by Jim Wygand
They kissed again.
It was time for Charlie to head back to Shoreville so they reluctantly got up and left the park. They walked back to the trattoria which was a reasonable distance. They didn’t talk – each savoring the presence of the other. When they got back to the trattoria, Charlie noticed that Johnny was once again in the alley, smoking.
“Gina, how does Johnny know to be outside when we arrive?”
“Oh, c’mon Charlie. He’s just having a smoke.”
“He’s always having a smoke or standing around when we arrive, Gina.”
“I told you already, Charlie. He’s known me for years. I tutor his kids. He is as protective of me as my friends.”
“Well, he protects me too. I noticed that he always waits until I get inside the parking garage before leaving what looks like his ‘post’.”
“It’s just Johnny, Charlie. He’s no different than many of the others around me. He thinks I have to be protected. It’s harmless.”
“If you say so, baby. You gonna call me during the week?”
“As always, Mr. Mullins – I cannot resist your sexy voice!”
“That’s the first time anybody ever said that to me, Gina!”
“Good – see how original I can be?” I’ll call you Charlie. “See if you can dream about me. And get back here as soon as possible, OK?”
“You bet, see ya’ later Gina.”
“You’re forgetting something, Mullins. Give me a kiss!”
Charlie gave her a passionate and long kiss. When they parted he was flushed. “Whew – Gina you are tooooo much.” He walked toward the parking garage, waved goodbye to Johnny, who nodded as before. He got his car and drove south to Shoreville as he had done for the past few weeks.
XII
Monday morning Charlie Mullins headed for the bridge to Wilmington and to his office at Shaw. He had to drive by the YMCA on the way and he saw the car that had followed him twice pulling out of the parking lot. At the wheel was Sharon Gallagher and in the passenger seat was Diane Simms. They were coming from their morning aerobics class. “Son of a bitch,” Charlie thought, “so it was Sharon’s car that followed me. Bill’s gonna hear about this!”
Wednesday night was bowling league night and Bill Gallagher was there. Not wanting to say anything in front of the others, Charlie asked Bill to join him at the bar for a beer. “What’s up, Charlie? Everything OK? You’re really hot tonight, be careful you don’t break the pins.!”
“I’ve got a problem, Bill and I need your help and advice.”
“Well, that’s a new wrinkle. Charlie Mullins with a problem that he wants to talk about? You’re always so reserved Charlie, nobody thinks you ever have a problem. Why even when your marriage was….”
“OK, Bill. I gotcha. My problem involves Sharon.” Bill Gallagher felt a sudden pang in the pit of his stomach.
“Oh hell, Charlie, is Sharon pestering you again to get married? I told her to lay off that shit!”
“No, Bill, actually it’s a little more serious. Sharon and someone else followed me last Saturday morning as I was driving to Philly. I got off the interstate at Chester and managed to lose them. I didn’t want to talk to you about this, but I’ve known you and Sharon both for years, so I figured I would bring it up. Could you talk to her and tell her that I really don’t appreciate being followed around? I’m asking you as a friend, Bill.”
“Oh, Christ, Charlie! I’m sorry. Jeez. I’ll talk to her as soon as I get home. She told me she was going shopping in Wilmington with Diane Simms on Saturday. I had no damned idea…” Bill lied. He knew that Sharon would one day follow Charlie to Philly. She had said so to him herself.
“Thanks, Bill. I appreciate it. I don’t want problems with my friends and neighbors. I just want my privacy. Sharon crossed the line.”
“Yeah, I know, I know. Sharon can be a real pain in the ass sometimes and it’s worse when she gets around Diane. They both think you have to get married to one of their friends here in Shoreville.”
“Whatever, Bill. I’d just appreciate it if you would take care of it.”
* * * * *
Bill Gallagher arrived home hopping mad. “Sharon! goddammit Sharon, I want to talk to you!”
Sharon stepped into the living room, “Calm down Bill, I can hear you. What’s so damned important that you have to yell?”
“I was just talking to Charlie Mullins. He told me that you and someone else – most certainly Diane Simms – followed him up I-95 toward Philly last Saturday. Godammit, Sharon, didn’t I tell you to leave him alone and to butt out?”
“Who said it was me, Bill? How did Charlie know it was me who was following him? Hell, it could have been anybody and maybe nobody was even following him!”
“Knock it off, Sharon! He wrote down the license plate number and he saw you driving out of the YMCA on Monday. It was you, Sharon – you! And he said somebody else was with you. I’m willing to bet it was Diane, wasn’t it?”
Sharon knew she had been caught and it would do no good to deny. “OK, Bill it was me and Diane was with me, but so what? We were only satisfying feminine curiosity. If he wasn’t doing something wrong it shouldn’t make any difference!”
“Sharon, I’m gonna say it again – it’s none of your fucking business nor any business of Diane Simms if Charlie is doing something wrong, something weird, or whatever. Leave him alone, dammit! Besides, you remember what Charlie’s job is at Shaw? He could probably have me fired with the connections he’s got. I could be shoveling shit and you could be waiting tables at Jimmy Balsamo’s. You want that?”
“Bill, Charlie is your friend. He wouldn’t do something like that and you know it.”
“Bull shit, Sharon! Charlie is my friend and friends don’t go poking around into personal matters of other friends. And that goes for friends’ wives as well. I want to keep him my friend, so just take your feminine curiosity, as you call it, and stifle it! You hear me? You stifle it, you understand?”
“All right, Bill. You’re overreacting and being silly about this, but all right. I won’t follow him ever again.” Sharon lied.
“And you tell Diane to lay off too, you hear? I’m damned sure Charlie is going to tell Bob the same thing he told me. I don’t need this shit and Bob doesn’t either!”
“Jesus Bill, next thing you know Charlie will be firing everybody at Shaw! It’s not that serious! But I already gave you my word so let’s just drop it.”
“Good idea, Sharon – damned good idea. Drop it. Just drop it – completely.”
Bill Gallagher was right. Charlie did talk to Bob Simms too. He told him the same thing that he had told Bill but added that he wasn’t sure it was Diane with Sharon. Bob said that Diane said she was going to go shopping with Sharon that Saturday morning so it might have been. He said he would look into it and if it was true, he was sorry and that he would make sure it didn’t happen again. When he got home he had basically the same conversation with Diane that Bill had with Sharon. He reminded his wife that Charlie was a “big shot” at Shaw and if he got pissed enough he might just get revenge. Not having talked to Sharon, Diane denied involvement in the chase. Bob simply said, “Don’t deny and don’t confirm. Just listen to me good. Don’t bother Charlie Mullins. Stay out of his life and leave him alone. If you weren’t with Sharon, no big deal. But if you were, don’t do it again. Ever!”
“Maybe Charlie is just paranoid, Bob. Who’s to say he was being followed?”
Bob Simms lost his temper. “Charlie is to say if he is being followed. I don’t care if he imagined it or not. If you and Sharon were behind him, and got off behind him at Chester like he said you did, it’s my view that you were following him. So, I will say it again, read my lips: Leave Charlie Mullins alone!”
“All right, all right! You don’t need to yell. I got your message.”
“Good!”
Thursday morning Bill Gallagher called Bob Simms at work and asked him to meet him for a beer after work. Bob asked, �
�This is about the girls, right? Charlie talked to me and told me he had talked to you too. Shit! What a drag.”
“Yeah, well, we have to put at stop to it, Bob. Let’s meet tonight and talk this over. Besides the fact that Charlie is a friend, I don’t want him so mad that he gets on my ass at work. He does have a lot of friends in management and I like my job!”
“Yeah, I know what you mean, Bill. See you tonight.”
Gina called Charlie Thursday night. “Hey Mullins, where have you been?! I’ve missed you.”
“Sorry Gina, I had to go to bowling league last night in part just to show up and also to talk to the guys whose wives I presume were the ones who followed me. I was sure about one, but the other I couldn’t see, but I’m pretty sure I know who it was.”
“Wow – and I missed that! So what happened, Charlie?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Gina but I am fairly sure that there is some domestic discord in Shoreville tonight! Neither guy seemed terribly happy. They both work for Shaw and I figure they probably thought I might do them some damage on their jobs.”
“Would you do that, Charlie?”
“Of course not, Gina, I am not into that kind of corporate stuff. I certainly would not mix business with my personal life just to get even. Besides, they didn’t do anything; it was their wives who did.”
“You’re a nice guy, Mullins. My uncle probably would have kicked their butts.”
“Well, I felt like kicking the butts of their wives, that’s for sure. But those poor guys are just married to a couple of wackos. I can’t blame them – at least not until they talk to their wives. I suspect the talks won’t be exactly pleasant either.”
“Well, Charlie, I guess I only see you Saturday, right?”
“Yeah, Gina, I’m sorry but I have a lot of stuff to do around the house before I take off. Is that OK? I’d love to see you, but I can’t let things slip here.”
“Charlie Mullins, you need a woman in your life!”
“I thought I had one, did you change your mind?”
“Oh no, I just thought I would bring it up to remind you!” Gina laughed.
“That’s better, not that I need reminding. You’ll call me tomorrow night?”
“You bet. If I can’t see you, at least I can hear you. My senses need you, Charlie.”
“Careful, young lady, that kind of talk could lead somewhere.”
“I hope so. Talk to you tomorrow. Kisses!” Gina rang off.
* * * * *
Bill Gallagher and Bob Simms met after work at Jimmy Balsamo’s bar. They got a booth and ordered beers. “Jesus, Bob, what a pain in the ass. Why the hell can’t they leave Charlie alone, huh?”
“That’s easy enough to figure out Bill. Diane and Sharon figure they owe it to their divorced or single friends to fix them up with Charlie. And that’s in addition to the fact that both of them are nosy as hell. They just love some ‘secret’ that they need to figure out and talk about and off they go.”
“Yeah, well Charlie is a buddy and I sure don’t want him pissed at me because of Sharon’s nonsense.”
“Same here, I read the riot act to Diane even though Charlie said he could not be sure she was with Sharon.”
“I did the same with Sharon. You think they’ll stop?”
“Want the truth? Probably not, but they will cool off for a while. I scared the shit out of Diane saying that it might cost me my job.”
Bill laughed, “Me too, I told Sharon she might wind up having to wait tables here at Jimmy’s while I got a job shoveling shit. I think that cooled her down a lot.”
They both laughed. “OK”, said Bob, “I think we have at least stopped the nonsense for the time being. Next time Diane says she is going out shopping with Sharon, I’ll call you. If they try that shit again, maybe we can stop ‘em!”
Bill Gallagher lifted his beer mug, “Bob, here’s to the days when the broads chased us,” and laughed.
“I’ll drink to that, Bill. Those were the days. Here’s to what it was tryin’ to get laid!”
They clinked their beer mugs together, laughed again, and then ordered another beer before going home to a pair of sullen wives still smarting from yesterday’s lectures from their respective husbands.
XIII
Gina called Charlie on Friday night. “Hello Mr. Mystery Man of Shoreville. This is Gina calling.”
“I kind of figured that much out, young lady. Should I identify myself?”
“No, I know by the voice I am talking to the same Irishman I talked to yesterday,” Gina continued, “are you in the mood for an art exhibit tomorrow night Charlie? A friend of mine has a showing and I thought we could go before having dinner.”
“Trattoria again?” asked Charlie.
“Why not?” said Gina, “What about six-thirty? Is that too early?”
“No, I can leave at about quarter to six and be there on time. No problem.”
“It’s a date, Mullins. Now tell me about your week and how it has been since yesterday,” Gina laughed.
“Well, you know Fridays in corporations, Gina. Casual day. Everybody goes to enormous pains to look really casual but not too casual. You have to look sort of casually uptight.” Gina laughed.
“Sounds truly stressful, all that casualness!”
“It’s really stupid,” Charlie replied, “it means you have to have a special casual wardrobe in addition to a collection of suits. I mean you can’t show up in a sweat suit and sneakers, you know? So a lot of guys run around buying those men’s fashion magazines to see what is considered studiously casual. Casual but not too casual. It’s like the bullshit about calling people by their first names to imply a sort of family relationship among colleagues. You know, like ‘Say Bob, I just tried to fuck you at that last meeting. Is that OK, Bob? Good to see you again, Bob. Have a nice day, Bob. And, by the way, Bob, you are a real asshole, Bob!”
Gina broke out laughing, “You’ve got the corporate scene down pat, Charlie! Sounds a bit cynical though. I get the impression you don’t buy into it.”
“You got that impression, huh? No, Gina, I don’t think much of the screw-your-buddy approach to life. My Dad used to tell me to treat people well on the way up the ladder because you might pass them again on your way down.”
“That’s a wise man, Charlie. I used to hear a lot of the hot-shots I met bragging about how they knocked down one guy or another only to find out that somebody had knocked them down a little later.”
They talked for a little while longer and then rang off. Charlie set about getting his laundry done, running the vacuum cleaner, and putting dishes in the dishwasher. He watched some TV and then went to bed. He felt good.
XIV
On Saturday morning Charlie went to softball practice as usual. Both Bill Gallagher and Bob Simms were there. Each approached him separately and told him they had talked to their wives and he should have no more problems with their trying to follow him. Charlie thanked them for their understanding and said, “OK guys, let’s get some practice.” Both Bill and Bob were relieved.
After practice it was the usual pizza and beer. Charlie begged off claiming work at home. After he had left, Bill Gallagher and Bob Simms sat together. “Charlie talked to me, Bill, and thanked me for talking to Diane.”
“Yeah, he did the same with me,” Bill said, “I guess he’s not pissed.”
“Well not yet, anyway. But if it happens again he is not going to be so nice about it.”
“Yeah, I know. Have a slice of pizza!”
Tony Mazza said in a loud voice, “Anybody seen Charlie? I know he’s Irish, but pizza is good for you with all that tomato sauce and fiber. I’m worried about his health.”
“Stifle it, Tony!” Bill Gallagher yelled back, “he’s got work to do.”
“Yeah, I know what kind of work!” Art Samuels chimed in and then repeated his obscene hip pumping gesture.
The group laughed and then further reference to Charlie was drowned in pitchers of beer and smothered in s
lices of pizza.
Charlie went back to his house and finished up the cleaning he had started Friday night. He did some more laundry and put his softball uniform to soak. He fixed a light lunch of tuna salad on whole wheat bread and washed it down with a beer. He relaxed for a while by watching a movie on cable TV and then showered and shaved, splashed on the Armani that he was now using on a regular basis.
He dressed, this time in a dark blue suit. He thought about putting on a collarless shirt to look like what he figured might be the way Bruce Willis would dress but all he had were cotton T-shirts. “Nope!” he thought “I’m gonna have to wear a tie.” He put on a light blue oxford cloth shirt and then chose a patterned tie to reduce the severity of the dark suit. He also put on a pair of black tassle loafers instead of a pair of lace ups so he would look like what he thought was “less corporate”.
At a quarter-to-six he left the house on the way to Philly. He checked the street to make sure his warnings to Bill and Bob had the desired effect. As he approached the bridge to cross over to Wilmington he checked again. No car parked nearby. He picked up the entrance to the bridge and when he hit the entrance to I-95 he checked again. “Thanks guys,” he thought.
He arrived to the trattoria a few minutes early. Gina had not yet arrived. When she did, Charlie was thunderstruck. Gina was wearing a black silk dress. The bodice was two pieces of silk that tied behind her neck. She was showing just enough cleavage to cause Charlie to wonder if he would not be salivating all night. She was not wearing a bra.
Charlie got up to greet her and noticed the ubiquitous Johnny already with a chair for Gina. “Hey handsome, she said. Don’t you look the success!”
“Thanks, Gina, but next to you I feel like I’m dressed like a busboy.”
Gina laughed, “This old thing?” and then laughed again. She knew she looked good.
“Yeah, that old thing,” said Charlie “I guess you bought it at Goodwill, right?”
