "Hey, why don't we call Luke and meet over at the cafeteria for brunch then walk over to the library to discuss our research project?"
"Well, I guess so. I had planned on working out at the gym but maybe I could do that later."
"The three of us are going to be pretty busy getting this group research paper written. We need ot get a good jump on things."
"I suppose you're right. You want me to call Luke or can you do that?"
"I'll call him. Meet you at the entrance in 45 minutes. Sound okay?"
"Okay, Erin. See you and Luke there."
Erin called Luke, and just like 10 minutes ago, there was no answer. She left a message to call her on her cell to talk about meeting to discuss their research paper even though after flass the day before Luke had told Erin that he was going to Atlanta to visit his cousin. Erin finished getting dressed by putting on her tightest jeans, a tight-fitting knit sweater top and a pair of 4-inch ankle-strap pumps. On her way out the door, she added just a dab of subtle perfume behind each ear. Jay had no idea what he was in for.
RETURN to Part One.
GO TO the Epilogue that concludes the Trishtale series.
