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‘Iwould be Nico’s PA?’
‘No. But I want someone in the Silibri hotel that I can liaise with directly regarding him.’
‘Does Nico know about this?’
‘No, it’s just something Francesca and I have discussed. I would not trouble Signor Caruso unless I considered it viable…’ She gave a thin smile, which told Aurora that she was already having her doubts as to her suitability for the role.
Aurora had doubts of her own.
Getting closer to Nico wasn’t going to snuff out the torch. Instead it would fan the eternal flame that burned for him. So Aurora said the bravest thing she could. ‘It is very nice of you to consider me—but, no.’ Aurora shook her head. ‘I don’t think that role would be for me.’
Tonight, when she was back in the hotel, she would cry one final time over him, Aurora decided.
There would be no bus tour.
She was a little tired of being with her friends. They saw each other every day and they were all so much older than she.
No, tonight she would recall with shame her own behaviour earlier with Nico and then she would weep into the pillow. And then…
Well, it was time she moved on—time she started dating.
Time to flirt.
To be twenty-four and single in Rome.
She might even download the dating app that Chi-Chi and Antonietta had told her about!
To hell with you, Nico Caruso, because I want to be with a man who wants me. I am finally out of your shadow.
And she was soon to be out of Marianna’s.
‘Where’s Aurora?’ Nico asked late in the day.
‘Oh, she’s with the marketing team,’ Marianna said and then glanced at the time. ‘Though they’ll all be off on their bus tour now.’
Nico gave a small eye-roll, though not with any malice. It was more in amusement that Pino had called and invited him to join them.
Again he had declined.
‘Do you know?’ Marianna said. ‘I have never met a more enthusiastic lot of people. With their energy and exuberance I’m sure the new hotel is going to be amazing.’
‘If you like Persian Orange,’ Nico said, and he pushed over the uniform order he had signed off on. Persian Orange! With bespoke tones of Butterscotch and Burnt Caramel for those who felt the shade might not suit their colouring.
Nico had a headache from looking at so much orange.
And he had another question. ‘Why was Aurora shadowing you today? I thought her role was in marketing.’
‘Correct,’ Marianna agreed. ‘But presumably you will be spending a lot of time in Silibri…?’
‘Not once the hotel is up and running.’
‘You are always between hotels. I have Teresa in Florence, Amelie in France… Francesca thought that Aurora might be suitable—’
‘No.’ Nico said it too fast, and with too much force, and he attempted a quick recovery. ‘Look, I’m sure Aurora will be excellent in her marketing role, but I don’t think she would work out as—’
‘It’s fine,’ Marianna cut in. ‘Aurora said the same.’
‘She did?’
Why did that feel like a punch to his guts rather than spread relief? And why did the thought of working closely with Aurora unsettle him so?
Nico grabbed his jacket and took the elevator down to head for home.
He did not need to ponder further to know the answer: there waswaytoo much history between them.
