Five minutes later, Rosalie chipped in.
I can do those dates. Not my turn to work Bank Holiday Monday, but would have to fly back Sunday 6 Sept latest.
Then, in a separate bubble:
You OK with it, Jade?
She had to be, so Jade returned: Yes. Have staffing probs so might put you to work. She added a smiley.
Rosalie returned: Do it.
And Erin added: Yes, do.
Making an effort, Jade added: How’s everything with you two?
Erin replied: Contract extended with pay rise and promotion! C-suite here I come!
Rosalie: Dressed as a dancing ice-cream cone. At least it’s chocolate.
Jade answered: Congrats to you both, with another smiley. Then, What’s the C-suite?
Chief Information Officer, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operations Officer, etc., Erin responded.Known by initials like CIO, CEO, COO. I guess you haven’t had to know.
Then, while Jade was glaring at the screen, Erin came back. SORRY! That came out wrong, like I was giving you shit. I just meant you’ve always known your role.
It was followed by a hiding-face-in-hands emoji, plus a single-tear-on-a-sad-face emoji.
Jade smiled grimly. I know those titles, but not C-suite as a collective term. Also wrongLY, not wrong. It’s an adverb. Gran had attended something called a ‘grammar school’, so presumably had been correct in the grammar she’d passed to Jade. She added a laughing emoji.
Erin replied with a row of sobbing emojis and Rosalie with a crying-with-laughter one.
Feeling as if she’d struck the right notes, Jade posted a waving hand as her exit from the banter. The accountant had sent a list of queries about the year-end that would occupy her for a while. The insurance documents from the new company had to be read before being filed in the appropriate computer folder. And yet, rather than begin either of those tasks, she found herself once again staring through the window as if seeing Geneva trudging past with an air of... what? Resignation, at best. Disappointment, definitely. Worry?
You’ve always known your role.
Erin had been correct. Jade had never needed to – or wanted to – attend university or any courses other than for food hygiene and kitchen safety. Right from the child who’d polished spoons or swept up, she’d learnt about Three Sisters from Gran, never having to worry about rent money or her credit card beingrefused at a supermarket. Never had she even had to apply for a job.
Pushing away from the desk, she left the office, crossing Reception with a smile for Yara, who was frowning over her computer screen. Sucking in a bolstering breath, Jade strode into the apartment and then to her bedroom. Gran’s wooden jewellery box sat on the dressing table, dusted each week but otherwise undisturbed. Heart bumping uncomfortably, she opened it and retrieved the scrap of paper with Geneva’s number in unfamiliar handwriting that she’d shoved inside.
Typing the number into her phone, she wondered whether she was crazy. Until the moment that Geneva had stepped into the pensione, Jade had rarely spared her a thought.
Still, whether she was acting out of curiosity or conscience, she listened to thebzz...bzz...bzzof the ringtone, then a woman’s voice answering guardedly. ‘Pronto.’
‘This is Jade Beretta.’ She spoke calmly, though her heart took a giant leap and seemed to bounce off her tonsils. ‘Are you interested in meeting for coffee?’
After a pause: ‘Sì.’ Geneva sounded dubious, even suspicious.
‘How about Bar Maria in Via Gallio?’ It was a broad, tree-lined street that led towards San Giovanni station, affordable, but pleasant.
‘Sì.’ This time, Geneva sounded astonished. They arranged to meet at three. Ending the call, Jade grabbed water and an apple to sustain her when she returned to the office. Then her phone vibrated with a call from Leo.
‘Pronto.’ She hoped she didn’t sound as breathless as she suddenly felt.
‘Ciao, bellezza,’ he replied, warm and intimate, continuing in Italian. ‘I don’t know contemporary Italian dating etiquette. Am I calling too soon or too late?’
‘Too late,’ she answered promptly, teasingly, because one thing that never changed about Italian dating culture was including jokes in the flirting. ‘It’s a bad mark against you.’
He laughed. ‘I didn’t want to interrupt your busy morning. But I did want to hear your voice. Do you have time to meet for coffee?’
