The Long Ride: An Uber Romance

The ping came in at 11:47 PM on a Tuesday. A Tuesday, of all nights, the deadest night of the week in a city that never sleeps. I'd been circling the West Village for an hour, watching my earnings plateau at a pathetic sixty-three dollars, wondering why I'd thought driving for Uber would be a reasonable way to pay off student loans.

My name is Alejandro Reyes. I'm twenty-nine, I have a master's degree in sociology that's doing absolutely nothing for me career-wise, and I spend approximately forty hours a week ferrying drunk strangers across Manhattan for tips that rarely exceed fifteen percent.

The ride request showed a pickup on Christopher Street, heart of the gayborhood, and a drop-off in Brooklyn. Thirty-minute ride, maybe forty with traffic. The passenger's name was Theo, and his profile photo showed a blurry figure at what looked like a wedding.

I accepted the ride and pulled up to the corner five minutes later.

Theo was waiting outside a bar I'd driven past a hundred times. He was tall, that was the first thing I noticed, with dark curly hair that looked like it hadn't seen a comb in days and glasses that sat slightly crooked on his nose. He was wearing a rumpled button-down, sleeves rolled to the elbows, and the expression of someone who'd just received very bad news.

"Alejandro?"

"That's me. Theo?"

"Yeah."

He slid into the backseat, and I noticed the red rims around his eyes. He'd been crying. Recently, from the look of it.

"Brooklyn, right? The address on Third Avenue?"

"Yeah. Sorry, I should, I should just, "

He didn't finish the sentence. Just stared out the window as I pulled away from the curb.

I don't usually talk to passengers. Most of them prefer it that way, headphones in, eyes on phones, pretending the driver is a robot rather than a human being with a sociology degree and opinions about late-stage capitalism. But something about Theo's silence felt different. Heavy. Like it needed to be interrupted.

"Rough night?"

He looked up, startled, like he'd forgotten I was there.

"What?"

"You look like you're having a rough night. Sorry if that's overstepping."

"No, it's... yeah. Rough night."

He laughed, but there was no humor in it.

"Rough year, honestly. Tonight was just the cherry on top."

"Want to talk about it? I'm a pretty good listener. Comes with the job."

"Are you sure you want to hear about my pathetic life? It's a long drive."

"I've got nothing but time."

He was quiet for a moment, looking at me in the rearview mirror like he was deciding whether I could be trusted. Then he sighed, pulled off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes.

"My ex got engaged. Tonight. To the guy he left me for."

"Ouch."

"They posted it all over Instagram. The ring, the champagne, the tearful friends congratulating them. Six months ago, he was telling me I was too clingy and he needed space. Now he's planning a destination wedding in Portugal."

"Portugal's overrated anyway. Too many tourists."

That got a real laugh out of him. Small, surprised, but genuine.

"Have you been?"

"No. But I've driven a lot of people back from JFK after Portugal trips, and they always seem exhausted."

"Compelling evidence."

"I'm nothing if not observational."

We were crossing into Brooklyn now, the Manhattan skyline shrinking in the rearview mirror. Theo had stopped staring out the window and was watching me instead, his expression curious.

"You're different,"

he said.

"Different how?"

"Most Uber drivers just want me to rate them five stars and get out of their car. You're actually talking to me like a person."

"You are a person. As far as I can tell."

"Debatable, after the amount of whiskey I just drank."

"Fair point."

He laughed again, and something in my chest loosened. I had no business feeling invested in a stranger's emotional state, I had enough of my own problems, but there was something about Theo that made me want to keep him laughing. To make sure his night ended better than it had apparently begun.

Traffic was light, but I found myself taking the longer route. Not consciously, or so I told myself, but somehow we ended up on the scenic path along the waterfront instead of the most direct route to his address.

Theo didn't seem to notice. He was too busy telling me about his ex.

"We were together for three years. Three years, and he just... left. Said he'd met someone who made him feel 'alive' again. Like I was some kind of emotional dead zone."

"Some people are just looking for an excuse to leave. The reason they give rarely has much to do with reality."

"That's very philosophical for an Uber driver."

"I have a master's in sociology. The philosophy is an unfortunate side effect."

"Sociology?"

He sat up straighter, interested now.