This is the twelfth story.
This is the story of Sofia.
In my days as a delivery driver, my shifts would usually start with a pickup from a popular gastropub near my apartment. It was always a great start to the evening because the hostesses were always young women, always 18+ and at least a little bit cute. They were fun to flirt with but most of them acted slightly too young for my taste and I never felt like taking things any further.
That is, until Sofia.
She was older than the others, 23 when I met her. She was gorgeous, ethnically ambiguous, almost definitely half-Spanish. She had olive colored skin, dark eyebrows, and dark brown hair. Her face was round but with sharp features, somewhere on the spectrum between a young Helena Bonham Carter and Penelope Cruz. She was 5'4" or 5'5", with a thin frame but very heavy breasts, to my eyes at least d's or double-d's. The first time I saw her it was an effort to not stare at them, and even if I got better at not doing that, I still spent most of the time in her presence imagining setting them free from the bra that held them.
And best of all she was fierce. If the place was ever slammed with customers, and delivery drivers were rudely trying to get her attention, she'd ignore them like the savviest bartender or put them in their place like the angriest mom.
She was so focused and so no-shit that for the longest time I didn't know if I'd made any impression on her. I just came in, waited my turn, didn't badger anyone, eventually got my food and left. My desire to be respectful to beleaguered wait staff far outweighed my desire to pick her up.
And then one night, as I stood off to the side and people churned around me, Sofia running this way and that, a delivery driver stepped in front of her and said:
"Hey, I've been waiting forever."
Big mistake, buddy.
"You've been waiting?" Sofia got up on her tiptoes, put a finger in his face. "You've been waiting? Everyone's been waiting. I work here and I've been waiting. Step back in line and don't say another word to me. I'll let you know when your food's ready."
The delivery driver bowed his head sheepishly, his face beet red, and stepped aside. Maria walked past him, looked at me, caught me suppressing a smile. I had a flash of worry that she'd misread that smile and lay into me too.
But no, she shot me a quick little smirk in return, rolled her eyes, and went back to work.
There. We. Go.
I pulled a spare receipt out of my pocket, snuck a pen from the host stand, and scribbled out my number. A few minutes later Sofia brought me my food.
"Thanks for all you do," I said, sincerely.
"Thanks for being patient," she said.
For once she was making eye contact and not immediately running off to the next thing. It further cemented what I was about to do.
I took the bag, and mid-exchange I handed her the spare receipt. She looked at it, confused.
"If you ever want to commiserate about impatient people," I said.
I didn't wait to see if the look of confusion turned happy or sour, I just turned and left the restaurant. I wasn't going to push her, just give her the space to make her own decision.
I did deliveries the rest of that night, clocked off just before 10, and headed home. Back at my apartment I poured out some dark rum over ice, threw on an NFL Network replay of some recent playoff game, and put my feet up.
Then my phone dinged.
I picked it up. A text from an unknown number. A 213 area code. Los Angeles. I opened it.
hey...jack?
Hi?
this is sofia. from [redacted]
I sat up straight on my couch.
Hey! How are you?
brutal shift! almost over tho
And she ended the text with the cheery emoji, the one with the rosy cheeks. I typed back quickly.
What are you up to after? I got nothing in the morning
me neither. going to a taco truck. wanna meet me?
Yeah. What do you drink? I'll bring a can of something. We'll celebrate on the sly
!! you're something. umm i like those canned margaritas? what are we celebrating?
The end of a brutal shift! Canned marg, you got it
She sent a crying laughing emoji. We agreed on a time and place, a late night truck thankfully not too far from me. I put my glass of rum in the fridge, bagged up a couple canned cocktails, spruced myself up, and headed back out the door.
I got to the taco truck and parked nearby, and ended up waiting about fifteen minutes in my car before Sofia pulled up. I got out of my car and walked to hers, noting how chilly the night had become. She emerged and looked at me, and we both smiled. She was zipping a hoodie up over her work shirt. I shivered.
"Smart idea," I said.
"Work smarter, not harder," she said.
We exchanged a brief hug, then went to order. As we waited for the food we chatted casually, her smiling every so often at how cold I clearly was.
"You should've brought a hoodie instead of those canned margs," she said.
I chuckled. "You say that now."
They called out our numbers and we grabbed the food. My teeth chattered slightly.
"Wanna eat in my car?" I asked.
She laughed. "Sure."
We scurried back to the safety of my car, I cranked the heat, and we sat and ate and drank the margaritas (I don't endorse drunk driving!). We shared restaurant horror stories, something any server or former server can easily connect over.
"I don't know how you deal with all us shitty delivery drivers," I said. "Respect."
She laughed. "Some are better than others."
She looked at me meaningfully. I looked back.
"And some hostesses are better looking than others." I smiled.
"We got a charmer here," she said, grinning.