“Oh, don’t tell me, she wants to stay there? Please tell me she’s not one of those people who fell for the one-euro house thing.” Carla shook her head.
“No. She’s not staying here. And we don’t do one-euro houses. You know what? I appreciate the ambush, seriously. But I have a lot on my plate right now, and all I can promise is that I will honestly consider the offer.”
“I hope so, because I can’t figure out why it seems that you’re hiding from your real life. You’re too smart to be stuck down there, you know?”
Even after they said their goodbyes to Carla, who had to go pick up Alex because he’d gotten a flat tire while riding his bike in Regent’s Park, Paola wasn’t quite finished with the conversation.
“Why didn’t you tell us about the American?”
“I didn’t tell you about Lora because there’s nothing to tell,” said Andrea. “She needed the apartment and I needed the motivation to finish the renovation. There’s no story.”
“She seems very nice. Pretty also,” Paola mused, washing the plums in the sink.
“She is. But we have become friends, that’s it. She’s moving to Switzerland, and I am…” He trailed off, feeling a vibration from the phone in his back pocket. He pulled it out to check. “I’m needed in town. Love you guys, gotta go.” Andrea kissed his mom on the forehead, grabbed a plum, and walked out the door.
Meetings at nine in the morning usually gave Lora plenty of time to be ready, but since she didn’t get up until almost 8:30 today, she was in full sprint. That morning, she’d lain in bed, lingering in the moment between sleep and wakefulness, and replaying parts of the night before. After Pamela died, there were hard moments in Lora’s life, but none that required much more than a quick pep talk that she could give herself. If there was something extra heavy, she might share a bit of it with Vilmari. But last night, she’d felt that she needed Andrea to get through that storm. It was scary to think that this was an experience that she was not meant to have on her own.
Despite rushing around, Lora decided to throw in a load of laundry five minutes before her call started. In a burst of nervous energy, she gathered up some dirty clothes and shoved them into the drum of the washing machine. She plugged in her computer, making sure that it had enough battery for the call, and decided to also charge the handheld vacuum that she’d bought to tidy up. Feeling organized, she sat at the kitchen table.
“Dr. Brooks! It’s great to see you!”
“Hello, Dr. Bruker, Dr. Hess. It’s nice to see you too.”Lora smiled into her computer screen, thankful that she’d worked some magic with a couple of frozen spoons to de-puff her eyes from last night. However, she’d put zero work into getting dressed below the waist and her cream-colored blouse was currently paired with polka-dot sleep shorts.
“We wanted to connect with you to see how you are progressing on preparations for your presentation,” said Dr. Bruker, his tortoiseshell glasses reflecting back into the camera.
“Things are going well. I’m still working on a preliminary literature review and have been honing the hypotheses that I presented in my application. I should have a good idea of methodology soon, as I’ve been using the Stinson and DeSantis papers as reference. And will be able to—”
“Wonderful!” Dr. Hess cut in. She always cut in. “Of course we are also wondering about your progress toward being able to secure funding. It’s such a difficult task, we do acknowledge.”
“Things are also progressing well there.” Lora smiled. And that was true, if she considered the bottom falling out on her childhood “good progress” toward being granted research funding. “It seems that everything is on schedule, and I don’t anticipate any delays.”
“Interesting. I’m surprised, given what we know about Italian bureaucracy,” said Dr. Bruker, his left eyebrow lifted.
“Yes, it can be challenging,” Lora said, bristling at the comment for some reason. “But I’ve actually found that—” But she was not able to finish her sentence because just as the washing machine went from the “fill” part of the cycle to “spin,” the extra electricity, plus all of the plugged-inappliances, had snapped off the circuit breaker and shut down the router. And Lora sat staring at nothing but a frozen screen.
When he knocked on the door to the town house, he wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Lora’s text was short: “No electricity. Had to end a meeting.” She opened the door, and he couldn’t help but grin at her half-professional, half-asleep outfit.
“Don’t laugh,” she said, clearly trying not to laugh at herself. “I was in the middle of a conversation with the people who are going to be assessing my work for the next three years, so you know, I’m not feeling like I left a very good impression. Though I think the house did it on purpose. One of the professors made a dig at Italian bureaucracy, and boom! Lights out.”
“Poor old girl,” he said, running his hand up the wall in the entryway. “She had to stand up for us. I’m assuming you found the circuit breaker.”
“Yeah, I did. I probably should have texted you back to let you know that I am OK, but I didn’t mind seeing you again today.”
“I don’t mind coming by,” he said. “You saved me from getting further harassed by my family. Maybe you can invent tenant issues more often—it was really helpful.”
“Consider it repayment for last night. Thank you, by the way,” she said, looking down.
“No need to thank me,” he said, leaning against the counter.
“So, what were they harassing you about?”
“Same as ever. My sister offered me a job in London. Wecan add that to this,” he said, pulling out his phone to show her a text from Jason with a photo of the promised BMW and an emoji with its head blowing off.
“You’re also car shopping?” She laughed.
“Nope. That’s an old colleague trying to get me to come back to New York. There’s a big position open at his bank and he’s trying to win me with perks. This is one of them.” He waved the phone, then put it down on the counter.
“That’s exciting. It must feel good to know that you’re so highly regarded. Though I can’t imagine it’s making it easier for you to figure out your future.”
