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Luca pins his eyes on me in honest appraisal. I chop ingredients for the filling as he speaks.
“Your confidence is another one of your assets. It comes through in your cooking. But everyone needs some form of training, Tristan, and so do you. Especially so you learn basic techniques – it’ll help you further shape your skill into an ownable style.”
I look up at him. “Are you offering that training?”
“Make me some good fucking pasta and we can talk.”
I snort, focusing back on the basil I’m chopping. We talk as I busy myself around the kitchen, constantly in motion, and I actually enjoy the company. Luca’s a jokester, I can tell, but also clearly a genius at his craft. He’s only a few years older than I am and the four walls we’re standing in are a testament to his brilliance.
“So,” he starts during a natural lull in our conversation, “is Nera single?”
My hand freezes abruptly at the top of my movement.
Seconds bleed by as his question seeps in.
A clock ticks. The water boils. My eyelid twitches. My blood pressure rises dangerously.
This ranks high on the list of moments where I’ve been most caught off guard in my life and my physical reaction reflects that. My grip tightens around the handle of my knife.
Why the fuck does he know her name?
I look up at him slowly, the hairs on the back of my neck rising in warning as if to alert me a predator is nearby.
Luca’s eyes drop to my white-knuckled grip and he chuckles easily, inclining his head towards me in acknowledgement of my reaction.
“Message received loud and clear, mate,” he says, putting his hands up as if backing off. “I get it.”
I straighten, steeling my spine.
Did he bring me here just to try to hit on my girl?
He’s about to find out just how good my knife skills are if he did.
“Do you?” I ask, somehow managing to grit out the words around my tightly clenched jaw.
“If she’s yours, then yeah.”
“She is.”
“Understood,” he answers, putting his hands up in a harmless gesture. “Don’t worry, I was just testing a theory. Glad to see my hypothesis was correct.”
My jaw is tensely corded, my teeth clenched. I was just starting to like the guy but this new connection is going to be short lived if he doesn’t shut his fucking mouth.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“When she called, I was wondering why she was so insistent I meet you, herprofessor. The reason is pretty obvious now. Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.”
Surprise clashes with anger, shoving it easily out of the way. My brows rise, nearing my hairline.
“Hold up. Tell me how you know Nera.” I narrow my eyes at him. “She called you?”
“She’s…a friend.” He pauses before adding, “Well I only hesitate to call her a friend because in full transparency, I did ask her out. No,relax,” he adds with a teasing smile when I slam my knife down on the metallic kitchen island. “I’m telling you because you’re clearly head over heels and if we’re going to be working together, we need to trust each other.”
“You’re off to a shit enough start on that front,” I growl, roughly.
“This was months ago in September and based on how quickly she shut me down, you have nothing to worry about. She’s not interested in me and that has to be because of you. I mean, look at me,” he says with a grin. “Who wouldn’t say yes to taking me to bed?”
“Think carefully about the next words that come out of your mouth, Luca.”
