Page 76 of It's All Sun and Games

‘It comes with the conference room, for smaller meetings,’ Rick explains, reading my mind.

Rick still seems on edge – he’s chewing the side of his thumbnail, which is never a good sign. I’ve never seen him do that before because something good was going to happen.

‘Tell me you’ve got something good for this pitch,’ Rick practically begs, his tone urgent. ‘Henry and Cait’s idea hasn’t come off, and Liz and James have come up with something so… so… pretentiously sexy.’

Andrea furrows his brow, clearly perplexed by Rick’s description – especially based on the brief Beppe gave us all.

‘Sexy? What do you mean?’ Andrea questions Rick.

‘Oh, it’s all Fashion Week and men on Vespas smoking cigarettes and – I don’t know – not what I think the client wants,’ Rick explains.

Suddenly it makes sense why he’s so worried.

‘Don’t worry, okay, because I have a great idea, it’s nothing like that, and I think Beppe is going to really like it,’ I reassure him, hopefully with confidence and conviction in my voice.

Whether they are present in my tone or not, I do really mean it; I know that I have a great idea.

‘Okay, well, I need you to put it into a PowerPoint or a Keynote or whatever – if you haven’t already,’ Rick instructs.

‘Oh?’ I respond, taken aback, because we don’t usually have to do that. ‘It’s all prepared, to a high standard, and ready to show the client, it’s just not a slideshow.’

‘The other two have theirs in a slideshow – a real turd-polishing exercise,’ Rick informs me. ‘So, if yours is the stronger idea, I don’t want it to look weaker by not having the same level of presentation as theirs, or both ideas will look shit.’

I feel a pang of anxiety creeping in.

‘But is there even enough time left to do that?’ I reply. ‘I have my laptop in my bag but, I don’t know, it’s not the kind of thing that you can knock out in a few minutes.’

‘Don’t worry, Beppe is busy during the day, so we’re pitching to him tonight,’ Rick reassures me. ‘That’s plenty of time to get things ready.’

‘Tonight?’ I practically squeak.

‘Yeah, so plenty of time for you to practise too,’ he says. ‘And Andrea, I know you don’t need to be here, but if you want to stick around until then, I’m going to order some lunch in.’

‘We can’t do tonight, sorry,’ Andrea tells him. ‘It’s my nonna’s birthday, she’s one hundred years old today.’

‘Well, happy birthday to your nonna. But sorry, that’s just not going to be possible,’ Rick says dismissively.

Andrea practically laughs in Rick’s face.

‘You know I don’t actually work for you, right?’ he says to Rick.

‘You’re right, but she does,’ Rick responds, pointing at me. ‘It turns out there is an intern at Come a Casa who speaks great English. She’s going to come too, so you, Andrea, can go to your party and you, Robin, can stay here and do your job.’

‘You can come after your pitch?’ Andrea checks. ‘I can come to get you.’

‘No can do,’ Rick tells him. ‘We’ve arranged to have a dinner afterwards – to hopefully celebrate winning the pitch. Even if we do, the schmoozing doesn’t stop there. Come on, Robin, you knew what you signed up for.’

I exchange a glance with Andrea.

‘Oh, Robin, no!’ he protests, clearly reading my mind.

‘Let me give you two some privacy,’ Rick says. ‘You can have the room. I’m sure you will figure this out between yourselves but, Robin, I don’t want you leaving it until your presentation is done, okay? Okay.’

Without waiting for a response, Rick leaves the two of us to it.

‘You’re not coming?’ Andrea asks me, sounding like he already knows the answer. ‘Not at all?’

‘I can’t, can I?’ I reply sadly. ‘This is my job.’

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