A-Cup Angst Ch. 13

He set aside the horrid thoughts of his mother finding out the intimate details of his sex life and had breakfast. After that, he took a nap and woke up just after noon. He made himself a sandwich and sat at the kitchen counter as he slowly chewed on it. The empty house quietly reminded him that he had nothing to do. He glanced at the clock and remembered the many fancy clocks in Aldo's store. He had promised the man to come and tell him how things had gone at the Rossis' as thanks for his help with the laptop.

He parked at the end of Aldo's street and walked over to the store. As soon as Aldo looked up and saw him coming in, he stood up, threw his hands in the air and declared, "The conquering hero returns in triumph!"

"What," Jamie asked, from the door.

"You conquered the Rossi girls, you saw the Rossi girls naked and they came!" Aldo snickered. "Get it? Conquered, saw, came?"

"What?"

Aldo waved his hands dismissively as he lowered them. "Ah, young man," he said, amicably, "please don't be offended. The whole town knows that you had made love to both the Rossi women last night."

"What," Jamie all but screamed.

"Please, please," Aldo said, "come inside and close the door."

Jamie slammed the door shut and rushed over to the shopkeeper. "What do you mean the whole fucking town knows? How? Did you go around spreading rumors?"

"No," Aldo said, "nothing like that!"

"Then why would people think anything happened yesterday," Jamie asked.

"Well," Aldo said and then hesitated, "I heard that there was an upstairs window open at the Rossis' house yesterday. A window that faced the town square." Jamie's face fell as the man continued. "People were taking their afternoon walks across the square and they had heard... some sounds that were very... suggestive." Aldo shrugged. "Everyone already knew Alessandra had the hots for you so they just assumed it was you up there with her. Everyone just blushed, smiled and felt happy for the two of you."

Jamie lowered his head and shook it in irritation. He leaned on the counter for support. He had locked his senses onto Laura's pleasure and, while he had felt spied on during the whole time he was making love to her, he had sensed Alessandra doing it and assumed that was all. He had been too focused on the task at hand to sense the entire town listening in on it, as well.

"When people heard a second female voice cry out in," Aldo said and paused when Jamie's face shot back up, "uh, suggestively, then they realized that there were two girls and one young man involved and that, my young friend, has started the rumor mill of this small city to go into overdrive." Aldo patted Jamie's hand. "Unfortunately, this city has been starved of scandals for a long time now and a canadian boy being the lover of a mother and daughter at the same time is just the sort of thing they had been waiting for."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Jamie muttered in English.

"Yes, precisely," Aldo said.

"Does the whole town know?"

"No," Aldo said. "Some won't find out until they come home from work. But by the end of today, literally everyone over the age of five in this city will know about you and the Rossi girls." Jamie rolled his eyes and groaned in frustration. "Little children will run around you, reciting clever, little songs about you and them kissing. Men will tip their hats at you in envy. Women of all ages will either reproachfully stare you to death or flirt with you. It's a toss up with the ladies. Except for the grannies. They'll just jump your bones. Brazenly. In public." Jamie just stared at the shopkeeper and showed no interest in his attempt at humor. Aldo scrunched up his wrinkled face in an expression of silent commiseration as Jamie rubbed his brow. "Enough about that. What brings you here today?"

"I came to tell you how it went yesterday," Jamie said.

"Now, look here, young man," Aldo said, ire in his voice, "I hope you didn't come here to brag about your conquest."

"What," Jamie said, insulted. "No! Of course not! You're the one that just-"

"Because I have no patience for silly, young men that brag about things that involve others and should be kept in the privacy of the bedroom! Such a breach of the bonds of intimacy is unforgivable!"

"I didn't come here to brag," Jamie interrupted him, forcefully, "I came here to tell you how the laptop computer went over."

"Oh," Aldo said, more calmly. The two of them stood staring at each other for a few moments. Jamie was insulted at Aldo's implications that he was a braggart and he sensed Aldo was annoyed at the thought of him recounting last night. There was tension in the air "So, how was it received," Aldo inquired at last. His voice was tight.

"Splendidly," Jamie replied in an equally clipped tone.

"Glad to hear it," deadpanned Aldo.

"Good," Jamie said. "I came here because you wanted to know how it was received and you made me promise to come over today."

"I guess I did," Aldo said, more calmly. Jamie nodded. "Well, is that all that brought you here today?"

"No. I also wanted to thank you for your help. I could not have made the computer so pretty without it. So, thank you."

Aldo nodded and adopted a lopsided grin. "You're welcome," he said.

Jamie glanced around the cluttered shop and said, "I was also thinking of helping you sell some of these things."

"You were," Aldo asked, hopefully.

"Yes," Jamie said. "I'd even be willing to start today. Right now, actually." Jamie turned away from Aldo and gestured at the cuckoo-clocks on the wall. "These I could move in a few days, definitely. There's a market for them." He gestured at the washing machines occupying the bottom row of the store's window. "And these will definitely move fast, we just have to price them for it." Jamie sensed Aldo's mood had changed and he turned back to the counter, only to find him missing. He sensed him in the back room and called out, "Hey, you listening?!"

Aldo came out of the back room wearing a coat, no apron, and carrying a very thick binder that was only held together by the many lengths of twine tied around it. "I need to get to the city administration's office," he said, hurrying to the door. "Many matters to settle!"

"What, right now?"

"I was going to have to lock up the store for a whole day later in the week before you came along," Aldo happily said. He opened the door and went out.

"Hey, wait a minute," Jamie said and followed him out.

"I'll be back before closing time, don't worry," Aldo said, agreeably. "They won't keep me past their closing time!"

"Hey, you can't leave your store like this," Jamie said.

Aldo was retreating down the street with surprising speed for a man of his age. "Like what," he shot back without stopping.

"Empty," Jamie yelled after the retreating figure. "Unmanned and unlocked!"

"It's neither empty nor unmanned," Aldo yelled, without slowing down. "My salesman is tending to it in my absence!"

Jamie looked into the store in confusion. He stretched his Jedi senses and felt no one on the premises. "There's no one in there!"

"Well, of course not," Aldo yelled in annoyance. "You're standing in the street, aren't you?!"

"I'm not your salesman!"

"Yes you are," Aldo yelled. He was nearly to the end of the street. "You asked to sell my wares for me and I accepted. That makes you my salesman."

"No! Wait! You misunderstood! I only-"

"Too late," Aldo yelled as he rounded a corner and finally disappeared from view. Jamie could see the old man had been wearing a smile.

Jamie gaped in disbelief at the corner the old man had vanished around. He had just left his store and all of its contents in Jamie's hands. Jamie looked back at the store and shook his head in disbelief. "He's crazy," he muttered into his chin, in English. He stood in front of the store and looked up and down the street. There were people here and there, mostly crossing it on the intersections it had with bigger streets. He obviously couldn't just leave the store like this. Someone might come along, see that no one was in there, and then help themselves to whatever they wanted. Aldo wasn't going to get back until late in the afternoon, he said so himself.

Jamie thought it best to use his telekinesis to lock the door and then go about his merry way, so he did it. As he stood outside the locked doors, he wondered what to do with the rest of his day. He bit on his lip as he considered. He stared into the store's window and realized he'd feel bad for leaving it unattended if people came along and wanted to buy something, or have something repaired, but couldn't. It would cost Aldo his much needed business. Besides, Jamie had come there today to offer putting most of Aldo's wares online to sell them.

Jamie idly nodded to himself and went to his car to retrieve his laptop and digital camera. He returned to the store, unlocked it with the Force and went back inside. He found a spot of pristinely white wall in the back room and cleared the clutter in front of it. He intended to use that spot as a backdrop in which to photograph the darker appliances and cuckoo-clocks Aldo had so he could post adds selling them online. He also found a section of dark, wooden panels on the wall of the back room and cleared it to serve as a backdrop to photographing the light appliances, mainly washing machines.

The first thing he did was go over a ledger Aldo kept to identify which appliances were unclaimed and how much to sell them for. He used his telekinesis to gently move and pose those appliances in the correct spots before taking their pictures. After that, he posted add after add online. By the time he was done, two of the adds had already yielded sales via the "Buy It Now" option. Jamie found boxes and packing materials in the back room and began to prepare the turntable and cuckoo-clock for shipping when he heard the doorbell ring to announce someone's entry.

He looked up and saw a man standing in the doorway and looking around uncertainly. "Yes," Jamie said. "May I help you?"

"Where's Aldo," the man asked.

"At the city administration's office," Jamie said and immediately regretted it. What if the man started thinking Aldo was in some kind of trouble with the authorities? He had no business revealing Aldo's business to strangers in the first place. He should have just said that Aldo was absent for the day. "May I assist you in any way?"

"Will Aldo be back?"

"Yes, later in the day," Jamie said. "Would you like to leave a message for him?"

"Uh, no," the man said. He held up a wristwatch and said, "I just came over to see if he had the time to fix the watch again. When will he be back?"

"You can leave the watch with me, sir," Jamie offered. The man seemed uncertain and looked at Jamie as if he was just then realizing that someone else was in Aldo's store, behind Aldo's counter. "I'll make certain that he gets it before the end of business today."

"Who are you?"

"I am Aldo's, uh," Jamie said and grasped for words, "new assistant, Jamie."

Jamie sensed a flash of recognition in the man's mind and saw it on his face. The man grinned, pointed a finger at Jamie and said, "Jamie the Canadian?" He shook his finger at Jamie as he stepped closer smiling. "Who did the Rossi girls last night?"

Jamie's brow drew down in displeasure. He planted his fists on the counter, like he had seen Aldo do the other day, and glared at the man. "What did you say?!"

The man lowered his finger and dropped his smile. "Nothing," he said. "I said nothing at all." Jamie kept glaring at the man. "Goodness, you really are Aldo's assistant," the man nervously said. "I think I best be going now."

"And the watch," Jamie asked.

"Oh, no, no, no," the man stammered, "I have to catch a train later today and I can't wait for Aldo to come fix it. I'll just find a clocksmith in Florence."

"You'll do no such thing," Jamie forcibly said. He held out his hand. "Give it here!"

The man nervously, but gently placed his prized wristwatch in the palm of Jamie's hand. Jamie looked at the watch. It was a high-quality item, but old and worn. The leather straps were new, however. He flipped the watch over and read the inscription on the back. "We had faith in God, our cause and our commander. Only the last of the three had never failed us." It was signed with 10th Bersagliere regiment.

Jamie opened the back of the watch and took a good look at the mechanism inside. The man babbled nervously about it being a precious family memento, given to his great-grandfather some sixty years ago, during the war, and then told of how the watch stopped working. Jamie turned around and retrieved a few precision tools from the toolbox. He mostly turned around so the man wouldn't be able to see him use the Force to repair the delicate mechanism. All the parts were still there and mostly intact, they were just loose and misaligned. The winding spring was the biggest problem as it had left its screw. Jamie fixed it all with the Force and then mimed using some precision tools on it. He turned around, replaced the back of the watch and wound it up, setting it to the same time as the clocks on the wall.

"There, all done," Jamie said. The man's mouth opened in admiration and he reverently picked the watch out of Jamie's hand. "You need to be more careful with it in the future. It is a fine piece of mechanical engineering, but it isn't immune to damage."

"Yes, yes, of course," the man said, absentmindedly.

Jamie whipped out Aldo's ledger and began to write a receipt for the man. He also used the opportunity to flip through it to find out how much Aldo usually charged for fixing a watch. The man set a twenty euro note on the counter and turned to leave. "Where do you think you're going," Jamie asked.

The man froze and turned around. He stepped back to the counter and waited for Jamie to write out the receipt. He took it and said, "You should really reconsider working for Aldo, Jamie the Canadian. He's started to rub off on you."

Jamie just looked at the man until he turned around and left. "Thank you, please come again," he called after the man in a deadpan voice.

Jamie finished packing the sold items and spent the rest of the afternoon working on repairs Aldo had in progress. His mother interrupted him with a phone call. She had been worried that he hadn't come back home from the Rossis and had called them. When they told her he had left early, she started to worry that maybe the drug dealers had found him. She ranted at him and gave him a lesson about keeping in touch. Jamie endured it for a few minutes, as he was the one that had put the fear of the phantom drug dealers into her, but then he became annoyed at her patronizing tone so he just clicked her off. He turned his attention back to the repair work on hand. The Force guided him and he finished it all. He cleaned up after himself and sat idle in the store for almost an hour more until Aldo came back.

"Finally," Jamie said.

"Yes," Aldo tiredly said, "bureaucrats. They do love to waste everyone's time."

"And you love to waste mine," Jamie said. "I've been stuck here minding your store the whole day!"

Aldo looked Jamie up and down with a measured glance. He sniffed and said, "That kind of attitude is inappropriate when speaking to your employer, young man."

"I'll speak to you in whatever manner I choose. You're not my employer!"

"Oh," Aldo said as he went into the back room, "then why do I have the paperwork that proves otherwise?"

"What?!"

Aldo hung up his coat and pulled an envelope from its pocket. He brought it to the counter and set it down before Jamie. "There," he said, pointing at the envelope. "That's got your employment card, your social security card, your national health insurance card, the works." Jamie stared blankly at Aldo. "Of course," Aldo said, "your work permit and visa are contingent on you being an artisan artificer, or I'll get in trouble with the Financial Guard."

Jamie finally shook off his shock and laughed. "Ha, ha, you got me," he said, shaking a finger at the shopkeeper, "I fell for it. Well done."

"Fell for what," Aldo asked.

"I can't be your employee because I never signed a contract with you and I never signed a single application for any of those things."

Aldo dumped the contents of the envelope on the counter. Jamie's mouth fell open as he saw a bunch of cards and documents in the name of Jamie Benson. "What? How?"

"My best friend is the deputy mayor," Aldo said and winked. "He pushed all the applications through. Cut through all the red tape."

Jamie was stunned with disbelief at the sight of the documents. A scenario played in his mind. Someone in an office somewhere would notice all the corner-cutting done in his name and alert the proper authorities about it. Cutting through all that red tape must involve breaking the law, or at least some kind of fraud. The authorities would then come and ask questions. Questions Jamie really didn't want to have to answer. Couldn't answer, even. The house was in the name of his mom and sister, so they were safe, but he could be deported. He would be deported, Jamie realized, and probably banned from ever getting back in the country, as well. Then he'd never be able to come back to Italy and help or protect his family. The horrible scenario made him shake in fright. He leveled a glare at Aldo and said, "Are you fucking insane!?"

Aldo's mouth tightened in a grimace of disapproval. He shook his head and said, "For that attitude and use of bad words, I'm docking you today's pay, young man."

"What pay," Jamie all but screamed at the man. "I don't work for you!"

"Not with that attitude you don't!"

"Not with," Jamie started to say and stopped in shock at the man's lunacy. "You... There are... I can't believe that... That you... I mean... What!?"

Aldo looked over the many finished repairs and realized that his workload was now nonexistent. He noted two boxes ready for shipping and lifted them to judge their weight while Jamie was just sputtering in disbelief. "Shame you don't work for me anymore," Aldo said, throwing Jamie for another loop, "this is some quality work you've done here today. And lucrative." Aldo looked at the receipt stub in his ledger. "And what's this? You fixed a watch? When did you manage to do all of this? It would have taken me days!"

Jamie took a deep, calming breath and brought his wrath under check. With a tightly controlled voice, he asked, "Mister Domenico, we are going to the police and you are going to explain to them that you were the one that submitted all those legal documents today and that I had nothing to do with any of it."

"No," Aldo said with finality.

"No, what?!"

"No, I won't go to the police and I won't say anything like that, young man," Aldo said in all seriousness.

Jamie's brow drew down and his anger rose. "I am not going to get deported and severed from my family because of your insolence and lunacy," he declared. "You are coming with me to the police and you are going to tell them everything. There is no 'no' about it."

Aldo gulped a bit at the fire in Jamie's eyes. He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender and said, "No, I won't. Do you know why I won't?"

Jamie's fists tightened. He briefly debated with himself over the best course of action to take. Obviously, he was going to have make Aldo susceptible to Force suggestions. He'd need to do it in a way that leaves no visible marks or makes him unable to walk and talk. Perhaps he'd use a sedative, or something. He'd also need to find a competent lawyer to have this mess undone in a professional matter. But first, he needed to move Aldo someplace where he'd have total freedom to mess with his mind. He wracked his brain to come up with a location. His mom's house and the Rossi places were right out. The shop was too exposed as well. He paid attention as Aldo resumed talking.