Best Men

The Cardinal And The Jack Coffee Shop - Cambridge, Massachusetts

On a Tuesday after 10 a.m., Eve spotted Ben Mason and Lisa Tanaka entering the shop. 

She thought this was slightly off since both were early birds on work days. They must have taken a day off.  

The boss waved off the waitress and told her she "would take care of the table."

The newbie waitress walked away a little miffed because she needed the tip. 

Eduardo calmed her down and explained that there were certain customers "the boss" liked to handle, and she would take care of them and her.

She walked up to Mason and noticed that Lisa was not dressed FBIish, so she said, "It looks like you two have a day off. Are you going somewhere fun?"

Ben smiled at Lisa, who smiled back at him and nodded her head.

Mason started with, "Eve, we are going to be parents."

Crowder yelped a bit as she poured coffee and said, "Oh my god" "This is great news." "Congratulations"

"We just found out last week and are going to the OB/GYN today to hear about the whole process." "She said, "I guess we figured out the first part of the process."

Ben, Lisa, and Evie all started laughing.

Ben then added, "We are going to get married."  

She was ecstatic for both of them and asked, "If it would be local or somewhere else?" 

Lisa answered, "We are not sure about that yet, but there is one thing we are sure of."  She looked at Ben, and he said, "Of course, I want Allston to be my best man."

"Well, he's on one of his business trips, and I don't quite know when he's coming back." "Do you want to ask him, or do you want me to let him know?"

"I was going to text him today. I'll ask him Ben said."

"This is fantastic news, and I am so happy for you. Breakfast is on the house.

Eve, Ben, and Tanaka chit-chatted during breakfast, and then the two got up and left. They joked and laughed the whole way out the door, and she was happy for them.

Eve went to the register, pulled out two twenty-dollar bills, handed them to the waitress whose table she had just taken over, and added that she thought she saw the gentleman leave her a tip on the table as well."

Inside her little office, she petted Tango, who thumped his tail on the floor and rolled over for a belly rub.

She started to cry, just a little at first and then more than a little. Tango sat up and put his head on Eve's lap.

Everything that was going on with Tanaka and Ben was what she desired for herself and Allston. Was it ever going to happen? Eve thought about their relationship and how everything felt right to her. She knew that Allston had been married. Was he reluctant about her or marriage in general?

He wasn't around to answer these questions, making the rest of the day bearish.

She hugged Tango, and he started thumping his tail on the floor again. 

When he gets home, we will talk, she thought.

Tijuana Mexico - The Agapov Call Center

Troy Manolo was rewriting a Kaluga, Russia, call center script. 

That center specializes in social media donation cash extraction.  

A donation campaign is set up in a social media account, which resembles legal donation appeal sites.  

The target is always a person with over two thousand friends or followers, and the only information the group needs is login information, which was extracted by another call center in Barcelona that matched a person's social login to his email logins.

The appeal is then placed on someone's social media account, and the email that goes out to the owner about the appeal and log-in is deleted from the email account.

During the span of 24 hours, the appeal posting collects donations for medical treatments and requests cash for medical and animal charities.

Because the posting is not real, the donors who are just doing good deeds don't think twice about possibly getting ripped off.

The next day, the Kaluga call center strips each credit card of available cash, and then the team goes back in and deletes the donation appeal. The account owner doesn't know that their site was used to steal from their friends.

The Kaluga call center is busy, and this scam generates about four million dollars weekly for the Agapov Organization.

Troy was creating a campaign to aid abused chihuahuas when his boss came over with a clipboard to talk to him. He sat next to Troy and placed the clipboard on the desk.

"Your application is impressive. You have a long history of client service with large companies."  "My boss is asking for clarification about something."

"How do you say... There is a gap between the last job and our job, four years." 

"I must be honest, Anatoly; four years is a long time, which explains why I must work in Mexico instead of the U.S."

"I was in prison for four years."

"I had a long-term scam where I would sign people  up for driveway paving, take half the money upfront, and never show up to do the job."

Anatoly laughed and said "Is good training for work here!"

"I can't get a job with a prison record, so I heard about this and checked it out."

I make decent money here." "I do what you ask me to do."

Anatoly clapped Troy on the back, picked up his clipboard, and headed for his office.

Troy wondered if he would get the chance to go to Barcelona.

Saturday Morning - Santa Barbara, California The Home of Chuck Fontaine - Unit Director USP Lompoc, Second Base On The Softball Team

The kid swore to himself as he unloaded ten cases of Lite Beer and placed them on the front porch of the yellow Spanish-style house.

He rang the Ring Doorbell and announced himself as a "Food Dash" Delivery Driver. A male voice came from the device's speaker, saying, "I'll be right there."

The kid stood there sweating from bringing all the beer to the front porch.

Chuck came out saying, "What's this? It looks like 10 cases of beer."

"The driver said I need to ID you before I can leave this with you."

"Fontaine handed his license to the delivery guy, who took a photo of the card."

He was putting his ID back in his wallet and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. "Did Jake tip you" 

"Yes, she was generous."

Excellent,  here's an extra twenty for you. Can you please put those in the garage? "I'm late for my tee time unless I leave now."

Chuck opened one garage door and pulled out of the driveway in his Ford F150. He was mad at a layer of bureaucracy at the job above him and was looking forward to slamming the balls extra hard today. 

The Secret Santa Gift he got last year was a dozen Titleists with his boss's picture on them. It was time to break those bad boys out.

When the kid brought the beer into the garage, he was amazed that one whole wall was stacked 6 feet across with beer.

A lot of people owed Chuck favors.