CHAPTER I
The Chance Meeting
My story begins in an apartment-management office.
Sabrina stands patiently in front the cheap enormous cluttered desk of Fatso Franco. He was an unpleasant and obnoxious pimp of a landlord. The
man sadly epitomized his role in life.
Sabrina decided to break the silence. “I have brought the full amount in cash you requested, including a cleaning deposit. After our last conversation, I assume you found my application acceptable.” Fatso offered no response.
“I can move in by the end of the month,” she concluded.
“Well, it’s not available now.” Fatso Franco smiled revealing neglected
dental hygiene. “I don’t understand,” she responded. “You said . . .”
His response was slow and enjoyable, at least to himself. “Don’t matter what I said. You changed my mind. You never said you were a black! A black,black . . .” As this putrid hulk struggled to complete his insult, Sabrina let go.
“You racist fat pig! You disgusting excuse for a man! I’ll sue you for flagrant discrimination!” Near tears and trembling in anger, she abruptly turned on her high heels to leave. Sabrina’s face burned as the laughter from the two other small offices got louder. Someone cackled a crude remark in Italian, “Parte nera della coda (a black woman)!” In her haste to leave, she dropped her
sunglasses and stooped to pick them up, only to bump heads with someone
else bending over to retrieve the glasses. Sabrina looked into a pair of light brown eyes that were staring clearly through her, as if dazed or mesmerized.
“Have we met before?” Sabrina finally found her voice and asked.
“I don’t know,” he responded, astonished and looking totally flabbergasted.
“Well, thank you for being a gentleman,” Sabrina said as she rushed
past him and made an exit out the door and into the sunshine.She could still feel his eyes staring at her as she walked shoulders back and head held high with indignation .
In spite of her anger, Sabrina could not stop thinking about the handsome tall soft-spoken gentleman, whose head was harder than hers. She could feel a small lump forming on the spot where
he bumped into her. “Maybe that’s why I can’t stop thinking about him,”
Sabrina chuckled as she entered the market to shop for some special treats.
“I suppose not getting that house could be a blessing in disguise. I will put
the money back into my savings and buy a car instead. I’ve been putting
the wagon in front of the horses. Transportation would definitely give me
the mobility to live beyond this bus stop. It only takes the time to change
your mind about anything in this life to be happy.” Sabrina smiled as she
reminded herself of this profound fact and went home to her two beautiful
daughters.
The next morning, Sabrina awakened to a sensation of wet lips first
on her left eyelid, then the right. She opened her eyes and looked into the
smiling face of Elizabeth, her nine-year-old. Twelve-year-old Katrina leaned over her sister’s small shoulders, displaying a brilliant smile. “Happy birthday,
Mommy,” they sang in unison. Sabrina smiled and threw back the covers as
she reached out to embrace both of her daughters.
“Thank you, young ladies.” She beamed as they wandered into the living
room.
The girls were already dressed and ready for school. They grabbed their
books, lunch boxes; kissed Sabrina; and scurried out the door. Sabrina stood
on the steps and waved at her best friend, Lynda, as both women watched
their daughters, Rose, Elizabeth, and Katrina, run to catch the approaching
school bus. “See you tonight, birthday girl!” Lynda yelled to Sabrina as she
turned to go back inside her duplex.
Sabrina showered and applied her makeup. Today was going to be a beach
day, thanks to the generous company policy of allowing employees to take
their birthdays off with pay. She made her bed and slipped into a favorite
beach outfit, which consisted of a long white cotton dress with a pattern of
huge red flowers and matching belt that tied around her slender waist. Sabrina
prepared her beach bag and walked into the kitchen, smiling and thinking,
It’s my thirty-third birthday, so champagne and orange juice at this early hour will be quite adequate with my coffee and croissants. Sabrina had just settled at the kitchen table with her newspaper when she heard a knock on the door.
“One of the girls must have forgotten something. Who else would be here
this time of morning?”
There he stood, his handsome bump on the head, holding a huge bouquet of red and white roses. Sabrina could not recall ever receiving a bouquet this large.
He gave her a sheepish grin and said, “Happy birthday, Sabrina.”
Sabrina could only gesture him in and ask, “How did you know it was
my birthday?”
“I read your application to rent the house on Terrace Avenue.”
Sabrina was about to reach for the roses but quickly recoiled when she
heard this. “Please tell me you do not work for that awful creature,” she
inquired with her heart sinking.
He only smiled and said, “Actually, that creature works for me. The stupid buffoon thought he was doing the agency a favor by discriminating. After you left yesterday, we had a little clarifying discussion. If you still want the house, it’s yours. As a matter of fact, I came by this morning to ask if you have ever seen the inside.”
“No, I haven’t,” Sabrina had to admit. “I have only peered through
the windows. However, the location of the house is just as important as its
condition.”
While Sabrina talked, Fabio Antonio Leonardo wandered into her tiny
kitchen and started opening cabinet doors. Sabrina quickly realized what he
was searching for and produced a pretty glass vase that had been a gift from
her ex-mother-in-law. She opened a kitchen drawer and handed him a pair
of scissors. At first glance, the couple would appear to be very familiar with each other. While Sabrina prepared the flower vase, Fabio excused himself
for a few minutes, only to return with a shopping bag containing a bottle
of Moet, small box of gourmet pastries, and a variety of cheeses with fresh
strawberries. Sabrina and Fabio, without further ado, went about setting the table. They were smiling and maneuvering around each other in the tiny space as graceful as dancers.
Once they were seated at the table, Fabio reached over and took Sabrina’s free hand and apologized for the episode in the office the previous day.
Sabrina could not think of anything clever or sarcastic to say, so she simply shrugged her shoulders and smiled in acceptance of his apology. How could she possibly be angry with her bump on the head? “Good help is hard to
find,” she reasoned. Today is her birthday; therefore, nothing was going to rain on her parade. They shared the basics about each other and laughed while exchanging entertaining stories about family and friends.
Suddenly, Fabio realized it was almost noon and time to give Sabrina a tour
of the rental on Terrace. He had already concluded the place was not suitable for her. She deserved something far better. However, that house remained the only pretext he had for the moment to get to know her.
Sabrina agreed it was time to leave. “I have this special place on the beach where I go to read, relax, or just watch the waves.” She beamed at him, starting to feel a little fuzzy from the champagne.
“Where on the beach?” Fabio asked, dreamy eyed and smiling.
“It’s just before the bluff by the seals’ beach. I have to climb downhill in order to reach the cove and then walk across large pieces of rock leading to my secret little cave.” She chuckled. “Of course, I can only do this whenever the tide is out.”
“I would love to join you sometime,” Fabio practically blurted out.
“First things first,” Sabrina said feeling a little unsettled about this handsome Italian’s sudden interest in her secret spot on the beach. Sabrina assumed Fabio had driven himself to her duplex and was surprised when a man emerged from the driver’s seat of a long black Lincoln Town Car.
“Where to, boss?” the smiling body-building-looking driver asked.
“The house on Terrace,” Fabio answered dryly without as much as a
thank-you for waiting all morning.
Sabrina turned to Fabio while seated in the car and said in an apologetic tone, “Why didn’t you tell me someone was waiting in this car for you.I would have invited . . . by the way, what is his name? You did not even
introduce him to me.”
“Cairo,” Fabio replied.
“Cairo? Spelled the same as in Egypt?” Sabrina was smiling when she
asked this question. He returned her smile and said, “Yes, the same, and I
will explain the reason to you later.”
Later? Sabrina thought. He sounds as if there is more than a rental going on here. Will there be a later? This is getting too weird.
Within ten minutes, the car stopped and parked in front of the rental property Sabrina wanted. The little house was located several blocks from her duplex and closer to the children’s school. Cairo opened the car door and helped her out then rushed around to the other side to do the same for Fabio.
There was a slope leading to the front porch, which ran the entire length of the house. Sabrina counted the concrete steps as they climbed toward the pretty
yellow house with white trim. Fabio unlocked the door as Sabrina proclaimed,
“Wow, I counted twenty-one steps, talk about a daily workout.”
The interior of the house greeted them with the scent of fresh paint and new carpeting. Fabio took Sabrina by her left hand and proceeded to give a fast-pace tour. When they arrived in an area that could be utilized as a small dining room. Sabrina reached up to open the curtains. At that same moment,
she felt Fabio’s arms wrapped around her waist while his hands gently caressed small firm breasts and slid down to her lower abdomen. Sabrina experienced feeling simultaneously amused, terrified, and turned on. Her hands remained frozen on the curtains. All she could manage was a soft, throaty moan, as his lips nibbled the back of her neck and shoulders. She did not realize he had released the curtains from her death grip. By now, Fabio was breathing very hard and slowly swaying both of them left to right, as if they were being rocked by waves standing on the deck of a ship. Fabio’s warm and firm hand gently stroked her abdomen, and she felt a low, rumpling sensation emerging
from someplace deep in her womb. Her mind screamed “stop this at once!”
However, her body completely surrendered.
Meanwhile, outside in the Lincoln, Cairo was trying desperately to remember where he had seen this strikingly beautiful black woman before.
Could it have been in one of the discos he often worked as a bouncer? Or one
of the many places he delivered or picked up packages? The familiar sound
of her voice was even more perplexing. Cairo had always taken pride in his
ability to remember faces, especially one as pretty as Sabrina’s. Something
strange was happening. Cairo could not recall his boss ever taking such
special interest in a black female or any woman for that matter. He started
thinking, the only exception had been his deceased wife, God rest her soul. The boss had shared his bed with a number of drop-dead gorgeous broads but never displayed any sort of generosity toward them. Two dozen long-stem roses for a woman whose name and address he had acquisitioned from an application?
This is something else . . . but what? There had been some sort of rumor a few
years back about the beautiful black nanny that helped raised the boss, his two brothers, Achilles and Marino, along with their only sister, Angelia. But she died of pneumonia shortly after I started working for the Leonardo family . . . aha . . .
oh, no, no. What I am thinking is impossible! I will have to stop taking those little nips while on duty, he concluded and reached over to turn on the radio.
“Better not to think too much about things that are none of my business,”
he reasoned.
It was after three o’clock in the afternoon before Fabio and Sabrina
emerged from the house. They were glowing radiantly and appeared to
effortlessly float down the steps while holding hands.
“If only I could possess the awesome power of a woman,” Cairo thought as he opened the car door for this esthetically happy-looking couple.
“Cairo, my Pisano. Thank you for waiting so patiently, but we had much
to discuss concerning the long-term lease. Preterito e participio passato
(understood)?” Fabio grinned from ear to ear.
“No problem for me, boss,” Cairo responded with a twinkle in his
eyes.
“Will you respect me in the morning?” Sabrina joked as she and Fabio continued to engage in long kisses while clinging to each other.
“Always and forever,” he said breathlessly while lifting her off the floor with his strong arms. “I have been struck by the lighting bolt,” he shamelessly proclaimed.
Sabrina smiled, placed both hands on the sides of his head, and said, “I have read and seen The Godfather. Try to be more original.” She laughed.
“Where would you like to celebrate your birthday tonight?” Fabio purred between breathless kisses.
“The girls have already planned this evening. Sorry, I’ll have to save the next dance for you,” Sabrina whispered into his ear.
“May I have the pleasure of your company for dinner tomorrow night?”
Fabio persisted. “Tomorrow is my youngest daughter’s birthday, and I have reservations at the Best Bistro. My best friend, Lynda, and her daughter, Rose, are planning to celebrate with us,” Sabrina said, unable to hide her disappointment at turning down another opportunity for a romantic evening alone with him.
Fabio merely gazed deep into her eyes and softly said, “I will see you . . . when I see you. What is your daughter asking for on her special tenth birthday?”
Sabrina felt impressed that he remembered her telling him the ages of
the children during breakfast that morning. But then again, she remembered
everything Fabio had shared with her concerning his family and sensed
something benevolent about the Leonardo’s. Something really weird is happening here, she thought. “She wants a pink Daisy Duke bicycle. However, what she will get is a pair of pink high-top roller skates,” Sabrina replied, starting the sensuous kissing session again.
The couple was still maintaining a tight embrace during their conversation as if unable to release each other for even an instant.
They finally had to pull apart when Sabrina heard the familiar sound of the school bus. She sadly realized the magic was about to approach an abrupt ending. The children were home.
Fabio lingered, much to her surprise. He placed one arm over Sabrina’s
slender shoulders and held her close as Elizabeth and Katrina raced toward
them smiling and singing “Happy birthday to you, Mommy!”
Cairo leaned against the car in an utter state of incomprehension and
total perplexity.
