arms and turning his palms to Sonia as if waiting for a gift.
“What happened?” He asked while holding out his hand to shake Sonia’s, and she promptly shook his back.
“Did you hear about that bus, number twenty-nine, which caught fire at the end of Via Baracca?”
Damien nodded and shook his head as if to say: “Okay, go ahead!”
“I could’ve been on that bus, and maybe I wouldn’t be here to tell you about it!” She said with her eyes wide open.
“Yes, I heard about it, an awful story, I heard that the passengers couldn’t get out of the vehicle”. He said.
Sonia was wearing a pair of tight-fitted faded jeans, a pink cardigan and a pair of strap sneakers, also pink. Even without heels she was tall.
Although not as much as Damien was.
Sonia told him that her watch had stopped and that thanks to that, she had missed the bus that went up in flames, and especially thanks to his kindness, when he had distracted her by offering her a coffee.
They chatted about this event for a while and finally Sonia decided she could trust Damien and the items he sold. She asked him if she could try a VAPE and he happily agreed, also tempted to bring out a sampling of coloured batteries so she could choose the one which, (he was sure); she would buy that Saturday morning.
Sonia had a craving to smoke, and talking to Damien elated her extraordinarily. She had never felt so attracted to a man, mentally and physically.
Damien handed her the electronic cigarette, after charging it with a good tobacco liquid containing a certain percentage of nicotine and Sonia took it from him as a child taking an ice cream cone from the hands of its mother.
She took two or three puffs, long and close between them, turning her back to Damien, maybe to hide the yearning she was feeling.
It was a good chance for Damien to watch her from behind. He noticed her rounded hips, straight legs, which were so tightly wrapped within her tight jeans that he could admire their perfect shape. Her shortly cut hair, allowed him to admire her long elegant neck.
Damien walked silently towards Sonia, stood to her left and then moved in front of her like a dancer who takes the hand of his companion to invite her to dance. While he moved he could smell the fragrance that radiated from her neck and hair.
He closed his eyes and fully savoured the scent, mentally picturing Sonia, as if he had a three-dimensional view, in front of her mirror at home, as she sprayed the scent on, raising her neck, turning it, bowing her head and lifting it up again to see her reflection, in all its beauty.
Sonia turned her face towards Damien’s, who was just a few inches away from a kiss; they looked at each other for a moment that seemed endless and eventually Damien, more alert than Sonia, took the cigarette from her hands, which she gave up as a robot without its CPU.
“What do you think?” asked Damien, while moving slightly away.
“It’s good! I didn’t imagine it would be!” Sonia answered, recovering from her momentary confusion.
“This might help you stop smoking, Sonia. You have no idea of the benefits that you will find, not only for your health, but also for your whole being. Don’t allow tobacco to waste what nature gave you, your beautiful smile, the colour of your skin, its softness!” Damien spoke as he continued to look into Sonia’s eyes, trying to communicate that he really believed that those words were meant for her wellbeing.
At that moment Sonia decided she could talk to him about her illness, surely he would listen to her; something told her that he would help her face her disease with a positive attitude, rather than let go and give up fighting. Maybe Damien was the right person to offer her some moral support.
“When I came here the first time, - Sonia started, collecting her courage - I had just come out of the doctor's office across the street, I went to pick up the tests that confirmed that I have a tumour.”
“Oooh! – Damien interrupted her, visibly shaken – Are you sure?”
“Yes I’m sure. Excuse me if I told you this, I know it’s a little confidential, but I wanted to talk to someone who wasn’t part of my family or friends; I think you can understand why.”
“Yes, I understand – answered Damien – people who have known you for a long time, always feel very emotionally involved or very embarrassed in these cases, and at the end they are incapable of seeing the situation from a different perspective than yours. You put a lot of faith in me to tell me about it, I thank you for that.”
Sonia sought for a way to ease the drama of the topic, not that she regretted have confided in Damien, who was really only a “stranger”, indeed, she was glad; however, she believed that she would have the opportunity to talk to him on more occasions, since she was about to become a new customer of his, therefore she would have met him again.
She approached the counter and saw that strange metal object on which Damien was working before she entered the store. She picked it up and asked him what it was.
It was then that he moved closer to her, took her hand which held the basic atomizer with the mounted resistance and at that moment the resistance became incandescent.
Sonia, frightened, immediately dropped it into Damien’s palm who sharply said:
“Be careful! I forgot to turn it off – he lied – luckily you didn’t burn yourself, I’m sorry.”
“No excuse me, - said Sonia, who at that point assumed that the object had an internal battery – I shouldn’t have touched it, it’s my fault, anyhow I’m not hurt.”
Damien shook his head. This shouldn’t have happened.
His heart could have resisted her beauty, but not the heart of that atomizer, which had not put up a strong resistance to her.
Part eight (Sonia’s dream)
The new electronic cigarette’s battery was still hot, when Sonia put it down on the nightstand next to her bed. She was glad to have been able to smoke, oops!... “Vape” as Damien said, even in her room, without filling the air with that disgusting scent of tar.
She had inhaled a good dose of nicotine for that Saturday night, following a tasty pizza she had delivered to her home, which she had eaten in the company of her favourite TV show: Columbo.
Once she turned off the TV, she checked her bookmark, which indicated that she had another twenty pages to finish the novel she was reading; She shook her head undecidedly, trying to choose between reading or sleeping, took another look at the electronic cigarette, thinking that she could still vape while reading, without having to worry about shaking the ash or not falling asleep with a lit cigarette. Finally she gave up and decided that it would be better to turn off the light, close her eyes and let herself fall sleep without the anxiety of the ringing of the alarm clock. The next day was Sunday; she had already planned a bike ride with Giorgio, her boyfriend.
For almost a year now, Sonia lived alone in a two-roomed apartment that her parents had bought her with the savings of a lifetime, even though that meant they would be separated from their only daughter, who had chosen to live in the city of Florence, which she preferred
