Monday morning, November 28th
Dani's phone rang, the middle of the friggin' night. She rolled over and answered it, "Hello," in a very groggy voice, it had awakened both of us. I looked at my watch, six-fourteen in the morning, and groaned.
It was the third night in a row with not much sleep. Dani and I had been doing a lot of 'reconnecting' from the time we went to bed until wayyy late, then again during the night. Sleep hadn't been the priority. I couldn't say the same at six-fourteen in the morning, sleep sounded awfully good, a lot better than the damned telephone.
"Have you looked at the news this morning?" It was Amanda, Dani's agent, Dani'd turned on speaker phone.
"Uh, no, you know what time it is?" Dani asked, sounding barely awake.
I heard a laugh, "Oops, guess I kind of forgot you're three hours earlier than us, but now that you're awake, get your computer, look up 'Thanksgiving box office' on Google.
Dani grumbled a little, then climbed out of bed and retrieved her laptop, sliding back next to me, both of us leaning up against the headrest. She followed Amanda's instructions, looking up the box office for Thanksgiving weekend. There it was, the words 'Second Chances', and the number... two hundred... "This can't be right, can it?" Dani asked Amanda over her phone, stuttering in disbelief
"Two-hundred-eighty-seven-million dollars, blowing the Thanksgiving weekend record out of the water, yes, it's right!" Now, Amanda's voice was relaying her excitement. Dani's hand went to her mouth in incredulity. "You know what your share is... a little over eleven million dollars!"
"And that's one weekend, it'll be in theaters until after Christmas, probably at least triple that amount... and then when the video comes out..."
The phone slipped out of Dani's fingers, and she turned to me, silently mouthing, 'Oh My God!'
Amanda was still talking, but neither Dani nor I were listening, just looking at each other, our mouths agape. I picked up my phone, my HP calculator app; $287,000,000, four-percent - $11,480,000. I showed the number to Dani, and maybe triple that by the end of the year?
I think we were both numb, realizing that Dani's movie, mostly BECAUSE of her, was the hit of the decade, maybe even longer.
My alarm went off, six-thirty, my long vacation weekend was over. I needed to get up and open the store in Pasco, except my brain was still in a daze. I climbed out of bed and straight into the shower, leaving it nice and cold, hoping it'd shock me back to the real world.
It worked, all I was thinking when I got out of the shower was that it was so damned cold in the house!
As the day went on, and numerous of our customers commented on Dani's movie and how wonderful she was, some wanted to know how they did that barrel-racing scene, and I told them it was exactly like it seemed, Dani on a top barrel horse. I was relieved that none asked me about her love scenes, those would be a little embarrassing.
I also thought about Dani and teaching, how she missed it. I could relate because I loved the auto parts industry, and would be devastated if I suddenly had to give it up. I knew the school wouldn't take her back, even with her teaching and people skills, she'd just be too distracting, the boys and maybe even other teachers would likely be constantly thinking about her naked. But an idea came to me that I wanted to discuss with her.
Five o'clock finally came, and after our last customer left, I locked the doors. Honestly, it felt good that life was back to normal. I guess as normal as it could be being eleven-million dollars richer than when we went to bed last night.
I know that a lot of couples have a 'mine and yours' philosophy with finances, keeping their incomes separate and sharing expenses. Dani and I had never taken that approach, everything was 'ours', our checking and savings accounts in both our names. I didn't anticipate any change, although, I was going to leave that to her since this windfall was truly hers, she'd earned it.
Having Dani greet me at home, looking beautiful, was a stark reminder of what could have been if she'd gone to Tampa. I'd be coming home to a cold, lonesome house. Instead, my wife met me telling me how much she loves me, both with her soul-searing kiss and telling me in so many words.
After dinner he suggested calling Mark, the financial planner we'd met in Reno, the guy who took her phone and actually called the number I'd given him, Amanda Browning, that agent from my dream. He'd jokingly said to call him when she became famous and rich. Somehow, I knew Amanda's name and phone number from my coma, but Dani thought it would be silly to call her as she wasn't an actress and never would be. Ha!
I guess that time had come.
He was the first guy I 'saw her with' after I awoke from my coma; we were in this nightclub part of the Silver Legacy Casino, Dani in that sexy, gold lame dress and blindfolded (kind of a fetish of mine), and when I came back from the restroom, she was dancing with this incredibly good-looking, distinguished, older guy -- awfully close, his hand wandering on her bare back, and Dani snuggled tight to him smashing her almost-bare tits to him. I stood, watching, almost enraged jealous but damn, it was hot. Except eal life was different than my dreams, I couldn't take it, I tapped his shoulder, letting him know it was MY wife he was getting a bit too close with.
Next day, I saw him in the hotel restaurant at breakfast and introduced ourselves... and the fateful phone call happened.
He was single and alone in town, and seemed like a nice guy, so we (I don't remember if it was me or Dani) invited him to spend the day with us until his flight home that afternoon. Dani wanted to ride the giant swing in Reno, and promised Mark a 'treat' if he'd go with her, since she knew there was no way I could (I did anyway, the scariest thing I'd ever done). Her 'treat' turned out to be a very 'beyond-friend' type of kiss in our hotel room, fucking hot! He had such a crush on her. I've always suspected it would likely have gone further (maybe MUCH further) if he hadn't had a plane to catch.
And now, if we called and saw him again, what then?
The other interesting thing about Mark was that there was another man, 'Marcus', a guy we'd met on a plane in one of my dreams, almost an exact look-alike, also a financial advisor, also single and lonely, having lost his wife to breast cancer, also from Seattle, fifties, maybe sixty, Mark was sixty-three when we met him, another one of those anomalies from my dream, a coincidence that couldn't happen but did.
Setting my ruminations about Mark aside for a little bit, trying to banish the lewd images that were fluttering through my mind, "I thought about something today, about your teaching," I told Dani, "I saw your reaction when you were talking with Allison, you miss it... a lot. I know there's kids who struggle, could you volunteer to tutor outside school?" and something else popped into my mind at that instant, "or maybe... you always wanted to teach a calculus class, could you do that privately?"
Dani cocked her head like she was thinking. "I... why not? I'm still certified... and besides, it wouldn't take the place of school, just be supplemental. I know private tutoring is legal, why wouldn't teaching a class as long as the student is still in school? I like it."
"I wouldn't even need to charge for it, and we could buy the books," she added.
"You have any idea how many kids there might be?" I asked.
"In my algebra two and trig classes, I'd guess there were maybe five or six bright enough. That was why the district wouldn't do it, there just weren't enough kids for calculus."
Dani's smile grew wider, "I want to do it, I love the idea, I could tutor kids two evenings a week, and have a calc class two evenings. I'll go talk to Troy (the superintendent) tomorrow, see what he says," and the thank you kiss she gave me -- wow, just wow!
All that 'practice' with Alan Ryder was paying off.