Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Maurizio
Flora spied a little café in town. “The cakes here are to die for,” she told me, already preparing to cross the road.
“I’m going to need more than cake to sustain me.
” That was true, but the café she had indicated was somewhere I was reluctant to enter with her.
It was a popular pitstop in the village, especially with local nannies and parents, mainly mums with their children, and I knew our plan for discretion would be blown if we were seen there sharing lunch.
She turned, a sultry expression spreading across her face. “And I really think you’re going to need some sustenance.” Her tongue darted out and licked across her full bottom lip.
“You are such a temptation.” Leaning forward, I pushed some stray hair behind her ear. I needed not to get distracted by her, especially not here, in public with the possibility of an unwanted audience. “But food.”
“They do a decent all day breakfast too.” She was already heading across the road, leaving me to follow in her steps.
The bell on the door announced our arrival which I realised was the point of it, but this also resulted in several sets of eyes landing on us, a few I recognised, accompanied by smiles.
I didn’t dwell on whether the smiles were welcoming or judgemental.
Quickly, everyone seemed to return to their own lives leaving me and Flora to find a table.
I spied one in a corner towards the back, and although I didn’t want to flaunt the fact we were here together, I didn’t want to appear as though I was ashamed of that.
The only other table was in the window. This was the sublime to the ridiculous.
Flora stood next to me, waiting for an indication of where we were going to sit.
Determined not to make her feel inadequate or like a dirty little secret, I gestured to the window.
While she sat, I headed to the counter and ordered for us.
There was one person in front of me, so not exactly a queue but it gave me the opportunity to watch Flora, study her.
She gazed out of the window and then reached into her bag, pulling her phone out.
She looked down at the screen and grinned.
A sharp stab to my chest caught me off guard, especially when I realised it was due to not knowing who was making her smile that way.
Specifically it was the fact that it wasn’t me.
I’d never been a particularly jealous person.
I was possessive over anyone who was mine, but not jealous.
With our order in, I made the short distance to where she sat, aware of eyes on me again, unfortunately not Flora’s. Taking the seat opposite her, she looked up and smiled, still typing.
“Sorry, two seconds, my sister is in full flow.”
Relief washed over me and the heaviness lying across my chest like a lead weight lifted. Her sister. I could live with that.
“Is she okay?”
Flora threw her phone back into her bag. “Yeah, she’s fine. What cake did I get?”
I laughed at the eager expression spreading across her face and the glint of excitement in her eyes at the prospect of cake. “I considered getting you real food, but I wasn’t willing to run the risk of denying you cake.”
“Very wise.” Her squeal of delight signalled the arrival of our food and as I looked to the server, I realised there were still several sets of eyes trained on us, and despite my earlier reservations, I didn’t give a shit.
We were back in the car, driving further away from home, but not by much, and Flora was still enthusing about her cake. When I first pulled into the car park, she looked concerned.
“Is there something wrong with your car?”
I got out and quickly, making my way to my door. I stretched out my hand, she accepted it and dutifully allowed herself to be led indoors.
We were greeted as soon as we entered. “Mr Walker,” the salesman called.
I smiled at him and then turned to Flora. “I hope you like it.”
The salesman immediately latched onto that. “You are going to love it. Her. She’s a beauty and I can see the two of you being very happy together.”
Flora looked between us and seeing her annoyed face, my nerves kicked in.
“This way,” the salesman called, already striding across the shiny garage showroom floor.
“Maurizio.” That was all she said. No other words, but my name was enough for me to offer her an explanation.
“You need a new car.” I attempted to walk away.
“I didn’t need you to get me one,” she hissed, anger really kicking in.
“Flora, please—”
She cut me off and turned to face me, pulled her hand free of mine “No! Why would you do this? Is this my reward for not telling you to stop? Last night had nothing to do with any kind of gain as far as I was concerned, certainly not a pay off.”
Her burgeoning annoyance paled next to mine and seeing her flinch, I assumed my expression conveyed my absolute fury.
“Is that what you think?” I whispered the words, refusing to become a sideshow here, but they were as much as a shouted chastisement than if I’d raised the roof off this place.
“I considered it some time ago, around the same time your car first appeared on my drive on the back of a breakdown truck, so last night has nothing to do with this. I thought it could be added to your employee benefits . . . you can transport the children when you need to, safely, and also have the convenience of a reliable vehicle.”
“Oh.”
I shook my head. Her ‘oh’ was insufficient.
“After you paid the repair bill on my car without telling me . . .”
A cold stare was my initial response. “The bill I thought I had told you about and when it became apparent you were unhappy with that, I agreed to deduct it from your wages, that bill?”
She apparently had nothing else to offer me.
“And to be entirely transparent in this, I haven’t bought you a car, I have leased it so you’ll only need to add petrol and I’m sure my accountant can make it tax deductible.”
She reached for my arm, her mouth opening, possibly preparing her apology when the salesman called to us again. I strode towards the other man, leaving Flora to follow me.
I was unsure how Flora was likely to react to the news of her new car, but I hadn’t expected her to suggest the car was essentially payment for having sex with me. That was still bothering me when she parked it next to mine on the drive.
Flora had attempted a couple of apologies, but I hadn’t been in the mood to accept them and if I had, I certainly wasn’t prepared to do it in front of the salesman. Maybe now though.
“Sorry,” she called behind me as I made my way to the front door.
I stopped immediately and spun to face her. “Yeah, me too. Maybe I should have told you about it rather than springing it on you, but I thought I was doing a nice thing.”
“It is a nice thing—”
“So nice that you assumed it was payment in kind for last night?” I could feel my anger rising again.
“Sorry,” she repeated, and as I looked across at her, nervously toying with the car key, I could see and feel the sincerity of her apology.
With a deep, calming breath, I stopped, allowing her to catch up with me.
Taking her hand, I looked down at her. “I can see why you might have thought this was a reward of some kind, but I don’t operate that way, and I really did arrange this some time ago.
It just took a little longer than I had originally anticipated, so even if last night hadn’t happened, I would have still given you the car. ”
“Thank you.” She allowed a small smile to curl her lips. “It’s very generous of you and I love it.”
“Then there’s no more to say.” With her hand still safely tucked in mine, I led her towards the house. “I have some work to do, but as the children aren’t here, take the rest of the day off and relax.”
As much as I would have liked to have spent the day with Flora, in or out of bed, I couldn’t, I really did have work to do.
Once I settled into work mode, I became fully immersed in it and as such kept Flora off my mind.
That was something that was an advantage and a disadvantage of the particular personality trait I had of being quite focused and single minded.
The pro: I was professional and never left loose ends.
The con: other things ceased to exist in that moment.
As a consequence those other things sometimes got bored of waiting for my attention.
Those things were people. People like Sophie, although there had been more than my neglect of her involved in the breakdown of our marriage, but the other people, my children were totally innocent.
I had been doing better at being present and drawing a line under work and focusing solely on them.
They were my priority, always had been, but I needed to show them that.
Then there was Flora, the greatest distraction and temptation that had ever walked the earth.
With the work done, I went in search of Flora.
I had given her the day off, so she might not even be at home.
I went into the kitchen, and from there I could see her car still parked next to mine.
Presumably, she hadn’t gone out. With downstairs showing no sign of her, I moved upstairs where the door was slightly open and I could hear her chatting.
With no response from anyone else, I assumed she was on the phone.
“You do not need to know that. Ever.” She giggled and the sound of it made me smile. “Maddie!” she shrieked.
Her sister.
“I am not telling you that!”
She sounded horrified but also amused and then I realised what was the subject of this conversation, or should that be who?
“I wish I had never told you how scorchingly hot Maurizio was.”
My ego was seriously swelling to know that not only did she consider me scorchingly hot, but she had discussed me with her sister.
A loud squeal made me jump before she began to sing some nameless tune as if drowning her sister out.