She giggled. ‘I hope not too exhausted. I’m expecting great things of you later.’
‘You’re not questioning my expertise elsewhere, are you?’
‘I wouldn’t dare,’ she teased.
‘Você gostaria de fazer um pedido?’
Both of them looked up in surprise. Neither had been aware of the approach of the waiter.
Rebecca felt herself flush bright red but Felipe, with his usual aplomb, segued seamlessly into urbane customer. ‘We’d like to take a bottle of the white, Papa Figos Douro.’ He lapsed into Portuguese to order the food.
‘So, enlighten me, what is burrata?’ asked Rebecca.
‘It’s an Italian cheese, a casing of mozzarella around a creamy stracciatella. Very creamy and rich but quite delicate in flavour.’
Rebecca nodded as if any of that made any sense to her. She liked mozzarella, especially on pizza, so that was okay.
In fact, when the dishes arrived, she found the first taste of the cheese to be a bit bland, but she didn’t say anything, grateful for the tiny dabs of orange jam, the accompanying scraps of pepperoni and whole almonds that gave it a bit of oomph. However, after several mouthfuls, she realised it was all about the combinations of flavours and the dish grew on her. She had absolutely no complaints about the lovely crisp, melt-in-the-mouth batter around the lush, plump prawns or the amazingly sticky and sweet, accompanying teriyaki dipping sauce.
‘Oh, that is soooo good,’ she groaned, helping herself to another prawn and then she realised she was making a sex noise.
Felipe looked up and grinned at her at the exact same moment and she blushed a fiery red.
‘I hope you’ll be saying that later,’ he quipped, and, if anything, her blush deepened.
‘I’m counting on it. After all, a promise is a promise.’
The hill loomed in front of them as they began the ascent. After gin and wine, Rebecca felt nicely floaty, and when Felipe wrapped an arm around her, she was quite happy to nestle into him as they neared the top of the hill, closer to his flat.
‘So how come you gave up competitive cycling?’ she asked, feeling comfortable enough to ask the question that had been gnawing at the back of her head. She wasn’t being nosy, just genuinely interested. ‘You must have been good to get a scholarship in the States.’
Even though Felipe continued walking, she was aware of him stiffening– it was very subtle.
‘Cycling was too time-consuming,’ he said with an offhand shrug. ‘You need to be really committed and dedicated. I didn’t have time. There were other things I wanted to do. Like have a life.’
Rebecca was aware of a feeling of disappointment in him, although it was nothing to do with her. From what Kimberley had said, he had talent. It was wrong to be judgy but it just seemed wrong to give something up when you were so good at it. How many people would have loved that scholarship? It seemed a terrible waste. She realised her silence probably signalled her innate disapproval, although she’d never have said anything. Felipe was more than intuitive enough to pick up on it.
‘Race you to the top,’ said Felipe suddenly, and took off.
‘Oy!’ she cried but wasn’t about to be left behind. There were about fifty metres to the top but the slope was so steep it was incredibly hard work. Felipe turned around and started running backwards.
‘Come on.Você é uma molenga.’
‘I’m th-thinking… th-that’s… rude,’ she huffed, between breaths.
‘It means,you’re a wimp.’
His ever-present grin made her dig a little deeper and she tried to run faster, although it was difficult enough on the one-in-five slope without the added disadvantage of the slippery cobbles. She saved her breath for running and not accusing him of cheating because he’d had a few seconds’ lead.
When she realised she was within an arm’s length of him, she stretched out and grabbed his sweatshirt, tugging him towards her.
‘Hey!’ he said with a laugh, trying to wriggle out of her grasp and turn around to face the hill.
She took advantage of the manoeuvre as they crested the hill and gave him another tug backwards.
‘Cheat,’ he grumbled as she surged ahead of him, giving him a wide berth and laughing gleefully as he tried and failed to grab her.
‘You lose!’ she yelled as she came to the edge of the pavement at the top.
