This is the third part of a three part story. This chapter is told from the point of view of Alex.
I was drifting in and out of sleep, snuggled against the sleeping body of my lover. His presence was nice, but his snoring was annoying. Perhaps I would need to insist that he went back to his own room from now on after we did our dirty deeds together. I wondered how Steph put up with it. I didn't really know enough about their home life to speculate. We'd been intimate, but we weren't yet together in that way that couples or long-term throuples get. I wondered if we would reach that point. I had been sincere in my promise to Steph to not take her man, and I also knew the long-term statistics about throuples. However nice things were now (apart from the snoring), this was unlikely to last.
My Dad had drilled me on classic rock history. I thought of our little arrangement as the pre-Yoko phase of the Beatles, the pre-Wall phase of Pink Floyd, the pre-Rumours phase of Fleetwood. Without the drugs, obviously. The pre... actually would it be the pre-conception phase of Oasis? I'm sure that they weren't fighting prior to Liam's birth. Anyway, the point was, this would evolve into something else, and soon enough we would be choosing whether the break-up song would be a fond farewell or Swiftian in its intensity. I thought that we were adult enough for the former. And in the meantime, we were making great music.
Todd and I had had a good trip so far. We left for Riyadh today, and then we would be heading home, with new contacts and contracts lined up. We really were a good team, and Steph had proven to be well worth bringing on board despite the closeness of it all. She had good ideas, and had a winning sincerity with officialdom. I could be arrogant and impatient, and sometimes I needed to be kept shut in my box while Steph negotiated stuff.
She must have sensed me thinking of her, because suddenly my phone was ringing. 5:30am? Surely she remembered the time difference. Frowning, I picked up the call, bleary eyed.
"Steph?"
"Alex? Oh God, sorry did I wake you? I keep forgetting!" She gave a ditzy laugh. My frown deepened. This was not a good news call, particularly if she felt it was so important that she had to play the blond card.
"Hey Steph, it's okay. How can I help?"
"Oh I'm so sorry. It was nothing really. It's just that Todd didn't pick up, and I tried ringing three times. I so forgot about the time! He must have his phone on mute. Maybe when you see him, could you let him know to check his phone? I mean I feel bad calling three times. I need to make some dΓ©cor decisions in the new house. I mean hopefully when he sees three calls he'll call be back at a better time, just as long as it's not three in the morning for me!" Could you mention it anyway, just in case?
"I surely shall, Steph. Three times, you say? Okay, I've got the message! Hey honey, do you mind if I get a couple more hours sleep first? Then I'll go knock on his door."
"Sure!" she giggled. "And sorry again!"
I put the phone down, seriously concerned. I knew their alarm signals. One squeeze for alert, two for danger, three for emergency. Steph had definitely been working on the assumption that she was being overheard, and she had something big going down.
Todd was awake, having heard my end of the conversation, and he'd picked up my expression. We'd installed a secure signaling app for this circumstance, but we were normally reluctant to use it. Nothing is truly secure.
I bent over to whisper in Todd's ear. "Emergency call from Steph. Message her back. Assume we're being monitored."
He nodded, brow furrowed, and unlocked his phone. Grimacing, he showed me that there had indeed been three missed calls from Steph. He established a VPN connection and pulled up their messaging App. He sent a single "?" to Steph. It wasn't long before her message came back. His eyebrows shot skywards, and without comment he gave his phone to me to read, and started putting himself together to go back to his room.
Steph's message was pretty blunt.
"We are cooperating fully with US and Saudi authorities. It appears that A has been using our software for fraud. Please be warm towards A/F and invite them BOTH to visit us at a date to be arranged later. BEHAVE yourselves. Any trouble contact.."
The message ended with the contact details of two people who were apparently US agents of some kind.
Todd came out of the bathroom, and I pointed to the way that Steph had emphasized 'BEHAVE'. He nodded, and made a fucking gesture with his fingers, followed by a slit throat gesture. Well, that was it for our summer of love, at least for now. At least the snoring would no longer be a problem: with the strength of Steph's messaging this morning, perhaps we would be sleeping at separate hotels. Or in separate jail cells.
***
We made it to Riyadh that afternoon. In snatched, oblique conversations, we had agreed to keep to our original plan except for following Steph's instructions. We only had two nights here and then we were headed home.
Keeping some distance from Ahmad was impossible. As soon as we arrived at the airport, we were met by his personal chauffeur, who told us that our rooms had been upgraded to be on the top floor of the hotel, next to Ahmad's Presidential Suite. When I protested, I was told that he was fully covering our costs. I wondered what he was chasing from us.
I didn't have to wonder too long. We had been informed that Ahmad was unavoidably detained and that we would see him and Fatemah in the morning. But after Todd and I had had a thoroughly professional dinner together and gone to our separate rooms, there was a quiet knock on my door. I looked through the peephole, and there was Ahmad.
I open the door, furiously trying to work out how to handle this. Almost certainly, Ahmad was being watched even more closely than we were.
"Ahmad! What a pleasure," I said, but I didn't invite him in.
"Alex," he said, smiling and extending his hand. "I happened to get here earlier that expected, and I thought to myself... 'who better to spend my bonus time with?'"
"How sweet of you!" I said, clapping my hands in joy. "Your sensitive consideration knows no bounds! But I do wonder... would it be seemly for us to be alone in a hotel room together? I wouldn't want to give Fatemah any cause for concern."
"Oh," he said, waving airily, "she doesn't get here until the morning. And it would be a shame to waste such a brilliant night! The view from my balcony is simply stunning, and I must insist that you look at it. And if you play billiards, we have an excellent table." The phrases rolled off his tongue so smoothly, he must have used it a hundred times. Despite myself, I could feel the sleazy but intense charm that had pulled Steph in, hook line and sinker.
"Ahmad," I said, leaning forward conspiratorially, "I'm much reassured, and ordinarily I would be delighted. But I'm under strict instructions to follow the highest possible standards while I'm here. Apparently Stephanie had some sort of strange interaction with somebody last time -- something about a gift of lingerie? She said it didn't mean anything, but Todd has laid down the law to us. I am not to leave this room tonight or to have company."
I lowered my voice, maxing up my sultry tones. "I do have a surprise for you though. We are going to invite you both to visit California. I'm very sure that Stephanie and Todd will be able to entertain Fatemah for a day while we go over the details of some 'product development.' As I said that last bit, I made the same fucking gesture that Todd had shown me earlier, and turned on my brightest, sexiest smile. "More liberal laws in California, too. We can try some innovations that you can't do here. Perhaps I could convince Stephanie to join us in the discussion while Todd entertains Fatemah?"
He had been looking frustrated, but brightened up at the last part of my speech, and particularly when I suggested a threesome with Steph. The more I could get him thinking with his balls, the better. Men were easy.
***
Fatemah proved remarkably obliging the next day too, and I began to think that she was collaborating with the Saudi authorities in the same way that we were in the States. When Todd formally made the invitation, it looked for a second like Ahmad was about to intervene with some reason why he had to go alone, but she immediately swooped in with a delighted acceptance.
"And I'm
so
looking forward to spending time with Alex and Stephanie while Todd and Ahmad talk shop," she exclaimed, with a mischievous glint in her eye. "After all, we women will be delighted to have a spa day while the men do their important work."
I just about choked, and Todd struggled to keep a straight face, but he rose to the challenge. "I think that we can have a mixture of activities. I know that Alexandra is looking forward to briefing your husband on some of the more technical questions that he's been asking about. Something to do with the fluidity of the client interface, wasn't it Alex?" I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
"And Stephanie and I would be delighted to discuss some of the concepts that we've been thinking about for the Women in Saudi business program with you, and combine that with a visit to some other companies doing similar programs. That way we can use our time efficiently," Todd continued smoothly.