"How could I have ever done anything so stupid?" Angela Giordano asked herself, the question unanswered in the silence of the empty room.
Not that the forty year old blonde really needed to ask the question. Her answer was as clear as the reflection in the mirror on the bedroom wall. She had allowed sentiment to overcome good judgment and made what was proving to be a disastrous decision.
Last month, two days before he was supposed to deliver a check for their son's tuition at Kingsbridge Military Academy, Angela's ex-husband, Sal, advised her that he didn't have the funds to cover it. A business deal had gone sour and it would take another few weeks for him to recoup.
Angela had gone ballistic, raging at her former spouse, but in the end she knew that was futile. The money wasn't there and like the old saying went, you can't get blood from a stone. It was her own fault, she knew, because she agreed to forego alimony in exchange for Sal taking on the full financial responsibility for Paul's education. She knew she would eventually get the money, but not in time for the Fall semester.
She'd called the registrar's office and tried to work out a payment plan, only to be told that was against policy. Kingsbridge had a long waiting list, they said, and if she couldn't pay the amount in full, Paul's space would go to one of the applicants on that list.
Her parents, with whom the fourteen year old lived because it was closer to the school, offered to give what they could, but even with their contribution Angela was still a thousand dollars short. A sum that, even in 1972, was considerable. With any possible option quickly exhausted, her likelihood of raising the money seemed slim indeed. So much so that, in her desperation, Angela was willing to make a deal with the devil.
Not that Tony "the Hook" Moretti was really the devil, but depending on whom you listened to, he was damn well close to it.
She'd first met Tony back in the summer of '70, a few days after she'd started working at Romano's, one of the neighborhood's more popular eateries. The 'alleged mobster', as he was always referred to in the newspapers, had a weakness for the old world cuisine that the restaurant was famous for, and made it a habit to frequent it at least twice a week. The well dressed seventy-four year old had taken an instant liking to the buxom waitress, insisting that she wait on his table whenever he came in. Since he always left a sizable tip and, aside from a playful pat on the ass now and then, left her alone, Angela thought herself fortunate.
It so happened that Tony had come in the night before Paul's tuition was due and couldn't help but notice the look on the waitress's face that said something wasn't right. Unable to enjoy his meal, the balding hood asked her to sit down and tell him what was upsetting her so.
"Is that all?" Tony asked with laughter as Angela finished recounting her story and what to, her at least, was the insurmountable amount she needed.
Angela watched in astonishment as Tony looked over his shoulder and gestured to one of the three men who always seemed to accompany him everywhere. The dark suited man stepped over from the spot where he had been surveying the dining room and leaned low to listen to the older man's instructions. He nodded his head as he listened, then reached into his jacket and produced a roll of bills thick enough to choke the proverbial horse. Sitting across the table, the stunned blonde could see that every bill in the roll was a hundred, the total easily twice what she made in a year.
'Omigod, is this really happening?' Angela asked herself as Tony's associate laid ten bills on the table before putting the roll away and stepping back to his original vantage point.
"Just think of it as a loan," Tony said with a broad smile as he slid the small pile of bills toward Angela.
"No, I couldn't..." Angela hesitantly replied.
Before the words left her mouth, Angela's mind filled with the risks of incurring an obligation to a man like Tony Moretti. She'd been around long enough to know there was good reason why he was called "the Hook", and the price some people found themselves paying to get off it.
"Of course you can," he insisted, not making any attempt to withdraw the money from in front of her. "It's just a little loan," he repeated, pausing for effect before adding, "for your son's education."
Staring at the money for what seemed a very long time, Angela found it hard to resist the temptation to simply pick it up and solve her money problem. Only the thought of what the loan might ultimately cost her stayed her hand.
If nothing else, the predatory smile that Tony gave her should've convinced her that this was not a good idea, but even that seemed to pale against the idea that Paul wouldn't have to leave school.
"I'll tell you what," Tony said, seeing her hesitation, "since you are my favorite waitress, why don't I give you thirty days without penalty to pay me back?"
"What exactly does that mean?" Angela had asked, her resolve weakening the longer she thought about it.
"You pay back the same amount you borrow," Tony explained. "It's as simple as that."
If Angela had taken her eyes off the money on the table and glanced in the direction of Tony's money man, she would've seen a look of astonishment on his face. A loan without any points meant that Moretti wouldn't make a dime off the transaction - something that was, in his experience, unprecedented.
"And if I can't pay it back in thirty days?" Angela asked, a small caution still remaining.
"Then we'll work something out," Tony smiled. "Don't you worry."
Nevertheless, worry she should've.
True to form, Sal called her a few days before the note to Tony was due, saying he'd had another financial setback and she would have to wait a bit longer. So it was with trepidation that she'd gone to tell Tony that she didn't have the money to pay him back.
When she'd served Tony his lunch that afternoon, he didn't say a word about the loan being due, at least not until he had finished his meal. Then he simply said that she should have a seat and the two of them would talk. When she nervously sat down across from him, she was surprised when he waved away his ever present bodyguards, as if he didn't want them privy to their discussion.
"That is not good," Tony said when she finally told him that she didn't have the thousand dollars to pay him back.
"I can give you about half right now," Angela said, "then the rest and whatever interest you think appropriate in a week or two."
"It's not that simple," Tony replied, a hint of disappointment in his voice. "The deal was that you would pay back the amount in full. I can't go back and change it now; people might get the idea that I was getting soft."
"I know, but I don't have it all," the waitress said, regretting not for the first time today that she'd taken the bargain.
Tony didn't say a word, picking up instead the small cup in front of him and taking a sip of his espresso.
"Wait a moment," Angela said, recalling something Tony had also said when they'd made their deal. "You said that if I didn't have the money, we'd work something out."
"Yes, I did say that," the older man acknowledged as he replaced his cup on the saucer. "But that usually involves someone repaying their obligation with a service in lieu of cash. Something that carries a value equal to what they owe. Are you sure that you want to do that?"
Angela thought about it a moment, considering what other options she might have. With few forthcoming, she figured she had little choice.
