Saturday, December 31, 2016

The Beginning of Something

It was a day, just like any other day, at least that’s how it appeared to Angela, the waitress at the Rosaline Café, then again, that’s because she wasn’t noticing the man staring in through the glass window.
Mario Romero finally managed to drag himself away from the store window and continue on his daily walk. It was a hot and dusty Nevada day, then again, they were all hot and dusty. He kept thinking about the waitress in the window, she was so beautiful, with a sweet, heart-shaped face, and big brown eyes, and a nice tan Hispanic skin, and an ugly jagged scar going down the right side of her face. He wanted her, he wanted to come home and see her making dinner in a nice dress, to come home to a house she cleaned just for him, to see her laying in his bed at night, and oh, there were the carnal needs too. But for right now, Mario had other business to attend to.
Mario ducked into the restaurant to see how it was coming along. It would be open soon. A restaurant to honor his late sister, it had always been her dream when she was alive. He walked out of the restaurant and continued down the street. A man walked up beside him and fell into step with him. “Mario, I hate to ask but times are tough for me and my family and I need a favor.” Mario kept quit waiting on the man to continue. “Can I borrow a small sum of money? You know I wouldn’t come to you unless I had to but I’ve used all my other options.” Mario thought for a moment, “There’s someone who owes me, and you’ve just given me a reason to go collect. Enjoy your day.” With that, the man knowing he had been dismissed, left.
Angela sat with her feet propped up on a stool, counting the receipts from the day. They were still in the hole big time. Angela’s father walked in, “How was business today, sweetheart?” “Not nearly enough, how are we ever going to keep going like this, we’re going to lose this café?” Tello just brushed his daughter off and continued around back to his office. Angela gave up and prepared to go home to soak in a nice bath.
Tello still sitting in his office, drowning in bills, kept replaying Angela’s words over and over in his head. She was right, they were going to lose the café, his life’s work, he was $20,000 in debt, not including the money he owed to Mario Romero and his guys. He really thought that money would have given him a shot at saving the café, but it had barely begun to cover the bills that had accumulated over the last five years.
Angela dropped her bag in front of the dirty green door of their third floor flat and stooped to rifle through it for her keys. She entered the small apartment tired and defeated and went to go run herself a hot bath. As she was soaking in the tub, thoughts of her last relationship and how lonely she was kept floating through Sophia’s head. Her last relationship ended almost seven months ago and although she knew she deserved better, she couldn’t help feeling lonely. No matter how big of a jerk he had been, he did have some nice attributes and no lack of knowledge on how to use them. She slowly felt her hand dropping lower and lower until she found herself in the warm soapy water. After brining herself to a much needed release, she finished washing and hopped out and just in time to hear the door close and her father enter.

Mario got up that morning and started to make a daily breakfast of eggs and sausage, toast, and a half a grapefruit. 

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