Until The Very End

CHAPTER 19: Los Angeles

            Of course, everything did not just end in the closet room. When they had their own clothes properly folded and had their phones and wallets in their pockets, they rushed out of the closet room. Downstairs was still like before – silence-filled. Every thing was rigid in their positions and places.

            Rodolfo was making this secret smile of his while he followed Matt downstairs. It might almost certainly be because of the suit he had chosen. Matt, as always, led the way downstairs while Rodolfo was tailing him. Matt stopped in front of the plain, black, wooden, two-way door, waiting for Rodolfo. By the time that his friend stopped at his side, Matt asked;

            “Have you been here before?”

            “I’m not sure,” answered Rodolfo after taking a deep breath.

            Matt pushed the two-way door open and, in front of them, Rodolfo couldn’t believe his eyes. It was like an art gallery large room. Even more than just an art gallery. Those shiny black tiles, where tiny dots of white lights from the ceiling reflected, the black–stained glass window walls covered with thick, white curtains, another living room-like space and circular table, and most of all, above the garage turntables spread in the room, the different brands and models of luxury sports cars. Matt can tell that Rodolfo had not been here when Rodolfo was lost. He stayed with Rodolfo for a short minute.

            Subsequently, Matt took the three-step steps down. First, he approached where the couch and a round table were. The top of the table was cut into seven pieces like a pizza, forming lines on every slice. On the top centre of the table stood a small cylindrical sphere snake indoor plant and a digital assistant. He sat on the couch, leaning on the table. Rodolfo was beside him, watching closely.

            “Hey,” Matt started. It was to wake up the voice assistant, not to start a conversation with Rodolfo.

            The digital assistant woke up, greeting, “Good morning, Matt. How may I help?”

            “Open the lights in this garage.”

            “Turning on the lights.”

            The garage became bright. The tiny dots of white lights were barely seen on the shiny black tiles. Lights were everywhere. Rodolfo dropped his jaw due to his over astonishment. When he had enough admiring what he was seeing, he turned his head back to the table.

            Matt plucked one stalk of leaf from the snake plant on the heptagonal shaped pot. He removed the leaf, and a pen appeared. It was not just a normal pen, but a digital pen coated and disguised as one of the leaves. The table made a three-second wobble sound, which surprised Rodolfo. Matt placed his hand on the heptagonal pot, gripped it, and turned it around half-clockwise. Using the pen on his other hand, Matt wrote something on the surface of the table. Rodolfo kept his eyes on what Matt was writing, but he could not read or see any word. As Rodolfo continued to follow his friend's wrist and hand movement while writing, he could only perceive that Matt wrote seven characters, “wy1ujl8”.

            Again, Matt placed his hand on the pot, then completed rotating it to full clockwise. The table made an unlocking beep. After seven seconds, the lines on the table lighted up white, and the pizza slices-like part began to move away slowly, revealing the inside of the table. The heptagonal pot, where the cylindrical sphere snake plant was, remained fixedly at the centre of the table. However, the digital assistant moved with the slicing part.

             Inside of the table was divided into several more parts. Each part consisted of one key fob to one single sports car. Everything was shining. It even reflected on Rodolfo’s eyeballs. Time was running fastly so, Matt questioned Rodolfo again;

            “Which one do you like? Whatever you choose is what we will use to drive to the hangar.”

            “This is so, far – advanced, incredible technology I have ever seen. I mean, who would knew that a plain, circular table with a plant on top was a secret hiding place of the most valuable things,” Rodolfo said in total amazement.

            “Actually,” said Matt, partially embarrassed about what he was going to say. “These keys used to be on just a fibreglass shelf. After that chaos I made for bringing one of those at the university, I have seen how much people wanted a car like those ones.        And I overthought that maybe smugglers or thieves finds about me, broke in, although this mansion is high-secured, and take the cars just like that. So I gathered all the keys and put them back here. This is all stored seven feet below the ground, around metals where it can block radio signals. Of course, the other spare keys of each of these were not buried underneath. They were hidden somewhere around here, where I can get them easily in case of emergency.”

            “But what if the spare ones were lost and this table won’t work?” Rodolfo was confused yet worried about the storage of the key fobs.

            Matt smirked happily and said, “Easy. There’s a way I can take the keys from under this table. There’s an underground room and an elevator to go there. But every door requires a lot of passwords. Okay, enough with that. Picked one.”

            While appreciating the keys, Rodolfo studied every design. He couldn’t pick one. It was hard for him, but he has to. Two minutes later, he pointed out the black key fob that was half the size of his palm, speaking, “This one. And what about if you’re out of the country. Who watches over your cars? They’re unsafe to be left alone here.”

            “I always hid them whenever I feel the same feeling as yours. Watch this.”

            After replying, Matt took the key fob that Rodolfo had chosen. After taking it, he rotated the heptagonal pot fully counter-clockwise. They watched the key fobs slowly moved down the ground, appearing another circle from the side to cover the hole, while the slices-of–pizza-like parts on the top most of the table began moving gradually back to their original place. A few seconds later, the table was back to its original form.

            With the use of the pen, Matt tapped the surface of the table once. He placed his palm on the top of the table, fingers spread widely. The table vibrated, and a digital number pad appeared on one of the sliced parts. At last, Rodolfo saw what Matt had input on the number pad. “026122319”.

            The garage turntables were making a sound while it was being eaten by the ground, along with the sports car above it. The large circle holes, where the car turntables were, were covered by another circle with the same black shining tiles. Only one sports car remained in the garage. The number pad on the table disappeared. Matt covered the digital smartpen with the fake leaf he had removed before, planted it on the heptagonal pot, disguising it as one of the plant’s leaves. The table made a wobble sound for the last time.

“Hey. Open the garage door and locked every entrance door,” he ordered at the digital assistant. Matt stood up from his seat, turning to Rodolfo, “Let’s go.”

            “Wicked,” Rodolfo whispered, following Matt. Then he questioned Matt about the pen, “And if someone knew your password and saw the pen from the plant?”

            “There’s a sequence on how you can have access to what’s inside of that table. Plus, the pen will only activate when I am the one who’s holding it. It recognizes my warm fingerprint. If anyone cut off my hand and use it to open the table, it won’t work anymore. It should be warm and alive,” Matt answered, opening the car door of the sports car. “Get in.”

            Rodolfo took the other door, got settled inside and the door closed by itself using the key fob. When the garage door was fully open, Matt drove out. He reached for his spare remote control to open the main gate. Once out of In Me Guarda, Rodolfo threw questions about each of Matt’s sports cars. Matt happily answered him. Matt even asked if Rodolfo wanted to drive the car and said that he can if he said yes, but Rodolfo answered no.

            Hitting the road to the hangar only takes about fifteen minutes without any traffic. Inside the hangar were Martin and Terrence, sitting and chitchatting on the bench upstairs. The private jet was ready. Matt drove the sports car inside the hangar. He doesn’t want it to be exposed outside. Martin and Terrence came down as soon as they saw Matt getting out of the driver seat. They approached Matt and Rodolfo with their uniforms on.

            “Good Morning, CEO Williams and to, I believe is, sir Rodolfo.”

            It was Martin who talked first, eyeing the both of them as he said their names. A smile showed as he spoke.

            Rodolfo nodded as his response when his name was called by Martin.

            “How long you two have been here?” asked Matt.

            Terrence looked at his watch and answered Matt, “Not an hour passed.”

            “We arrived here five minutes before you called,” Martin added. “Now, sir, you and your friend arrived here seventeen minutes early from the one hour you gave us to wait.”

            “Okay. Let’s go,” replied Matt.

            “And your car, sir?” Terrence asked, worrying about the sports car.

            “No one saw us come here, and this place is highly guarded,” Matt said. They were all looking at the sports  car. Matt said it again politely, “Let us go.”

            “After you two, sir,” gestured Martin at the airstair of the private jet.

            Rodolfo went after Matt. And Martin and Terrence followed Rodolfo. Martin closed the door then went to the cockpit while Matt and Rodolfo settled themselves on the comfortable sofa. Five minutes had passed, and the private jet was taking off from the runway.

            “If you are hungry, pick something in the refrigerator in the kitchen area. If any food is too cold for you, use the microwave. We have not eaten anything from home. This is a non-stop flight so, we won’t be getting anything from the land until we land in Los Angeles. We’ll arrive there this afternoon,” Matt told Rodolfo, removing his navy blue suit. He waited to finish the take-off before he talked.

            “How about you?” asked Rodolfo.

            “I’ll take anything you get,” Matt took his phone out and added, “I’ll make some bookings online.”

            After booking a hotel room, Rodolfo and Matt spent the next few hours of the flight having a conversation. Rodolfo threw questions about Los Angeles and regarding the companies that Matt and his uncle held. Matt answered them. They even watched a movie when Rodolfo ran out of questions. What they did on the few hours on the air was as normal as they would do on the land.

            Afternoon came.

Terrence informed that they were about to take the landing. Matt grabbed his suit and helped Rodolfo clean the table. They prepared themselves. After landing, Matt and Rodolfo were again inside of a hangar. The hangar has a different design from one in New York. There was a two car waiting inside of the hangar. Martin opened the door of the jet and let Matt and Rodolfo take the airstair first before him and Terrence.

            Matt turned to the two captains and said, “We’ll be staying here for a day. We leave tomorrow at sunset back to New York. I need you two to stay here for tomorrow’s flight back.” He grabbed his wallet and pulled out a debit card, handing it over to Martin, “I will be entrusting this card to you two. I have already booked a hotel room for both of you. I sent the details via email to Terrence. Everything concerning the hotel is already paid for, even your meals and the minibar. Now, this card is to give you extra money. The pin is still the same. Use the money wherever you want. Go to the bar, malls, restaurants, movie theatres, or anything fun you two could think of. Spend any desired amount from this card. It won’t matter to me. Don’t worry. We’re in the same hotel but in a different room.”

            “Thank you, sir,” Martin replied while accepting the card. The two captains were happily smiling.

            Rodolfo was bothered and asked himself why the two captains were not surprised when Matt lend them his debit card. Little did he know that the captains were used to these kinds of arrangements whenever they flew to other places and stayed at the place not longer than a day or two. The first time that Matt did it to his private captains, they refused. But Matt insisted and told his private captains that it was way of him giving a tip.

            “Of course,” Matt responded. “Your time is in your hands now. Explore Los Angeles.”

            Terrence and  Martin nodded, then Matt went to one of the cars.

            Rodolfo, who was a bit scared to have a word with the captains since they met, just gave them his pleasuring smile. About to turn his back on them, Terrence and Martin spoke to him. They were friendly, to be fact. Kind and funny.

            “Don’t be too shy with him,” Terrence started a joke.

            “Yeah. He is the most charming person we’ve ever met,” Martin was referring to Matt. This was an addition to Terrence’s joke. “I’ll tell you a secret. He’s never been into any relationship before. Have you?”

            “No,” answered Rodolfo. He was a bit excited, getting closer to the captains.

            “Then you are the perfect one for him!” Terrence talked slowly and hushedly.

            “He never brought anyone with him at his trips before. You’re the first-ever person to go with him anywhere. Well, mostly a bunch of other employees, but he spent most of his time alone,” Martin remarked with a grin.

            “Wait, what?” Rodolfo lacked belief. “But we are both – well,…”

            “Does love ever told you that you only have to fall in love with your opposite genders?” Martin cut Rodolfo off. Terrence was making several nods. “It’s inevitable! The love. Once it came, you can never run away from it. We saw how you look at him. We’re not retarded”

            The joke turned into something serious conversation.

            “My mother said it was a sin,” Rodolfo began. “But I do – ”

            “We know that you love your mother very much, but two questions, is she the name of love? Does she decide who are you gonna marry? No.” Martin pointed at Rodolfo’s left chest, adding a reply, “This one, my friend, is where your love to someone comes from. Not from your mother nor anyone from your family, not from us, not from the toxic society, not from anyone in this world, but from yourself, and particularly on this part of you. Your heart.”

            “There was a time that he asked us about same-s*x marriage. He said it was a college essay,” replied Terrence.

            “And we doubt that it wasn’t because he asked us too much about it. There’s the internet, why ask us. He’s never been excited about the topic before,” said Martin.

            Rodolfo was loving the conversation pretty much.

            “And even asked about us for experiences,” Terrence added.

            “So, are you two – ” Rodolfo began to ask.

            “We’re married,” Martin said, showing a ring on his ring finger. Terrence also showed his ring. “We knew CEO Williams very well. Whether if he likes someone or wanted something. He’s very a private person, but we all know who are the most important people in his life. And you happen to be one of them.”

            “But, but, but, we’re not sure if he likes guys,” Rodolfo muttered to the two, feeling embarrassed.

            “Do you?” asked Terrence.

            “Well, Matt was a re – ” Rodolfo was about to talk, but unfortunately, Martin barged in.

            “Don’t tell it to us! We knew it already. Go, confess it to him. Look, he’s looking at us. Go, he might suspect something.”

            Terrence and Martin waved goodbye to Matt, who was already sitting inside of the car while looking at them. He, too, waved his hand inside of the car and watched the two captains walked to the second car. Rodolfo was walking steadily, lost in thoughts, nervous, eyes on Matt.

            After he waved at the two captains, Matt turned to look at Rodolfo. Rodolfo’s hands were in his pockets, had an unreadable face, yet his eyes were rigid. Their eyes met for a single second. Rodolfo immediately went to the other side of the car door, opened it and sat in the back seat beside Matt.

            “What was that?” asked Matt to Rodolfo after his friend closed the door. He asking about the conversation that Rodo had with Terrence and Martin.

            “Nothing,” lied Rodolfo, thoughts were blank. His nervousness increased and, said out of a sudden, “About L. A. girls.”

            Rodolfo has dead inside when he said it. But he remained calm so that Matt won’t notice anything. Shocked and stupid, he wanted to change the last phrase into something that Matt would like – into something he wanted to say long ago. But before he even opened his mouth, his friend, Matt, commented. Matt was looking at the vacant passenger seat beside the driver.

            “Good for you. There are plenty of bars here. We could go there.”

            Rodolfo just nodded with a forced smile, not knowing what to respond to it. Then, he felt anger arousing inside him. Anger to himself, for not choosing his words before talking. He wasn’t surprised that Matt would say a thing like that as a response to what he suddenly said.

            Matt wasn’t waiting for Rodolfo’s voice. After he talked, he added to the driver, who was in his uniform, “Let’s go.”

            The driver drove out of the hangar. Rodolfo and Matt did not talk for the rest of the trip. They were busy looking outside of the window, especially Rodolfo.

            After about twenty minutes on the road, Matt and Rodolfo arrived at the familiar building. Rodolfo felt that he was back in New York – back at the university. He was flabbergasted when he saw the outside view of the university. The university in front of him and the university where he went were all completely the same, from the benches outside and trees planted to the structures of the building. All were the same.

            They got out of the car and finally had a full view of the university.

            “This is the NY’s State University’s twin brother, LA’s State University,” Matt introduced the university in front of them. “Welcome.”

            “They really are twins,” Rodolfo admiringly said.

            Matt and Rodolfo went inside the campus. College students were everywhere. Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors. Some were in groups sitting on the grass, while others were on the benches. They both felt like their classes were back. Matt missed the feeling of being at school. Rodolfo totally forgot what had happened to everything in the hangar and the car.

            As they walked, there were college students who turned their heads to them. Matt and Rodolfo weren’t surprised by this. They were the only ones on the campus who wear business suits and glasses. Matt was explaining to Rodolfo why the twin brother was located here and not in New York. Rodolfo was very attentive to his friend. While on the way inside of the university, a middle-aged professor with his hair sleeked to the back and had his glasses lopsided yelled, addressing Matt formally. There were four college students following behind the professor – two males and two females.

            “CEO Williams!”

            Matt already saw and recognized the professor.

            “Professor Dean,” replied Matt after the professor came excitedly to them.

            “I did not expect you to be here today, sir. For what reason? And it is surprising to see that you are with someone today,” Professor Dean said.

            “A visit. Oh, right. This is Rodolfo. A great friend of mine. We did meet and are studying at the same university. The twin brother of this. I assumed you already knew the news about it.”

            Professor Dean and Rodolfo took a handshake.

            “Yes, and we’re sorry for what happened. President Cauffman told us. You said you are both studying, am I not correct? You are studying?”

            “I began the freshman year last September. We’re both freshmen.”

            “And how’re the dormitories?”

            “My friend and I didn’t choose to stay at the university’s dorm. Especially me. You knew the reason.”

            “I clearly understand, sir. Students, this is the person that I have been telling about. CEO Matt Williams. He’s the youngest person ever known to be an ex-president of this university and to its twin brother with his friend, Rodolfo. You knew all about the origin of this university, right?”

            “Good afternoon,” Matt greeted the four students. He hated the moment where Professor Dean introduced him to the four.

            The students greeted them back.

            “Excuse us, Professor Dean,” Matt told the professor. “But we shall get going.”

            “Of course. Enjoy your visit, CEO Williams.”

            “Thank you.”                           

            Matt pretended that they were not bothered and continued to explain the university’s history while he and Rodolfo got inside of the university. Inside designs and arrangements were no different from NY’s State University. Rodolfo was exhilarating to visit LA’s State University. He did still listen to Matt. And even asked a few questions.

Matt and Rodolfo talked to more professors who approached them inside. All of the professors were aghast to see Matt with a friend.

            Around 5:10 in the afternoon, they left the university.

            It was Matt who felt hunger first. They wandered the outside of the university by walk, trying to catch a wonderful café to go to while still talking to each other about some other things. Rodolfo and Matt weren’t tired of walking for thirty minutes. Both love the conversation going. Long walks in the city with their conversation going enlivened their time. Before six o’clock, they found a café. It was a bit far from the university.

            What amazed Rodolfo was that the café was facing the wide green park, and had a beautiful view of the bay. Different people were seen at the park and on the bay. There were people at the bay, sitting on the fine sand, others were seen at the park benches, some were doing a picnic on the green grass, and some were taking their afternoon jog. Most of the people were just standing, while others were walking, feeling the breeze.

            Matt opened the café door and set himself inside with Rodolfo beside him. At the counter, they were welcomed by a female and male.

            “Good afternoon, sir. Welcome to O’well’s café,” the female worker began. She was wearing an apron. The man was staring at them.

            Clang! Clang!

            “Do you have any other pastr – ” Matt started but was interrupted by the noise in the café kitchen. Then, another man screamed.

            “LAKE! ONE MOMENT HERE, PLEASE! HELP ME!”

            “I do apologize for the interruption, sir,” the female named Lake made a pleasing face to Matt. Her green eyes shined. She then called the man who was with him at the counter, “Louie. Assist them for me, will you?”

            The man named Louie came to them, and the female went inside the kitchen café. It was the camera hanging on the man’s neck that Matt first noticed. Later, after following through looks at the female, the waiter asked;

            “How may I help you, sir?”

            “I – ”

            “Excuse me, Matt,” Rodolfo terminated Matt and questioned the waiter. “Where’s the restroom?”

            “This way sir,” the waiter answered. He pointed to the little hallway on the left side of the café counter.

            “Thanks,” then Rodolfo hurriedly ran to the restroom.

            “Sir?” asked again the waiter after a moment of silence.

            Matt, who was watching Rodolfo go on the restroom, shook his head and said, “Two croissants.”

            Without even checking, the waiter replied, “We’re sorry, sir. Croissants were only available during the morning. It is the best selling pastry at this café and we always ran out of stock before noon. But you could always pick up something else. How about cinnamon rolls?”

            “We’re good, thanks. He was really craving for croissants,” Matt lied, pointing at the same hallway where Rodolfo had gone to. “I’ll just wait for him and go.”

            The man on the counter nodded and did not reply. But a moment later, he began to talk to Matt. It was unexpected.

            “Excuse me, sir.”

            Matt turned around to face the counter. “Yes?”

            “I don’t want to intrude on your life, but were you two together?”

            “What do you mean by together?” Matt confusedly asked back.

            “In a relationship as boyfriend and boyfriend.”

            “No,” Matt was stunned by the answer. “No, we’re not. Just friends. Why?”

            “Nothing. I just noticed that the colour of your suit and pants are the same as your friend’s tie, which is, I believe, navy blue and the colour of your friend’s suit and pants are the same as your tie, which is black. So, I figured, and thought, that you two were couples and planned for this colour,” the waiter answered, he was smiling while explaining.

            “Oh, I didn’t notice it before we left New York. But I’m sure that the colour of our suits and ties was purely coincidental,” Matt just realized the colour of their outfits. He questioned himself quietly why he had not noticed it before.

            “You two are from New York?” the waiter’s voice raised out of shock.

            While nodding, Matt replied happily, “Yeah. It’s where we live. We visited a university here out of boredom in New York.”

            “Boredom?”

            “After the university in New York was burned, our classes were suspended. And while it was suspended, my friend and I were bored at our homes. So we visited the university’s twin brother here in Los Angeles.”

            “Sophomores?”

            “No. Freshmen. Are you?”

            “Yes.”

            Matt saw Rodolfo coming back to the counter. He wondered what took him so long. Then he responded to the waiter, examining the uniform. He saw the waiter’s nametag.

            “Thanks for the talk, Louie. We’ll be going.”

            “It’s nothing,” Louie contentedly answered, envying the two.

            Matt motioned Rodolfo to walked with him out of the door. Perplexed Rodolfo asked ‘why’ before they reached the café door and Matt answered that the one he likes was not available and said that they will have dinner at the hotel. Rodolfo agreed.

            They went straight to the bay to get fresh air. The number of people at the bay decreased. Matt removed his sunglasses and suits. It was to watch the blue sky turned to black and feel the air. Rodolfo also did the same. Matt started another conversation by asking. Like most people did at the bay, they sat on the white, fine sand and watched the beautiful sunset along with the blue water. They had a wonderful moment sitting at the bay.

            After the sunset, they took a taxi, went to the mall and bought a clothes to exchange for the night. Then went to the hotel that Matt had booked online. Everything at the hotel lobby went smooth and had their room prepared. They wished to themselves that the sunset moment happen again in the future.

            While at the shower, Rodolfo remembered Martin, Terrence and the short discussion they had in the hangar. Every word was alive in his head, dancing. He wanted to confess his feelings, but the phrase he said in the car stopped him whenever he had the courage. He thought that it made Matt thought he was into girls.

            And while Matt was at the couch, waiting for Rodolfo to finish, Hailey came to his head. He was worried about her. Then, the same panic voice he heard and the screeching pushcart wheels on the floor played over in his ears. Because of it, again, Matt overthought.