MULLIGAN 9

Terri and I had met at an outing.  In Coronado.  Maybe the greatest place in the country.

"Lookin' good, good lookin'."  It wasn't my line.  It was directed at Terri as she and I had our initial meeting interrupted by an actor or model who seemed to have designs for Terri.  He might have even found her his equal.  She was that, as he said, good lookin'.

"Ericson, this is Manny, my brother.  Computer software."

"Ericson Chambers.  Glad to meet you."

"And your line of work?"

"I didn't say,  did I?"

"No, you didn't," acting parental.

"I didn't think I did."

"Oh, let's go, Eric.  There are lots of goodies with my name on them." 

"Nice meeting you, Manny."  It was one of those formality lies.

I had worked in the San Diego Charger front office for going on  three years.  It's funny, because that's about the only sport I didn't play.  Mainly because it conflicted with my Midwest high school golf season.  But I liked to think myself a student of the game.

But why I was hired was to investigate the possibilities of moving the franchise to Anaheim or even Chula Vista.  San Clemente was even a long shot, but viable option to the messy lease at Qualcom.

As soon as I revealed I was with the Chargers, favors were asked.  Luxury suites--"I've followed them since the days of Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, and I've never got to sit in one of those boxes," I was once told.  Even though Billie played for the Jets and not the Chargers.  Tickets, memorabilia, events.  I guess I had fielded  all the requests from all kinds.

Terri even got into the act,"What exactly do you do, Eric?"

I thought she had gone from Ericson to Eric pretty quickly, but hey.  "Tell me more about UCSD."

"Pre-med major graduating in May."

"Major?"

"Bios Logos.  Biology with a minor in Physiology."

"Brains to go with that beauty."

"Let's eat.  I'm famished."

"Let's get out of here."

"We just can't leave.  We have to be seen, you know."

"Believe me, as soon as you arrived, we were both seen."

I didn't know how prophetic my words were at the time.