Chapter 7 

Mateo held the shop door open for Carla, smiling as she made a kissy face at him. “Ooh, this one’s cute!” Carla exclaimed as soon as she entered the store, gravitating towards a selection of smart jackets. 

As it turned out, the dress code for Mateo’s new job was more relaxed than he’d first guessed. But he still didn’t really have much of the right kind of clothing, so Carla had volunteered to help him choose some jackets and shirts.

[Don’t even try and convince me, that looks like shit Carlita,] Mateo said in Spanish so that the shop assistant nearby wouldn’t understand. The lady just smiled politely when Mateo walked past her as he smiled nonchalantly. 

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad! You’d look good in it, I’m sure,” Carla enthused, holding the bright red jacket up to Mateo’s torso. He crossed his arms, staring his sister down. “Seriously? I don’t wear red; only navy and black. I’ll just get some more black ones.”

Carla snorted, putting the jacket back on the rack before picking up a wine red one next to it. “Fine, but this one would seriously suit you. Red looks good on you, brings out the blue of your eyes.”

Mateo shook his head, laughing slightly. “Since when have my eyes been blue? They’re what I like to call ‘sludge-coloured’; just a grim combination of grey and brown with, admittedly, some blue in there too.”

Carla huffed, snatching the jacket back from her brother and trailing her hand across a few different items, feeling the softness of each fabric. “How about dark green?” She asked, stopping on a simple but fairly oversized forest green jacket.

Uncrossing his arms, Mateo took the jacket from Carla as she handed it to him, inspecting it. [Nice find, this one is actually pretty decent,] he said with a slight smile. His sister beamed, pushing him towards the changing rooms. 

[I’ll be right out here, take as long as you want trying on that and these shirts,] she told him, handing over the plain shirts they’d found earlier. Once he was done, Mateo inspected himself in the mirror, nodding slowly.

I actually look pretty good in this, huh, he thought with a light smile, appreciating the jacket Carla had found. Once he was back in his own clothes, he pulled open the curtain on the changing room, coming face to face with a beaming Carla.

[Like the jacket?] she asked, glancing down at the item carefully placed back on its hanger in Mateo’s hands. He nodded, rolling his eyes when Carla muttered [told you so].

[Fine fine, I like it. Happy now?] he asked, handing a few of the shirts back to Carla which hadn’t fit him. [Mm very, actually,] she replied with a big smile. 

Heading back over to the shirts aisle of the shop, Carla and Mateo put back the shirts which didn’t work, finding some in varying sizes and looking at different styles. [Careful, Carlita,] Mateo called as he pulled his sister out of someone’s path.

“Mateo Montero?” A familiar voice asked and Mateo dragged his gaze over to the person Carla had almost walked in to. [Oh, uh. Hello,] he replied before sighing and trying again. “Hello, Mr Hargrave,” he said politely whilst Carla snickered behind him.

[Nice job greeting him in Spanish there Matelito,] she pointed out, poking his shoulder. Mateo huffed, brushing her hand away and smiling awkwardly at his boss. 

“Uh, so this is my little sister, Carla,” he introduced the twenty-one year old, not entirely sure what he was supposed to say when seeing his boss on one of his few days off. 

“Ah, it’s nice to meet you - again, I think. We met briefly at the park that time too, if I recall correctly. You may call me Jedidiah; you both can, I’m not a massive fan of ‘Mr Hargrave’, it feels like my father rather than me.”

Mateo blinked a few times, shoving his free hand in his pocket. “You can call me Mateo then too; Mr Montero feels too formal otherwise.”

Jedidiah smiled at him for a moment, before a woman slipped her hand into Jedidiah’s, resting her head on his shoulder carefully so as to not mess with her bantu knots. “Aren’t you going to introduce me too, Jed?” She said, her voice as soft as silk. 

Jedidiah smiled, glancing over at her before locking eyes with Mateo again for a moment. “This is Lesedi, my best friend. You’ll probably see a lot of her; she swings by the hotel a lot.” 

Lesedi grinned, leaning up to whisper in Jedidiah’s ear so that only he could hear “yes but not to see you, dear; you know I’m just visiting my girlfriend.”

Chuckling slightly, Jedidiah patted her arm, smiling warmly. Lesedi had met her girlfriend, one of Jedidiah’s employees, by accident one time when she came to visit her best friend. Jedidiah felt like some kind of accidental matchmaker, because he introduced the two, and then gave the receptionist his friend’s number when Lesedi had forgotten to do so herself.

The two had been a happy couple for quite some time now, and it always made Jedidiah unbelievably happy to see someone he loved looking so elated with another person.

“Sorry to cut this short but we really need to find some smart clothes, so do you mind if we catch up some other time?” Carla asked, aware of how long they’d already been looking but only had one jacket and a shirt to show for it.

Mateo nodded, glancing down at the hanger with the dark green jacket on. “Yes, you’ll have to excuse us. Have a nice rest of your weekend, Mr- uh, Jedidiah,” he said, trying to not sound too awkward but not really succeeding. 

“Oh that’s fine, you have a nice weekend too. I’ll see you on Monday?” Jedidiah asked, as if worried that Mateo wouldn’t show up at work for some reason. Mateo had never missed a day of work in his life; he was nothing if not reliable. 

As Mateo and Carla turned to go, Lesedi tapped Mateo’s shoulder. “Sorry, but if you’re looking for smart clothes, then- Jed don’t you still have those jackets I bought you a few years ago which were too small? They look like they’d fit- uh, I’m sorry I don’t think I caught your name,” she said kindly, turning to Mateo.

“Ah, it’s Mateo, Miss Lesedi.”

The woman laughed brightly, patting his shoulder. “No need for the formalities. You’re quite charming aren’t you?” She said in all honesty before turning back to Jedidiah, who nodded. “Yes, I still have them. If it’s alright with you, you could come and try them on? I don’t live far from here,” he explained, glancing between Mateo and Carla.

Mateo opened his mouth to say ‘no thanks, that’s fine’ or something along those lines, but Carla got there faster. “That would be great, thanks! Right, Matelito?” She asked, turning to Mateo and beaming.

He just smiled awkwardly; [thanks for that,] he said in Spanish sarcastically, ending it with a ‘puta’ under his breath.

Puta - bitch