You’re Not Who I Think He Is #4
“Is this for… really, Rino?” Japheth asked, pencil hovering over the paper, feeling like the floor would fall out from beneath them at any moment. It seemed that as hard as they worked, as big as they believed, dreams coming true just wasn’t something that was meant for them.
“Really. When my stars are driving around town, I want them to be stylish, comfortable, safe and with efficient fuel consumption,” Rino said, clapping a hand on Japheth’s shoulder warmly.
“You’re not bad at all are you? You’re a good guy!” Rebekkah said, startled by the feeling of hope and letting her guard down a little around Mr. Ferrari.
“Of course I’m a good guy. Who said I wasn’t?” Rino asked, glancing around.
“No one! No one would ever say that about you,” Japheth said quickly, acting as his advocate.
“That’s what I thought. Well, I gotta get back to the dealership. We’ll get those three Kia Rios shined up and have them delivered to the radio station?” Rino asked, already turning to go.
“Wait… three Kia Rios?” Japheth stammered.
“There are three of you aren’t there, Polpetto?” Rino asked, and he threw an amused wink at Japheth.
“Yeah… but… we thought. Oh my! Thank you, Rino! This is incredible!” Japheth said, practically levitating. He crossed the office and gave Rino a huge hug. It lingered. Then both men quickly stepped apart, cleared their throats and shook hands.
“You’re welcome. I should be… I should go.
If you see Emma-Lou when you get back to the station, tell her I always keep my promises,” Rino said, adjusting his cuffs and avoiding looking Japheth in the eyes but a silly and uncharacteristic grin had stuck to his face as he backed out of the room. It looked good on him.
“We will! We’ll pass on your hellos and tell them all what a good guy you are!” Rebekkah said, glowing and bouncing on her toes.
“Bye Rino, uh… Mr. Ferrari! Thank you!” Ronald added, bowing awkwardly and then feeling the awkwardness, bid him adieu with a little tip of the hat he wasn’t wearing.
“Japheth, may I speak to you for a moment? Da uomo a uomo?” Rino asked with a little lift of his chin indicating Japheth should follow him. “I can um… give you the spare sets of keys to the cars.”
“Go! Go!” Ronald and Rebekkah encouraged him, pushing Japheth after Rino by the shoulders.
There were manly murmurs from the foyer as Rino and Japheth exchanged keys and pleasantries.
Then, a request to join as a plus-one for a dinner date and a guarded acceptance couched as nonchalance.
Rebekkah, Ronald, Betty and Stanford pretended to talk about the outdated golf magazines on Weinus’ waiting area table.
In reality, they all had their ears perked to the delicate dance of vulnerability playing out in the lobby.
Finally, the bells on the front door signalled that the Casanova had left the building and Betty broke the silence, “That man is… what a man!”
“Right?” Trinity chorused with a delighted sigh.
“A really, really good man,” Rebekkah nodded, as if she’d known it all along.
“And generous!” Ronald exclaimed. “A Kia Rio for each of us?”
Japheth walked back into Stanford Weinus’ office, a silly grin plastered across his face.
If his cowboy boots didn’t weigh him down, he likely would have been levitating.
“I don’t know what he called me there, toward the end?
He always has these funny little Italian nicknames for me.
I think he called me Polpetto. What do you think it means? ” Japheth asked.
“It means meatball,” Weinus answered.
“Oh. Okay,” Japheth glanced at his reflection in the glass of the bookshelf. “I must have heard it wrong.”
“You heard right,” Weinus confirmed. “The Ferraris have been my clients for years. I’ve picked up a little Italian along the way out of… necessity. Where’s the bagno? May I have another polpetto? Would you like tutti giustiziati?”
“Mr. Weinus, now that you’re our lawyer, should we get those replies to the cease-and-desist letters drawn up?
” Rebekkah queried, bringing everyone back to the pressing matter at hand.
“We’d really like to make sure we can be back on the air for the Trinity Radio Hour tomorrow!
I have an update on Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-Lot that I’m dying for us to try.
Could you draw up one of those we’re not gonna cease or desist letters to Sir Mix-a-Lot as well please?
Just as a nicety, we can fax it to him in advance.
Maybe he’ll want to listen to the show to hear the new cover! ”
“I’ll fire up the typewriter,” Betty said, already taking a note as she peeled out of the room.
“The song is gonna start with a casual conversation so it will have a natural flow from our riposte and repartee segment right over the intro to the song. Japheth, you’ll be like, ‘Oh my God Becky, look at her faith.’ And Ronald you’ll be like, ‘It is so big, it’s like one of those altar boys’ girlfriends but you know, who understands what those altar guys are into?
’ And then Japheth you’ll reply, ‘They only talk to her because she looks like a total—’”