THE PIZZA BOY

MELLENIALS IN LOVE

Everyone thinks no one understands them.  8 billion people on the planet, somebody does.  You just need to find them.  - Catie's before lunch tweet.

   Catie and Sara have been BFFs since the term was invented.  With the fun of the past summer behind them, now is the time of their first days in college.  Despite their very privileged up bringing they have chosen to study early childhood development.  They want to start a day care, early learning, a Pre k.  An idea that is not sitting too well with Catie's father who would rather her learn the world of finance rather than as he put it - wiping the noses of the spawn of the less fortunate.  Sara has always been fond of a quaint lil pizzeria not far from the college.  So it is there that they would sit for lunch most days of the week.

   Mickey would most days come into the pizzeria shortly after 12.  This is his place of work and the manager of the restaurant seems to revel in telling Mickey how one day he is going to come in late and there wont be a job waiting for him.  But for now we are just too busy, he would say. And with that Mickey would get to work running the front counter and making pizzas.  But no matter how busy it is a young man's eyes will always find time for a beautiful woman.  And for Mickey there just is no more greater sparkle in this world than the one in Catie's eyes. 

20 selfies later...

   Though its all too obvious to Sara, Catie seems oblivious to Mickey's stares as the weeks go by.  He has even brought their order to the table and attempted something like a conversation.  Speaking fine to Sara but completely forgetting the English language whenever Catie had something to say.  Enough is enough Sara says to herself.  So when the girls leave the restaurant this time Sara runs back in.  Her pretense is that she left her cell behind, but really she gives Mickey a message.  Tomorrow she will bring Catie here like always, but she's gonna split before eating so that her friend will be alone and    

Mickey can make his move.  With a nervous nod, Mickey agrees to the plan.

   So the next day arrives and Sara does her part.  She gets Catie to order but comes up with some pretense why she cannot stay to eat.  Catie wants to come with but Sara convinces her not to and to dine alone.  When Catie's order is ready, the manager Alonzo brings it over to Mickey.  "Ask the girl out already," he says  "but be back in ten minutes or your fired!"  All his practice last night was for nothing.  As he walks towards Catie with her order, he feels like a man on death row walking the longest mile.

   He places her slices in front of her and awkwardly just stands there.  Catie is finally like is there something wrong.  "Only with the minds of most politicians." Mickey says.  And after obtaining permission he sits down.  "I was hoping" his rehearsed speech finally flowing, "That maybe I could take you out tomorrow night and then the next night.  Cause you know one date is not enough to base everything on.  So I'd figured we could agree to go out 2x.  First night we do all the things you want and the next we do things I want and then you can decide if you ever wanna see me again."  Catie points out that maybe it will be him that does want to see her again.  Mickey with the a ring of confidence his words have lacked till now says "That is a thing that will never happen."

   Alonzo shouts "Mickey get back here or your fired!"  He starts to get up from the table hesitantly.  Catie mulls over his offer enjoying watching Mickey squirm.  Finally she utters her agreement to his most unusual plan. Mickey wants her digits and home address where he can pick her up, but Catie does not give him any info.  She says they can just meet here.  And so they will tomorrow at 6.

Ten tweets later...

   Mickey stands inside the pizzeria hoping she will show, after all its 5:58 and she's not here yet.  Alonzo comments...”like you are ever on time for anything”.  Just a minute later Catie steps out of her cab and instructs the driver to wait.  She takes one look at Mickey and proclaims this will not do.  What!  Mickey nervously replies back.  “Your clothes!”  she says, t-shirt and jeans. Faster that one might think she tweets the moment and her followers all say the same thing.  Take the pizza boy shopping.  Caties expresses her desire to pay for the clothes but mickey is insistent.  He set aside a month of paychecks for this.  So she takes him to the nearest department store and redresses her date.  Its not that Catie minds a t-shirt and jeans guy.  But a Kanye t-shirt and a pair of Lucky jeans make all the difference.  Even Mickey turns in front of the mirror to see how well these pants show off his butt.  A fact that Catie was completely aware of.

   Catie takes a picture and sends it to her people in the cloud and in a few minutes there is a plethora of likes.  The general consensus is that Mickey is on fleek.  This doesn’t matter that much to him after all its only the opinion of the internet.  And so our young couple goes to the museum.  Catie is most fond of the dutch painters and to her surprise mickey prefers the classics though not for their constant religious tones.  They both stood in front of pollock's  'Convergence'.  Neither seem to get it as they stared but both their heads leaned ever so slightly to the left in sync.  For dinner it was a quaint restaurant with a light jazz band playing.  Mickey insisted she order for them both.

   The two started talking about their parents among other things.  Catie's mom is ok but concerns herself mostly on family image.  It is like her life is a string of parties.  Her father though was an all together different matter.  She is not sure he ever really wanted to be a parent and does very little of it.  They have never seen eye to eye.  He has no real people skills but is very good at giving orders.  Maybe somewhere in there he does truly care for his daughter like a father does, but he has one solution for every problem...throw some money on it.

   Mickey never really knew his mother.  She died when he was very young.  His father though did all he could to fill in the gaps until he too died just last year.  Now mickey is dedicating himself to his fathers dream.  He wanted to buy small lil neighborhood restaurants like Alonzo’s.  But not to change anything about them.  By having one owner each place could get all the advantages of belonging to a big chain, while still retaining that particular dining experience that makes each one special.  This date would seem to go well.  

3 selfies and 200 likes later.

 

   When Catie arrived for date number two mickey teasingly proclaimed how she was dressed was just not going to do.  So he took her to a nearby store where he bought her a hockey shirt.  The notion did not strike her as all that appealing but didn’t realize they make them for women.  The look showed off her form quite well.  A fact that did not escape mickey's eyes.  So as you may have guessed they went to a hockey game.  a sport not exactly to Catie's liking.  But it was quite amusing to hear mickey roar like a lion from time to time. though she could not really tell who he was rooting for.  He said neither.  I just come here to scream.  Catie quickly discovers that howling is quite fun and kill the ref is a great exclamation.

   For dinner they went to a place where they have an open mike and karaoke.  So people would get up, play guitar, slam poems or sing their favorite old tunes.  Mickey had made special arrangements to cook their meal himself.  While he prepared the meal he allowed her to catch up with her people.  This is his date and he didn’t want it to be a shared with half of Delaware.  “Your so twentieth century.”  She said but adhered to his wish.  But after 3 hours of not posting a tweet or text, Catie was most happy for the respite.  Mickey came back before long with a stir fried vegetable dish oozing with cheese.  Apparently Mickey loves to combine Italian and Chinese cooking.  Rediscovering recipes hundreds of years old when  two cultures first mixed cuisine.  And so date two went very well.  They sat by the river bank and finally got to some serious kissing they had both longed for.  This night under the moon light was just one of many to come.  

One month, 76 selfies, 87 tweets and 6033 comments later....

  

 Sara came into Alonzo’s somewhat distressed.  She calls Mickey over and asks if he has heard from Catie.  He says “Not all morning which is funny”  He chuckles. “Cause that girl can text in her sleep.  Not since last night just after dinner.  She wanted to get some extra rest for her exams today.”  Well Sara tells him that she never showed for the exam and hasn’t responded to any of her messages.  So she went round to her house and it looks like the entire family is gone.  Mickey tells Alonzo that he’s gotta go.  So Alonzo shouts back he’s fired.   Mickey had just bought Catie a present, a new phone oddly enough Catie hadn’t up-graded in years.  So he posted a message on her profiles…WHERE'S CATIE?  None of Caties people in the cloud had heard from her either.  By later that afternoon all of Caties people started asking all their people and in a few hours it all became clear.

   One responded recognizing her last name.  Seems the IRS has seized all her father's company's  financial records.  In all likely hood he knew what was about to go down and skipped town with a few 100 million.   Word got to taxi drivers and one said she picked up the family at 5 in the morning and took them to the airport.  Nobody was looking very happy.   Soon people who work at the airport chimed in.  The family took a flight to Andorra.  And in the coming days Mickey was able to track her down to the hotel she was staying in.

   Catie was  in her room crying having had the worst few days of her life when she got up to answer her hotel room door.  There was Mickey pretending to be room service.  After they got through expressing how much they were glad to see each other.  Mickey explained how her found her using the double I phone he had gotten her.  He tells her why he is hoping she will come back with him.  After she didn’t do anything illegal.  But mickey was not asking her to chose between him or her father, but to chose her dreams.  To put one foot in 'Believe', that no matter what happens between them he is ready to help get what she wants out of life.  “I am perfect in my love for you.”  He says.

   But lets be practical she says how are we gonna even pay for school.  Mickey then reveals a bit of a secret he has been keeping and promises it will be the last.  But that idea of his fathers to own a bunch of restaurants was not just a dream.  Mickey says he’s the owner of a dozen pizzerias, a few Chinese restaurants, that club they had first gone to.  Even Alonzo’s.  “But how is that possible?”  She says “He’s always yelling at you.”  Mickey laughs “Alonzo is my uncle on my mothers side and he’s been firing me since I was two years old.  If we get into trouble we’ll just throw some money on it and let the math do itself.

   Catie wrote her mom a note,  packed nothing and left with her man.  Mickey figures they were just too close to Paris and Rome to go right home.  An idea that was just fine with Catie.  Mickey then gives her the phone he had bought her.  “Oh btw” He says.  “I bought you a new jawnski, its like twice the phone you used to have.  Your fingers must be going into withdrawals not having a cell.”   Catie agreed but she’s gonna let Mickey hold onto it for her and she will just hang on to Mickey.

The next selfie went viral.

June 18th  2015