Chapter 5: Interlude I

Lorenzo Verratti idly stirred his glass of rum as he peered into the liquor, looking for some answers to the doubts and uncertainties plaguing his mind concerning his latest endeavor at opening his business after six years of inactivity.

For the last two weeks, he has been trying to recruit employees to make deliveries for his pizzeria. He put a bunch of advertisements in newspapers, got his job offer listed to multiple Job agencies in the area, and got the word out in the neighborhood that he was recruiting and opening again.

So far, eight people have taken the job, and not a single one of them has lasted an entire week. With three not even lasting the night – one hadn’t even lasted two hours – before either coming back with his orders and quitting on the spot, or coming back without his orders then quitting on the spot.

Resignations after resignations, words started getting out of the work hazards of making deliveries in unsavory parts of town.

The inherent dangers of the job along with the less-than-stellar pay were deemed by a lot, to not be worth the risk. Only the really desperate tried their luck. And Lorenzo had to reject a number of them. Because the truly desperate were more inclined to skip with the pizzas than try to deliver them.

‘Let me try for at least one month,’ He told himself while failures were steadily piling up and he was dangerously losing money, beginning to deep into his savings to stay afloat. Which, he couldn’t afford to do in case of emergencies that would need a trip to the hospital.

Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to give up without at least really trying so that he could tell himself afterward if it failed, that he did his best.

Tonight, he potentially got the answer to his prayers.

Lorenzo has his doubts about his latest potential hire. No one decked in so much gear screaming: ‘Mercenary’, ‘Mask cunt’, and ‘Dangerous’ would postulate for a measly position as a delivery man. At least no one without ulterior motives. If he did have ulterior motives, Lorenzo couldn’t begin to guess what they were.

'He could also have been a cosplayer', Lorenzo snorted at the thought. Fat chance. The costume and especially his helmet of his didn't look cheap. The stuff ought to have cost in the high four grands to low five. Someone like this with money to spare into this kind of gear, wouldn't waste his time trying to play some kind o long-term con on him.

'For what gains even?'

In the end, the older man had decided to give him a chance. A test run. In the hope that if the man was genuine about his desire for work; at least with his get-up and intimidating factor it gave him, most mobs or people would think twice before steering shit with him.

When he received a call from Mark, one of his acquaintances and all-around solid clients – the man was a well-respected mobster who used to work for the Falcon family – informing him that he received his orders, Lorenzo felt a twinge of hope.

Maybe, just maybe, this time, his business would really take off.

He brushed off the inquiries about who the new guy was and where did he find someone like that to make his deliveries – he didn’t have the answers to his questions. In the phone call, Mark had sounded impressed by the boy. ‘Polite’, ‘cool’, and ‘respectful’ were the words thrown around by him. Which coming from him, were high praises.

Some minutes later, he received another call from Nina. A woman even more dangerous than Mark or any mobster he knew, his instinct had warned him each time he met her. He has known her for a long time now. She was an old regular of his, her and her other friend, Diedre. This time, he was truly surprised by the thinly veiled interest she’d manifested toward the new hire and the glowing endorsement she gave to him.

Why! The woman had all but implied she would make weekly orders if the guy was the one making the deliveries.

‘She never promised to do that when I was the one making the deliveries.’ This, even when he was the recognized goat in the business.

The hardest part of being relegated to kitchen work was the wait. It was agonizing. Lorenzo spent a good hour without receiving any status update on the state of the deliveries. He only received a call from Miss Grace inquiring about her order after a good two hours had passed. He had apologized that his delivery man couldn’t make it and promised her to send someone else tomorrow around noon if she wanted him to make up for it. Free of charge
.
Dr. Grace was one the rare people he was willing to go to those lengths for. The woman has been and even now, is still an important part of the community who contributed heavily to the betterment of things. She was well-liked, kind and charitable; personally funded after-school programs involving the ocean for underprivileged youths in poor areas like Crime Alley, Burnley and The Bowery. The woman also volunteered at a soup shelter during winter and helped take care of many homeless people during her free-time.

In a city like Gotham, she was a godsend.

Three hours later, and still, without news or signs of him coming back, Lorenzo resigned himself to another failure. Supposing that he couldn’t make all his deliveries, he should have already been back by then.

The 48-year-old man was lamenting and berating himself for not having asked the mercenary for his number or even his name. He had been so shocked and rattled by his appearance that it hadn't crossed his mind to ask at the time.

It was while he was grumbling under his breath while sipping his rum, that his phone rang.

The caller ID was masked.

With some trepidation, Lorenzo answered the call.

“Hello, Lorenzo.” The familiar voice of his client, Dr. Grace greeted him, “I wanted to inform you that I received my pizza so don’t feel obliged to try and make up for it. Your guy ‘supposedly’ encountered some troubles on the way, lost his bike and ended up doing the delivery on foot. Which is the reason behind his extreme tardiness.”

Lorenzo perked up at the news but also couldn’t help but wince at the prickly tone with which she’d talked. He also hadn’t missed the way she’d emphasized ‘supposedly’ with heavy sarcasm.

‘It’s normal,’ he told himself. ‘She waited three long hours for her pizza. By the time he arrived, it must have been quite cold. Besides, she wasn’t expecting to receive her order.’

“Good. That’s good,” he breathed out. “Sorry for it. Next time, it shouldn’t take him that long. It was his first night out and I also forgot to ask for his contact info so that he could keep me informed of his position. The fault lies with me for not doing this. If not for it, I would have given you a heads up that he was coming and asked if you still wanted your pizza.”

“It’s fine. In the end, I got my order when I wasn’t even expecting to receive it in the first place.” She reassured. “The address I gave you wasn’t exactly an existing one.” There was no mistaking the embarrassment in her voice at her small admission.

“It wasn’t,” Lorenzo agreed with a small amount of humor coloring his tone, “I believe you gave me a bunch of coordinates that I have to figure out the postal address of.” Letting out a rare chuckle, he took a shot of his rhum before asking, “Was this his last order?”

“Yes, it was. He told me as much when I requested him to go back to work instead of pestering me so much. He didn't want to.” His client huffed – huffed – and Lorenzo raised an eyebrow at that. “Said something about me being his Iast client of the night and some nonsense about finding me… i-in-interesting.”

“... “ The middle-aged man was momentarily speechless by her… complaints which sounded much more like—

Lorenzo abruptly ended his line of thought to ask. “He was pestering you, you say…?”

“Yes! The scoundrel didn’t want to leave! For whatever ungodly reason, he wanted to dally around at my hideou— my place!” Dr. Grace coughed toward the end and Lorenzo did the polite thing and pretended to not notice her slip-up. Clearing her throat, she resumed. “I had to kick him out and threaten him to make him leave. No sense of self-preservation this one!” She exclaimed with annoyance in a tone of voice which if he dared say, could pass for whining. And Lorenzo did a double take at that. In his knowledge, the imposing, tall and scary woman with a ‘monstrous’ appearance as a lot of people have described her as – didn’t whine.

“I-... I see…” He didn’t. He also didn’t know what else to say. “I will talk with him about his… misconduct as soon as I see him again.” So, Lorenzo defaulted to offers of platitudes.

“Do this.” She grunted. “Where did you find this guy anyway?”

“You’re not the first person to call me tonight just to ask me this,” Lorenzo seized the change of subject like it was a lifeline. “Honestly, I didn’t find him. He answered the job announcement I posted a while back and came to the pizzeria to take it up. I accepted seeing as I had little options in terms of employees I had on deck and could send to work. My latest delivery man didn't show up. The guy not even bothering to tell me that he wouldn’t come.”

He sighed with tiredness.

“...”

“...”

The small silence that followed wasn’t overbearing and Lorenzo didn’t feel the need to try and fill it.

“Sorry.” Dr. Grace eventually spoke. “For what it’s worth, atrocious behavior aside, lack of professionalism aside, lack of manners aside, lack of—” She paused in the middle of her rant, “Alright! In spite of everything, your new guy seemed… to be reliable at least.” From hearing her, she made it seem like someone was pulling her nails to say a positive thing about his potential hire.

A small grin stretched on his aged face. “This is such a growing endorsement coming from you.” There was no hiding the light teasing tone his voice took.

“He’s at least decent at his job if he'd managed to deliver all his orders without getting ripped off.” She corrected, “He still has a lot of things to improve outside of his manners to be as good as you were.”

“I was told he was polite and respectful.”

“You’re being obtuse. You know exactly what I’m referring to.” She chided, and he could picture her giving him a glare of reproach. “Anyways, it’s getting late and I still haven’t eaten this pizza.”

“Then, don’t let me stop you from enjoying your food,” Lorenzo chuckled, not minding the clear dismissal. “Thank you for informing me, Dr. Grace. And take care.”

“Take care, Lorenzo. I hope to congratulate you in the coming weeks on your return to business. The city has truly missed your work.”

Dr. Grace said and before he could thank her for her heartfelt wish, she hung up. It was typical of her. Helpful to a fault to people in need, but shy to genuine compliments or sincere thanks.

Lorenzo poured himself another glass of rum before shaking the liquor. Thinking.

‘She said he was on foot, it should take him roughly one hour to make his way back,’ He hummed, taking another small sip of his rum. ‘If he does make his way back and just doesn’t skip town with the money.’ A cynical part of his mind whispered and Lorenzo couldn’t brush off the eventuality with one hundred certitude despite the fact that every point and sign so far pointed to the contrary.

Now that he knew that he supposedly made all his deliveries – the wait for his return was even more agonizing.