Impress Me Not: The Architect

Chapter 38

"Can't go wrong with that," Valentino laughed. "There's always some crazy people in downtown. It's interesting, I'll tell you that."

"I feel like that can describe every city's downtown area," Casimir chuckled. They parked and got out. It never took too long for them to get downtown. Especially not with that Corvette.

"Except for the richy areas," Valentino rolled his eyes. "You should hear Anton talk about it though. He has some crazy stories about people messing with him."

"Anton?" he looked at him curiously. "The man in the coffee shop?"

"Oh yeah," Valentino laughed. "There was one that was absolutely hilarious."

"And what was that?" he asked.

"Some gym rats were about to leave while he was heading to work," Valentino said, almost laughing as he spoke. "And he noticed that they left their can of tea on top of their car. He tried to tell them, but it was too late and it spilt all over their passenger window."

"I've had that happen to me plenty of times," Casimir said.

"Yeah, but this time, these guys decided to be dumb," Valentino laughed. "He told me once they realized that they had left their drink, they got out of the car and saw Anton standing there. Just standing there. And they immediately decided, instead of just taking the loss, to blame him for them leaving it on the roof."

"I really hope they didn't try and fight him," he said. The man who made them all coffees throughout the day didn't seem like he could fight too much. He wasn't exactly a twig, but he didn't seem like much of a fighter. He seemed more like the type to fight with his words rather than anything else.

"Oh, no," Valentino said. "His uncle was there. And if there was anyone that could get some crazy guys to leave you alone, it's Anton's crazy uncle."

"I'm not sure if I've met him yet," he said. "What did he do to get them to leave?"

"Oh, I don't know," Valentino shrugged. "I'm not even sure if Anton remembers, he didn't exactly say. But those gym rats found out where he worked and decided to come in every now and then for a whole year just to ask if they had their favorite cans of teas."

"And they didn't try and start a fight?"

"I don't think so," he answered. "There were always too many people in that café for them to get away with anything anyway. But they always called him Brisk Can, just because of that one stupid time."

"I would be surprised if it were any other place in the world but Florida," Casimir chuckled a bit. They walked into one shop and were looking around. There was always something magical about Christmas shopping that he enjoyed so much this time of year.

"There's always a bunch of people that come and go in this town," Valentino smiled as he looked at some knickknacks on the shelves. "The ones who stay are the people you really get to know, though."

"You really seem to like this city," Casimir smiled at him. It was nice to see him talk so happily about the different stories that he had of this place. "Don't you?"

"Yeah," he told him. "Everyone's connected to each other, even in the smallest of ways, here. It's nice, even if you don't always talk to those people every day."

"Really?" Casimir asked. "But there has to be thousands of people who live here. Surely you can't know everyone."

"No," he answered. "But there's always the ones who've stayed through thick and thin of this city, and watched it get to the beautiful place it is today." He put something in his handbasket as he walked. "Like Solomon, for instance," he gestured outside the shop to a man who was pulling things out of a work van. The curly haired man had a jumpsuit on and long hair that was put up in a loose bun. "Solomon's one of the few who were born and raised here. He had to go through a lot, but he still stayed."