Apple Sauce
by Jerry Guarino
Julie walked in with her
laptop case over her shoulder. Her long brown
hair pulled through a crimson velvet scrunchy,
draped behind her blue blazer, over the cranberry
cardigan sweater, over the white oxford, accented
by the Harvard tie which went with the plaid,
pleated skirt that highlighted the knee socks
which sat atop the cordovan clogs. In short, she
was the dream girl of every code savvy programmer
in Cambridge. “Hi, my name is Julie Bowen.”
“Hi Julie, I’m Zach” said the
college sophomore in jeans and t-shirt. Zach was
one of those code savvy programmers, working a
part time job in the hopes of meeting girls like
Julie. He wasn’t a bad looking guy, just not
in the same league as Julie, sort of like your
company softball team versus the Red Sox.
“Hi Zach.” At this point, Zach could
feel his heart beating. Not that this was the
first time he talked with such a vision. In fact,
beautiful women were lining up to meet with him
on a daily basis.
“How can I help you Julie?” Zach could
smell the expensive perfume Julie was wearing,
light but classy, just like her.
“There’s something wrong with my mail
program. It works on my phone, but not on my
laptop.” She smiled at Zach in that way
beautiful women do, not encouraging anything more
than friendship, but genuinely grateful.
“Well, let’s see what we can do.”
Julie put her laptop on the counter, turned it on,
entered the password and passed it to Zach.
“This doesn’t sound too serious.”
He quickly and deftly checked the mail program,
the settings and tested the incoming server.
“Yes, I see the problem. But I know how to
fix it.” Within minutes, her program was
working again.
“What was wrong?” she said while
flicking her bangs to the side.
“Sometimes the other company servers hiccup
and it changes the settings. I just reset it. No
problem.” Zach, always the professional, and
hoping to prolong the encounter, offered his
parting phrase. “Is there anything else I
can help you with today?”
“I guess not. Thanks very much Zach.”
She packed up her laptop, and then offered her
hand. “You’re welcome,” said Zach.
“Have a good day.” Julie turned slowly,
giving Zach one more friendly smile. Julie glided
gracefully toward the big glass door, and then
looked back once more. Zach waved, sighing to
himself. “I love my job.”
Later, at another bar, this one on Dunster Street,
Zach and his friends were having a beer and
watching the Celtics. “Looks like they’re
ready for the playoffs” he
said. “Yeah, and the Bruins too. Makes the
cold Boston winter bearable. It must be tough for
places like Toronto, stuck inside watching two
lousy teams. Must be why they drink so much up
there.”
Then he saw three Harvard coeds coming in,
shaking off snow from their UGGs and taking off
scarves and wool caps. Zach thought he recognized
one of them. The girls sat down at a booth.
“Excuse me,” said Zach to his buddies,
as he tried to walk nonchalantly to the rest room.
“Hey, Zach” Julie said as he passed by
while Julie’s friends looked up. Zach did
his best to act surprised, even though he had
smelled her perfume.
“Hi. It’s Julie, right?” Zach
paused long enough to be polite, without acting
too eager. “Mail problem?”
“Email, yes. This is Debbie and Karen. Zach
fixed my computer last week. He’s a genius.”
“Small G, Julie, small G.”
“We’re just having drinks and some bar
food. Want to join us?”
“Well, I’m with a couple friends”
pointing to the bar, “watching the game.”
“That’s ok, we can go to that big table.”
Zach called for the waitress to set them up.
“Can we get six here please?”
Over the next hour, the six talked about living
and working in Bean town, the sports teams, life
at Harvard. Then Karen excused herself. “Well,
I have an early class and a paper to finish.
Sorry but I’ll have to go.” Julie and
Debbie nodded that they should go to.
“May I walk you back?” said Zach.
“I’d like that thanks,” said Karen.
As the girls left, Karen whispered something into
Julie’s ear, gave her a hug and headed out
with Zach.
As they walked out, Zach turned and looked back
at Julie, smiling. Julie gave him a little wave
and sighed to herself.
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