ALICE Ch 177

It’s a tiny, smoky-smelling sandwich shop. The sandwiches are heavy, dense, and possibly the best that Erica has ever tasted. Meri eats ferociously, and she’s no less attractive with mustard on her face.

She wouldn’t be here if she didn’t want to talk, but it looks like she needs a push.

“In the larger context of FUTA, Alice Wilde is becoming more important, but she does not have the recognition of people like Riley Jameson or Adella Salazar,” Erica says.

Meri keeps eating.

“In the smaller context of FUTA Racing, she is the center of everything. What possible reason could Glynda Darcy have for treating her in a way that can only upset her when her commitment to the team is so…” Erica searches for the right word in English. “Precarious.”

“What’s left on her contract? How many more races?” Meri asks, pausing to take a drink of sweet tea.

“You don’t know?”

Meri snorts. “Glynda knows. Annette knows. Alice knows.” There’s that eye twitch again. It’s almost as though Meri has a grievance with Alice. “I’ll bet they were working up a revision when the crash happened.” She takes a deep breath through her nose.

“You think that they quietly offered her that while publicly trying to sweep it under the rug?”

Meri gazes into Erica’s eyes. Seconds go by.

Erica frowns and puts down her sandwich, then wipes her mouth.

“There would be no problem if this had happened,” she says. “Has it happened?”

Meri glances toward the door, but it’s obvious why she’s chosen this place. She must like the food, understandably, but it’s unlikely that FUTA executives will see them together.

“It hasn’t happened,” she says, and there it is. She’s talking. Sharing sensitive information. “Yet,” she adds.

Erica sits back in her seat, which creaks a little. This place is falling apart. Everything’s held together by grease. She’ll be dreaming about these sandwiches months from now. She gazes across the table at Meri.

“If there was a car problem, as some believe, and Glynda admitted to it…” Erica trails off, looking expectant.

Meri holds her ground.

“It would not be embarrassing. Not really,” Erica says. “The team is new. These things, for smaller teams, are not unusual.”

“Yeah,” Meri says, and Erica wonders if she has a fetish for Americans that she’s just noticing for the first time. Meri looks nothing like Valeria Flores, but they have a lot in common. Anger that they don’t want to let on about. A sort of Steely calm. Smart, but not loud about it.

Erica tries to focus. She’s here for the story first and a pretty face second. Meri wants her to figure it out, but she’s refusing to spoon-feed her. Smart; Meri has no reason to trust Erica. What’s her stake in this?

[ You thought being a tiny trans person in Florida was scary? Well, get ready for being a tiny trans person in the middle of an evacuation in Florida that's eerily similar to the beginning of that Brad Pitt zombie movie but also with bad weather. Coming soon to a theater near you. Rated R. "Hey, Siri? What's a 'storm surge' and why would it be a problem for a person under five feet tall? Asking for a friend." ]