First Class Stamp

by Aj Harmon

  As she turned to the side, however, her ass was getting bigger, another gift from her mother, and there was that twelve year old pooch…her not-so-flat tummy, a gift from Alex. She smiled as she remembered the doctor handing her the tiny boy just seconds after his birth. She couldn’t remember a happier day. And if she had to choose between a couple of pounds of pooch and her son, he’d win every time – no contest.

  Running out of time, Sophia accepted the image that stood before her as the best it was going to get and grabbed a pair of black pumps and slipped them onto her feet. Adding some dangling silver earrings and a handful of slim silver bangles and shoving them over her hand and onto her wrist completed the outfit. She sprayed her favorite Dolce and Gabbana scent on her wrists, ankles and cleavage and grabbed her black clutch from the closet. Dropping in her essentials like wallet, keys, phone, lipstick and handkerchief, she walked out of her apartment and down a flight of stairs to say goodbye to Alex.

  He wasn’t with Gloria. She was sitting at the dining room table reading the newspaper.

  “You are beautiful, Sophia! Just beautiful!”

  “Thanks, mom. Where’s Alex?”

  “Downstairs with your father. Have a lovely evening.”

  “I’ll try,” Sophia smiled as she left to find her son.

  He was sitting on a stool behind the counter next to his grandfather and they were in a heated discussion over the following years’ World Cup. She stood in the doorway grinning as they debated.

  “The home team does have some advantage, but that doesn’t mean they’ll win! Where is your pride for your country? Viva Italia!” Aldo cheered.

  “And when was the last time Italy won a World Cup, grandpa? Let’s be realistic here. They don’t have a chance!” Alex argued.

  “Dove è il vostro patriottismo nella tua patria?” Aldo scowled.

  Alex looked confused.

  “Egli è American, dad,” Sophia smiled.

  “I didn’t know you spoke Italian?” Ben said as he rounded the corner and headed for the counter, finding Sophia over the top of the aisles.

  “There are lots of things that you would find fascinating about my baby girl,” Aldo winked.

  Sophia pushed away from the doorframe and made her way to the three men, now grouped at the counter.

  “Oh my,” Aldo grinned. “You look molto bella!”

  “Wow!” agreed Alex. “You look great, mom.”

  She smiled at the two most important men in her life and then her eyes caught Ben’s. His mouth was slightly open and it slowly curved into a smile.

  “You look as lovely as ever, Sophia. Are you ready?” he asked.

  “I am.”

  “We won’t wait up,” Aldo grinned as Ben escorted his daughter from the store.

  Ben and Sophia ended up walking about two blocks before he hailed a cab. “Sorry,” he grimaced as she slid into the backseat.

  “For what?” she asked as he slid in next to her.

  “Your shoes…it must be difficult to walk for long periods of time in them.”

  Sophia chuckled. “We women are tougher than you think. We are brainwashed to put up with the any pain because the benefits far outweigh any discomfort.”

  “The benefits being?” Ben asked.

  “You know,” Sophia blushed. “Longer looking legs, better looking calf muscles, being taller. Thanks, by the way.”

  Now it was Ben’s turn to say, “For what?”

  “For being tall enough that I can still wear heels,” she grinned.

  “Oh, well,” Ben chuckled. “Anything for you.”

  She blushed again.

  They rode in silence and the taxi let them off in front of an upscale looking restaurant called The Bourbon. The hostess smiled and greeted Ben by name and seated them immediately, even though there were several parties ahead of them.

  “You must be a bigger big-wig than I thought,” Sophia smiled.

  “Nah!” Ben grinned. “My sister-in-law is the Executive Chef here so I come here often. The food is fantastic!”

  “Oh. Do you have many siblings?”

  “I am one of seven boys.”

  “You could be Italian,” she grinned.

  “Irish actually…many generations back.”

  The waiter arrived and Ben ordered a bottle of Moscata and a plate of stuffed mushrooms.

  “They’re the best you’ll have ever tasted!”

  “I believe you,” she chuckled. “So…six brothers?”

  “Yep,” Ben nodded and began to list them in birth order. “Matt is the oldest and he owns the company that I work for. He’s married to Janie, you’d love her by the way. When you meet her you’ll understand.”

  Sophia raised her eyebrows. When I meet her? Am I going to meet her? But Ben didn’t notice and just kept talking.

  “They have two kids, Ella is five and Christopher is three. Well, they have four kids cuz Janie has two sons from her first marriage, Tyler and Adam. Adam is a doctor and Tyler works with me. And then there’s Mark and he’s married to Katy and she has a son Derek and he also works with me. And Mark is Matt’s business partner but they don’t work in the office much anymore.”

  The waiter arrived at their table with the wine and Ben sniffed and tasted and nodded. The dark red liquid swirled into the glasses and the waiter disappeared again.

  “Andrew is married to Rory and they have a daughter Isabelle and then David is married to Lindsey. She’s the chef here and they are expecting a baby. Then there’s me. Then comes Paul who’s married to Nic and they have a little boy named Gregory. He is the funniest little thing. And then the baby is Tim and he recently married Beth. She’s English.”

  “Phew!” Sophia said. “I will never remember all of that! I’m an only child and I can’t even to begin to imagine…”

  “Well I grew up with it so it’s just normal for me,” Ben shrugged. “But you’re Italian. You must have huge family gatherings,” he grinned.

  “True,” she chuckled. “They are loud and fun and then we go home and it was just the three of us…now the four of us, with Alex.”

  The waiter delivered the sizzling mushrooms oozing with melted cheese and Ben offered Sophia the first pick. “Take that one,” he suggested, pointing to a particularly gooey one.

  Sophia grinned and did as she was told, cutting it in half on her plate with her fork and blowing gently on it for a second before placing it inside her mouth.

  “Well?” Ben asked, anxiously awaiting her opinion.

  She nodded. “You’re right. It’s really good.”

  Satisfied, Ben reached over and scooped a couple of the little morsels onto his plate. “So, you’ve heard enough about me. Tell me about you!”

  “Not much to tell,” she shrugged. “And you probably know it all anyway.”

  “I hardly know anything about you. Start at the beginning.”

  “I’m the only child of Aldo and Gloria Manning. They are both Italian which makes me Italian. Um, they bought the market right before I was born and so that’s where I grew up and makes it pretty pathetic that it’s where I still am.”

  “Not pathetic,” Ben smiled. “A devoted daughter maybe.”

  “Maybe.”

  “You obviously married very young.”

  Sophia closed her eyes. “You don’t wanna hear about that.”

  “Try me,” Ben replied.

  “I met Willis in college. We were both freshmen and we fell in love. Pfft! Who am I kidding? We didn’t fall in love. I don’t know what it was but it certainly wasn’t love. My parents are in love and our marriage was nothing like theirs.”

  “It was bad?” Ben asked.

  “Oh yeah! From about the third month I knew I’d made a mistake, but I wasn’t just going to give up. I figured if we both put some effort into it, we could make it work. But…”

  “He didn’t hold up his end of the bargain.”

  “Nope. I put him through school. I gave up my dream for him and he never appreciate
d any of it.”

  “Your dream?” Ben was curious.

  “It was silly, but to a nineteen year old I thought it was my future.”

  “What?”

  Sophia hesitated, looked down at her hands and then blurted, “Modeling!”

  “Why is that silly?”

  “Because!” Sophia scoffed. “I had the height but nothing else and when I finally got called for a shoot, I was pregnant and couldn’t do it. The only job I ever had was for a chain of salons. I spent the whole day having my feet photographed with different colors of polish and got paid five hundred bucks. My one and only claim to fame.”

  “So you must have beautiful feet,” Ben grinned.

  “One person must have thought so.”

  “Right this minute someone could be having their toes painted because of your picture!”

  Sophia laughed at his comment. “It’s exciting to think about, isn’t it?”

  “Did you have another dream after the modeling thing didn’t work out?”

  “To be the best mom I could be.”

  “You’re obviously a great mom and we already established a devoted daughter, but what about you? You aren’t just a mom and daughter. What about you?”

  She looked bewildered at the question. And timed perfectly the waiter arrived to take their order.

  The rest of the meal was spent chatting about nothing of consequence, just light dinner conversation. They did discover a couple of things in common however. Neither of them planned on leaving the city…they could never move away from their families. Both of them were conservative in their beliefs, being devout in their religion the main reason. And, most importantly, their favorite flavor of ice cream was Neapolitan. “I like how you get one spoonful with all three flavors,” Sophia had said, taking the words right out of Ben’s mouth.

  Catching a taxi home, Ben realized two things. First, she had to be one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met, and two, she was one of the funniest women he’d ever met. Once she became comfortable with him, and that was easy to spot because her shoulders visibly relaxed, he discovered her dry sense of humor and she had him all but choking on his wine a couple of times.

  They slid from the cab at their corner and Ben walked her to the rear door on the side of the building, the entrance that led to a staircase and up to the apartments, his hand on the small of her back.

  “I had…”

  “Thank you…”

  They each spoke at the same time and then both chuckled.

  “You go first,” Ben smiled.

  “Thank you for dinner. I had a good time.”

  “Me too,” smiled Ben. “Do you think that perhaps we could do it again…say next week?”

  “Ben,” she sighed. “I don’t want Alex to…”

  “I know,” he whispered. “I can imagine this must be hard for you.”

  “You are the first man that I have…have gone on a date with since…”

  “You’re not serious?” Ben was shocked.

  “I am,” she nodded. “With the divorce and then mom it just…there hasn’t been time and…”

  “Don’t say no. Think about it okay?”

  Sophia looked at him and nodded. “Okay.”

  “Okay,” he smiled and leant in and kissed her. It was a soft kiss, just lips against lips for a brief moment, and as Ben pulled back and gazed into her eyes he saw that she felt it too. “Good night Sophia. Go inside. Now.”

  She unlocked the lock and stepped inside leaving Ben to stare at the metal door as it closed.

  “I am happy and content,” he told himself repeatedly as he walked away.

  *****

  “How was dinner?” Gloria asked her daughter the next morning.

  “It was nice.”

  “Nice?”

  “Yeah. Nice.”

  “Where did he take you?”

  “A restaurant called The Bourbon. His sister-in-law is the Executive Chef. It was pretty good,” she grinned.

  “He’s a nice man.”

  “Yes he is,” agreed Sophia.

  “Has he asked you out again?”

  “Mom! Even if he did it’s not a good time for me.”

  “And when will it be a good time? Huh? When Alex is older? When he’s gone to college? When?”

  “Alex is, and will always be, my number one priority. I have to look out for him.”

  “So? Alex is a big boy. And you need a life. A life beyond these brick walls. In one more mortgage payment we will have this building paid off and then your father is going to hire more help and you won’t have to feel like you need to be here all the time. Of course you are welcome to live here as long as you like, but you can, and should, get a life!”

  Sophia finished unloading her mother’s dishwasher, even though Gloria insisted she could do it herself.

  “You could do a lot worse than Ben Lathem, you know,” Gloria continued. “Go on another date. Enjoy yourself.”

  13.

  After three days officially in her new job, Maria was very happy. Ben had given her a lovely promotion, a hefty raise, and she loved her assignment. Her job was to work with a team of very talented individuals on web-based training modules for support staff, namely receptionists, assistants, and secretaries. After being hired, they would spend two days interacting with each segment that pertained to their specific job duties.

  Maria’s assignment was to be on the team that created the modules and monitored their effectiveness after they were implemented, which they hoped would be within a few months. She was also charged with ensuring that all support staff already employed by MEL Holdings received the training once it became available. She considered it a challenge and one she was ready to accept.

  At the end of her workday on Wednesday, Maria pushed the up arrow on the elevator and rode up a flight to see if Ben was available for a quick minute. His secretary showed her in to Ben’s office and asked her to have a seat. Ben would be with her momentarily. As she looked around, trying to pass the time, her eyes came to rest on a photo of what she assumed was his family. They appeared to be on the deck of a boat and they all looked carefree and happy.

  A pang of jealousy hit her without warning. She’d been alone for so long, trying to stay strong and keep up a positive outlook for Luca’s sake. But it was hard and she was tired. She wanted a family. She wanted a husband.

  “Hi Maria,” bellowed Ben from behind her. “Sorry to keep you waiting. How are you?” He marched past her and took his seat at the large desk in front of her.

  “I’m well, thank you.”

  “And Luca?”

  “He’s thriving,” she smiled with pride. “St. Luke’s is a blessing. He loves it and has made friends quickly and he’s already a star on the soccer team! I cannot thank you enough for all you’ve done for us.”

  “It’s nothing,” Ben smiled. “What can I help you with?”

  “Well, actually, I was hoping you would let us thank you by coming to dinner. Luca would love to see you and it’s the least I can do,” she smiled with a hint of anticipation.

  “Oh!” Ben appeared surprised. “Oh.”

  “If you are too busy I understand,” Maria added with disappointment and understanding in her voice.

  “No,” Ben shook his head, seeing his reaction had been not taken well. “Um, I’d love to see Luca. When were you thinking?”

  “Saturday?”

  “Yeah, sure, why not? Saturday it is. What time?”

  So they agreed on a time and Maria left Ben’s office with a little spring in her step and Ben was left feeling…guilty?

  *****

  On his way home that evening, Ben stopped in at Aldo’s Market to talk to Sophia, although he bought a book of stamps from Aldo so it didn’t look too obvious.

  “Is Sophia around?” he asked as Aldo swiped the credit card.

  “Let me call her,” and he pulled out his phone.

  In another minute Sophia walked into the store. “Hi,” she smiled w
hen she saw Ben.

  “Hey. So about dinner?”

  “Yes, about dinner,” she began.

  “How’s Friday?” he said, not giving her an opportunity to come up with an excuse.

  She opened her mouth as if to say something and then closed it again. Ben thought that she appeared to be having a conversation with herself and wanted to know what she was thinking.

  “It’s just dinner,” he grinned. “Nothing more.”

  She sighed…loudly. “Okay. Friday.”

  “Geez Sophia!” chuckled Aldo. “Way to make a man question his desirability!”

  Ben grinned and said, “I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty.” He picked up his stamps and turned on his heels and left…whistling.

  *****

  On Friday morning, Matt and Ben sat in Matt’s office and signed all of the documents concluding the sale of Crystal Towers to Latin World Corporation. The deal was done.

  “I think I’m relieved,” said Matt, pouring himself another cup of coffee from the carafe on the table. “We made money on the building so we come out ahead.”

  “Yeah,” Ben nodded. “I certainly didn’t want to risk anyone’s safety. I’m glad we got our people out before something tragic happened.

  “You’re right,” agreed Matt. “But…”

  “The timing?” Ben finished his sentence. “I’ve thought about that too. But our investigators didn’t come up with anything fishy. All appears to be above board.”

  Matt took a sip from his mug and placed it on the table. “Right. Well, I have to get home.”

  “Okay,” Ben said. Enjoy your day.”

  “Oh I will,” Matt grinned.

  “Big plans?”

  “Hell yeah! Today is Christopher’s first trip to pre-school. If he does well, Janie says he’ll go three afternoons a week. That means, with Ella already in school, I get my wife alone…during the day!”

  “Well, enjoy yourself,” Ben chuckled.

  “Oh I plan to!” he laughed and patted his baby brother on the back as he left his office.

  As their lawyer gathered up the documents on the table, Ben thought about that nagging little thought that popped into his head every now and then. Why now? Why did Vicente want to acquire Crystal Towers now? Yes there was unrest, and yes it was public record who owned the building, but…still.