A loud, continuous honk rang through my apartment. I stuck my head out my living room window and screamed at what appeared to be a black-tinted car making that sound. "Shut up!"
Alex stuck his head out the back window and yelled, "hurry up!"
Alex kept his promise and showed up 10 minutes after I hung up on him. I slammed my window shut, grabbed my purse and jacket, and ran down my apartment steps mainly to stop the honking.
When I got to the car, I first got to the driver's side window and knocked on it. "Please, stop!" I said to the driver, who was undoubtedly doing as he was ordered. Finally, the noise stopped, and the car driver shrugged apologetically. I then moved toward the backseat and got into the car. Almost empty, besides Alex sitting on the far left looking up at me.
"Good morning?" It wasn't a greeting but a question.
"The best I've had in a while." I smiled sinisterly as I sat next to him, and the car started moving forward.
"Whatever," he said, looking down at his phone.
"No, not whatever. You ruined a perfectly good morning!" I screamed.
"I didn't give you a day off for that...." He snapped.
"Alex, can I ask you a question?"
"No."
"Why do you not want me dating or seeing other people?" I blatantly asked. I had had enough of the guessing game.
"Charlotte, what makes you think I am going to answer such a baseless accusation." He answered, well, non-answered, my question.
"Baseless. Okay, next time I am with Ben, and you call me, I will make you wait till we are done." I said.
"Yeah, do that. Sorry did I not let you guys finish?" He projected the same sinister smile I was displaying a few seconds ago.
"Do you want me to give you a play-by-play of everything we did today?" And that wiped the smile right off. The satisfaction I got from this was out of this world. My heart felt light and heavy at the same time, but I enjoyed it. So when he said nothing, I added, "I'll take that as a no, shall I?"
"No, go ahead. Tell me." He angrily said. "I bet you I can guess. I know you too well. You stopped whatever you were doing at my call and kicked him out. I'll guess one more thing. You let him do nothing more than kiss you."
"Sure, if that's what helps you sleep at night." I shrugged.
"Oh, you know what, and who helps me sleep at night? Unlike you, I have followed through." Now the smile was off my face. "Why do you hate it when I talk about my..." he cleared his throat. "Let's call it my extracurricular activities."
"Ugh, you are so disgusting." I rolled my eyes.
"Don't hate the player. Hate the game."
"I would if you ever let me play the game!" I shot back.
"You want to play the game with me?" Alex said, leaning his face a little toward me. I was caught off guard, so I didn't move back and just blinked at him. His familiar smell intensified, and I felt the endorphins release in my brain.
Once I shook off his effect, I chuckled. "What are you talking about?" I played dumb.
He cleared his throat again and moved away from me, not taking my bait. I wanted him to tell me what he meant. Since our kiss all those years ago, the conversation about us has always lingered. We drank, we kissed me, he walked out, and then it was like it never happened. Sure, there were days we flirted and got close to talking about it, but Alex always stopped before hitting that line.
***
If I hadn't entered this building knowing it was for work, I would have never known that it was a corporate building. In each room we passed, I saw a herd of people sitting around eating or drinking something and chatting. If a room didnt have a cackle of people lounging, it had people messing around and playing with a VR headset. The vibe was so different from LongD's corporate office. Elena, a tiny young thing, walked us around, giving us a tour of the 'think tank.' Though she and Alex mainly flirted while Alex avoided my glare. t
"And this right here is Dylan Kalpana's room." She pointed.
"I can see why you're so skinny. Do you walk all the guests around?" He said, looking her up and down. I rolled my eyes.
"Nope, you're the only one getting this special treatment." She flirted back. Apparently, she was eating all this up.
I knocked on the door and hoped Dylan could put an end to the nausea that was building up in my stomach.
When the door opened, a tall, lanky man with red hair and more freckles than stars in the sky appeared.
"Charlotte?" he questioned but still extended his hand for a shake.
"Hi, Dylan. Nice to put a face to the voice and long emails," I said, taking the hand. "This is my boss and CEO of LongD." I introduced Alex and got out of the way so the two men could greet each other.
"Interesting name choice for the app. Though my company can not judge, we are called the VCard." He joked with Alex.
"LongD and VCard. Seems like we are a match made in heaven."
"Let's put that to the test, shall we? Charlotte said you wanted to see a demo of what we have so far?
"Hey Dylan, yes. I emailed you and Matty a bit of what we are looking for. Essentially, we want to create a virtual environment for the users to meet. Matty did say he had a prototype for a date location. Would love to check it out if its demo is ready. Something that can impress Alex here."
"Sure. Matty said he got some good ideas after talking to you. So please follow me, and we'll show you what we have for ya'll."
Dylan led us back to one of the rooms where I thought nothing was happening, but I was so wrong. The men messing around seemed to be actually testing the VR headsets.
"There is a bug with the background, every time I turn right, there is a 2-second delay, and the screen goes black. Mary, put that down as a ticket item." A man whose face was fully submerged in the headset said.
"Matty, want to take a break from QA testing?" Dylan said, tapping Matty on the shoulder. He did as instructed, and we came face to face with Matty. He seemed still acclimated to the office lights as he blinked a few times before smiling at us.
"So you guys are potentially our new victims?" Matty said as he shook both our hands.
"We are hoping to be!" Alex said. "Show us what you got, boys!"
"Okay first thing, we will need to create an avatar for you guys. Matty, take pictures to upload." Dylan said to Matty, who took his phone out and clicked pictures of us. First, telling us to turn left, then right. He moved closer for some pictures and farther apart for others. Once done, he started on a small table on the far right of the room and worked on a pair of headsets. I looked at Matty curiously. He looked so ingrained, his tongue sticking out as he clicked on his phone and headsets simultaneously.
"He is going to use BlueTooth to upload the pictures, and our machine-learning algorithm, will train on your images and create a VR version of each of you," Dylan explained. I've been in tech for the last 8 years, and I still didn't fully know what some of those words meant.
Once Matty had completed his techy mumbo-jumbo, he handed the headsets to Dylan. Dylan first put the clunky white headset on Alex and then did the same for me. He also handed me a remote control for both my hands. They replicated a pair of hands, and I curled my own hands around the fake plastic fingers. Then they turned on the headsets, and my eyes went into shock. I didn't know what to look at first. It was no longer day but the night sky, and when I looked up, all I saw were stars and the moon. Shining, bright, and big. I knew it wasn't real, but I did have to keep reminding myself that I was in an office building in NYC. In front of me was a lake, affected by the moon's shine. It glittered and blinked as the water softly moved. I heard the sounds of the light splashing, just like I would in real life, and I felt relaxed, happy, and content.
"Okay, Charlotte, describe what you see?"
"Heaven." I truthfully answered.
"Same for you, I am guessing, Alex?"
"I don't know about heaven, but I am impressed by the details!" What a grouch.
"Okay, Alex, why don't you take one of the remote controls and give it a squeeze."
"Wow!" I yelped and excitedly shouted, "I felt that!" the remote fingers had slightly tightened around my right hand.
"Describe the squeeze Charlotte. On a scale from one to 10." Matty said.
"Eh, a 5."
"Come on, Alex, put some effort into that."
A few seconds later, I felt a harder squeeze. "Much better," I commented.
"Okay, it's your turn now, Charlotte." It felt awkward, but I tighten my grip on the same robotic hand holding me. For a few seconds, no one spoke.
"Alex?"
"Uh..." Alex cleared his throat. "Yeah. I felt that."
I felt the mechanical fingers grip my hand a little tighter, and a ping of hope fluttered inside me. Was Alex holding on tighter? Oh god, stop it, Charlotte, I said to myself. Now I was looking into a robotic hand glitching as Alex's repressed love for me or something.
"How cool is this?" Dylan asked, breaking me out of my insane thoughts.
"Yeah." Alex simply said.
"Okay, now Alex, turn to your right and Charlotte to your left."
I did what I was told, and I guess so did Alex because we both let out a scream at the same time. In front of me was Alex's face. It was huge and zoomed in so much that I could only see one of his eyes. Whatever I could see did not look right. The computer's recreation of Alex's face had gone awry. In front of me stood an animated man with hollow eyes and a facial expression that seemed delayed and alienlike. I let go of the remote control and snapped the headsets to get rid of that horrifying image. I looked to my actual left and saw Alex had done the same.
"Everything okay?" Dylan said.
"No, Dylan. Let's not do that again." I said. "I am going to have nightmares for days. The beach or whatever at night was great, but Alex's face...."
"What?!" Alex yelled. "What about my face?"
"It was the stuff made from my nightmares. In fact, I am sure I've had this exact nightmare where you are coming towards me with a freakishly large face."
"Now I am giving you nightmares?" Alex said, sounding genuinely angry.
"Alex, it was a joke," I said, taken aback by his overreaction.
"Right, your jokes are so funny." He dully stated.
"Matty, looks like the 2D re-creations are still glitching." Dylan ignored the weird energy we were creating and focused instead on the feedback he got from our session.
"Yeah, we are implementing the change fix for it tomorrow. So, if you want to help us test it tomorrow." Matty asked.
"Oh no, we are returning to New York today," I said.
"We will be here," Alex interjected.
"Alex?" I questioned.
"We will both be there," He said.
"That would be great, guys. Sorry Charlotte, I didn't mean to make you do more work tomorrow." Dylan said.
I gave him a small polite smile.
"Charlotte, can you set up a dinner for this fantastic team here tonight for all their hard work? Somewhere nice." Alex said to me, and I just nodded.
"Wow, great, thanks, guys!"
"Yeah, no worries, just tell Charlotte how big the table needs to be. She will take care of it. She always does." Alex looked at me, his face not kind, his tone demanding.
"Yeah, she always does," I said softly.
***
"Where exactly am I supposed to sleep tonight? You ripped me out of my house, and now what? There are only rooms left in motels here. Do you want me to sleep in a shady motel?" I screamed at Alex. We were outside the restaurant where we had just finished treating the team, who had all grabbed Ubers or cabs home, while Alex and I waited to figure out where to go for the night. I also had a whiskey, which I never drink, and it was like liquid courage. It gave me the energy to yell. Plus, it didn't help that the night was fun for everyone but me. I had a front-row show view of Alex flirting with Elena while Dylan and Matty beside me were talking about the latest bullshit Elon Musk was working on.
Alex ignored me as he tried to hail a cab, "forget this. Let me just call an Uber."
"To where?" I asked.
"Ahh here, this cab here, come on, let's go." He said, pointing to a colorful car driving towards us.
"Where?" I asked.
"To a hotel, not a shady motel. A respectable hotel. Happy?" Alex informed me as we got into the cab.
"Fine, as long as I get my own room and I don't have to pay for it," I said.
"Nope, just one room. The company needs to save money. Sorry, we are sharing. Got separate beds, though." I couldn't tell if he was joking.
"I'll sleep outside on the lobby couch." I protested.
"Why is sharing a room with me so awful for you?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Ben won't like it."
"I won't like it." I will read too much into it and obsess over it for years.
He said nothing for the rest of the ride. In fact, he didn't speak at all, not till we walked up to the front desk at the hotel.
"Hello, I have a room booked for the night. A suite. Name's Alex Tribecc," He said to the lady manning the desk.
She tapped several keys on her keyboard, swiped a couple of plastic key cards on a doohickey next to her, and handed them to Alex, "here you are, Mr. and Mrs. Tribecc, you're all set."
"He is not my Mr anything." I corrected her.
"Sorry about her. My wife is a little upset with me. Thank you for all your help. Have a good night."
Alex dragged me away from the nice but very mistaken lady and handed me the keys. I gave him a quizzical look. Was he really suggesting we spend the night together? I knew a suite was usually huge, and there was typically a couch, so maybe he would offer to sleep there while I got the bed.
"You want to share the room?" I sheepishly asked.
"No, Char, you made it very clear that you find the idea of us sharing the same air very, what you call it, stuff made from your nightmares." He snapped. "Still can't have you staying in a dodgy motel. Take the room. I don't need it tonight."
"I can take the couch. You take the bed. I can't have you roaming the streets of Philly all night." I tried and failed to joke. His face was stone cold. "Please, I feel bad. If anything, I can ask for another room, and you take your suite back. I am sure they have something."
"It's fine. All the rooms are booked out. I made other arrangements for the night." He sighed.
"Okay, thank you." I meekly accepted.
"Good night," he curtly said.
"I don't understand why you're so upset. I didn't mean you...the weird picture VR nonsense was just creepy. I didn't mean you gave me nightmares...I mean, you do, but I like them...I mean, the dreams I have about you aren't always nightmares. Some of them are..." oh god, what was I saying.
"Okay, tell me one of the dreams you liked about me?" He said, raising his eyebrows.
I sighed in defeat. There were no safe dreams I had about him that I could share. Most of them were either him calling to work while I was at my wedding or I was getting married to him. Instead of exchanging vows, he gave me tasks that needed to be done ASAP. Then there were the not-so-safe-for-work dreams I didn't want to share with him.
"I had a dream where you forgave me and took my offer to share the bed with me," I said and instantly regretted it.
"Bed?" He zeroed in on the wrong damn thing. "I thought you were going to take the couch."
"I misspoke. I'll take the couch."
"Right! Also, how rude do you think I am? I wouldn't make you sleep on the couch. I may be a demanding boss, but I take care of you!" He was mainly right. I haven't paid for a meal, traveling, or uber rides, he even paid for half my crappy apartment for the last five years.
"Why are you determined to fight with me today?" I sighed. "I said I am sorry. I would have quit ages ago if I really hated you. You're the only reason I stick around. You're also the reason I am miserable, but eight years and I am still here, right?" I explained. "So, come to bed with me?" I winked, hoping against hope he understood it was a joke. Thankfully he did and laughed.
"I can't." He simply said. "I am going to go see Elena."
Ah, silly rabbit, billionaire bosses are for hot young blondes with big titties and an almost invisible waistline. "Oh, right, of course. Where else would you be going? You're not you if you don't end the night with a bimbo." Poor girl, I didn't even know her and accused her of being a dumb idiot. Where in fact, I was the idiot, and Alex was the enemy.
"Do you want me to go up with you instead?" He asked, doing this weird thing with his eyes when it looked like he was zeroing in on me and reading my thoughts.
"No, definitely not. Stuff made from my nightmares, remember?" His face hardened. "Bye, Alex, have a nice night," I said and walked away.