Tuesday Tales – Ghost

Welcome to this weeks Tuesday Tales. The word prompt this week is Ghost.  Hope everyone has a good and safe Halloween

Lorenzo pulled into the small lot on the side of the café.  Despite the chill in the air, it had turned out to be a perfect night.  This had always been Pia’s favorite place to go for desert.  Besides, they made the best latte on the whole entire Island.

“Would you like to sit in or outside?”  Lorenzo asked, his hand under her elbow ready to lead her in some direction.

“I’d rather eat inside if you want me to be completely honest with you.”

“Works for me.”  Lorenzo pulled open the door and followed Pia in.

“Hey Pia.  Where have you been?”  a young girl with black pigtails with purple highlights asked.

“You know me Lena, always floating around.”  Pia looked around and found a table against the wall.  “Would you mind if we sat over there?”  Pia pointed.

“Not a problem.  I’ll give you a few minutes to look through the menu.”

“Can you bring us two lattes in the meanwhile?”  Lorenzo asked.

“Sure.  How would you like yours?”

“Two sugars, light on the whip cream.”

They sat and before they got comfortable or even started talking, their lattes were placed in front of them.  “Let me know when you’re ready to order.”

Lorenzo reached across the table and held his palm open.  Pia placed her hands in his and he squeezed her hands.  His blond hair lay floppily on his forehead.  She wanted so much to reach over, run her fingers through his thick hair and open another one of the buttons on his shirt to see if the hairs sticking out of his shirt are extended all over his chest.

Lorenzo released her hands and took a sip of her latte. “Penny for your thought.”

Yeah right.  No way would she tell him what thoughts were running through her mind.  “Just deciding what I want to get.”

“Do you recommend anything?”

“Yeah, everything.  I have never had a desert that wasn’t good.  Personally I love the sfogliatelles , but the tiramisu is really good too.”

He signaled for the waitress and order one of each.  “Now that we have that taken care of, I want to learn more about you.  Like have you lived on Staten Island all your life?  Do you have an apartment or house?  What do you do with your spare time?  I want to know everything about you,” he smiled.

“You sure ask a lot of questions.”  Pia took a sip of her latte and met his gaze.

“I am a native Staten Islander.  Born and breed here, watching the change from the mom and pop stores to modern built strip malls.”

Lorenzo nodded his head in agreement.  “I know, same thing in Queens. It’s sad that all the places I went to as a kids are now gone, only to be replaced with rows of condos.”

“I miss the old days.  Those were the days when I could run into the “All Night News Stand”, grab myself a pack of cigarettes and a cup of coffee in the middle of the winter with the car running outside.”

“I know exactly what you mean.  If we did that now, we would come back to our cars being gone.”

“It’s kind of spooky, almost ghostly like how things have changed so much,” Pia said.  “How about you?  I really didn’t follow your career.  Have you always played in New York?”

“Hell no.  I’ve been all over the country, especially when I was playing triple A ball.”

Lena returned to the table, placed a small white square dish in front of each of them, and placed another large square navy blue plate in the center of the table. “If you need anything else, give me a holler.”

“I’d just appreciate a knife so I can cut the pastries in half.”

Lena turned to walk away and then stopped in her tracks.  Slowly she pivoted in her black and pink sneakers and walked back to the table. “Oh my God.”  Lena raised her hands and covered her cheeks.  “You’re Lorenzo Marcus,” her voice echoed through the café.  “You look better in person then you do on the field.  You’re gorgeous.  Oh dear God,” she babbled on, causing the attention from the people at the table next to him.

“I knew that was Lorenzo Marcus,” the gentleman at the table next to them said, pointing right at Lorenzo. “Well I’ll be damned.”

Lena handed him a notebook and a pen.  “Would you mind giving me a personalized autograph?”  she asked, handing him the pen.

Lorenzo took the pen.  By the time he finished personalizing her notebook, a few people were standing behind her with paper and pens in hand.  Lorenzo looked up at her with what she would say a worried look on his face.

Pia leaned across the table.  “It’s okay.  I love this. We’ll have plenty of time to talk when we leave.  Believe me when I tell you, I’m going nowhere.  I have plenty of questions for you too.”

Lorenzo blew her a kiss and mouthed a few words.  The problem was she didn’t know if he said thank you or love you?

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