One Day

By Brianna Fiorentino

Seven regular-seeming people in the town of Falmouth, Maine, live out another Wednesday as their worlds are flipped upside down and decisions are made that will change lives forever, proving that the little things we do impact the outcomes of others in a drastic way.

Mary--A young, hardworking girl with a difficult past just trying to get by and move on from her childhood

Olivia--About to enter the adventure of a lifetime as a mistress of one of the richest men in town

Annie--The goody-two-shoes, sweetheart third-grade teacher of Falmouth Elementary who aspires to change young lives for the better but gets falsely accused and arrested

Katie--A vigilante on the hunt to avenge the mistakes made by a man very close to her

Oliver--A simple boy who wants nothing more than parents who love him but can't seem to catch a break

Sam--The grocery bag boy with eyes as blue as the sea, ready to grow up and learn from his past

David--A dad mourning the loss of his infant son who takes on the pressure of becoming a dad all over again

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885053679

Book preview

One Day

Brianna Fiorentino

Copyright © 2022 Brianna Fiorentino

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2022

ISBN 979-8-88505-366-2 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88505-367-9 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Author’s Note

Prologue

Chapter 1: Mary

Chapter 2: Olivia

Chapter 3: Annie

Chapter 4: Katie

Chapter 5: Oliver

Chapter 6: Sam

Chapter 7: David

Epilogue

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Thank you to my loving husband for the endless support in writing my first book. Thank you to the various friends and strangers I based characters on. Never forget to smile at others and go Air Force.

PROLOGUE

Everybody is connected to everybody, and you may never realize the true influence you have over another’s life. Every single day is lived by every single person completely differently. Even the people you are closest to have stories they may not share and live their twenty-four hours differently than you. Maybe the one interaction you have with them made their day, or they went home to tell their significant other about the chitchat you had in the grocery store. Maybe your interaction ruined their day and was the thing that brought them to their wits’ end and caused a blowup fight with their best friend. Maybe you smiled at a stranger and made their day. Every word you say to somebody, every smile you share with another, can lead to a reaction of events. It’s important to always consider your impact on those around you.

Wayne loves his life, the life he lived, and the life he currently lives. He loves his grandson Oliver, his best friend, his favorite nurses, and the family he’s created in the nursing home. Since his wife passed away in a car accident eight years ago, he aimed to create a life worth living for himself and passing on happiness to others. He’s considered the wise old man for many.

Growing up, Wayne was an awkward kid, and puberty made it worse. He had glasses and braces through all of high school and never played any sports. He spent his time in the computer lab playing video games or was nose deep in a book. None of that mattered once he met his sweet Edith. She was the brightest bulb in the class and pushed Wayne to be better. They met during the first band class of junior year. By junior year, the only kids still in band were forced by their parents or loved music. Wayne and Edith both were in the latter. Wayne played saxophone, and Edith played trumpet. Neither were that good, but something about music brought them happiness and brought them together. Senior year, they considered quitting to sign up for more AP classes but ended up in band together again. They were best friends above everything else and did not become a real couple until after college.

They never lost touch but grew apart as high school friends do. Wayne went to the University of Maine, and Edith went to Florida State University. They met again the summer after college at a coffee shop in town and rekindled their friendship into a romantic relationship. They have been inseparable ever since. They moved away so Wayne could pursue law school at NYU. Edith was in and out of jobs. She never found anything that made her as happy as law made Wayne.

New York wasn’t for them. They didn’t love the hustle and bustle of the city, and the subway always smelled. They moved back to Maine, and Wayne made partner at his law firm. Edith decided she would be the best stay-at-home wife, and that would be what made her happy. And it did for a while. Not long after, she got pregnant with their daughter. Not a planned pregnancy, but it made them both happy. They were settled in a house and ready for the next adventure.

On Christmas Eve, Edith was in a car accident.

Both mom and baby made it out alive but just barely. Mom was saved by a surgeon who Wayne never felt he could repay. But her life changed drastically. She made it out alive, in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. Baby was C-section delivered fourteen weeks before her due date. They were both in the ICU for a month. When they returned home, Edith became depressed about her physical situation. It wasn’t the life she had intended for herself, and she wasn’t the mom she had always planned to be. She lost interest in the arts and making music, and every day was nearly impossible for her and became daunting. At one point she spent a week in bed.

Wayne never stopped loving her despite the spark she lost for life. She was a great mom with what she could do but was embarrassed. She refused to attend Leslie’s school events and never wanted to be truly part of her life. Edith felt that Leslie could have grown up without a mom rather than the embarrassment she was. She immersed herself in puzzles, books, and crosswords while Wayne took on the role of dad, partner, and caretaker.

Leslie grew up and became a mom. She attended college and was destined to be successful but got pregnant with her bad-boy boyfriend. Leslie called her parents with the exciting news that she had gone into labor. Wayne and Edith were so excited that they rushed to the hospital to meet their first grandson.

Wayne was driving Edith and himself to the hospital when they were hit by a drunk driver. It was June 2012. The driver had run a stop sign and hit them. The car slammed into the passenger side and killed Edith. Both driver and passenger of the other car were killed instantly as well. One second there were four alive people in two cars and the next, only one

Wayne’s whole life came tumbling down at that point. He lost his best friend and his wife. The wife he had mentally lost years prior and the wife who began to turn around with news of a grandson on the way. The driver was a mother-father duo of a little girl as well. She lost her whole world the same day. He thought he would reach out to the little girl and try to connect with her, but her name was never released. All he knew was that she moved into a foster home after the accident and grew up. In such a small town, he would think the gossip would come to him, but it never did. He never found out who that little girl was who lost her whole life just as Wayne had that same day. He hated those people for killing his wife and for leaving a daughter to grow up in a world without parents.

He returned home only to sell off his belongings. He couldn’t be in the home that he and his wife made so many memories in. Their only daughter grew up in that home, and now he was alone. His daughter was off being a mom; his wife was in heaven. In such a large home, he felt so lonely. He was still in great physical and mental shape but checked himself into a nursing home. He thought being surrounded by others who have also lost their loved ones would help him. And it did.

Leslie’s baby daddy became her husband, then a heroin addict, and now their relationship was unknown. After Oliver’s birth, Leslie didn’t end up amounting to much. She couldn’t hold down a job and wasn’t there for her son. She traveled the world with rich men, and Wayne didn’t want to think about what they got in return. Wayne had taken on Oliver, his grandson, as much as he could from the nursing home. He found him a babysitter who became Oliver’s best friend and encouraged him at soccer and with academics. He didn’t raise Leslie to be the best mom, but he attempted to try again with the babysitter he viewed as a daughter. Oliver was turning out to be quite the dapper kid despite his mom being gone and dad being a drug addict. Wayne couldn’t be prouder.

He’d also adopted some fake kids along the way. When he first moved into the nursing home, he befriended Olivia’s dad. They became best friends instantly. Given the lack of people in the nursing home and the lack of time Wayne got to spend with them before they kick it, having one younger person there was a blessing. Olivia would come by and considered Wayne a father as well. She’d been dating a married man, and Wayne offered all the fatherly advice he could. She never listened, as daughters did. Wayne hated the idea of his sweet, pretend daughter Olivia being the other woman and couldn’t fathom the thought of having ever cheated on his wife. But Olivia seemed happy, so Wayne kept most of his concerns to himself. She deserved to find a love like Wayne and Edith.

Katie was Wayne’s favorite nurse. She let him get away with things like going to prohibited places on the nursing-home campus and brought him books from the local library. She was a volunteer aid, but she was there more than some of the full-time staff. Katie had also been brought under Wayne’s wing as a daughter. She’d been seeing a guy for about a year now who was accused of multiple sexual assaults. Wayne and Katie had devised a plan of vengeance for the young women he’d wronged. He viewed this personally because of an assault that Edith went through in college. He blamed himself for this, along with her death. If he had told her how he felt in high school, they would have been at the same college, and he would have been there that night. If he wasn’t at work that day, she would have never been hit by a car and never been in a wheelchair. If they had been going the speed limit on the way to the hospital, Edith would still be with him. But he couldn’t think like that. He aimed to add justice where it was due and preserve the memory of Edith as best he could.

Mary

The one good thing about working odd jobs with strange hours is the lack of human interaction required in the city when not working. I am the opposite of social unless needed. Given how many jobs I work and how much I have to deal with people, the last thing I want is to be recognized while not on the clock or having to fake a smile for others. If I’m not getting paid, I’m not doing it. Between the bar, the salon, babysitting, and selling my crafts, my days can be busy and full of social interaction. The only people I don’t mind talking to are Sam, Oliver, Olivia, and some of my bar regulars.

I wake up at 10:00 a.m. after getting home from the bar at 4:30 a.m. The bar closes at 1:00 a.m., but when I’m the closer, I let my regulars stay until they feel like going home. This hasn’t been the best decision considering I often have to call a cab, or a few. I’ve even driven them home myself. I don’t deal with drunk driving. Many of them have wives they don’t love, kids that act out, and many have seen war and so on. If they want to drink and pay me, who am I to stop them? Two years ago they were strangers, but now they’re like family. I feel the same way about the little boy I nanny for. I’ve become a pro at finding family in not-so-family places. The girls at the salon remind me more of high school than family. They are very fake and have fake conversations with their customers just to turn around and talk smack about them. My bar regulars never do that. They have nothing but good things to say about each other and me.

I start thinking about the day ahead of me: I must make breakfast, go grocery shopping, pick up Oliver from school, drop him off at soccer, hang out and have dinner with my best friend Olivia, and then work the bar from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Not a closing night so I should be out early. Maybe I’ll even stay at the bar and have a few myself. The day is a little busy but could be worse and has been before. I’ve had days where Oliver sleeps over, so I bring him to school first thing in the morning, work at the salon, pick Oliver up from school, then work the bar until close. I’ve had quite a few days like that recently, and my house reflects it. If I’m feeling up to it tonight, I’ll clean my house too.

I roll over in my very messy, hasn’t been made in weeks bed and lift the window shades to let in some light. The succulent I’ve had on the windowsill for months and never taken care of gets hit by the shades and falls to the floor. There’s dirt in the carpet and will probably stain. It’s dead anyway so not a big deal. I’ll save that for later; I don’t feel like picking it up. I’m already going to the store; I’ll just buy a new one. They never last long in this house. Between my black thumb and clumsiness, any plants I bring in don’t stand a chance. I’ve come to terms with the fact that no living things will make it in this house and decide not to replace it all.

It’s bright outside, but that’s summer in New England. The time of year where all the people living in one of the coldest areas of the country complain about the weather being too hot. I’m one of those people. This year in particular is brutal. It’s been over ninety degrees three times, and we’re only halfway through June. I’ve been more of a winter fan since my parents passed away.

My mom and dad got hit by a drunk driver in June of 2012. I try not to think about them because we weren’t that close when I was little. Mainly because I was a stuck-up brat and thought I knew better than them. God bless their souls for dealing with me. Seeing all the happy families with moms and dads just makes me regret everything from my childhood and wish they were here with me. It’s like being surrounded by what I ruined. I fault myself for their deaths. They drank to get away from me, and now I drink to get away from the memory of that night. I try not to place myself back to the moment when child protective services came to my door. My sixteen-year-old neighbor was babysitting while I slept in my room. I never saw her again. Summer always just brings back these memories and gives me more grief and regret. This isn’t something I’ll ever deal with, but I definitely make dead-parent jokes to cope. Only one of my bar regulars knows anything about this and my best friend, Olivia. Olivia is the only person I’ve opened up to fully about it, and she does everything in her power to cheer me up. Usually, she’s successful.

I always try to look nice and pretend I have my life together when I go out in public, but especially when I pick up Oliver. The families that live in this town and have kids at Oliver’s school are rich. I’m talking about multiple houses, fancy cars, boats, monthlong vacations in Paris, etc. Rich. Most of them were born rich and continued their family legacy with old money. Some started companies and are now millionaires. And some aren’t that rich but make it seem like they are. They lease their cars and they’re behind on mortgage payments, but this town is all about appearances.

I throw on a gray Michael Kors slim-fit dress that I assume women who work in offices may wear. I hope I never work in an office and only must look the part. I put on my hippie headband to hold back my long hair on this hot day and brown high-heeled wedge sandals. Not the most practical outfit for my plans today, but I’d rather be impractical than looked at as just the girl who works in the bar. People in this town may know who I am and some of my story, but they don’t need to know how little money I truly make. I get by just like the rest of them, but I will never be a local; I will never truly belong here, nor do I really want to. I dream of getting away down south and living on the beaches of Florida, but I could never leave the two people I still have in my life.

At Hannaford’s, I grab a cart and think about how I should have made a list. I always get the same few things and somehow always forget what they are and what I need. I start in the veggie aisle and grab a fresh cucumber, apples, and bananas. For my morning snacks that will probably go bad before I eat them. I prefer a breakfast full of artificial sugar than a healthy meal any day. Most days I opt for a bagel and coffee from the store rather than actually cooking. I try to convince myself that I’ll be happier if I eat healthy and will feel better, but when it comes down to it, I never seem to be motivated to eat it. I grab the veggies anyway. My favorite part of grocery shopping in the middle of the day is the lack of people. I stare at any products as long as I want and don’t have to worry about moving myself out of the way for other people. Other than me, there may be ten people in the whole store.

There was a young, bulky, muscular man in the produce area when I entered but he’s nowhere to be found now. Too bad, he was kind of nice to look at. A man who obviously cares about what he looks like and how he feels. Maybe if I knew more people like him, I could also start caring about my physique. It’s not that I’m fat or big by any means, I just don’t like the way I look. But everybody says that. I wasn’t necessarily looking at him for romantic purposes because I have my eyes and heart elsewhere in the store.

My favorite part about this store and the main reason I go to this one across town is Sam. He works as a cashier Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. One time I came to this Hannaford rather than the one near my apartment on my way