Mac O'Brien, man of football talk mystery, planned that well, Caydance thought, remembering how concerned she had been about the awkward silences that might occur in the first meeting between her Dad and her boyfriend. Griff not only had played with many of the men who appeared on the bar-situated wide screen but also knew the Charger's quarterback, Tom Flick, who had played with the Huskies. Meanwhile, as the game progressed, her Dad had countered Griff's seldom-shared-with-her locker room/off the field tales with back stage stories about Raiders' coaches and management.

None of this beer-fueled collaborative color commentary was loud enough to be heard by the equally noisy neighboring tables, and until the game went into overtime, and an ominous quiet infused the bar, she had absorbed a lot about Griff’s former in the locker room/on the town life. Additionally, she thought, as she visualized the familiar walk up the hill to Strawberry Canyon, where Memorial Stadium was situated, that sports bar interlude had defused the pre-Big Game tension between a Stanford coach and a Cal Art History grad. Even in the intimacy of her studio, that tension had been apparent.