Ani

I woke up to the soft sounds of a man snoring. Tom lay on his stomach, snoring quietly and drooling slightly. I smiled, he looked so damned cute. Mi gatita was sore. I thought about adjusting The Sim to make it stop but changed my mind. It was a nice kind of sore and a reminder of the night. Tom was a skilled and energetic lover, not that I’ve had many lovers. He knew what he was doing. Aye de mi, the sexo was magnifico. He didn’t seem to be intimidated by a strong woman either.

And what a relief that was! It was hard enough coming from una Cultura Machistma, to start with, but the world of programming was infinitely worse. Yes Mexican men strutted around like gallos en el corral but there was no question that la mujer gobierna en el hogar. Most of the men I grew up around understood respect, and those that didn’t were soon taught it by those who did. Mexican men knew better than to disrespect women. The Anglo ‘brogrammers’ I had to deal with every day have no use for a woman beyond what’s between her legs.

Which is exactly how I treated Meg a noche.

“Aye de mi,” I moaned softly. “Fue sin querer queriendo.”

“Stop that shit or I’m gonna have to spank you,” Tom said without moving.

I smiled. “You know what I said? Hablas Espanol?”

“It’s close enough to Italian that I can get the gist.”

“So are you going to spank me, Papi?” I asked playfully. It sounded pretty good actually. Mi gatita enpezo a ronronear.

He rolled onto his side and looked at me appreciatively.

“Yes, but how about some coffee first?”

My stomach growled. “Si. OK. Coffee primera y dispues, spanking…y las otras.”

I got out of bed. Debated whether or not to put on clothes and decided to with everything still unsettled with Meg.

“There’s a robe in the closet,” Tom said, sensing my hesitation.

I put it on, he got up and did the same.

My stateroom was off the Saloon, when we opened the door we just followed our noses to the scent of brewing coffee, out the open doorway to the big fantail area where we sat the prior day. Meg and Paul were already up and seated at the table.

“Coffee’s on the machine,” she said, nodding to the coffee maker.

“I’ll get you one,” I told Tom. “How do you like it?”

“Cream, no sugar,” he said. “Thanks, doll.”

He sat down next to Paul.

“Good night?” Paul asked him blandly.

“Eh, I’ve had worse,” he replied, sitting down.

I put his coffee in front of him saying sweetly, “Be careful, I’m a little clumsy, I wouldn’t want to drop this in your lap.”

Paul snorted.

I sat down, primly, and sipped my café con leche. I decided to coger el toro por los cuernos.

“Meg,” I began. “I’m truly sorry if I hurt you yesterday. I…”

“No!” Meg put her hand up. “No, really. Stop. You have nothing to apologize for. I over-reacted. I…do you use ‘baggage’ the same way in Spanish as we do in English? To talk about past hurts?”

“Si,” I replied, nodding. “‘Adquirido ya un bagaje’ we would say.”

“Well I’ve certainly adquirido ya un bagaje since coming here and that drove my behavior last night. I’m sorry.”

I leaned over, touched her arm and looked deeply into her eyes. “Hermana, no estas una puta. Eres una mujer mas fuerte! Te quero.”

Meg blinked back tears.

“Gracias,” she said.

“So, we’re still all friends,” Paul stated.

Meg looked me in the eye, “And business partners.” She nodded.

I smiled.

“So how are we going to do this?” Meg asked.

“Alexander,” I said. “Dice.”

“Dice is still engaged,” his voice replied.

“We can speak freely,” I said.

“OK, Paul and I talked about this last night. A lot. It’s a good plan. I don’t like the part I need to play, for obvious reasons, but as a plan, it’s solid. Except for one thing: I’ve been going out of my way to avoid Ian. If I change that, he’s going to think something’s up.”

“Si, verdad,” I agreed. "So we need to make him think it’s his idea, no? That he’s in control. OK, he wanted to use Paul to get to you? We let him. Pablo, you and Tomas’ last client? He wasn’t very happy.”

“But…” Tom started, furrowing his brow.

I winked at Tom. “No comprende mi amor. He. Was. Not. Happy.”

Tom snorted. “He’s a friend of yours.”

“Verdad,” I nodded, pleased he caught on quickly. “If you weren’t interested in helping me, he would have simply gone on after having a great time in Afterlife, pero now that we’re conspiritores, he’s going to make a complaint, specifically against Pablo, who will have his credit from that job taken away.”

“Which means my payment to Ian will bounce,” Paul nodded.

“Exactamente!” I exclaimed.

“And he’ll try and take it out of me,” Meg added, nodding. “Devious. I’m glad you’re on our side.”

“I am too,” I replied. “I can’t tell you how good it feels to be taken seriously. To be appreciated. To be more than the poor chica in the wheelchair who can code a little.”

“You can code more than ‘a little’,” Meg said, gesturing to encompass the horizon.

“And, for a chica in a wheelchair, you’re a damned good lay,” Tom said, stretching.

“Pinche cabron!” I exclaimed, surprised, shocked and then, very amused.

“Well, it IS a small boat and you’re pretty loud,” Meg said, giggling.

“It’s NOT a small boat and now you know how your husband and I felt last time,” Tom grinned.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“I want to show you my house,” Tom said, earnestly. “Anyway, we’ve got a party planned for you there, tonight, unless you would rather we cancel it?”

“No,” I shook my head. “I want to see your house and I want to meet your friends. Besides, you owe me a spanking and I think I want to get my spanking en tu casa.”