He studied her face. There was much more to this woman than surface beauty. “I do want to see you again. Here is my business card. Call me on my mobile and we can meet again tomorrow. Perhaps spend the day together?” As he passed her his card he held her hand for a moment, shocked to find it so cold. Another shiver wracked her body, but he suspected it was from repressing her emotions rather than any awareness of his touch.
“I’m working tomorrow. The best I can do is meet you for dinner again.”
“Then dinner it is,” he replied.
She nodded, then grabbed her bag and scrambled up the stairs, not once looking back.
Even the little voice in his head was silent for once.
• • •
Saturday dawned gray and wet. Sophia woke up lethargic. She’d had a second sleepless night, going over the previous day in her mind. She wouldn’t be surprised if Luca changed his mind about marrying her after her bizarre departure. For a few hours yesterday, she’d actually believed she was going to escape her past. Then it had come waltzing down the stairs with the paparazzi in the background.
Might as well get the rejection over with. She pulled out Luca’s business card and sent him a text. That way he wouldn’t have to disguise the relief in his voice when he would undoubtedly tell her he’d been called back to Italy before their meeting this evening.
Her phone binged almost immediately. A ripple of surprise flowed through her as she read his reply. He still wanted to see her and asked her to choose a restaurant where they could meet. With a smile, she texted back the address for the Thai restaurant down the street. He might as well discover now she wasn’t a fine dining kind of woman. On the rare occasions she did eat out, it was cheap and cheerful. No pretension. If that didn’t put him off, then maybe she’d consider his proposal. Best of all, there was no chance Kathy Summers, or Kate as she called herself now, would set one ridiculously shod foot in the door.
But first, she still had to get through today. She put on her uniform and trudged the ten blocks to the supermarket where she worked as a cashier on weekends and some evenings. She hated the job, but it helped pay the rent and kept her fed. Helping her brother through college and trying to earn her own degree in interior design had decimated her paltry savings. She was back to square one, living paycheck to paycheck. Maybe that was why she was even considering Luca’s offer; it would solve all her financial worries. Does it count as gold digging if I never actually picked up the shovel?
Toward the end of her shift, a young mother with a baby and a toddler stood patiently in her check-out queue. The little girl, about three years old, held a huge red apple in both hands and looked up hopefully at her mother. Sophia rang through the meager groceries: three tins of no-name brand baked beans, the cheapest loaf of bread the store sold, and some sausages with a “sell by today” clearance sticker.
“That’s a lovely apple. Can I weigh it?”
Sophia put her hand out and the little girl passed the fruit as if handing her a precious possession.
“Wow, it’s huge. Are you going to eat it all yourself?”
The little girl shook her head, her blonde curls bouncing about her face. “I’m gonna share it with Mummy. Georgie can’t have any ’cause he doesn’t have any teeth.”
“I’m sure he won’t mind.” Sophia turned to the young mother. “Two pounds and eighty-three pence, please.” She saw the mother close her eyes for a moment, then look at her daughter and shake her head. The mother picked up the apple and handed it back to Sophia before passing over the two pounds and fifty pence she’d been clutching in her fist. The child’s chin dropped to her chest, but she didn’t utter a word.
“Please, allow me,” Sophia said softly, adding the apple to the mother’s shopping bag. She’d put the extra coins in the till from her own purse. The little girl’s face lit up when she saw the apple go in the grocery bag. Sophia wiped a small tear from her eye as the family left the store.
Exhausted at 6:00 p.m., she returned home, wanting only to cook a jacket potato, curl up on her chair, and read the Penny Vincenzi book she’d taken out of the library. The incident with the mother and two children had disturbed her, bringing back memories of her own childhood. The nights she’d gone to bed hungry. The embarrassment of standing in line for the free breakfast at school, while her friends who ate at home stared at her through the window. And the teasing from her classmates about her second-hand uniforms. She couldn’t bear to put her future children through that.
It wasn’t as if she were holding out for love. Her parents had been in love when they married and lived a miserable existence afterward. In her experience, marrying for love didn’t always equal happiness. But she also didn’t want to end up like her aunt, alone with no family, despising everyone else’s relationships, secretly wishing she had someone to call her own.
Heading out the door again twenty minutes later, she felt like she was approaching a precipice. Whether she’d fall in, or make it safely across, was anybody’s guess.
• • •
Sophia sat against the back wall of the Thai restaurant, her eyes trained on the door. She’d deliberately come early, wanting to see Luca’s face when he arrived. If he turned up his nose at the quaint, family-run restaurant, then she’d know she couldn’t marry him. There was no way she could live with a snob. It was bad enough when she had to deal with them at work.
While she waited, she inhaled the smell of lemongrass and curry—the scent of adventure. For a girl who’d never traveled more than twenty miles from where she was born, eating ethnic food was as close to a foreign holiday as she’d ever got. If she married Luca, though …
As if conjured by her thoughts, Luca strode through the door. He’d replaced the expensive suit with a pair of chocolate brown trousers and a cream button down shirt. But the change of attire hadn’t diminished the sense of power he still exuded. He glanced around the tiny space, no hint of derision or condescension in his expression. When he spotted her, a smile lit his face and he strode toward her. An answering smile lifted her lips.
The hostess rushed over and handed him a plastic-coated menu which had seen better days. Despite its slightly sticky nature, he held it firmly, perusing the items as carefully as he had last night at the posh restaurant.
They ordered a selection of dishes to share and he regaled her with stories of life in Italy as they ate. Luca was attentive, ignoring his phone she could hear buzzing in his pocket from time to time. When the flustered waitress nearly dropped his plate, he simply smiled and whispered words of encouragement, wiping a splash of curry sauce from his sleeve without a second glance at the stain it had left.