The minute the plane touched down, I took out my cell phone, switched off airplane mode, and texted my father.
"Landed"
My dad replied with an equally terse message.
"Leaving"
It was a typical "conversation" between us: short and efficient. My dad was a commercial airline Captain, and in the cockpit, you learn to quickly communicate essential information without wasting time saying anything unimportant. My dad taught that to me, and it became natural to talk this way. Except when it came to sports. If we were in different locations watching the same Cubs game or any NFL game, we had long text exchanges or phone calls discussing great or terrible plays.
As the plane taxied to the gate, I started packing up. I put my iPad, ear buds and Kindle in my backpack with a chuckle. I was totally prepared to listen to a podcast or read or use my iPad to watch one of the plane's movies. Instead, I fell asleep before the plane even took off and only woke when the guy in the window seat had to go to the bathroom.
As the plane continued to taxi, I looked through my news feeds and checked email. I was surprised how quickly we got to the gate.
The baggage claim at the Tampa airport was really crowded. I grabbed my bag and walked outside, the warm air causing me to immediately smile. I called my dad.
"I've got my bag and am just past the American Airlines sign."
"Good timing. We're just pulling up to terminal 1. See you shortly."
Less than a minute later, I saw my parents' car pull up. The trunk popped open, and I put my bag inside. I closed the trunk and got in the back seat of the car.
"Hi, sweetheart," my mother sang out. "How was the flight?"
"Hi, Mom. The flight was fine. Pretty uneventful."
"It's pretty windy today, but I forgot to check the direction, Did they make you circle back to land from the south?" my dad asked, always checking in on the landing pattern.
"No, straight in from the north."
"Good. I like that pattern better," he said, having flown into the airport a million times.
Traffic on the highway was pretty light. When we finally pulled up to the house and got out of the car, I gave my mom a big hug and a kiss.
"Always nice to have you visit," she said, holding onto the hug.
"You might get sick of me this time," I said. "You know I'm staying for a month."
"You can stay longer, you know."
"Thanks, Mom. I think after a month I'll be ready to go back to Chicago. At least for a few weeks. I might come back, though."
My job as an IT Security expert let me work from anywhere. Since my parents' neighborhood was recently upgraded with fiber optic cable, the internet connectivity from their house was fantastic. And with fiber, I could upload large files way faster than I could from my house, which was still on conventional cable. I decided there was no reason not to get away from the Chicago winter for a month and enjoy the Florida weather and my parents' pool.
By the time I finished hugging my mom and getting my bag out of the trunk, my dad was already unlocking the front door. He went in and turned off the alarm before Mom and I made it up the front walk. When I walked inside, my dad and I shared a firm handshake.
"Nice to see you, son," he said.
"Good to see you, too, Dad."
He chuckled as he said, "we've made a list of fix-it projects you can do for us while you're here."
That made me laugh, too.
"I assume you only had a child so there'd be some free handy-man labor when you reached this age, huh?"
"Absolutely," he said. "Brilliant planning on our part."
I rolled my bag across the tile floor to "my" room, listening to the distinctive clackety-clack as the wheels kept dropping into the grout lines. Of course, I didn't live there, but one of the extra bedrooms was the one I always used. I even left a few clothes there between trips. The house had a typical Florida set-up, with the master suite on one side of the house and the remaining bedrooms on the other side. The "public" rooms - dining room, living room, kitchen and den - were in the middle, along with an office. The house wasn't huge, but it was more than enough room for my parents. Of course, the best part was the huge patio with an outdoor kitchen, an outdoor covered porch with requisite TV, and the pool.
I unpacked and changed into shorts to join my parents having a drink on the patio. It was quite nice out, with a warm breeze coming in off the man-made lake. My dad was telling us some funny stories about pilots getting yelled at by ground control when they didn't know the airport well and made a wrong turn while taxiing to or from the gate. It was the kind of mistake that wasn't going to get anyone killed, like a mistake in the air, but could mess up other planes trying to get to or from the runway.
After a couple of hours, my mom said we should get ready to go to dinner. It was a Monday, so I assumed we'd be going to their favorite pizza place. I liked their pizza, but my parents really liked the Monday night special: order a large pizza get half off two beers. I always found this funny, since my mom NEVER drinks beer - except with pizza. And it's not exactly like my parents couldn't afford to pay full price for two beers. But, for some reason, they couldn't pass up this deal.
Shortly after we sat down at the restaurant, the waitress approached with three glasses of water.
"Hi, Karen. Hi, Dennis. How are you guys tonight?" she asked with a big, beautiful smile.
"We're good, sweetheart," my mom replied. "Tyler, this is..."
I cut my mom off.
"Hello, Amanda," I said.
She smiled.
"Wait, you know her?" my mom asked with surprise.
"Yes, mom. You introduced me last time I visited, a couple of months ago. And the time before that."
"And you remembered her?" Mom asked, again surprised.
"Well, Amanda's the kind of girl I could hardly forget," I said, in a combination of truth and teasing, but I immediately felt silly for saying it.
Ananda smiled her million-dollar smile.
"Oh, Tyler," she said with a sparkle, "keep it up. Flattery will get you everywhere!"
Amanda had a pleasant-looking face - not beautiful but not unattractive. But when she smiled and flashed those big, white teeth, she exuded friendliness. You couldn't help but smile back. And while her face was just normal, her body was perfect. She was slightly above average in height - maybe 5' 7" - with a perfectly flat stomach beneath her spandex top. And her breasts were fantastic - probably a small B-cup. She had a small butt with a little curve that looked amazing and firm as it was hugged by her leggings. I had previously learned Amanda was in her third year at the local college, so she was six years younger than me.
"Well, I know what the ADULTS are drinking," Amanda said with a smirk as she placed her hand on my shoulder. "How about you, Tyler? A Shirley Temple?"
My mother let out an embarrassing snort as the rest of us just smiled.
"Much as I'd like a beer, I'd have to show you my ID, and when you saw my birthday, you might think of me as an old man. So, I'll just have a coke," I said.
"Okay dokey," she replied. "Two beers and a coke for their little boy. You guys want Bud Light tonight?"
"Good for me," my dad said.
"Me, too," from my mom.
Amanda returned to the table with the drinks on a small, round tray. She laid the tray on the table, and as she used her left hand to grab each drink one by one, she placed her hand on my shoulder to steady herself as she leaned over the table to place the drinks in front of each person. I liked her touching me and wondered if she did this with all customers to get a bigger tip.
We ordered the large Special pizza, which came with a bunch of toppings, thereby qualifying my parents' beers to be half-price. We had a nice dinner as each of us talked about the latest happenings at work. The restaurant wasn't crowded, and more than once I looked up to see Amanda looking directly at me and flashing that huge smile.
When we finished eating and Amanda came to clear the dishes, she again put her hand on my shoulder as she reached across to grab my mother's dishes.
"Anything else I can get you guys?" she asked.
"Nope," my dad said, "just the check."
As I watched my dad complete the credit card slip, I noticed he left a very generous tip.
"Gee, Dad, you sure 30% is enough of a tip?"
"Eh, she's trying to put herself through college and she's a sweet kid. I figured she could use the money. It's still cheaper than paying full price for the beers, so let her get some of the difference."
"I don't remember you being this free with cash when I was at school," I said with a laugh. Truth was my parents paid for all of my tuition and housing and even gave me some spending money along the way.
"You think I didn't know your mother slipped you $100 every time we saw you?" he said with a laugh.
"You weren't supposed to know about that, Dennis!" my mother snapped.
"You weren't as subtle as you thought, sweetheart. Why do you think I never gave him cash? I knew he was getting plenty from you."
We all had a good laugh as we got up to leave.
"Hope to see you next week," Amanda said with a big smile as we left. "You still gonna be here?" she asked me.
"Yeah, I'm staying for a month this time."
"Oh, good. Hope to see you, too!"
I couldn't help but smile back at her. Just as I was about to walk out the door, I glanced back. Amanda was looking right at me and flashing those pearly whites. She raised her hand and waved goodbye, wiggling each of her fingers. I raised my hand in a quick goodbye.
During the week, I forced myself to endure the hardship of setting up my laptop on the patio beneath a beautiful, cloudless blue sky and temperatures in the lower 80s. On a couple of my smaller zoom calls that didn't involve clients, I made sure the camera was facing the palm trees and the lake behind me to make a couple of folks on my team jealous.
"Are you even working down there," one of them asked, "or do you only turn on your computer for these calls to make us feel like shit?"
"No, I'm working just like usual," I said. "Making you feel like shit is just an added bonus."
