Just One Kiss

The spirits of Marlene Schwartz Rivera and Sofia Romano meet by chance in the balcony of a retrospective movie theater in New York City, there where they are overlooking their respective offspring, university Literature professor Mia Rivera and lounge singer Tony Romano, both at the theater that evening. Mia is with her gay BFF Nick in she licking her wounds following the final meeting with lawyers to finalize the divorce papers with her soon to be ex, Casey Malone, Mia filing for divorce due to issues stemming from his drinking, whereas Tony is on a date with the latest in a string of casual girlfriends. Marlene and Sofia believe that Mia and Tony would be perfect for each other, they needing to work some magic to make it happen in Mia, not only not open to dating yet, but not dating someone like Tony who she would see as a “player”, whereas Tony, always seemingly on the make, has been commitment-shy ever since the break-up five years ago with a former girlfriend, Katie, who broke his heart. As Marlene and Sofia work their magic to throw Mia and Tony together, the walls they knew Mia would put up slowly start to fall to the ground as a true connection seems to have been made between the two. Walls of another sort may be placed back up in the form of Casey and Mia and Casey’s preteen daughter, Rosie. While Casey has made no bones about not having wanted the divorce, he working on putting his life back together including staying off the bottle, all in an effort for their old life as a cohesive family back, Rosie, despite liking Tony, would like to see her parents reconcile. —Huggo