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‘I am sure I will find it useful.’ Her voice was tight, each word propped up by stilts. A pause. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing where your chocolate is produced.’
Luca recalled the previous evening, the ease of their discourse, and tried to equate the woman who had shaken cocktails to the beat of Caribbean drums with the woman sitting so far away from him, her whole body taut. Regret ran through him as he cursed his own lack of restraint?
?he might not understand why, but the kiss had impacted her profoundly. Come on, Luca. It had impacted him hugely too. That kiss had broken all his own rules; in one fell swoop it had crashed through the fundamental basis of his relationship cornerstone. Do not act on attraction, do not get involved on any level until the rules were on the table. It was time to acknowledge what had happened, properly.
‘No,’ he said. ‘You aren’t looking forward to it and I wish you were. I am sorry I spoilt our professional relationship.’
‘You didn’t. I will still do my job to the highest standard.’
‘I am sure you will, but I think what happened has made that harder.’ Which was exactly why mixing professional with personal was so stupid. ‘I would like to try and clear away this...awkwardness, try to make it right.’
She shook her head. ‘It’s hard not to feel awkward. To say nothing of embarrassed.’
‘There is no need to be embarrassed. What happened between us was—’
‘Unfortunate, unprofessional, unnecessary, stupid, and mortifying.’
At least this was a proper conversation. ‘It was also natural.’
Suspicion frowned her face. ‘What do you mean?’
‘At Ava’s party we clicked, did we not?’
For a moment he thought she’d deny it, then she gave a small reluctant nod. ‘I suppose so.’
‘I know we decided not to act on it and I know we shouldn’t have but I will not be embarrassed by something natural. There is nothing wrong with feeling attraction. I agree we need to put it behind us but there is no need to be ashamed.’ He studied her profile, saw that for some reason his words had had no effect. ‘Look at me.’ She did as he asked and he reached out and touched her lightly on the arm, pulled back fast. ‘Truly, do not feel embarrassed. I do not.’ That was true; he felt chagrin, surprise and annoyance and true regret at his lack of control, determination to avoid a repeat performance, but there also lingered a different regret that there wouldn’t be one. Now he frowned—there were way too many feelings in the mix. So, ‘How about we agree to try and be natural around each other?’
‘I thought you said that was the problem in the first place.’ Her tone was wry and he belatedly remembered his words of a moment ago.
‘Touché,’ he said and he couldn’t help it, his lips turned up in a smile and suddenly she gave him an answering smile.
‘But I know what you mean so, yes, let’s try and put it behind us.’
‘Agreed.’
The remainder of the journey was achieved in a silence, but this time it felt more comfortable. Once at the factory they climbed out of the car and she gazed at the loom of the factory building, pulled out her camera and started to snap.
Once inside he led the way to an office. ‘The contract should be in here,’ he said, then picked it up from the desk and handed it over to her. Emily read it carefully and once again he found himself studying her, the smallest of creases in her forehead, the bent head supported by the graceful column of her neck.
She signed quickly and he followed suit.
‘Right, let’s start the tour.’
As he showed her around the factory he watched her expression, felt a sense of satisfaction at her genuine interest as he led her round the different machines and explained how each one worked. With each step, the atmosphere relaxed a little more and he could see her immerse herself in taking pictures, admired her focus and method as she made sure she got every angle.
After a while she came to a halt and, although he could still sense a slight rigidity in her posture, her expression held only interest as she returned to stand by the conching machine.
‘The sheer quantity of chocolate you produce is mind-boggling... I mean, I could practically swim in it. And to think it all starts with a cocoa bean.’ She glanced down at her notes. ‘And so much happens to those poor beans. But, if I have it right, how they are fermented is crucial, and so is the roasting process and the conching. I’m not sure I understand that last bit.’
‘Basically the mixture is stirred to extract any water that remains and to distribute the cacao butter evenly. This is what gives chocolate its taste, its texture, even its smell. The name comes from the word concha, which means shell. In the old days chocolate was conched in a vessel that was shell-shaped.’
‘I really like that. I’ll try to incorporate conch-shaped shells in the ads, and maybe something natural that represents the roasting and fermentation as well.’
‘I’d like that.’ Admiration touched him at her creative process, for the idea that the ad would embrace the actual process, would hold hints and clues that tied it all together. ‘Now I see why this is so important to how you work. And now for the last bit of the tour—the tasting.’
He led the way out of the factory to the café he’d installed for meetings and tastings. Flowers hung from the rafters over the tables and the air was scented with a mixture of floral and chocolate. Once Emily was seated at one of the small wrought-iron painted tables he put together a selection of Palazzo di Cioccolato products.
‘This is one of our best sellers, this is a midnight-dark bar, here is my version of a nuts-and-raisin bar and finally here is a prototype for the new brand.’
