Читать книгу The Two Antonias: Two Sassy and Sexy Short Stories From the Wonderfully Wicked Women Series - T. Goodman - Страница 7

Chapter 1

Antonia “Stix” Grimaldi waited patiently for the guy to bring her printing order to her. She had a presentation in a few days on her new book Women Building Dreams, and she wanted everything to be perfect. She was presenting to a large group of women in downtown Cleveland, and she was excited. Stix always got excited at the thought of empowering women with knowledge. Usually, her audience was a mixture of all races, and she loved that. But she especially wanted to uplift her black sisters even though she was half black and half Italian.

As she was waiting, in walks this tall olive-complexioned man in uniform. She recognized the uniform as being part of the marines. He had a short blond crew cut on the top of his head, and he was clean-shaven around the sides. He was about six feet, five inches in height, and all muscle. Stix had a thing for men in uniform, especially those serving their country. How she would love to get him in bed! The first thing she did was to check out his fingers. Not only was there no wedding ring, but his fingers were big and long. From her experience, the size of a man’s fingers indicated what he was packing in his pants. And by the looks of things, he was a winner.

As he approached the counter, Stix heard him say, “My name is Lieutenant Jamie Wingo. I’m here to pick up my order.” Stix was really intrigued. He spoke with an accent. He’s Hispanic, she thought. And he has blond hair. Stix was really curious about this handsome man.

While waiting for his order, he saw Stix and acknowledged her with a nod. Stix took that as her cue to introduce herself. “Hi, I’m Antonia Grimaldi. People call me Stix. You are a marine, right?” Stix was a good conversationalist, and they began to talk. He too had a presentation to do. He was presenting information to new recruits on weaponry and was picking up copies of his handouts.

The attendant brought back both orders, and Stix and Jamie both departed. Stix opened her order and checked the top sheet. This was the correct order. In the car, Stix’s mind was working overtime. How could she meet this handsome marine again?

When she got home, she had her answer. When she checked her entire order carefully, somehow the lieutenant’s order had gotten mixed in with hers. She immediately got on the phone and talked to the print shop attendant. She demanded the officer’s contact information so that she could take him his order.

The attendant said that would not be necessary. They would take responsibility and see that Lieutenant Wingo got the correct order. They would make sure that Stix got her correct order also. Stix couldn’t let that happen. She wanted to see Jamie again, so she switched to her “rich bitch” attitude. “That will take too long. He needs his materials now. I will take them to him. Let me speak with the owner of the print shop. I don’t have to get my printing done with a business of your size. I thought I would give a local small business some of my money. Do you know who I am? Do you know how many print shops would love to get my business?” Stix exclaimed.

Needless to say, Stix got Lieutenant Wingo’s contact information. She decided to take it to him right away, but before she did, she looked over his handouts. There were quite a few grammatical errors, and the information the lieutenant made reference to was outdated. Stix knew there was a new version of the manual. Stix knew that because she had been asked to edit the new version as a favor for her favorite marine, her godfather General Jack Robertson.

Stix decided before she took it to him she would have her staff edit his handouts. She would get copies of the new version to give to the handsome lieutenant and Stix would reference his information to the new version of the manual. But she would have to work fast.

She called her staff and gave them their assignment. She wanted it done ASAP. As much as she paid them, they had better have it ready for her. She had a man to meet.