She didn’t seem to notice his awkward hand movements. “The pleasure is all mine. I’msoexcited for this. I’ve been resisting getting pizza for the last two weeks. I’ve been trying to watch my diet.”
He took his seat. “Some weeks pizza makes up the entirety of my diet.”
“Men.” Rose shook her head. “You can get away with eating garbage and still look great.”
Did she just say he looked great?His heart leapt and he opened his mouth to respond. “Uh…”
She laughed and put a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I’m not judging how you look. Or minimizing your struggles with weight if you have them. Actually, I take that comment back. Can I do that? Can I take it back?”
There it was, that effortless charm.
He couldn’t let himself be charmed. This was business. She was his employee – a very good, very important employee. “Of course. I never heard it, but if I had, I wouldn’t have been offended.” He looked down at himself. “My mom actually saw me on a video call the other day and asked if I’d forgotten what the sun looked like. I guess I’m not looking too good these days.”
Rose peeked out from behind her menu. “Aw, she’s worried about you working too hard. Are you close with your mom?”
He glanced up at her, then back at his menu. “I try to call at least twice a week.”
“Ah.”
He looked up. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Go on.” He set his menu down. “Do you have another comment to make that you’ll need to redact?”
She shrugged. “I just find it interesting that you deflected the question.”
“What do you mean? I answered your question.”
She pursed her lips and stared at him, as if weighing whether he could handle what she was going to say.
Apparently, she decided he could. “Answering the question would’ve been ayesor ano, followed by an explanation. You just gave me a semi-related statement about the frequency of your phone calls.”
Craig laughed. She wasn’t wrong. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m the best communicator.”
“Seems like something you need to practice.” She turned her menu toward him and pointed at a pizza called The CheeseNado. “I think we have to get this because the picture looksincredible.”
Again, she wasn’t wrong. The pizza was layered with mozzarella, hand-dipped ricotta, blistered tomatoes, and sopressata. “Whatever you like. My treat.”
A smile spread across her face. “Outstanding.”
The waitress dashed over and, after they placed their order, Craig had a moment where he thought they were going to fall into an awkward silence.
He tried to think of something to say, but Rose beat him to it. “My mom died when I was little. I never got to know her.” She stopped. “Not that I didn’t have a mom. Her sister, Claire, adopted us. Us being me and my two sisters. My mom owns a hotel on the island. It’s actually kind of a crazy story.”
Craig had been taking a sip of his water and started to choke. “I’m sorry, what?”
“It’s a long story.”
He cleared his throat, recovering. “Please. I’d love to hear it.”
She smiled, and his entire focus got pulled into Rose’s erratic storytelling. She’d start with one part of the story, then get distracted by telling him some small detail, then jump back into the main story, or something else entirely.
It was a wild ride, but he enjoyed every moment of it.
When their pizza arrived, Rose’s face was twisted into a frown.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Is this not what we ordered?”
