“No. I’m advising a self-proclaimed neophyte who wants to have a love life. I’m telling you that yelling at a girl you’re hoping will fall in love with you does – not – work.”
“I haven’t been yelling!”
“You may not have raised your decibel level, but your tone’s been unpleasant and confrontational.”
Kaem deflated, “Yeah. Sorry—”
Their server arrived with the food and bustled about setting it out for them.
By the time the waiter left, Kaem felt he had his emotions back in control. He made the effort to smile. “Thanks for the advice… and for letting me know how I stand. I do like Lee, but I’m not sure she’s the one, so to speak. I thought you were, but I understand that has to be a two-way street.”
Arya said, “You should be patient with Lee. Sometimes these things take time to grow.”
He winked at her, “You should be patient with me then.”
She frowned, “Kaem…”
He waved his hands in surrender, “I apologize. Maybe you could give me advice on what to do about Lee?”
“What do you mean?” she asked suspiciously.
“Well, you’ve implied that since I’ve gone out with her, I somehow owe her a break-up before I can go out with anyone else?”
“Well, no…” she said reluctantly.
“So, do I have to mention that I’d like to go out with others, or can I just do it?”
“I hope you’re not thinking you’re going out with me?”
“No. But I’ve heard there’re… other fish in the sea.”
She gave him a long, dyspeptic look. “I think Lee deserves…” her pause drew out.
Finally, Kaem said, “Deserves what?”
“Hell, I don’t know!” Arya snapped. “I don’t know anything about dating either. The only dates I’ve been on have been ones that’ve been arranged by my parents!”
“How’d those turn out?” Kaem asked curiously.
“Not very well,” she said in a grumbling tone.
“And how did you move on to someone else?”
“I told my parents I didn’t like the guy and they found someone else.”
Kaem frowned, “Do you know of a rule book I can follow?”
“No,” Arya said, sounding exasperated.
“If I assume that, in the absence of known rules, two dates with Lee don’t mean I’m committed to her; and so I decided to ask someone else out, is that going to make you mad?”
“Do what you want, Kaem,” she said tiredly, as if she’d lost an argument.
He was reminded of his dad telling him that whenever your wife said, “Do whatever you want,” that it did not mean you should do it. Kaem thought of telling Arya she was being unfair, then remembered he shouldn’t turn this into a real argument if he wanted any chance of getting on her good side. “Can you tell me about some of the dates your parents set up for you? I need something to learn from.”
She rolled her eyes, and said nothing for a bit, then said, “Well, I could tell you about one of the disasters. Sort of a ‘what not to do’ kind of lesson.”
Kaem smiled, “Exactly what I had in mind.”
She launched into it. Soon they were both laughing. Then she told him about another one. When she’d finished that story, he realized from the way the waiter was hanging around that they’d been finished eating for quite a while. He checked his watch. “Oh, I’m gonna be late for a meeting.”
“Me too,” Arya said plaintively.
As they rose and hurried out, he had his phone call for an Uber and leave a big tip. To his surprise, Arya rode back in the Uber with him, still chattering about her own disastrous love life. Then, apparently realizing what she’d done, she had it stop a block short and she walked the last bit by herself.
As he entered Staze and hurried over to talk to Norm, he wondered, If her love life’s so bad, she must really hate me or she wouldn’t be pushing me away.
Or, I must be acting unlovable, he thought, thinking of her riff on his dad’s advice.
***
Governor Samuel Agnos was about to head into his meeting with the people from Staze. He was getting different opinions about the company from his people. Erin Brock thought the technology from Staze would be no more than a flash in a pan. The material was undeniably strong she said. “But,” she asked, “how many things will benefit from something stronger than steel? And, as for the potential for people to go into stasis and await treatment after medical advances, I can imagine there will be some people who’re helped. But there just aren’t that many treatments waiting around the corner. I predict there’ll be a lot more problems than benefits. What’re we going to do with all the people in stasis, the ones who’re waiting for treatments that never come?”
Jack Stanley, on the other hand, thought Staze was going to change the world. “In twenty years Staze is gonna be immense. We want to be on the right side of history on this one.”
They entered the room. Agnos had reviewed Staze’s sparse website to learn who was who and he recognized two of the people; Arya Vaii, the CFO, and Gunnar Schmidt, the Technical Advisor. He hadn’t expected the CEO since the guy was anonymous and didn’t even have his real name on the company’s C-Suite. The Governor had expected Prakant, the CTO rather than Schmidt, the Technical Advisor, whatever that was—not something he recognized from other companies’ officer naming protocols. He surveyed the room again. Prakant wasn’t there. A young black guy and a young Asian woman, both in their early twenties, and a Latina lady in her thirties were there, but he didn’t recognize any of them from the pictures on the company’s list of officers. Agnos oriented himself on Vaii as the senior officer, even if not
