Page 17 of Strictly Business

“Because they don’t know for sure whether we’re on a date or not and they won’t want to intrude. The first time I came here, I was with my parents and my sister so there was none of that,” Wyatt explains.

I feel my cheeks turning pink again and I smile. I don’t really know what to say and when someone who I assume is Ricardo comes to our table with our drinks and our menus, I’m so relieved I could hug him.

He puts the drinks down in front of us and we both thank him, and then he gives us a menu each and again, we both thank him.

“Everything sounds lovely,” I say after I’ve looked over the menu and I glance up to find Wyatt sitting with his menu closed in front of him. “Have you chosen already?”

He smiles and nods.

“You can’t beat the classic Cozze alla Tarantina,” he says. I must look as confused as I feel because he laughs softly and translates for me. “Mussels with linguine in a red wine sauce.”

“Say, that does sound good, but I’m not big on seafood,” I say. “I try to avoid anything that is served to me with a face or with a shell.”

Wyatt laughs softly and I join him.

“I’m going to go with a classic I reckon,” I say after studying the menu for a little bit longer. “Lasagna.”

“Good choice,” Wyatt says, and when our waiter comes back to see if we are ready to order yet or not, Wyatt gives him both of our orders.

“So, what made you want to work in marketing?” Wyatt asks as we wait for our food to be brought out to us.

“Funnily enough I never even considered marketing as a career opportunity until after I started college,” I tell him. “When I left high school, I knew I wanted to go on to college, ideally an ivy league school. The thing was I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after that, so I had some trouble choosing a degree. I talked to my dad, and he said if I had a passion, I should follow that, and if I didn’t, then I should study business in general, because once you know how a business works, that will open a lot of doors for you. I took his advice and took the management and marketing course. Somewhere along the line, I realized I had fallen in love with marketing, and even further down the line, I realized I was damned good at it too.”

Wyatt smiles at me and I feel my cheeks turning pink again under his stare.

“It’s a good feeling, isn’t it? The moment you realize what you are meant to do with your life,” he says.

“Yeah, it really is,” I say. At that moment the waiter arrives. He puts my lasagna down and then Wyatt ‘s mussels and pasta. “This feeling beats it though. When you are so hungry and are given food.”

“I’ll second that,” Wyatt laughs.

For a while we fall silent while we eat.

“This is so good,” I say after a while. “How is yours?”

“Amazing,” Wyatt replies.

I pick up my wine glass and take a sip. I can feel Wyatt ‘s eyes on me, and I look up and catch his eye and hold it while I have another sip of wine and then I set the glass down. I’m tempted to reach out and touch his hand, but I stop myself. It’s one thing looking at him for a moment too long but touching him wouldn’t be so easy to explain away if he didn’t appreciate it.

“Would you like another glass of wine?” Wyatt asks and I’m surprised when I look down and see mine is nearly empty.

I shaky my head.

“I’d better not, thank you,” I say.

I’d love another one. In fact, I’d quite like to get drunk with Wyatt because I’m sure if we did that, we’d be a lot less cautious around each other, but Wyatt is only drinking soda and there’s no way I’m going to embarrass myself while he’s stone cold sober.

“Are you sure?” he presses, as I take my last mouthful of my lasagna. I nod. “OK, then how about a coffee with dessert?”

“I don’t think I can eat dessert,” I say, sitting back in my chair and rubbing my full stomach.

Wyatt shakes his head and laughs.

“There is always room for gelato Serena,” he says, his tone of voice mock serious but his expression teasing.

I love the way he sounds when he says my name and I find myself agreeing to the gelato. God am I really that easily swayed? A sexy voice says my name and I’m his? There’s a bit more to it with us than that though. And let’s be honest here, his theory isn’t wrong. There really is always room for gelato.

Our waiter comes over with a bowl of strawberry gelato for me and chocolate gelato for Wyatt, plus two coffees. We each try our gelato and it is amazing.

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