Mateo and Olimpia were in St. Louis on one of their business trips. There
was an issue with the booking, which was forcing them into a single room
with a single bed. It was no coincidence that all of the hotels were booked
up this week. They weren’t the only game in this town right now. Every
ridesourcing company was hoping to strike a deal with St. Louis Metro
Transit. They were looking to expand their service to multiple outlying
areas, but found the project to be cost-prohibitive on their own. One of the
bus drivers moonlighted as a driver for Tractus Rides, and suggested they
form some sort of partnership. It was a last mile program, which could help
thousands get to their destinations at lower cost than if they had to drive
themselves, or use a ridesharing service alone. The executives actually
thought it was a good idea, but they didn’t just want to close themselves up
to options. Everyone was going to get a shot to pitch their idea. This would
be a huge opportunity for RideSauce. While St. Louis fell under Mateo’s
purview, he wasn’t in charge of the negotiations, because that was well
above his paygrade. If they managed to secure something here, there was a
chance that RideSauce would make similar deals in other cities.
Only the higher ups for RideSource were here, but Tractus went a different
direction. They decided to secure rooms for their local drivers as well,
reportedly to show their enthusiasm for the project, but clearly just to
make themselves look stronger. They took all the hotel rooms just so they
could walk around with their big swingin’ wieners, and that was annoying.
There was nothing that the front desk agent could do, so Mateo was gonna
have to swallow his pride, and speak to his archrival. “Pacey,” he greeted
with an insincere nod.
“Matthew, what a pleasant surprise.” Pacey Henricksen was essentially
Mateo’s equivalent for Tractus in the central midwest, though not exactly.
Their organization was structured differently, so he managed more cities,
and other divisions in those cities. RideSauce focused on ridesourcing, but
Tractus was also in delivery and limousine services. And he knew that Mateo
would be here, obviously.
“You took all the rooms.”
Pacey breathed in deeply through his nose and nodded. “We need them.”
“This is a stunt.”
“This is all a stunt,” Pacey argued. “That’s what we’re doing here. How we
appear to the client is what matters most.”
“What we can provide to the client is what matters in our eyes,” Mateo
countered. “They’ll see that.” He wasn’t really here to get in a fight, but
he couldn’t help it.
“We’re bigger, and they need to know how much better we’ll be at scaling
operations.”
“Your other divisions are irrelevant. The bus riders aren’t going to be
getting in any limos.”
“They might if they pay a premium,” Pacey reasoned.
Mateo laughed. “They’re bus riders,” Mateo emphasized. “They don’t
pay premiums. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“We’ll see. Did you need something?”
“We need one of your rooms. They overbooked, so now we’re stuck with one
between the two of us.”
Pacey looked over Mateo’s shoulder, at Olimpia. “I don’t see the problem.”
“Put your tongue back in your mouth, you’re not her type.”
“What’s her type?”
“Decent people,” Mateo answered.
Pacey shrugged. “I’m sure she would make an exception.”
“She and I are professionals. You might look into it. Until then, what do I
need to do to get one of your rooms?”
Pacey grimaced. “You see, if I give you a room, I’ll be taking it away from
someone else, which means they’ll be pairing up instead. That doesn’t really
solve the problem, it just shifts it to someone else. You have more
experience with that than I do.”
Ugh. Of course he would bring that up again. He always found a way whenever
they ran into each other. “For the last time, that driver was not in my
area. Just because he was supposed to drive the rider from Sioux Falls to
Sioux City doesn’t mean he worked for me. He was registered in South Dakota.
I had nothing to do with the failed background check.”
“Well, it speaks to how flippant your company is with safety and security,”
Pacey decided.
“The driver worked for you too, he passed your background check just
as easily, so don’t give me that bullshit. And unlike me, South Dakota
is in your jurisdiction.”
“Well, he wasn’t working for us that night, which is why the judge
withheld it as evidence.”
Mateo had no retort, and it was a distraction anyway. “There are only two of
us, and as her superior, it would be inappropriate for us to share a room.
Pacey. Please. You must know of two people who can bunk up.”
Pacey looked away in thought. “Well...there’s this one driver that
I’ve been seeing. I suppose that she and I could share. Your little
assistant could sleep in her room instead. We wouldn’t even have to
involve the hotel. We’ll just give her a keycard. But if she takes anything
from the mini-bar, you’re paying for it.”
“She never would,” Mateo explained. “I’ll ask her if she’s okay with it.”
“Lovely,” Pacey said. “Always glad to assist a colleague.”
Mateo stepped over to talk to Olimpia, who was receptive to the idea. She
wasn’t entirely convinced that the original situation was a problem that
needed to be fixed, but she didn’t argue. She wouldn’t, though. He needed to
get better at reading her, and recognizing that he’s her boss, and that she
wouldn’t want to antagonize him. As long as Pacey’s companion stayed in his
room, instead of going back to her own, Olimpia should be fine. That wasn’t
what happened, though, and they should have known.
“They got in a big fight apparently,” Olimpia said at Mateo’s doorway.
“Come on in,” he said, stepping away.
She rolled her suitcase inside. “She was telling me about it, but I’ve
become pretty good at tuning people out. I know what they want to hear when
I’m pretending to listen actively, based on tone and pauses in their speech,
so I don’t have to absorb the information. I’m sure it was very banal and
meaningless. The fact is, she wanted her room back, and I didn’t want to
stick around. She said she was fine sharing it with me, because I seemed
cool, but I really don’t wanna do that.” She looked around this room. “I was
hoping there was a couch, errr...”
“No, the company’s very frugal. I typically don’t care. It doesn’t need to
be big, just clean. But you can sleep in the bed, and I’ll be in the tub.”
“I know you, Mateo, you shower at night. I can tell that you already have.
The tub is wet.”
He shrugged. “I always bring a swimsuit. I’ll sleep in that.”
“That’s silly. We can share, it’ll be fine.”
Mateo looked down at the bed. “It’s a full, not even a queen. Pacey must
have done that on purpose as further punishment.”
“Pacey?” she questioned. “How would he have any control over what room you
were assigned?”
Mateo blinked. “I don’t know, how would he?”
Olimpia blinked back. “Can you sleep next to a woman without having sex with
her?”
“Yeah, can you? Vice versa, that is?”
She hesitated to answer.
“Olimpia, it’s a simple—” Wait...
She still couldn’t answer, and she didn’t try to backpedal.
No, he couldn’t sleep in the bed with her. He couldn’t even sleep in the
tub. He had to get out of here entirely. “You take the bed, I’m gonna hail a
RideSauce Hot. They’re almost always SUVs, so I should be able to sleep in
the back.”
“That’ll cost you a fortune.”
“Not if we don’t go anywhere,” he contended. “I’ll pay under the table.”
“That is not a service that our company offers.”
“No, but...I’m the boss. I’m sure whoever it is will say yes. That’s the
difference between us and Tractus. The drivers know who I am. Nobody who
works for Pacey could pick him out of a line up.”
“Mateo, it’ll be fine. I’m not saying that I won’t be able to handle it. I
just want to be honest about my feelings.”
“I appreciate that. It would have been real easy for you to say nothing, and
let it happen. But I have to nip this in the bud. You’re my employee, and
I’m married.”
“Right, which is why I’ll get over it.”
“It’s too complicated. Things are different out there.” He pivoted, and
started to gaze out the window at the stars. What did they have to do
with anything?
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know.” Mateo’s phone rang. It was Leona. “Hey, I’m about to go to
bed.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing. What would be wrong?”
“I just had this feeling that you’re upset about something. I can’t
explain it.”
“Things have gotten a little bit awkward with the hotel rooms, but we’re
working it out. I think you just get worried about me when I’m gone.”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Oh, hold on. I’m getting another call.” He switched over without even
bothering to see who it was. “Hello?”
“Mateo. This is Angela. Is everything okay?”
“Angela? My neighbor? Why would you think there’s something wrong?”
“Marie and I just started getting this weird feeling.”
A text came in. It was Ramses. Yu ight?
What the hell was going on?
They heard a series of beeps at the door just before it opened. Pacey walked
in. He looked disappointed. “I thought you three had an understanding, but
it looks like the feelings are a little more complicated, so this whole
hotel room gambit isn’t gonna get you where you need to be.”
“What are you talking about?” Mateo demanded to know. “How do you even have
a key to get in this room?”
Pacey looked back at the door, and then back to Mateo. “What room?”
“I’m so confused.” Mateo sat down on the edge of the bed, and buried his
face in his hands.”
“I know,” Pacey said. “I messed up. I was trying to respect your privacy by
only extracting the memories and knowledge that I needed to set up a
plausible scenario, but it wasn’t enough. I’m afraid, in order to keep you
here, I’m gonna have to go deeper.”
“You’re not making any sense,” Mateo argued.
“I know, and you won’t remember any of this anyway. You and Olimpia will
have had sex tonight. That’s how you’ll remember it, and you will have
already told Leona about it by the time you wake up. In fact, it will have
been weeks ago. She will be fine, and the three of you will move forward
with your relationship. Unfortunately, in order to make this work, you’re
gonna have to lose the transit contract. I’ll become a weaker antagonist if
you don’t.”
Actually, this was starting to make sense. Mateo’s memories were
resurfacing. None of this was real. This wasn’t his life. This wasn’t any of
their lives. “I know you. You met Leona before. She ran into you in the ka—”
Mateo was nervous. He had never been on a date with two women before. Well,
there was that one time, but that was more of a double date where his
girlfriend’s friend’s boyfriend flaked out on her. He had never been
interested in that other girl. He was interested in Olimpia, and as
fate would have it, Leona was interested in her too. She seemed to
like them both. This might even go okay. But a first date was a first date,
and those were stressful no matter what.
“Are you ready?” Leona asked. “I just need to pick a pair of shoes.”
“Wow. You look beautiful in that.”
“It’ll look better on the floor,” she joked. “Ah, come on, I’m tryna lighten
the mood.”
“Is this weird? This seems weird. Maybe we shouldn’t do this.”
“It’s almost the 26th century,” Leona began. “Polyamory is in.”
“I know, but...”
“Don’t shoot yourself in the foot. Two hot chicks are into you. Just let it
happen. If things get messy in the future, we’ll clean it up. No one’s life
is gonna get ruined.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“You and I have been through worse,” Leona claimed.
“We’ll see about that.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “But I trust in
your judgment. And I love you.”
“Were I you,” she said as he was walking out of the room.
“Were you me what?”
She blinked. “Huh. I don’t know. It’s an idiom, though, isn’t it?”
He shook his head. “No, it isn’t.” But was it?
