Page 30 of The Fall Affair

“If my new shower has water pressure as good as you have next door, I might accidentally leave the recipe card out.”

Matteo guzzled the full glass of tea without stopping for a breath, then handed me back the empty.

I chuckled. “You could’ve taken your time with it.”

“Did my worker bother you?”

I leaned against the doorjamb, watching Matteo fill in the area around the shower body with silicone. “No, he was actually very sweet. He even asked me out to dinner.”

Matteo froze for a few seconds before going back to caulking and said nothing more. He didn’t even ask if I’d said yes or no. After another minute of silence, he cleared his throat. “I should be done in half of an hour.”

Okay, then. It felt a bit like a dismissal, which I’d normally have a problem with, but the man was doing me a favor, so I did the unthinkable—kept my mouth shut and went to cook.

Matteo came downstairs carrying a bucket of tools just as I lowered the heat on the risotto. I looked at the clock on the wall. “Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes.”

“I’m going to drop my tools off next door and take a quick shower.”

“Okay. I can slow the simmer, if you want?”

“No need. I’ll be back.”

Exactly fifteen minutes later, he knocked while I was stirring. “Come in.”

Matteo’s hair was slicked back wet, and damn if he didn’t smell better than the risotto. He lifted a bottle of wine. “This was your grandmother’s favorite. I figured we should pair it with her recipe.”

“That’s perfect.” I smiled. “Thank you.”

He opened the bottle while I plated two dishes. It had been a long time since I’d worked in the kitchen with a man. It felt oddly domestic but also…nice. We sat down at the table, and Matteo held out his wine glass.

“To Sophia.”

I clinked. “To Nonna.”

Matteo shoveled a heaping forkful of risotto into his mouth while I waited.

“Well? How did I do?”

“Delizioso. Culinary skills must run in da family.”

“I actually enjoyed making it. It’s been forever since I cooked a meal.”

“You mean for someone else?”

I shook my head. “I mean at all.”

Matteo’s forehead creased. “What do you eat if you don’t cook?”

“I’m usually at the office for dinner, so I order in and eat at my desk. On the weekends, I either go out or heat up something I brought home as leftovers.”

“Cooking isn’t just healthy for the body. It is good for the mind. It forces you to slow down. Chop. Stir. Have patience.”

“Which is why I haven’t done it. Slow wasn’t penciled in on my very full agenda for each day.”

“You said you quit your job because you didn’t get made partner, yes? What was so important about becoming one? Was it the money?”

Sadly, I didn’t have a clear answer as to why I’d been doing something that had taken over my entire life for six years. “The money would be better, yes, but it wasn’t really about that. My bonus was tied to my billable hours, which were always super high, so I had more money than I did time to spend it.”

“What drove you, then?”