Chapter Twenty-One
When was the last time Caroline had dinner with her father when it seemed that she had his undivided attention for more than a few moments? It was as if the life of the old had become a quaint memory. The pleasures of familial rituals - meals shared with a pre-prayer and a circle of “how was your day” discourse, with a genuine and compassionate interest in each other’s well-being. So it wasn’t clear to her whether it was the nostalgia or the effusive affection the Senator was showing to Jack that overwhelmed her at the dinner at a quiet family restaurant.
The dinner itself had been arranged under the auspicious premise of bringing Jack and Caroline together. It was the Senator’s way of welcoming his daughter into the world where proper introduction into the working principles of the world needed to be passed down. Politics was a dirty business, and he had no interest in encouraging his daughter to follow in his footsteps. The side benefits of life in politics, the public relations aspect of finding the most acceptable value proposition to a majority of constituents, was something he wanted his daughter to learn.
In the Senator’s mind, the difference between a successful life and pursuit of happiness depends on one’s ability to form the right kind of allies. In initiating the dinner idea without much consideration for how it might be construed by those around him was an extension of this belief. It never hurts to know people in the right places. And Jack Reiner was a celebrated young man of exceptional accomplishments. The kind of man destined for rising above the average and establishing an outlier phenomenon. If nothing else, the Senator had hoped some of the drive and passion could rub off on his daughter, who he wished was a little more assertive in her life.
It was also the reality of celebrity and high reputation for the affection of the public that no single event was set up to serve a single purpose. A dinner could be an opportunity to kill ten birds with one-half of a stone. There is the owner to ingratiate with a welcome attention, diners to impress with the touch of a commoner, media personalities to give a privileged scoop, the guests to mesmerize with personalized attention, and any number of incidental and planned aspirations. The post-graduation dinner was no different.
The Senator had been in unusually jovial mood contrary the expectation of the staff around him expecting a depressive episode in light of Alyson Crawford’s passing. Alex suspected it had to do with Nancy Smith, and hoped that it would last. He didn’t think much of it when the Senator indicated it was to be a private dinner with his Caroline. A father was entitled to celebrate his daughter’s accomplishment any which way he deemed appropriate. It wasn’t the first time that despite Alex’s keen interest in being considered as part of the family, he was just an employee.
Even when he found out Jack Reiner was invited to the dinner, Alex had chocked it up to the Senator’s interest for multi-tasking. That was until he got a call from the Senator inquiring about the status of his investigation into the Crawford case. It had seemed like the most natural conversation when the Senator casually mentioned that he was mightily impressed with the fine young man, Jack Reiner. That deed hadn’t raised any kind of suspicion until the Senator said that he had left the two to have more time together.
In a singular moment, Alex was on the receiving end of a confidence talk from his boss about how he had set up his daughter with likely the most eligible bachelor without intending to do it. The Senator had spoken with pride about his instinct about people.
“Just to be sure, look into this fellow, will you? See if there is anything we need to be aware of.” The Senator had instructed in simple terms.
Alex had allowed himself to express an opinion he thought might dissuade the Senator’s enthusiasm. “First pass impression from what I know is he is considered to be a playboy. A player of sorts known for his notorious womanizing ways.”
It wouldn’t take a long time for Alex to discover that first pass impression had the opposite effect on the Senator. Instead of discouragement, the Senator had found kinship with the young man in his invigorated sense of manhood after the weekend of ceaseless gamesmanship with Nancy, who challenged him and had him perform at his most epic level.
Back at the restaurant, Jack and Caroline were left alone pondering the intention of the Senator and what their second encounter might mean for their future. The food was an impressive Asian fusion cuisine, shared with the occasional silent meditation of the taste, texture, structure, and composition of the authentic ingredients. Caroline had keenly observed Jack’s rendering of expert opinion about the technicality of how the dishes were executed.
“If I hadn’t known, I would have thought you were a food critic,” Caroline said, not making any extra effort at hiding how impressed she was with him. She was certain there had to be some truths about him she could decipher without feeling like a novice with no worldly perception. In spite of the aloofness, withdrawn and dispassionate engagement with the surrounding, his reticence about jumping on the very opportunity she was amply providing to him, she hoped there was still a man driven by the same desire to exalt his manly needs.
“What gives you confidence that I am not? For all you know I could be one of those critics writing make or break reviews.”
“Highly unlikely,” Caroline countered. “Food critics are like celebrities nowadays, aren’t they? They are as much part of the entertainment-industrial-complex as anyone else in the media.”
Jack Reiner smiled on hearing this forceful argument backed by a sweeping generalization. In his own few years of fully living in the world outside of academia, he has come to think industrial-complexes are neat tricks of cajoling young impressionable students into believing the world is governed by massive conspiracies. That the world, in its messy brokenness, couldn’t be constituted from random collisions of self-interest.
“Entertainment-industrial-complex, huh? Am I a part of it I wonder?” He asked casually.
“In a way you are. Each time you step into the tee box to strike the ball, you probably make more than a public school teacher’s yearly salary. Without having to shoulder the pain of rectifying society’s inequities with limited resources and the high expectation of performing magic in transforming the life of students which the system has left behind. The difference is you provide entertainment and escape. The overworked teacher builds the future. Can’t you see how screwed up it is?”
Caroline surprised herself with what felt like extreme and defensive passion for a nebulous cause. She hadn’t considered whether it would be offensive to Jack or not. Now that she spoke her mind unreservedly, and seeing the way he looked at her, she feared she might have overstepped a line. She wished her father hadn’t left her alone with him.
The simplicity of their conversation, kisses, and cuddling of the night before could have lasted her a long time without prematurely ending any possibility of a repeat encounter. And just as quickly she realized she might be trying to sabotage herself. Some kind of preemptive subconscious effort at stopping the affair between them before it became a possibility. She remembered a discussion in her Psychology class on personality. In all her musings, she couldn’t shake off the impression that he knew more about her than she did about him.
“I wouldn’t have taken you to be a leftist,” Jack said. Although her comment had struck him as naive, he had admired the passion behind it. Such kind of passion doesn’t exist in an isolated silo without being surrounded by other commensurate feelings characterizing fundamental goodness. He had hoped and imagined Caroline was more informed and compassionate than the average girl he had come across. More so for a girl coming from a place of privilege.
“It is not a left-right issue. It is about fairness. How perverse incentives create a reward system that doesn’t always go with the interest of society as a whole. I mean, it is great you are a top golfer and you are rewarded handsomely for it. Maybe deservedly so. It would also be great if the work of those who have given responsibility for educating the next generation, or caring for the elderly and less fortunate, was valued as much. Not everything has to be about entertainment…”
“I agree with you completely,” Jack said, surprising her with an unqualified endorsement of her half-baked ideas of how a society should be structured.
“Are you making fun of me? I mean, I don’t wanna come across as being militant about it.”
“I love that you think about these important issues. I love that you care deeply about the less fortunate. I love that you are not afraid to express your opinions.” Jack kept ticking through the list he had been accumulating in his mind. He had felt the odd sensation that, as he stood at the lectern to give his address to the graduating class, he was talking to her. In that same moment, he had worried that he might come across as being too preachy, which he feared would create more distance between them. It delighted him immensely that those were irrational fears. Caroline McKenzie was not the meandering millennial lost in the chaos of the world. He was learning first hand otherwise, and he loved the revelation. That explained his startling confession about the things he loved about her.
Caroline listened to him with her heart opening with each deliberate utterance of love. With their eyes locked in each other’s gaze, and reminiscing about the many first kisses of the night before. Would she live with herself if she didn’t seize the opportunity to get to know more about him and what other things he might love about her? Would she be the one to write one of those missed encounters essays desperately hoping for a second chance?
“Can we continue this discussion?” Caroline said after the manager thanked them for coming to his small restaurant and asked to take a picture with Jack before they left.
“I would love to,” Jack said. “That is another thing I love about people. Being upfront about their intentions.” When that second sentence was first conceived in his mind, it referenced to what he loved about Caroline. He feared he might be coming on too strong and decided to change it last second.
Caroline hadn’t noticed the distinction and was happy to set up their continuing conversation. She wasn’t going to let the moment pass and live with regret. All the pre-planned graduation party activities had been canceled because of Alyson’s passing, and she wasn’t about to sit in her room and wallow with Ella about their terrible fortune.
They walked out of the restaurant into the waiting black SUV left behind to chauffeur Caroline. She signaled to the security detail to take them to her home and hopped inside holding Jack’s hand at the last second and pulling him behind her.
