Chapter 9 Sophia #2
Gabriel and I shared a knowing glance. Alcohol so soon after last night was a bad idea. Coffee helped the hangover, but I wasn’t about to make it worse with more alcohol.
“We’ll have water,” Gabriel said.
The girl wrote down our order and sped away.
“She reminds me of myself at my first job. I was a server too. It’s hard work.” I said.
“Did you notice she wrote down our order for two waters?” he asked with a lighthearted smile.
“She’s obviously new. She’ll get the hang of it in time, I’m sure, if she can stick with it.”
“Service jobs expose people to the worst of humanity,” Gabriel said.
“Have you worked in a restaurant before?” I asked.
“No, I’ve just eaten out with the worst of humanity.”
“I don’t understand why people would choose to be cruel to someone trying their best to serve them,” I said.
Gabriel shook his head. “Some people are just fucked.” He studied me for a moment, then said, “What would you do if the server is an asshole and something’s wrong with your food? Would you feel bad about calling a manager over to get your meal replaced? Would you try to get it for free?”
I thought about it for a moment but didn’t really need to. “I would definitely feel bad, and there is no way I would try to get it for free.”
He looked at me curiously. “Why not?”
“I was taught to never be selfish. It’s caused a lifetime of being used, basically.
I would like to be able to say I would stand up for myself if the server was an asshole and the food was wrong, but I know I would just accept it because the server wouldn’t be the only one impacted.
You don’t know what other people are going through, I would rather just eat the meal I was given and move on. ”
The waitress returned with our drinks, carefully placing them in front of us.
As if she weren’t there, Gabriel said, “There is nothing wrong with being selfish. Living is inherently a selfish act. If someone is treating you poorly, they are fair game at that point. You have every right to create an outcome that you benefit from, regardless of the price they might pay.” He didn’t care that the young server was hearing all of this.
She stood patiently, waiting for him to finish, with red cheeks.
She looked at me, afraid to cut off the conversation.
“Are you ready to order?” she mumbled.
“No, sorry, we don’t have menus. Will you bring us some?” Gabriel asked with surprising kindness in his voice.
“Of course, I’m very sorry.” A moment later, she placed two menus in front of us while carrying a rattling tray of drinks to a different table.
“I don’t think I agree with the idea that living is selfish,” I said.
Gabriel smiled. “I’ll prove it to you right now. What do you plan on ordering?”
“I don’t know, maybe fish.” He looked at me expectantly, palms up.
“Okay, I see your point, but it’s more complex than that.”
“Maybe. So anyway, have you thought about what you will change about your life yet?”
“I don’t know. This still doesn’t seem real to me. I’m just glad to not feel like I’m in survival mode anymore. I finally have some breathing room.”
“You deserve it,” he said, then looked at the menu.
“Maybe I’ll buy a car like yours,” I joked.
He laughed softly without looking up from the menu. “I don’t think you’re there just yet. Maybe one day.”
“How do you feel about nice cars, just in general?” I asked. He looked up at me from the menu with raised eyebrows.
“I don’t know. They are nice accessories, but I don’t really think about them. Why?”
“No reason really, I guess. It was stupid. When I was walking here, some guy in a nice car let me cross the street. While he did, he was giving your car a resentful look. He looked so envious of yours despite himself driving a car most people couldn’t afford.
” I shook my head, then glanced back at my menu, wishing one of the salad options was more appetizing than fish.
In the corner of my eye, I thought I saw concern etched on Gabriel's face, but when I looked at him, he was running a hand through his hair, looking hot and calm.
“Some people are just envious no matter what they have. He probably bought that car to compensate for something money can’t buy,” he said.
“Maybe, but he was attractive. He kind of looked like you in a way. So I don’t know what he would need to compensate for.” Then I realized Gabriel was making a dick joke and rolled my eyes as he smiled boyishly at me.
“What is it with you and rich guys with nice cars, Sophia?” he teased.
“I didn’t know rich guys slept on air mattresses in their office, Gabriel.”
He brushed it off.
“Plenty of them do. They can’t leave the office because they are terrified of losing everything.
People think having a lot of money would make their problems go away, but that’s only partially true.
Money opens people up to a whole new world of fear and problems. That’s how it’s always been.
A thousand years ago, people envied kings, not knowing kings lay awake most nights a prisoner in their own castle. ”
“I never really considered that. A king going through that probably thought his peasants had it easy.”
“They do in a way. All they have to worry about is shelter, food, and entertainment.”
“You mean they did?”
“What?”
“You said peasants have it easy, like they are still around.”
He shifted in his seat. “What? No, I was talking about peasants.”
“From the past.” He added.
“Alrighty, are we ready to order?” A new waitress asked.
She was much older and carried herself with experience.
I ordered fish and felt bad about being selfish.
After the waitress left, Gabriel said, “I hope it doesn’t take long.
I’m starving. I haven’t had a good meal since I moved here.
Well, besides when you gave me breakfast, even then I only had a bite. ”
I groaned and held my forehead in my hands.
“Hey, are you okay?” he asked with more concern than I expected.
“I’m fine, it’s just... Henry made me waffles this morning, and I was so focused on getting ready that I forgot to make it look like I ate some of it.”
Confused lines appeared on his face as he tried to understand. “I don’t know what to ask first. Why did your landlord or second boss or whatever he is make you breakfast, and why do you have to pretend to eat it?”
“I live with him, He’s a little different. I would have pretended to eat some of it so that he wouldn’t be upset.”
“Are his waffles that bad?”
“I mean, they’re pretty bad. I would have eaten them, but I had lunch planned with you.”
“How do you fuck up waffles?”
“He is sugar-free and vegan and is hoping I’ll come around to it.”
He laughed, “Well, that would do it. Look, don’t worry about that. It’s nothing. When is that art event you told me about last night again? Tell me more about that.”
“It’s just a big display of all the new art in the gallery.”
“I bet that will draw in plenty of tourists. How many of the paintings are yours?” he asked.
“About half of them.”
It was obvious he was trying to take my mind off the Henry situation. The more I thought about it, the more stupid the whole thing sounded. He probably thought so too.
“Well, I look forward to seeing everything you’ve made and picking up the piece I ordered,” he said with a smile that I couldn’t help but return.
“It’s about time you picked it up, but don’t worry about paying for it.”
He waved his hand while drinking water, like he wanted to say something that he couldn't wait to finish drinking to say. “Now that you have some money, you need to learn how to keep it. Just because you can afford to brush off debts or give freely, doesn’t mean you should. Eventually, that leads to death by a thousand cuts, Financially speaking. You spent a long time making that for me. Your time and skills are valuable things. I am going to pay you for it.”
A warm sense of relief washed over me. He had already paid for it many times over in my mind by giving me a raise. But he acknowledged my worth. It was something that I wasn’t really used to.
“If you want to pay for it, I can’t stop you.”
“Good. What time does the event start?”
“It’s in three days. Around noon. It usually goes on until evening.”
“I’ll be there. And I expect a personal guided tour of the place.”
I smiled at that. “Well, you are paying for it.”
Again, it looked like something was troubling him, and for half a second his confidence slipped away. If I wasn’t looking at him so intently, I wouldn’t have noticed it.
“Is something on your mind?” I asked. He looked at me thoughtfully.
“You asked me to never lie to you.” He took a breath while shaking his head slightly.
“I really think I’m going to regret this, but I’m trying to, I don’t know, reinvent myself.
” The way he was looking at me made me feel like he was about to say something that would hurt both of us. “No, never mind. It’s nothing.”
I looked at him in disbelief. “You can’t just say that and then pretend there isn’t something you want to tell me.”
“I don’t want to tell you, that’s the thing,” he said while rubbing the back of his strong neck.
“Tell me,” I said.
He stared at me with his jaw clenching, full of hesitation.
“It can’t be that bad. Just tell me,” I said nonchalantly, trying to get it out of him.
“The donation.” He paused.
“What about it? Are they asking for it back?”
“No, no. Don’t worry. That money is ours. It’s just that it’s not exactly what you think.”
“What is it then?”
“The donation came from Rosso Drilling,” he said as if that answered everything.
“I don’t understand. Why would they donate? We are going after them.”
“I offered them a deal they couldn’t refuse.”
“What? What kind of deal?”
“One where they have to clean the ocean and pay a small fine for their actions.” He was acting like what he was saying would be some terrible revelation to me.
“That is literally what we were trying to achieve, right? What’s the issue?”
He let out a frustrated sigh. “I didn’t send the report to the government, I didn’t even fill it out. I sent the lab results to their CEO.”
“Why would you—” I felt my eyes widen as everything clicked. “Small fine?” I asked uncertainly. He nodded.
“Instead of paying the government a large one, they paid us a small one. The end result will still be the same. They have six months to fix the issue. If they don’t, I’ll send the report to the government anyway.”
I was quiet, just staring at him. “So you blackmailed them?” I asked plainly.
“I suppose you could call it that, though I prefer to think of it as a business negotiation.”
I sat back in my chair. His expression held some tension, but there was a sense of pride in his eyes I couldn’t ignore.
I blinked at him, surprised by the boldness of all of this.
I sipped on my water in silence, trying to process everything he was saying.
I didn’t know what to say or do. My eyes fell from his to the patterns on the table in front of me as I mentally sank into myself.
“The only loss was to the environment, but they’re going to fix it now.
” He forced a laugh and offered me his hands.
“If a lot of innocent people were somehow impacted by this, then of course I wouldn’t have done it.
” I looked down at his outstretched hands.
They were completely still; he wasn’t worried at all.
He pulled his hands back, seeing I wasn’t going to take them. “Come on, Sophia. Say something.”
“You took a huge risk.”
“Fortune favors the bold,” he said.
He sounded so sure of himself, and the conviction in his eyes was almost contagious.
I couldn’t help but think of everything that could go wrong.
What if they went ahead and polluted the ocean anyway?
What would happen then? What if they reported him instead?
Anxiety swelled within me at the thought.
He received money through blackmail and gave me a massive raise and a bonus on the same day.
"Gabriel," I began hesitantly, “We might be in serious trouble if this gets out. What if they try to turn this around and accuse you of extortion?"
He stared at me for a moment, his eyes holding a glint of amusement. "And how exactly would they do that? They would have to admit to their crimes first, which are far greater than mine."
"But still, if anyone looks into this and sees they donated to us at the same time they are polluting the ocean, don’t you think the police would assume they are paying us off to ignore their crime?” I found myself asking, my mind racing.
He pressed his lips together, obviously considering that for the first time. Then he met my gaze squarely. “How many times have people and corporations gotten away with worse? It’s like I said earlier. There is nothing wrong with taking advantage of someone who made themselves fair game.”
“That’s not how you worded it earlier.”
He ran a hand through his hair, the frustration evident in his deep blue eyes. "Sophia, we have a chance to make a real difference, for ourselves. The ocean is going to be fine too."
"Difference?" I countered. "What if they turn on you? What if they decide it's easier to just get rid of you rather than uphold their end of the deal? They’re so willing to protect and enrich themselves, why wouldn’t they just come after you instead?"
My words hung in the air between us, unanswerable questions left to the future. He looked at me across the table, confidence and righteousness in his eyes despite my concerns.
"Sophia," he began hesitantly, "why would that happen? They already gave us the money." They upheld their end of the deal. He held out his hands again. “Everything is fine. This isn't a problem.” His eyes were pleading with me to see it the way he did.
“No, Gabriel,” I said firmly. “I can’t be a part of this. I don’t want the raise or the bonus.”
With that, I stood up from the booth. His hand reached out for mine, but I pulled away before his strong grip could stop me.
"Sophia," he said as I turned to leave, his voice steady but laced with concern.
I paused before glancing over my shoulder at him.
His gaze held mine, a silent plea in his eyes.
He opened his mouth to speak again, but I didn’t let him.
"Gabriel, this... this is a lot to take in.
I need some time. A lot of time." I could see the hurt and disbelief in his eyes.
He had always been so sure of himself, so confident.
But now, he just looked confused and betrayed.
I turned on my heel and left him there, alone in the dining room full of strangers.
I looked back as the door closed behind me.
The waitress was placing two plates of fish down on the table as he stared at the narrow drink menu.