Forever Night Stand (TheWriteAffair Finalist)

Chapter 3

The woman's name was Agata. We walked through a restaurant into the kitchen and up some stairs into an office overlooking Juliet's balcony.

It was a small, modern-looking office filled with desks and filing cabinets and computers. Three friendly-looking women and a handsome guy looked up as Agata and I walked in.

"Ladies and gentleman, this is Brandy," introduced Agata. "These are the Secretaries of Juliet and the only guy over there is the Secretary of Romeo. We respond to the letters Juliet receives from around the world. We personally answer each of these letters," Agata explained.

"You mean you respond to these sack-loads of letters every day?"

"Veramente mi amore," said a kindly looking woman in her fifties. She got up from her desk and approached me. "Buon giorno, mi chiamo Clotilde. We have fifteen self-appointed secretaries here but only 5 are present today. Our ages span from twenty to sixty with a mix of marital statuses and occupations that range from ballet teacher, young student, psychologist, translator, to interior designer," added Clotilde while pointing each and every one of them and lastly to herself.

A pretty girl stood up and walked towards Agata to collect the letters. "Ciao, mi chiamo Elena. Some secretaries come to the club once or twice a week," she said. As far as I could remember she is the ballet teacher. "Some every day; some once in a while and reply to the letters at home, but we all do it for free."

"Free?"

"We're all volunteers. The city pays for stamps and paper, promoting its identity as the hometown of Romeo and Juliet is not a bad thing for tourism but the secretaries work free," said the only guy in the group and flashed a wide smile. He is the psychologist.

"Hey Brandy, I like you to meet my brother. His name is Ivo. He is a psychologist and a professor at Università degli Studi di Verona. He is still single. He's volunteering because he's having a case study about woman behavior when it comes to-"

"Agata stai zitto !" He turned to look at me and apologized for her younger sister. "Piacere di conoscerla."

I was blown away not due to his smile or his accent. It's because of the selflessness of these people. They offer advice, support, and a listening ear for anyone who needs to talk about love.

I couldn't do that. If I were to write a column for an advice I should be paid or else I'm not going to respond to anything.

I need to work for a living, for my mom. Medicare picked up the cost of most of her nursing home care but it's the most expensive type of long-term care facility. The maintenance for continued medication was not covered by her insurance.

"Membership is open to anyone interested in becoming a secretary. There is a testing period in which the elder secretaries check on and advise newer ones. Hi, I'm Genoveva. Pleased to meet you Brandy," the translator among the group said.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure she doesn't need any testing period. She's a love advice columnist she told me," Agata announced to them.

Great! I told myself and inwardly rolled my eyes. I gave them an unsure smile and nodded.

"Would you like to help?" asked Ivo.

"S-sure why not," I agreed, rather hesitantly.

"You can sit here if you want," Ivo offered me a seat beside him which was unfortunately the only unoccupied seat there.

I reluctantly sat down, opened the first letter and began to read. What a vacation, work away from work, I told myself. I shook my mind away from the thought in an effort to not offend the secretaries. "I didn't know Romeo has a secretary, too."