by Jack Harbon
Mateo reminded himself not to get his hopes up too much. This could very well be the same situation with a different technique. Arthur might just want him for sex, and then after it happened, they’d go back to being strangers. Either way, that was going to be a problem for Future Mateo. With his brother glancing at him and smiling now that his attention was back on the movie, Mateo pulled Salome into his lap and rested his head on her tiny shoulder, enjoying this time with his family.
Maybe Amira was right. Maybe he should hang out with them more often.
3
WAITING IMPATIENTLY
When he wasn’t busting his ass at Lotion Potion, Mateo taught a small art class in one of the spare rooms of Mr. Estes’ supplies shop, Design Depot. He’d met the man a few years ago after having to pick up items for a school project in English, and ever since then, he’d become a regular at the store. He stopped by so often that Mr. Estes, or Ricky, as he preferred to be called, had offered him the job. His wife Valentina wasn’t able to teach the classes due to her pregnancy, and they needed someone to fill in. When Mateo found out that they usually had a minimum of ten kids that each paid twenty dollars a session, he jumped at the chance.
Most of the time, he was focused on helping his students become the next Van Gogh, but it was becoming increasingly hard to keep his concentration with Arthur texting him back every few minutes. He stood with his back to the class, quickly reading over the text. He replied, then forced himself to put his phone face down on the desk.
Lauren, one of the older girls, looked up from her canvas with her hand raised. “Mr. Mateo? Does this look alright?”
He crossed the room and moved around the canvas to get a better look at what she was painting. For someone so young, he was highly impressed with her understanding of color theory and depth perception.
“This is fantastic, Lauren! I really like that the dog is sleeping in her owner’s bed and the owner has to sleep in his dog’s bed,” he said.
She cracked a smile and he could practically hear the relief in her breath. He understood exactly where she was coming from. When he was thirteen, the last thing he’d wanted to hear was that his art didn’t make any sense.
That was the good thing about painting, he felt. Even when everyone else told him something looked weird or didn’t make sense, he didn’t have to listen. To him, owners and pets switching beds made sense. He’d even painted a father and his children, all made of candy, two nights ago, pleased with the double meaning of “sugar daddy.”
He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave a light squeeze. “Keep it up, okay? I can’t wait to see the final picture.”
She nodded and grinned widely, picking her paintbrush up once more. Mateo walked around the room quietly, smiling and congratulating the students each time they looked to him for confirmation that they were doing the right thing. His eyebrows went up high when he saw the work of one of his youngest students, Joel.
The boy had painted a night sky with incredible detail on the stars. He was positive, if the boy wanted to sell his art, he could make good money.
After five minutes of wandering behind the kids, he found himself back at the table and staring down at his phone. Without giving it a second thought, he picked it up and looked at his most recent message.
“How’s your class going? Any Rembrandts in the making?” Arthur had texted.
He smiled and sat on the top of his desk to type a response. “It’s going fantastic. We have a couple that are amazing, and the rest are great as well. What about you? I remember you said you were dealing with an error at work or something?”
After having talked to Arthur for nearly two weeks, Mateo had decided to do a little digging and find out more information about him. Arthur was the owner of a large entertainment company, Alainment Enterprise, and he had businesses in all of the major cities. The most profitable were his hotels and casinos, both of which Mateo had heard mentioned multiple times. His boss Pauline had even stayed at one of the hotels for her honeymoon three months prior.
“I actually just finished,” Arthur said. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“I’m proud of you,” Mateo replied, adding a small winking emoji to the end of his text. He glanced up at the clock on his phone, relieved that he didn’t have much longer until the class was over and he could get off of his feet.
“I’m proud of you as well. Kids are a handful, but you seem to be handling it well.”
“My parents would say it’s because I’m still a kid like them,” he said, rolling his eyes and smiling. Amira constantly referred to him as her little boy, even though he was a few months shy of being twenty-two. He was torn between still being babied by his mother and wanting to step out from her rules and experience things on his own. It was a limbo he’d never been prepared for—a growing pain he couldn’t come up with a remedy for.
“Hardly a kid. From the small talk we’ve made, it seems like you’ve got your head on straight. When I was your age, I acted like a complete ass,” Arthur said.
“Rich Kid Syndrome,” Mateo sent back.
“You’re not too far off, actually. The stories I could tell.”
Mateo took a bite of the granola bar on his desk before he replied. “I’d love to hear them sometime.”
Arthur sent a text back quickly, but just as Mateo went to read it, the small timer on his desk went off, a tiny chime playing softly. He turned it off and stood up, clapping his hands once. “Well, guys,” he said, looking around, “That’s it for today. You guys know the drill, let’s get these brushes cleaned up and all the supplies put away, okay?”
Like always, Mateo helped his students gather up all their supplies and take them to the sink, making sure they cleaned up as best they could. It was to be expected that they’d miss a few things here or there, but he still wanted them to be as thorough as possible. It took fifteen minutes to get all the paint put away and all the brushes cleaned and stored.
He leaned in to inspect one painting, sucking his teeth. “It looks like the paint is still drying on a lot of these, so I’m going to hold onto them until next week. Then you guys can take them home. Does that sound good?” They nodded in approval.
Out of everything, waiting with the kids until their parents came to pick them up took the longest. One or two would inevitably end up running late and laying it on thick how sorry they were for their tardiness. As always, he assured them that it was no big deal before giving his students a hug and sending them on their way.
When the last girl climbed into the back of her mother’s minivan, Mateo gave a wave and headed back inside. He let out a loud sigh of exhaustion. He wasn’t sure if it was more work dealing with customers at Lotion Potion or holding the attention of nearly fifteen kids for two and a half hours.
Mateo returned to the back room and collapsed in his chair, putting his feet up on the desk. He suddenly remembered the text from Arthur and grabbed his phone.
“I’d be more than happy to tell you about these stories over dinner.”
Mateo felt his face go warm. Up until that very moment, he’d never considered that this might be something worth exploring further. Arthur seemed more like a new friend than someone who’d want to go on a date with him.
The cautious side of Mateo was wary. He’d heard stories about young people going missing after meeting up with men online, and he had no immediate plans on being the next victim discussed on an episode of My Favorite Murder. The more rational side was less distrusting. Arthur Danby was a recognizable name. As long as he told Valerie and Rob where he was going, he chose a public place during the day, and he kept his pepper spray keychain on hand, the odds of anything dangerous happening were slim to none.
“I could maybe do dinner. Are you free tomorrow?” After church, Mateo’s Sundays were always clear.
Arthur replied a moment later. “Tomorrow sounds doable. If you’d like to pick the restaurant, let me know. Otherwise, I have a place in mind that you may enjoy.”
&
nbsp; “I’m not picky at all. You lead the way!”
“Perfect. I’ve got to head out for a while, but maybe tonight I can call you?” Arthur texted.
“I’ll be waiting impatiently.”
“Talk to you soon.”
Mateo was pleased with himself, and he jumped up from the chair, gathering his belongings and eating the last of his granola bar. As he walked to the door, he dialed Valerie’s number. She was the one to call when it came time to go shopping. If Mateo was going to meet with Arthur for the first time, he wanted to be seen in something stylish.
*
Mateo shuffled through the shirts in the dressing room, trying to decide which one he wanted to try on first. He hadn’t been shopping in a while and quickly realized he’d made the fatal mistake of picking out shirts he liked but couldn’t afford. To his displeasure, he had to sort each item he’d brought with him, tossing clothing that was too expensive into one pile and keeping the more affordable ones in another.
“Any day now,” Valerie said lightly.
“Hey, it takes time to look good,” Mateo retorted.
“There aren’t enough hours in the day for you, Matty.”
He laughed and pulled his shirt over his head. He replaced it with a cream-colored long sleeve shirt and one of the classier jackets he’d picked off the rack. He stepped out into the hallway where Valerie waited, looking to her for approval.
“Hm,” she said, tapping her chin and examining his outfit. She shook her head once. “Nope, I don’t like it. The jacket looks too formal. And unless you already have a pair of fancy slacks to go with it, you’ll have to buy those too.”
Mateo was glad he had someone like Valerie to keep him levelheaded. If he’d been shopping on his own, he might’ve gotten attached to the outfit and decided to splurge a little more to pick up a pair of pants that matched. Thankfully, she’d brought him down to reality and he quickly fell out of love with the outfit.
“I’ll try another,” he said, heading back into the dressing room.
The second outfit was much simpler. A simple pair of light straight-legged chinos and a striped short sleeve button-up. When he stepped out, Valerie narrowed her eyes and motioned for him to spin around. He gave her a show, letting her see every angle.
“I like this one a lot more,” she said, nodding. “I think there’s a better shirt out there, though. Hold on.” She hurried off into the store, and Mateo looked at himself in the mirror, pleased with his choice. It was casual, but it also looked like he was putting in effort for dinner. He had a nice pair of plain black shoes that would go with it all as well.
“Here you go,” Valerie said, tossing him a long sleeve shirt. He undid the buttons of the one he was currently wearing, then fixed up the buttons on his new shirt. It fit tighter and showed off his body much better than the other. On top of that, the subdued navy blue and white horizontal stripes made him look business casual.
“This is perfect,” Mateo said, spinning around to show off.
Val clapped her hands excitedly. “See, I knew it would look good on you. It’s going to look even better when he takes it off.”
Mateo groaned and headed into the changing room to return to the clothes he’d walked in wearing. “You know I’m not about that life, Val. That’s not really something I’m interested in.”
“Hey, I’m just saying. You don’t know what kind of guy Arthur is. He could be someone that’s interested in having sex on the first date. You just have to be prepared for anything.”
Mateo chewed on his lip anxiously. What if Arthur turned out to be that exact guy? He had to remind himself that this wasn’t just regular dating. They weren’t just two guys who’d met on Tinder. This was about exchanging money, and that made it different from any other date he’d ever been on. When he stepped outside, he must’ve looked terrified, because Valerie placed a hand on each of his shoulders and said,
“You’re going to kill this, Matty. He’ll love you, he’ll give you all his money, and you two will have the best time of your lives.” She ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair and smiled. “You got this.”
Her confidence in him was reassuring, and he nodded. He could do this. It was going to be fine. And if not, at least he got a fancy dinner out of it.
4
HIDDEN TALENTS
Mateo couldn’t recall the last time he’d been this utterly terrified of a first date. He could hear Valerie in the back of his head trying to offer him some confidence, but as he stood outside of the restaurant Arthur currently waited in, none of it helped. He was going to ruin this. He was going to say the wrong thing, or Arthur would turn out to be a creep, or something else terrible would happen.
He considered turning around and calling this off. Arthur probably wouldn’t like it, but that was fine. Tear the bandage off now and deal with the short, temporary pain of the fallout. But he’d already spent so much on his clothes, hoping to impress the man. It would be a waste of Valerie’s gas to turn around now too.
He took an uneven breath and walked into the building. Soft music followed him into the lobby where he found the hostess smiling at him. “Hi,” she said in a chipper voice. “Name?”
“It should be under Danby?”
The hostess dragged a finger over her reservations book, then nodded. “Yup, got you right here. Follow me.”
Together, they made their way into the five-star restaurant. Mateo had spent the night before checking out the menu, stunned at how expensive everything was. Of course, this must not have been anything to Arthur, but he’d had ramen for lunch for the past four days.
When the hostess stepped out of the way, she revealed Arthur sitting down at the table. Mateo’s breath caught in his lungs, and he questioned whether this was all some kind of elaborate dream. There was no way a man this well-dressed was here to see him.
Arthur rose from his seat and straightened out his exquisite blue suit. He extended a large hand, which Mateo took. “It’s nice to meet you, Mateo,” he said.
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Mateo said, “It’s nice to meet you too.”
He couldn’t look away. He tried to stare at something else other than his date’s face, but goddamn if it wasn’t an attractive face to look at. His thick brows were low, close to his eyes, and while it might’ve looked intimidating, when he smiled, his entire face seemed to soften. Arthur ran a hand through his dark black hair, and in the light, Mateo caught sight of the sprinkling of grays.
Salt and pepper, he thought. That’s what they call it.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Arthur repeated. Without being asked, the waiter brought Mateo a glass of water with a lemon wedge on the side. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be thirsty, but I got you water anyways.”
“This is fine,” he assured him. He took a long sip and cleared his throat. It was too dry to speak. “So, how have you been? I meant to text you sooner but work and stuff. Sorry.” He could kick himself for being so painfully awkward. Being suave and flirty through text was easy. Keeping that same energy in person? Not so much.
“No harm done,” Arthur assured him. “I’ve been pretty busy myself. I’m in the middle of a communication error that’s been keeping me working. I won’t bore you with the details, though.”
“No, it’s fine. I probably wouldn’t know as much about business as you anyway. The most business I do is when I buy Boardwalk and Park Place and manage to get hotels on the both of them.”
Arthur smiled at the reference and raised his glass in a mock toast. “You’ve got to snatch those up first. Those two and all of the property on the side when you first pass GO. Those are the hotspots.”
“Remind me not to play with you anytime soon. I’ll get destroyed.”
“I’ll go easy on you,” Arthur grinned. He flipped open his menu and looked over the options they served. “How’s work been for you? Are you still teaching the art classes?” He looked up expectantly.
“Yep. Right now, we’re going through
our abstract phase. Lots of circles and random lines. But it’s fun. They really like getting to use all the colors and not having to worry about whether or not their art is coherent.”
“That’s cute,” Arthur said. “I wish I was better at art. It’s one of the things I’ve never been successful in.”
“I’m sure your work is great. Even if it’s not what most people would call ‘pretty’, you made it, and you should be proud of it.”
“You sound like Bob Ross. I guess it makes sense why you picked that name for your username.” Arthur’s eyes crinkled when he smiled.
“Thanks,” Mateo said, blushing. “I—I sometimes get stuck in my teacher brain, sorry. They always need encouragement, so...” He shrugged as if it were nothing and distracted himself with the menu.
“Don’t apologize. The world needs more teachers like you.” Mateo looked up at him, surprised to see him staring back, and nodded appreciatively. “Now, what looks good?”
“Salmon, honestly,” Mateo said, and when he realized how fast he’d responded, he laughed. He hadn’t had a good salmon since he and his coworkers all went out to eat and he’d ordered it.
“Your taste is impeccable. I was thinking of getting that as well.”
“Great minds, and all that,” Mateo said. He folded his menu and chewed on his lip.
“What’re you thinking about?” Arthur asked, taking note of the lip-biting.
“Nothing. It’s just that I’ve been researching a lot of this stuff and I wanted to talk about that. But we can wait until after dinner.”
Arthur began to speak when the waiter stopped by and took their orders. He scurried away, and Arthur returned his attention to the boy across from him. “If you want to talk about something, go ahead. I’m all ears.”
Mateo folded his hands in his lap and sat up straight. “I really like you. I’ve enjoyed talking to you for the past few weeks, and I would really like to get to know you better. I’ve just…never done something like this before. Y’know. Sugar daddy, sugar baby stuff? And I watched a bunch of videos, but they all just seemed to be bragging about the things their sugar daddies got for them. None of them talked about how dangerous it can be.”