Chapter Three
Andreia turned her head to study Felix for a moment then she sighed hard.
“I’d heard a lot about each and every faction in that city.
Just rumors and snippets you understand.
I don’t gossip and I won’t listen much to it but you still hear things.
” She shrugged. “As I didn’t know you gentlemen in person, I never thought about it much.
This meal...” She motioned at her table.
“Was cooked with care because I didn’t want to insult you.
I know that you men are hard when you need to be the same as my men are.
But when I married Hondo, I told him to leave his business outside our door.
I knew his work was with dangerous men but I didn't want it brought into my house. He gave me that much respect and I appreciated it. But now that very same business has followed us here and while I cannot hold him to that promise in this instance, I pray it won’t spill over my doorstep.
I know I can’t stop it but I just hope it isn’t too bad.
I pray that you all, my husband and sons will all have protection from the violence that others will try to bring. ”
Sergi nodded his head at her. “Da, my wife says those same prayers each and every night, Mrs. Meran. And I thank you for taking the time to explain things to us. I hope you and your family will not suffer from our being here as well.”
Andreia smiled then chuckled. “No, Mr. Constantine, I am not worried about you and yours but there are others who wouldn’t be worried about bringing their danger to our door. You are good people... others? Not so much.”
Sergi smiled and then looked over at Hondo. “You have a very wise woman, they are far and very in between. You are a lucky man indeed, Mr. Meran.”
Hondo turned to gaze lovingly at his wife as he replied, “I do know that, Senor. In fact, I loved her literally from the first moment I set eyes on her. And I do mean in sixty seconds my future was written. And she has been by my side ever since for many years and I hope many more.”
Sergi looked curious. “Can you explain this further? This sixty second ideal? If it is not too personal?”
His sons all chuckled and snickered.
Sergi paused to look around at them.
“Pardon them Sergi,” Hondo told him. “They have heard that story many times, I am afraid.”
Andreia laughed. “Maybe the boys do not realize that it is THE story. None of them would be here if it hadn’t happened just the way it did.”
Hondo nodded as he grinned at her and started his story, “I had been walking down the street one fine day when I saw her in a florist shop. She was behind the counter laughing at something her coworker was telling her. When I saw her, I literally stopped in my tracks. Standing there in broad daylight, I could do nothing but stare at the vision of her.”
Andreia smiled as she took it up, “The woman I worked with had made a joke. I think it was about why men send flowers. They messed up. Or they well...messed up.”
The men at the table all shook their heads and chuckled. Including Sergi, Misha and Felix.
“When I looked up, I saw him and I stopped laughing. I think I stopped breathing too. I never saw any man like him. Sooo...” She shook her head.
Hondo nodded and said, “The moment our eyes met even through the glass window and the distance separating us, we both felt the pull.”
Andriea spoke again, “I grabbed one of the roses on the counter and without taking my eyes off of him, I walked outside then right up to him. I gave the rose to him without saying a word.”
“I knew I loved her already. And no other woman had given me a flower before.” He laughed.
” She then stepped away from me, but I couldn't allow that because I had to know everything about her. And I promise I had no idea that I would grab her up and kiss her right there on that sidewalk. But next thing I knew she was in my arms. And the best part of it was that—she kissed me back!”
Nodding, Andreia said, “You will never guess what he said when he broke that kiss.”
Hondo chuckled as he looked proud of this fact. “Will you marry me?” he repeated what he had asked back then.
Andreia laughed. “And I said, ‘Yes I will marry you but first tell me your name.”
Then they both acted out that moment for everyone at the table to hear.
“I am Hondo Meran. Now tell me your name.”
“Well Hondo Meran, my name is Andreia Sumter. So what are your plans for our upcoming marriage, Hondo?”
“We can talk about it over dinner tonight,” Hondo stated.
Then he looked around at the people listening to this tale of insta-love.
“I truly felt like that had been the day my dream had come to me. I still live that dream and I am blessed everyday to have the family I gained from seeing that beautiful girl in the flower shop.”
The room had gone silent as this beautiful story had affected all of them.
The girls at the table who had been staring at the older couple, all ooohed and ahhed. A few of them even swiped the tears from their eyes.
Misha lifted his wine glass. “We are honored that you shared this wonderful story with us. And it is more than an honor to sit at the dinner table with your family.”
Sergi gave his son a nod as he raised his glass.
Everyone at the long table lifted theirs in a toast.
An hour later...
After dinner, the men were quietly enjoying a drink with Hondo in the den. The subject of different factions in New York City had come up again when Sergi referred to Andriea’s comments about that.
It was Felix who asked Hondo how he had gotten involved with the cartel.
Sergi sternly shook his head at him. “That is none of our business, Felix.”
Hondo chuckled. “It is all bueno. It is a good story. I have never felt ashamed of my beginnings. And I do not feel any now, after I left that work either. The job I ended up with turned out to be the best thing for me.”
Hondo's thoughts flipped back to forty four years ago. When he was a young man, just getting settled in New York. He was all of twenty years old and it had been the first time for him to be in a big city...New York. “I’d grown up in Poughkeepsie and I heard story after story about New York City. For years as a boy, I watched my father get up and go to work every day of the week. He would drag his tired and sore body home after twelve hours of working for the man. As they call it. It wasn’t much better for mi madre.
.. my mother. She kept the house while her esposo.
.. husband, worked the fields. My poor madre did the best she could and so did my padre.
They raised us three boys in that small house.
Me and my brothers always had a hot meal and a clean home.
We might not have had much else but we had that much. ”
The men in the room all listened intently to Hondo Meran’s humble beginnings.
“As was the custom,” Hondo continued. “At about fourteen years old, I went to work with my father and I worked hard for maybe five years, but I hated every damn minute of it. Most of all, I hated all the hard work my father did six days a week, year after year for mere pennies really to provide for his family.” Hondo paused and shook his head.
“Then I was there the day mi padre died in the fields.
His heart finally gave out. The man in charge hauled his body out and then told the people working there to finish their work.
He had no regard for my father's passing. He acted like mi padre was just an animal on a farm and he treated him as such. I cannot tell you how angry I felt.” He raised his saddened gaze to the men in the room.
Sergi, Misha and Felix all shook their heads as they seemed to understand his story too well.