Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) Page 17

  Before she got all the way back to her desk over on the far side of the room, which was a cluttered looking thing, he cleared his throat. The words that came out were a bit more dry than he would have figured they would be, truth be told. Almost like he was pissed at being mistaken for a sandwich guy. That wasn't true. Working in a bookstore was only a half step above that.

  "Tyler Gartner, Coalition of Nations. I'm pretty sure I can't get you any food right now." That wasn't true, since he was as able as anyone to take a list of what people wanted to a deli, but it got the woman to spin in place, her face suddenly strained.

  "You look so young! I... Didn't think..." Then she winced, her face going dark. "You should have said something."

  That was a strange thing to say. It was his fault that she'd instantly compartmentalized him and set in her mind that he had to be less than he was? From her facial expression it seemed that she was going to get upset with him if he didn't placate her instantly and let her off the hook. The thing there was that it wasn't a huge deal to him. Sandwich guys were people too, and just as good as anyone else. No, it was just a manipulative power play on her part.

  Only he had no stake in this particular lady. She was cute enough, for an older woman, but being around all those Alede had skewed his thoughts that way. His exposure had given him a kind of armor against women that he hadn't had before.

  Instead he smiled at her, his face a bit cool.

  "I did. It was the very first thing I said even." It came out calmly enough, his voice not at all upset, as far as he could tell. She still seemed upset. Like he was supposed to have done something else entirely.

  After a few tense moments of half glaring from the woman, she finally went on, her attitude shifting a little bit when he didn't back down instantly.

  "Are you sure you're Tyler Gartner?"

  That got him to laugh. He looked wrong for her mind, so now she was questioning his identity. That made sense.

  "As far as I know. Would anyone ever think to fake being me? That would be interesting. I have my license on me." No car, but he could drive. His mom had suggested he get it when he turned sixteen. It hadn't been a rule, she'd just pointed out that it was a good idea at the time, so he'd jumped through the hoops, and practiced enough over the years to keep the skills sharp.

  Lucy had always been good that way. Making suggestions to help him in life, rather than giving him orders to make her own life easier all the time. He'd never had a curfew for instance, she'd just talked to him about making good choices. When Vampires had come out, she'd pointed out to him that being able to protect himself was possibly a good skill for a man to have. She'd even been supportive the last time they'd talked, on the phone, about him doing a good job at work, and not bothering to feel too shy about it all.

  It had really helped.

  For instance, instead of getting angry, he just showed his I.D. picking up on the fact that this woman was subtly trying to push him around. He could leave, in that case. Having a liaison to the super natural world might be a good idea, but it probably wasn't an emergency. He was about to mention that when she glanced at his name and then sighed, like he'd done something wrong.

  "Why don't you have a seat? We'll get you into the booth and set up at the break, which is in... Seven minutes. Jeff will want to introduce you. We have an info sheet already that your secretary provided."

  Then she bustled off, glancing back at him with a hard look on her face. It was probably his age, he decided. That, or she figured he wasn't Human and had a problem with that. Nothing else came to mind as to what it could be specifically. Not unless she really wanted that sandwich.

  He did sit, on a tan, cloth covered, love seat thing. It was rough, but soft enough for him not to be uncomfortable. Almost exactly six minutes later, the woman stood again, someone talking to her over a subdued headset, that she'd been wearing the whole time. It was small, sleek and barely showed against her dark skin.

  She smoothed her dress, and walked to the door into the other room, which was sort of close to her desk. She pointed at it, rather commandingly.

  "It will be one minute. Karen will take you once you get in. Move directly to the inside booth, where you'll be hooked up." She had a watch, which she stared at, instead of making eye contact with him. It could have been part of her job, but when the door opened Tyler saw a slightly younger woman, who was about thirty, who smiled at him warmly.

  Karen, he supposed. She was a bit less good looking than the darker woman at the front desk, but she actually seemed like a nice person, who wasn't judging him.

  "Mr. Gartner? Karen Hart. Glad to meet you. Sorry about the rush, but we only have five minutes to get things set up. Mr. Smears did the first intro, so after the break, when we come back, he'll do that again, then say hello. After that all you have to do is answer the questions. This is a very conversational program."

  "Sounds good! I was told about this about two hours ago, so I have nothing prepared really. Hopefully he has the good questions. I don't have an internet porn tape to go over or anything. That's a bit of a shame, since it would be more interesting than my real life."

  "No doubt. Well, when in doubt, pretend to get angry and storm off the show? Not that this topic really needs that. Fake controversy is controversy too, though, and that sells. I'll signal you to do that, if we start to get stuck?"

  He nodded, and smiled at the woman, who did it back, even as they moved. There was enough eye contact to leave him feeling like he was really there and everything. Unlike the woman in the front part of the place.

  There was a bit of winding around to get into the room with the two white men in it. The chubby one that had waved earlier half stood and leaned across the table things were set up on, and gestured toward a rather nice black chair.

  "Jeff Smears. Nice to meet you."

  "Tyler Gartner. Call me Ty."

  There was a nod, and the man sat himself down, picked up a pen and made a note, presumably of what he wanted to be called. The other man rolled his eyes, and waved from across the table.

  "Denny. I do color commentary a few times a week here. I have some material about Vampires and werewolves..."

  Tyler winced.

  "Wolf Shifters. They really don't like being called werewolves. Pretty much anything with 'were' in it is going to be insulting. You might as well start dropping N-bombs if we're going there." He'd heard something like that, but the man went wide eyed, and then made a face that spoke of passing a kidney stone, as far as Ty could tell.

  "Fuck. I just did three minutes of material. Crap."

  The other guy, Jeff, just smiled and shook his head. "Well, we'll get on top of that after the break. Better to apologize fast. If this is the first you've heard about it, then fixing it now is the best that you could have done, right?"

  Tyler nodded, looking at the slightly embarrassed seeming Dennis.

  "That's true. Most Shifters won't come after you for making a mistake. Not if you really try to repair it." He didn't know that for sure, but it was better than telling the man to keep on doing what he had been that way.

  Then the man seemed to just sit there for nearly two minutes, reading, as Karen set up a large microphone for him, just pulling it into place and doing a sound check, then put a circular nylon shield in front of it. That was in black. Most of the stuff was new looking, more or less. The whole thing was nice, if not glamorous. A big pair of earmuffs were slapped on his head, and adjusted for him, then Karen touched his shoulder, and gave him a thumbs up, with a supportive smile to go with it.

  Being encouraging.

  Stepping back she spoke, which he could hear since she had some kind of mic on, even if he couldn't see it.

  "We go live in three, two..." Then she made a fist in the air, getting Jeff to speak.

  "Welcome back to the Jeff Smears program. We have with us Tyler Gartner, from the Coalition of Nations. That's an organization whose goal is to bring the Human and other, communities together. Mr. Gartner
has years of experience in dealing with the problems and issues of various cultures, and has decided to use these contacts to the benefit of all. Good morning, Mr. Gartner." He sounded polite enough, and was busy reading the whole thing, which was filled with lies as anyone should be able to see.

  He was just too young to have years of experience with almost anything. He barely had that with masturbation even.

  "Call me Ty." His voice was deeper than normal, sounded calm and a good bit older, even to his own ear. "Thanks for having me here today."

  They chatted for a bit, until Denny broke in.

  "Sooo, I seemed to have stepped in it already. I made some jokes about werewolves and um, werechickens. You said that that word, 'were' is kind of verboten? I did not know that. I want to apologize to anyone I offended there. Seriously."

  He nodded, but the words that came out were a bit kinder than that.

  "More like insulting. Shifters won't get that worked up over it, but it isn't a great way to make friends either. Basically, it's all good if you call them Shifters. Sometimes the polite form will name their animal form first. Wolf Shifter, Bear Shifter, Cat Shifter. I haven't heard of a Chicken Shifter, but I think that would be the polite way of saying it. If not, I'm certain I'll hear about it before the end of the day. Not shy about chatting with people, the Shifters. Not as a rule. Most are decently nice though, so don't be afraid to ask them all those annoying questions you want to know the answers to. It's only fair to dump that kind of thing on them, now that they're out."

  That might have been a problem, but it probably wasn't one. After all, most people were never going to meet a real Shifter anyway. Which was a thing he spoke about for a bit.

  "Look, the real fact is, most of the time, if there's a problem, it's really just going to be another Human being bothering you, not one of these other types of person. There simply aren't enough of them around for that kind of thing. But, if something comes up, you can get in touch with us, we'll make some calls and talk to people. That will probably fix things most of the time."

  Jeff, gave him a look that said he was an asshole, and smirked.

  "Really? We have Vampires out there. They drink blood for a living. That isn't exactly a soft and polite thing, is it?"

  He tried to shrug, then spoke his words just flowing out smoothly.

  "Most of them drink bottled blood. The ones I know mainly drink the animal kind. Now that doesn't mean that they might not take a sip if you open a vein for them, but really Jeff, if I set a cake in front of you and beg you to lick some frosting, are you going to resist forever? On the other hand, if I set a cake there, and tell you that it's mine, and that you shouldn't touch it, are you going to dig in anyway?"

  "People aren't cake."

  That got him to smile, since it was just the truth.

  "Exactly! And Vampires, even if they think you might be tasty, are still people. They look at you and see lunch, but also their brother, or sister, or mom. They're far more likely to treat us like people than the other way around. Which isn't good on our part of that equation. Not yet. We need to work together. All of us do. Doing anything else is just being bigoted."

  There was a pause, which got Karen to start making talking motions with her right hand, sitting on her stool over in the corner. She had a little desk there. Jeff seemed not to know what to say, even though it hadn't been that shocking of a statement, as far as Ty could tell. Denny didn't either, so Karen jumped up, and moved to a mic about four feet from her. She pulled it close, her eyes wide.

  "Hello, dead air! We had a Vampire on the show, via phone a few months ago, Eve Benson. I don't suppose you know her?"

  That took him a second, but he was able to smile and speak then.

  "I do. She's a friend of mine, actually. In fact we're meeting up tomorrow."

  Karen half glared at Jeff, but the man just seemed flummoxed still. That got the woman to keep going.

  "Oh? Are you dating? Inquiring minds want to know. You mentioned a sex tape earlier?"

  "Okay, now you're floundering. I said I didn't have one. I've got to work on that. Besides, I think my girlfriends would freak out if I did that with her. At least without getting permission first. We're meeting up to practice fighting. In case anyone wants to know, she is wicked fast. Good too. I make her work with me in slow motion. For her I mean. I get to go full out. It's only fair." He laughed a bit. "I'm kidding, that still isn't a fair fight. She's a Vampire, you know?"

  Karen stopped too, then made a face.

  "Girlfriends? Plural? Now inquiring minds are going to want to know all about that."

  It was his turn to feel on the spot, but he waved his left hand trying to get himself started.

  "Ah... Okay, that's probably going a bit over the top about the relationship. I live with two women, and things could work out like that... But I'm pretty much just talking myself up right now. You know, see all the women that want to get with me? I'm hot... You know it." It was funny sounding, but everyone laughed, so it worked for him in the moment.

  Jeff even managed to rally.

  "So, who are they? Regular Humans or..."

  "Well, I won't give names, but one is a Vampire, and the other is a Shifter. Both women, like I said."

  Denny leaned in, his pale face looking a bit silly.

  "So, you mean I can't score a date with you too?"

  "Um..." He got that it was a joke, but shrugged. "Yeah, we can do that. I've never dated a guy, but you're kind of cute, so why not?"

  They managed to get back to living with different types of people, which he hardly knew anything about, having only done it for a few days. Still he gave some information points, and it did leave him seeming like he knew a bit about what he was saying.

  They even kept him past the top of the hour, and took calls. It was fun, and funny, but did let him give out the number people could call if they had a real problem.

  "Remember, though, my job here is to pretty much put other people together. Hopefully, more than that won't be needed most of the time. Now, Denny, let's go make out?"

  It was a good place to end things on, but Denny wasn't allowed to leave yet, the show having half an hour left.

  Through the window he saw that Zack was standing there, ignoring the lady from before, as Karen helped him get out of the room.

  She held his arm as they moved along, and she whispered into his ear.

  "That was good. Just the right balance of information, lecture, and humor. Now, we just need to leak pictures of you and Denny kissing and we can piss-off the right wing enough to increase ratings. I'll just call him over... He's gay and not seeing anyone, so as long as your girlfriends won't pull off any body parts..."

  There was a giggle to go with the words, but he nodded.

  "We can set that up? Or, I should probably take the high road for now. You know, do this as if it were serious?"

  "Yeah, I can see that one. So, if we have problems with any supernatural people, we can call on you? Or if we need to get one for the show? The last one we had on was Ms. Benson. That's a thing we need to change. We should probably have her on regularly. You said you know her?"

  That meant he had to not promise to convince Eve of anything, but also mentioned it to her.

  "If I get a chance I'll ask her about that. I have a meeting with the Shifter President in about..." He pretended to look at his watch, which he didn't have. "Now. So I should go. But yes, if you have something related to the Others, you can always call and ask me about it."

  Zack waved at her, and carefully didn't look at the dark skinned lady at all. For her part she was standing there staring at him, her slightly sagging chest pushed forward, and lips damp and shining.

  Tyler didn't even get to say hello properly when he was taken through a few steps with a tug on his arm. That got him back to the owl room, where the node point was. Zack let go of him, and sighed.

  "Rochelle there is a piece of work, isn't she? In case you're wondering she didn't see you as a H
uman. Not something else either. That's why she was acting so funny. Her first move was to think you couldn't be a high status person, which is what she was looking for from a guest. Karen is better that way. You should call her and see if she wants to go out sometime."

  He looked at the Greater Demon and tried not to feel troubled.

  "I'm kind of seeing Ginger and Calley."

  "Oh, sure. But if you want to keep them, you have to constantly point out that other women want you too. They're both good looking enough to get a lot of men, but they're still women. Your greatest value to them at the moment is being wanted by other women. She was firing off signals though, Karen was."

  Tyler didn't know if that was true or not, but decided to at least call and let her say no. After all, Greater Demons might actually know how to do things like that, and it really wasn't the sort of thing that he would have considered on his own. Did women really value men more if other women were into them?

  Really, if that was the case, it shouldn't be hard to get other women to do that.

  "So I should bribe some girls to say I'm sexy?"

  Zack smiled at him. "I wouldn't go that far into it. Calley and Ginger are both good people. They need to be handled differently than men, but they're reasonable and rational. Even Karen is. You should avoid the ones like Rochelle. A lot of women are in things for their own benefit, and will use you if they can. A lot of them really. Not that men are perfect, since you like them too you need to be aware of that, relationship wise. They just want to use you for sex. The ones that like you will anyway. If you're into that then they won't be that manipulative about it."

  Then the man wondered off, but called back a few seconds later.

  "We'll leave to get Mr. Samson in about half an hour. I need to get a snack first."

  Even if he was off the clock, Ty got back to work, since, as Lucy had mentioned, doing a good job there was important.