Chapter 76: Morning Jogging Interlude
"Hey, Ron, what are you doing here?" Max's face was full of surprise. "Why are you in this neighborhood?"
"As you can see, I'm jogging." Ron swung his arms and mimicked a running motion, but kept his feet planted without moving.
"Hey there, Chestnut." Caroline's horse recognized Ron, snorted, and nuzzled against him affectionately.
"If I remember right, you live in Pasadena. Don't tell me you ran all the way from there to downtown LA this early in the morning?" Max showed a look of sudden realization. "You're planning to hook up with Caroline, aren't you?"
Ron put his hand on Max's shoulder. "Why can't it be a hookup with you?"
"Me? How's that possible? I'm not some princess who fell from heaven."
Max's words inevitably carried a strong hint of bitterness. Ron leaned down and gently kissed the top of Max's head. She trembled slightly but didn't pull away. Ron thought this was a good start.
"I don't know how to explain this to you. I really was just out for a morning jog, and the route felt familiar as I was running." Ron said helplessly. "I've been staying at a hotel the past couple days, attending back-to-back events."
"Hotel?" Max's voice shot up. "Are you talking about the Marriott down the street?"
"Yeah," Ron replied, confused. At the same time, he had a vague sense of impending doom, but couldn't pinpoint why.
"Ron!" Max said angrily. "That's the freaking Marriott! Their buffet is legendary around here for being amazing! As long as you offer to take a girl there for dinner, none of the girls in this neighborhood would think twice about spending the night with you!
It's such an awesome place, and you've been eating there for two days, and you didn't even invite me! I thought we were tight!"
Ron finally realized what he'd done wrong.
Max was different from all the other girls he'd known. She was the type who'd get excited over the "George Foreman grill" in Caroline's place, let alone the Marriott buffet, which she'd always considered "fancy dining."
But even knowing that, he couldn't have brought Max along. On the first day, Ron had been taken to the Hollywood wrap party by Megan. Megan was the jealous type who always considered herself Ron's girlfriend. God knows what that woman would've done if she'd seen Max.
Ron looked at the furious Max, and suddenly got an idea. He hopped onto Chestnut's bare back and extended his hand to Max from above.
"Beautiful lady, may I have the honor of inviting you to breakfast as an apology? While the hotel breakfast isn't as epic as the evening buffet, the bacon and sausages should be pretty great, and I happen to have two breakfast vouchers."
Ron's room was a double, so having two breakfast vouchers wasn't surprising. Based on Ron's experience yesterday, the ham used for breakfast was prosciutto, which was definitely worth trying.
"It won't take too long, will it? I've got to get back to work soon." Max's expression softened a bit, mainly because Ron looked so damn hot riding bareback!
Bareback riding isn't something just anyone can pull off—it takes a really experienced rider. In American culture, it's also considered super masculine. However, Ron took advantage of her surprise and, while she was still gawking, grabbed Max's hand and pulled her onto the horse.
"It's gonna be a bumpy ride since there's no saddle, but it's just a short distance, so you'll be fine, right?"
"Hell yeah!" Max said confidently.
"Alright, let's go!"
Ron gave Chestnut's flank a gentle tap, and the smart horse immediately took off at a gallop down the street, quickly arriving back at the hotel entrance. Then, in front of the doorman's shocked stare, Ron dismounted like some Old West cowboy and helped Max down.
After that, breakfast and heading back to the room to "hang out" with Max seemed perfectly natural. If Max hadn't had work responsibilities, the two could've stayed at the hotel all day.
But there was no way around it. Even Ron's smooth talking couldn't convince Max to ditch her crappy job, so he had no choice but to let her go.
Just as Ron was about to take a nap, Howard called. "Ron, we've got a problem."
"What kind of problem?" Ron sat up in bed. "Didn't you say you could knock out this little gadget in one night?"
"It's all Raj's fault," Howard said, immediately throwing the Indian under the bus. "I totally overestimated his programming skills. That moron Raj can't even figure out the most basic flight controls..."
Before Howard could finish, Raj's angry protests came blasting through the phone.
A drone's flight control program? Ron didn't fully get it, but he knew that controlling the rotation speed of four rotors to achieve stable flight and free movement in all directions couldn't be simple.
Raj was just an astrophysicist, so it wasn't really his fault.
"Hang tight, I'm on my way," Ron said with a sigh. He got dressed, checked out, and drove to Caltech.
Half an hour later, in Howard's lab at Caltech, Ron saw a "prototype" sitting on a lab bench. "Prototype" was just Howard's fancy term for it. To Ron, it looked basically identical to the drones he'd seen in his previous life.
Ron, rubbing his head which was throbbing from their bickering, asked, "Okay, can one of you guys tell me what's going on?"
Raj nudged Howard.
"Um..." Howard had no choice but to fill Ron in. "As you can see, I've already finished all the mechanical design work—even the sensors and other components are installed. You could say it's basically a complete product now."
"So why can't it fly yet?"
"We need software—a flight control program to manage its flight. You get it? It's like..."
Ron cut off Howard's explanation. "I'm at least a Harvard grad. Even though I majored in liberal arts, I still understand basic concepts. So you're saying it just needs the right software to fly?"
Both scientists nodded in unison.
"Do you think Sheldon's skills are good enough to write this program?" Ron asked tentatively.
He knew that with Caltech's resources, there had to be plenty of people who could handle this job, but he just didn't want some stranger getting involved in his project.
However, the result was disappointing. The two thought about it and shook their heads.
(End of chapter)
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