“Not only me. The whole team. But the team is my responsibility so in a way yes, me. It all reflects on me.” She took a bite of pizza and moaned. “Oh my—how did you—this is—”
“This is comfort food. You looked as if you needed comfort food.” He put another slice on her plate. “I’m guessing from your sudden bout of self-flagellation that she hasn’t said bad things?”
“No. Far from it. It’s better than any end of year school report I ever had. They always readEvie would do better if she talked less.” She ate the second slice of pizza. “This is delicious. You truly are a genius. I can’t believe you made it in my kitchen.”
“A pizza oven would have been better, but this is still better than those frozen abominations you buy. Can I read what she said?”
“No! It’s embarrassing.”
“I thought you said it was good.”
“It is good. Embarrassingly good. Letting you read it will feel like boasting.”
He shook his head. “Just give me the laptop.”
She pushed the laptop towards him and focused on the pizza, trying not to feel self-conscious.
“Evie has done an extraordinarily good job under challenging circumstances and without support from management,” he read. “Despite a lack ofexperienceshe demonstrates excellent leadership and communicationskillsand her ideas are—”
“Maybe don’t read it aloud. I’m blushing.”
He scanned the rest quickly and looked up. “This is glowing.”
“Yes. And there’s plenty more like that. I honestly thought she’d been digging for dirt. Trying to find reasons to justify to the company—which turns out to be her mother—to shut us down or sell us to Weasel features.” Evie took another slice of pizza. “I should call her and apologise.”
“You’ll see her tomorrow.”
“I handled it badly. I don’t think I can wait until tomorrow. I was in the wrong and I need to fix it.” She grabbed her phone and dialled, taking a deep breath. “No answer. Do you think she’s ignoring me? Or maybe I’ve upset her horribly and she’s crying in bed.”
“Maybe her phone is switched off.”
“But why? It’s not that late, is it? I’ll call again and leave a message.” She dialled and waited. “Hi, Abby, it’s Evie. Thanks for sending the reports through. I—they’re really good and not what I expected. I owe you an apology, and I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow. Anyway, you’re not picking up but if you want to call me back then do, otherwise I’ll see you at the hotel in the morning. And again, I’m sorry. We’re going to figure this out. Please don’t leave.”
Luca watched her. “Why are you being hard on yourself? She did lie to you, Evie.”
“I know. But she was obviously navigating a complicated situation with her mother who is also her boss. That can’t be easy. Weird that she works with her mother, and I work with my dad.” She helped herself to another slice of pizza. “Now I think about it she did ask me some questions about how I found it working with Dad. But it’s not the same, is it? My dad isn’t the boss of the whole company.”
“Close your laptop now. It’s time to relax and stop chewing on it.”
“Are you using food analogies to comment on my stressful situation?”
He topped up her wine glass. “Food is all I know.”
“I wouldn’t say that—” She studied him across the table. “I’d say you know a few other things, too. Do you want me to describe them in more detail on your blog?”
He put the bottle down slowly. “I do, but we both know the only reason you’re interested in me is because I can make pizza that makes you forget all the pizzas you have ever eaten before.”
“That’s true, but not entirely. There are other things I like about you. For example, your eyelashes.”
“My eyelashes?”
“Yes. Most women would kill to have eyelashes like yours.”
“So if I burn my eyelashes off while cooking your pizza in a hot oven, that’s the end of our relationship?”
He knew she was feeling bad and he’d made her pizza, and now he was doing everything he could to make her laugh and distract her. She liked him. She liked him so much she should probably be terrified.
And at least this game of verbal tennis took her mind off how bad she felt.
