Expedition Pointe

By Dr. M

Expedition Pointe is a college bar and grill located between two colleges. Its about three miles from Lewis College, a liberal arts institution that offers degrees in many areas, including premed. I graduated from Lewis College two years ago with a degree in premed, and now Im at Clark College, located about five miles on the other side of Expedition Pointe. Clark College is a medical school that is associated with Lewis College and the local medical center. Both colleges are located east of St. Louis and hidden among many thick-wooded areas in the little community of Kathleen, Missouri. People dont even realize the colleges are present if they are not a part of the collegiate environment. Both schools have famous alumni that include presidents, political figures, actors, and actresses, as well as authors, doctors, and such. I feel fortunate to be among their alumni.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543441468

Dr. M

Dr. M graduated from the University of Georgia in 1996 with a degree in Educational Leadership. He has spent over45 years in education as a teacher and school principal. Dr. M is currently working with Early Intervention Students teaching reading to Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd Grades. He retired in 2003, but continues to work part-time. Working with children and helping them learn is a passion with him. Expedition Pointe is his first book. He hopes everyone enjoys reading it as much as he enjoyed writing it.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Dr. M.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2017911911

ISBN:             Hardcover                         978-1-5434-4144-4

                     Softcover                           978-1-5434-4145-1

                     eBook                                978-1-5434-4146-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/29/2017

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Contents

Prologue

Fall semester Junior Year

Chapter Six

Spring Semester Junior Year

Fall Semester Senior Year

Senior Year Spring Semester

Epilogue Five Years Later

Prologue

Liam

Expedition Pointe is a college bar and grill located between two colleges. It’s about three miles from Lewis College, a liberal arts institution that offers degrees in many areas including pre-med. I graduated from Lewis College two years ago with a degree in pre-med and now I’m at Clark College, located about five miles on the other side of Expedition Pointe. Clark College is a medical school that is associated with Lewis College and the local Medical Center. Both colleges are located east of St. Louis and hidden among many thick wooded areas in the little community of Kathleen, Missouri. People don’t even realize the colleges are present if they are not a part of the collegiate environment. Both schools have famous alumni that include presidents, political figures, actors and actresses, as well as authors, doctors, and such. I feel fortunate to be among their alumni.

Life before college had been tough for me. My dad died when I was very young. I was seven and my mom Laura Edwards was just twenty-four. She worked very hard while raising a young boy by herself. We had no real extended family to speak of in Kathleen. My mother’s parents lived in Oregon and we only saw them about once a year. Mom did the very best she could for us often having two jobs at a time. Her main job was being a nurse’s aide at the hospital. She also earned her license in real estate. When she sold a house, we thought we were rich. I knew that mom was saving money for my college education. So often she told me how proud she was of me and that she knew one day I would become a doctor and take care of her. I began working at a very early age. Work began with a paper route and moved up to errand boy and clerk for Mr. Parks in his hardware store. I mostly worked afternoons and weekends. I gave mom most of my earnings to pay bills, but I knew she was saving most of it for my college expenses.

At an early age, I learned that I really enjoyed playing tennis. I played as often as I could which was mostly evenings and Sundays. I was good enough to play for our high school team and actually got a small scholarship to Lewis College where I played for four years. After graduation, I got accepted into Clark College’s medical program and Lewis College offered me the school’s girl’s tennis coaching position. Dr. Truett, my former Anatomy teacher had gotten me an adjunct instructor position with Lewis College to teach Biology. I was truly excited because I needed the money to attend Clark. With the coaching position, my teaching Biology, and my new position as manager of Expedition Pointe, I was able to pay for my graduate studies.

Mom had provided some support while I was at Lewis, however, what little we had been able to save and my job at Expedition Pointe had mostly paid for my undergraduate schooling. I met Dr. Crawford, the head of the Medical School and owner of Expedition Pointe my freshman year, and he hired me to bus tables and clean. I couldn’t serve alcoholic beverages at that time because of my age, but was thankful for the work. I mostly cleaned tables, washed dishes and scrubbed floors. Now I was manager of the bar and making enough money to fund my graduate studies and support myself. Life was pretty good and then she entered Expedition Pointe.

Fall semester

Junior Year

Liam

It was the typical Fall return to Lewis and Clark Colleges. Classes at Lewis College started on Monday and all the students were getting settled into their dorms or apartments. The campus was abuzz with activities. Many were reacquainting themselves with old friends and comparing schedules and classes. There seemed to be activity everywhere as the busy Saturday brought families and students together on campus to prepare for the beginning of Fall Semester.

I now lived in Kathleen, Missouri and called it home. Mom moved into a small apartment near me a little over a year ago. She said she needed to be near me so she could help me out when I needed her. It has been great having her here. I am able to keep an eye on her and get a decent meal about once a week. We complimented each other without getting in each other’s way. She thinks that I don’t know that she is dating a professor in the English Department at Lewis College. Dr. Biddick is a wonderful gentleman who lost his wife to cancer about two years ago. I took three classes from Dr. Biddick as an undergraduate. He and mom met at Maggie’s, a fancy restaurant where mom is hostess. Poor Dr. Biddick had to eat there seven times before mom would agree to go on a date with him. She brought him to Expedition Pointe to see if I would approve. She was unaware that I had three classes with Dr. Biddick. Mom did very little dating when I was young and I am very happy for her. She and Dr. Biddick make a very attractive couple.

After a full day of settling into dorms and apartments, the college crowd started coming to Expedition Pointe. The Bar and Grill is the most famous college watering hole in Kathleen and all the college crowd learn fast that if you want good food and good friends, you manage to wander into Expedition Pointe. We were filling up fast and I recognized many of the returning faces. Several of my friends including Jim Demetriou, my freshman roommate from Lewis college was among the crowd. Jim had married Susan Simpson and stayed in Kathleen. He and I continue to do things together whenever he can get away. Jim is an accountant of some variety. I’m not sure I understand what he does as he makes a lot of money. Susan is a registered nurse and is constantly trying to set me up with one of her friends. I have entirely too much to do to even think about a relationship right now.

I’m looking at the front door when I notice four girls come in and take a table near the center of the room. I do something that is totally uncharacteristic for me. I come from around the bar and approach their table and hand them a menu. I ask them what they would like to drink. They say they will have four cosmopolitans. I look at her and she smiles at me. She is wearing an a-line skirt with a Kelly-green sweater that forms to her figure. She has thick blond hair that goes midway down her back. Her face lights up the room. I can hardly take my eyes off of her. She and her friends begin looking at the menus. I tell them that I will get their drinks and will send a waiter over. I quickly return with their drinks. As I’m putting the drinks on the table, Anne Murray comes on the Jukebox singing Could I have this dance. Again, completely out of character, I ask her to dance. She accepts. I take her hand and lead her to the dance floor. This is the first time I have been dancing on this floor in over three years. I put her right hand in my left and place it against my heart. I place my right hand around her waist and we begin to slowly dance. After just a few seconds, I release her right hand and place my left around her waist also. We continue to dance with both my arms around her waist and both her arms around my neck. During the entire dance, we look into each other’s eyes yet neither of us spoke. We danced until Anne Murray stopped singing. After the dance, I again did something I couldn’t believe. I leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips and thanked her for the dance. I then return her to the table and her friends and retreated behind the bar. Within minutes, a group of four College guys take up at their table and settle in for the evening. Several times during the evening, She and I lock eyes and she smiles. I feel completely shaken to my toes. I can’t ever remember a girl affecting me this way before. It’s like I’m possessed. I’m drinking in her beauty and can still smell her from the dance yet doing nothing to consummate some type of togetherness.

As it nears midnight, and she has given me many smiles, she and her friends get up to leave with the four guys that have entertained them all evening. Approaching the door, she turns one last time to me, smiles and mouths goodnight. I want to run after her, but realize I would only make a fool of myself. I can only hope that our paths will cross again.

De

My friends and I have spent all day getting our apartment straight and ready for school. Classes start on Monday and I know I will be completely immersed in my studies. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed and I have to work very hard to make good grades. My parents provided tutors at my junior college so my grades would allow me to get into the nursing program at Lewis College. It has always been my dream to become a nurse. I worked Summers at the local hospital doing candy stripe work. It allowed me to work with patients and nurses and I felt needed and the work was rewarding. Dad and Mom being doctors thought I might become a doctor also, but realized I didn’t have what it took to get in medical school. I know I’ve probably disappointed them, however they seem to accept me with my shortcomings.

After graduating from high school, I enrolled in a local junior college on a tennis scholarship. It seemed tennis was the one thing that I was good at. My scholarship and my parents’ tutors helped me graduate from junior college with a good GPA and another scholarship to Lewis College with acceptance into their nursing program got me where I am today. I am truly thankful because now the four girl musketeers are back together again. Susan Clark, Pam Stephens, Julia Meeks and I graduated from Leland High School together. We had spent twelve years together and had been insepartable. Two years ago, the team broke up pledging to come together again in two years. Susan and I would attend Brunswick Junior College in our hometown and then transfer to Lewis College. Pam and Julia were accepted at Lewis College and would wait for us and then all of us would rent an apartment and be together again. The plan had worked perfectly and now the four of us were setting up house for Fall semester. After spending all day Saturday setting up our apartment, we girls decided we needed to go out to eat and party a little. Pam and Julia suggested Expedition Pointe. They said it was the best and that all of the college crowd hung out there.

As we get to Expedition Pointe, you could tell that the place was popular and filling up. Entering the door, Julia spots a table near the center of the room and we rush to take it. I see him standing behind the bar. He comes from behind the bar with four menus and approaches our table. He smiles at me and asks us what we want to drink. We order four cosmopolitans. He continues to look at me and I continue to smile at him. I can’t remember anyone affecting me the way he has in such a short time. I feel like he and I have some kind of special bond and I don’t understand it. He turns to return to the bar to get our drinks and says he will send a waiter over. I’m was so disappointed because I thought he was going to be our waiter for the evening. I smile at him as he left to go get our drinks.

A few minutes later he returns with our drinks. I notice that a different song has started on the Juke Box and it is a slow song. He asks me to dance. I think I accepted because before I realized what was happening, I was on the dance floor with him and we were dancing. We had only been dancing briefly when he changed his hand positions to where they were around my waist and my arms were around his neck and we were looking into each other’ eyes. The song seemed to go on forever and yet it seemed to end so quickly without either one of us saying a word. As the song ended, he leaned down and I reached up and we kissed briefly and he took me back to my table, thanked me for the dance and returned back behind the bar. Thankfully my girlfriends had not witnessed what happened on the dance floor. I looked at where he stood behind the bar and smiled and he returned my smile. My heart was racing and I couldn’t understand what had happen in the last ten minutes.

About three minutes later, Pam’s boyfriend and three of his friends came into the bar and joined us at our table. Pan introduced the guys. They were Steve Jelks, Pam’s boyfriend, Carl Jacobs, Al Thomas, and Taylor Williams who Pam had decided to set me up with. As they pulled up chairs, Taylor sits beside me and asks if I would like another Cosmopolitan. They stayed with us the rest of the evening as we had dinner and consumed a couple more drinks. I kept glancing toward the bar looking for him. Each time our eyes met, I couldn’t help smiling at him and he would always return it. My whole body continued to be consumed by his presence in the room and I hardly heard anything that Taylor was saying to me all evening. We all got up to leave around midnight and the guys guided us out of the bar to the parking lot. As I was walking out the door, I turned around one last time and our eyes locked. I smiled and mouthed goodnight.

Upon returning to our apartment, we girls couldn’t sleep so we chatted about tonight’s events. Pam asked me what I thought about Taylor as he had told her he wanted to see me again. I didn’t know what to say because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. I didn’t really get to know Taylor when so much had happened in such a short time tonight. I was wondering who was the guy I had danced with and kissed and when and if I would ever see him again.

Liam

No college student likes an 8:00 a.m. class and my Biology class was scheduled as such five days a week. The lab was scheduled on Tuesday and Thursday at 2:00 p.m. Dr. Truett had help schedule my teaching class so it didn’t interfere with the classes that I needed to take at Clark College. I had spent all day Sunday preparing for class and making mental notes about what to tell the students in regard to the syllabus and the dates that material would be due. Doing everything that was currently on my plate was going to keep me busy the entire Fall semester. Teaching, taking my own classes, and managing The Expedition would not allow much time for anything else, yet all day Sunday as I was preparing for the coming week, she was constantly coming back to my mind. How could I have let her walk out of Expedition Pointe without