The Hedonist (10 page)

“Well, ah, I guess so. It’s just that my mother and my girlfriend are in my house right now. I don’t really have the time to count thousands of dollars of drug money.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” Dr. Daniels assured him, “I’ll come over and count it for you.”

“Wait, what?” Shawn asked.

“Great, I’ll be at your place in 20 minutes!”

Dr. Daniels hung up before Shawn could say anything else. He was so tired he could hardly think anything over when Stacy and his mother joined him at the table.

“Who was that?” Stacy asked.

“Oh, that was Dr. Daniels,” Shawn told her. “That’s my boss, mom.”

“Why is she calling on a weekend?” Stacy asked.

“Good question,” his mother agreed. “Why is your boss calling you on the weekend?”

“Oh, well last Thursday I took a big heap of papers home with me and I accidentally took some of my boss’s papers. She said it’s urgent so she’s coming here to get her papers back.”

After receiving an answer, they changed topics and Shawn told his mother about his relationship with Stacy. He mentioned how they met at work and really enjoyed each other’s company.

“So when will you two be getting married?” his mother asked.

Even Stacy was taken aback by this inquiry.

“Well, we haven’t been together for very long,” Shawn told his mother. “So we’re taking things slow. Who knows what’s in our future?”

“I agree. But Shawn and I would make a great couple at the chapel, wouldn’t we?” Stacy smiled.

“You sure would,” his mother said as she patted Stacy on the shoulder.

Twenty minutes later, Dr. Daniels was ringing Shawn’s doorbell as warned. He let her in and introduced her to his mother. Already acquainted, Dr. Daniels shook hands with Stacy as well.

“Good to see you, Dr. Hines,” Dr. Daniels said.

“Nice to see you too.”

“Mom, Stacy,” Shawn said, grabbing their attention. “I’m going to show Dr. Daniels up stairs to where all of my paperwork is. It’ll just take a minute.”

Dr. Daniels followed Shawn upstairs and he took her into his bedroom. He closed the door behind him and kept his voice low.

“Alright, here’s the bag full of money,” he said as he pulled out a large duffel bag from underneath his bed. “From what I counted, it’s roughly thirty thousand and whatever else. So you get at least three thousand. I trust you to recount it and take what’s yours.”

“Yeah. I’ll be swift,” Dr. Daniels told him.

“Great, I don’t want Stacy and my mother wondering what’s going on so do this as quickly as you can.”  

Shawn left the bedroom and closed the door behind him. About ten minutes later, Dr. Daniels emerged with hefty pockets. She shook Shawn’s hand and was attempting to leave when Shawn’s mother asked if she wanted to stay. Dr. Daniels told her she would have loved to but had to leave due to prior commitments. So she left them alone and Shawn considered himself ‘back in the clear.’

              Once the lasagna was ready, they ate a delicious meal and continued to make small talk. Stacy and Francine were both incredibly pleased to spend so much time with Shawn. And Stacy was a woman who Francine did not mind sharing her son with. Stacy, meanwhile, loved when Francine brought up talks of long term relationships. All the while, Shawn was saying to himself, “Hell No!” but to his visitors he remained a gentleman.

              After they finished their dinner, Shawn’s mother was ready to hit the Ashmore bingo hall. She heard the city had a beautiful building where the senior citizens went to play bingo and she wouldn’t leave without visiting it. So Shawn drove them to the hall where his mother played bingo and a few slot machines for the remainder of the day. While he was happy to see his mother and grateful that she wasn’t being overly inquisitive, he was ready to return to his fast-paced life the moment she left. 

CHAPTER 9

A weekend with his mother and Stacy were perhaps the most grueling days he could recall in recent memory. He was constantly bored by their homemaker idealism. When his mother left, he gave her the biggest hug he could muster up and waved her goodbye. While his mother thought that this affection was due to spending the weekend with her, he was smiling due to her departure. He loved his mother to pieces but she treated him like a child and her inquisitive nature returned when she questioned him to the point of boredom.

He was just as grateful when Stacy left. After the weekend, her ex-husband returned her three children so Shawn was relieved to know that she would, once again, be totally occupied. He told Stacy that he would speak to her over the phone, and a phone call was about as intimate as he felt they could get.

On Tuesday, Shawn had a short meeting with Dr. Daniels. She told him that his services were required at the country club on Friday; it was the perfect time to sell the remaining drugs from his briefcase.

“I think there’s about $30,000 worth of blow left,” he told Dr. Daniels. “And then I’ll have to head back to my out-of-town vendor.”

“There’s this guy name Eric Pitts who’s an interested client,” Dr. Daniels told him, “I’ve never met him before but he wants to try out your stash.”

“If you’ve never met him, how do you know he’s safe to deal with?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. A friend of a friend recommended him and the cops wouldn’t dare bust the Wilmot Country Club.”

“I trust you,” Shawn nodded. “So I’ll see him on Friday.”

Before his next class began, Shawn contacted a few students- male and female- that he was close to. While he would spend Friday selling contraband at the Wilmot Country Club, he was planning a wild house party for Saturday. He wanted a party that would dwarf the previous outing he held at his place. That was nothing. This time he’d outdo himself ten-fold.

His young friends then texted other friends who texted a few other friends. They had to be discreet- he didn’t want the wrong person finding out about a party and ruining it for everyone. He left his two favorite girls, Lauren and Jessica, to pick up items for a debauched outing.

After class, they went to different novelty stores and purchased sex dolls, hockey sticks, a pong table, several piñatas, sombreros, and any items that glowed in the dark.

On Thursday, Shawn met with the three students that volunteered to serve as research assistants. The plan was to have them do the majority of the work. Shawn’s duties extended only to overseeing their research of his proposal outline. The topic was ‘drug use among college students’ and it was then narrowed down to “The Effects of Drugs in the Application of Academia.” The first student went over method’s analysis, the second student was going over hundreds of pages of scholarly reviews, and the third student was to gather other students to interview.

Shawn wanted the research to go by a bit quicker so he rounded up students from his classes. Before he began a lecture, or rather a class discussion, he offered his students, age 18-28, the chance to take part in research interviews as extra credit for his class. Nearly everyone in that age group wanted to be a part of the interview process. In order to give them enough time to be interviewed, he cancelled the following week’s classes. That announcement was followed by cheers.

Friday evening arrived speedily. Shawn dressed in his favorite dark sweater vest while Lauren starched his pinstripe pants and shirt. Before he left with his briefcase, he addressed Lauren and Jessica.

“Girls, I was wondering, ah…” he said before being cut off.

“You were wondering if we’d leave again this weekend?” Lauren asked.

“No, the exact opposite, in fact,” he told them to their sheer delight. “Feel free to leave for now but I’ll be back around eleven tonight. I’m going to bring a guest and we can have a little fun if you like.”

“That would be awesome,” Jessica said.

“Are we still on for the Saturday party?” Lauren asked.

“Hell yeah!” he exclaimed.

Shawn arrived at the Wilmot Country Club with his briefcase in one hand and his official Wilmot sports coat in the other. A valet greeted him and when he made it into the reception area, Shawn saw Michelle waving to him enthusiastically.

“Hi Michelle,” he greeted her as he approached the front desk.

“Hello Shawn. Or should I say, Dr. Stevens?” she smiled.

“Just Shawn, of course.”

“I had great time at your place last weekend.”

“Yeah, about that Michelle. I was wondering if you’d like to return?”

“Tonight?”

“Absolutely.”

“Do you have more blow in that briefcase?”

“I’ll make sure I’ll save you some,” he winked.

“Great! I’ll see you later tonight then.”

He made his way through the various halls and was exuberantly greeted with the title of doctor by all of his new clients and comrades. He mingled throughout the fancy billiards room and spotted Dr. Daniels an hour later in the wine tasting room. She and several other club members were popping open bottles of twenty and thirty year old wines from the south of France.

“Shawn!” she shouted.

“Hello Laura,” he waved in return.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Laura told the people around her, “This is Dr. Stevens. I’m sure some of you know him by now.”

Among the group at the table, Shawn recognized two of the people as clients who purchased contraband from him the previous weekend. They gleamed in a manner that suggested their patronage to Shawn’s illegal entrepreneurship was far from over. One of them passed him a glass of wine. He finished it in one gulp, raised them an eyebrow, and turned to leave.

“Shawn, wait!” Dr. Daniels called out.

He turned around and Dr. Daniels joined him outside of the wine tasting room.

“How much do you plan on selling tonight?” she asked.

“I don’t know. If I continue to charge twice the rate I paid for it, maybe another $30,000 tonight. And of course you’re going to get your ten percent. Fret not.”

“Great… And Shawn, don’t forget. The Wilmot Golf Tournament begins next Saturday, a week from tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I know,” he told her.

“That means you better stock pile on that white pony by then. The Tournament is going to bring in huge business.”

“Good call. I’ll leave on Friday, be back on Saturday.”

“Alright, now get to work.”

Shawn spent the next three or so hours discreetly meeting with various clients who were interested in the contents of his briefcase. He met them in various rooms across various halls on various floors. Each customer was just as satisfied as the last with the great quality of cocaine they purchased. Shawn knew he had them hooked as he stuffed the briefcase with hundreds of dollars each time it was opened. Before he knew it, the night’s end was nigh and he ran into Dr. Daniels once more when he entered the large banquet hall around ten o’clock.

“Hey, Shawn!” she asked drearily, “How’d things go?”

“Pretty great, I think I’ve seen everyone I need to see by now.”

“Oh yeah,” Dr. Daniels said, “There’s one more person. Remember I told you about this guy named Eric Pitts. He’s wearing a green shirt in the study room on the east wing.”

Shawn thanked her for the tip and quickly made it up to the east wing. When he got to the study room, he noticed a man of the same height as him wearing a dark green shirt, boots, a cowboy hat.

“Eric Pitts?” Shawn asked.

The man turned around.

“I’m Eric,” the man said while shaking Shawn’s hand. “I’m a banker ‘round these parts. Heard you got the best powder in town.”

“That’s right,” Shawn boasted.

“Well I’m looking for a nice line of toot!”

“I’ve got it right here,” Shawn said as he pointed to his briefcase.

“Ohh,” the man dressed in cowboy clothes told him, “I gotta be a bit more secretive than that. How ‘bout we meet in the restroom down the hall?”

Shawn agreed and they headed out of the study room and into a restroom along the east wing. Shawn entered the restroom first followed by Eric Pitts. Pitts then locked the door. While Shawn was getting ready to enter his combination and open the briefcase, Pitts pushed him up to the wall. Using his arm, he  pinned Shawn against the wall.

“What the fuck!?” Shawn said as he attempted to push the man’s arms away.

“Goddamn you!” Pitts growled. “You been takin’ my customers away from me! This is my town, I sell toot in here!”

“Apparently your shit is shit!” Shawn said angrily, still attempting to push Pitts off of him.

“This is your warning, you son of a bitch! Don’t be selling caine in my house!” Pitts yelled.

“Nobody cares about you or that baking soda you were selling, you dumbass,” Shawn said.

Pitts grabbed Shawn and pushed him away from the wall. He unlocked the door, made his exit, and slammed it behind him.

“Whoa,” is all Shawn thought as he looked into the mirror and adjusted his sweater vest. Thankfully, Pitts didn’t take his briefcase. So he picked it up, brushed himself off, and left the restroom while Pitts was nowhere to be found.

Shawn made his way back into the banquet hall where he found Dr. Daniels, drinking with a female friend.

“Laura, come here!” Shawn said, minutes after the incident.

Dr. Daniels turned around, got out of her seat located near the bar area, and approached Shawn.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Eric Pitts! Who the fuck is that?” Shawn asked. “That motherfucker pinned me against the wall and said this was his territory.”

“Wait, what?”

“He told me he use to sell shit here. Did you know that!?”

“I didn’t know! I’ve never purchased anything from him. I swear, Shawn, I had nothing to do with that. I didn’t know. Someone else told me about him.”

“At first I was thinking maybe you set me up,” Shawn said with a sign of relief.

“Hell no,” Dr. Daniels said. “I once heard about a guy who was selling white pony here a while back. It was known as ‘toot’ then. I never learned his name but I heard his product was shitty. I didn’t know it was the same guy.”

“Well he was a fucking maniac! He definitely had a few screws loose.”

“You’re still going to stay here, right? That guy sounds like nothing but bluff”