Chapter 3: The Girlfriend

The next afternoon found Scott relaxing on a sun lounger by the side of the pool, beer in one hand and a small laptop in the other. He had been fretting over Thunderbird 1's turbo-jet turbines and had reasoned that, if he was going to spend several hours pouring over technical read-outs, he might as well do it in the sunshine bathing Tracy Island which was preferable to a darkened hangar. In the background was the sound of Virgil getting in a few lengths up and down the pool.

Scott had only been studying the data for an hour when he sat up with a broad smile. "YESSS!" He punched his arm in the air. The solving of the mysterious fluctuations in power a few minutes after take-off could be narrowed down to either one of two relatively simple solutions. Once he had shown Brains it wouldn't take them long to fix it. Scott took another swig of beer. He just wished that solving the problem of setting himself up with a girlfriend was as simple to fix. A broken Thunderbird was easy compared to a broken love life.

There was a gentle purring sound from the poolside vid phone indicating that a call from off the Island was trying to get through. Scott ignored it, still wrapped up in his thoughts. Virgil, who was just heaving himself out of the pool, glanced across at Scott.

"I'll get that, then," he muttered, wondering just how many months it had taken after moving to Tracy Island for him and Scott to start acting like an old married couple. He flicked the switch on the vid phone. A woman appeared on the screen.

"Oooh, Virgil, nice pecs!"

Virgil grinned. "Hi, Lisa. Scott's right here." He turned. "Hey, Scott, it's the lovely Lisa for you." Scott looked up, put down his laptop, and went over to the vid phone. He also smiled at the sight of Lisa.

"Hi, Scott," she said with a fond expression on her face. Lisa and Scott had been great friends at Yale. They had been in all the same classes and Scott would have liked to have made romantic overtures in her direction but Lisa had spent her whole time at college engaged to her high school sweet-heart Dan and Scott had contented himself with friendship.

"Hi Lisa, how are you?"

"I'm fine. You?"

"Never better. What can I do for you?"

"I was calling to ask a favour," replied Lisa, cautiously.

"Go on."

"You know I help with fundraising for the Chicago Children's Memorial Hospital? Our annual ball and auction is taking place in a couple of months. I was hoping that either Gordon or Alan would be willing to donate something."

"Some Olympic swimming trunks or sweaty driving gloves, you mean?"

"You read my mind!"

"No problem, I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks, Scott. There's one more favour."

"And this is the tough one, right?" replied Scott, seeing the worried look on his friend's face.

"I was just hoping that you'd agree to be the guest of honour at the ball." Lisa saw Scott grimace. "Yeh, I know you hate that sort of thing but having one of the mysterious Tracy brothers will mean not only will we sell more tickets but we can jack up the price of them, too. All you have to do is be pleasant and make a short speech about why the Children's Hospital is a good cause. Please, Scott?"

"I really don't like talking about myself in public, you know that. Wouldn't you prefer Alan instead? He could tell a few car racing stories."

"I suppose…" replied Lisa uncertainly. "The thing was, I was wondering if you would also have time to have lunch with me while you were in Chicago?"

There was something in Lisa's tone that made Scott ask, "What about Dan?"

Lisa pulled a face. "He just got engaged to a model named Karine. Come on, Scott, it would be so great to see you again."

Scott failed to contain a happy smile. "It would be great to see you too. Email me the details."

After they had said their goodbyes, Scott switched the vid phone to standby and sat back.

"You look like the cat that's got the cream," commented Virgil.

Scott said nothing, lost in his thoughts again. But this time those thoughts were far from Thunderbird 1's turbine problems. Maybe he hadn't got the cream but there was a definite maybe on the girlfriend front. Then he remembered the dream. Hadn't he just been wishing for a love life before Lisa called? No, surely not. Pull yourself together, Scott.