‘I’m sure it would; she bloody loved you. Even Maria loved you and that’s saying something!’
‘I’m honoured, truly. . . So, what else is new?’
‘I’m still unemployed, if that’s what you mean. But I did get a name from someone for an English estate agent based here who sells Italian properties to rich Brits who might want some help. I know I don’t exactly have a ton of experience in that area. . . well, none, actually, but I reckon I know a bit about houses and I speak perfect English, so that’s two pluses on my side, right? So I’ve emailed her, just to see whether she can help or if she knows anyone else. It’s a long shot, but it’s better than nothing and so far all the other jobs I’ve applied for haven’t come to anything. I suppose it’ll take time, but even a pot washer would do me right now.’
‘But you don’t want to be a pot washer forever. . . whatever one of those is, so what’s the point of taking a job like that now? The real-estate business sounds like a good plan. What about your dressmaking?’
‘I’m still getting that off the ground, but I am getting orders. . .’ She could have added that it totalled exactly two orders, both cut price and both from the same person, but it wasn’t something she wanted to share right now. Jamie didn’t need to see self-pitying Kate – he deserved positive, upbeat, doing-OK Kate. And that was what he was going to get.
‘That’s fantastic!’ Jamie beamed. ‘I still feel just awful that my contacts didn’t work out for you, but hey, you won’t need to worry about any of that when the business starts rolling in.’
‘I can do it from my apartment for now,’ Kate added. ‘Salvatore, my landlord, is OK with me working from here as long as I don’t have lines of clients outside the door, because he says people will start to think I’m a prostitute if that happens.’ She giggled. ‘I can’t imagine what sort of prostitutes he’s ever visited if there are queues of middle-aged women outside. But at the moment I’m not getting lines of people, and if that day ever comes I suppose I’ll find the money to set up at proper premises.’
‘I just know that day is going to come. So, when are you and Alessandro getting married?’
Kate rolled her eyes. ‘Not you as well. That’s all I’ve heard for the last few weeks, and Lucetta’s wedding has made it worse. I think Signora Conti is on a mission to clear her two remaining children out of her house so she can have it to herself. She’s already started a hope chest for Abelie and the poor girl has only been in a stop-start dating arrangement with her boyfriend up to now.’
‘Well, perhaps another wedding will take your mind off your own. . .’ he replied.
Kate wrinkled her nose. ‘Sounds rather cryptic. . . Wait! Does that mean you and Brad have finally set a date?’
‘Not quite. But, we do have a pretty good idea of where we want to get married, and we’re thinking Rome. . .’
‘Oh my God!’ Kate squeaked. ‘That would be incredible! Please make it so, then I’d be able to come!’
‘There’s a lot to check out first, but it’s such a beautiful city that we decided why not? And we get to do it again with a mirror ceremony and party back in New York for the people who couldn’t make it to Italy – two parties! As soon as I told Brad that he was sold!’
‘This is so exciting! You have to make it spring time, when there’ll be blossom and lovely cool days and I’ll get time to make a new dress. And I’ll have to get a hat too! You’re doing the full works, aren’t you?’
Jamie chuckled. ‘I have no idea. I think Brad will want to go for all-out glamour. We’re going to start doing some research – see who will marry us and who won’t, and at what kind of venue. Then we’ll worry about the party. I’m glad you’re excited.’
‘Excited? I can’t wait! I’m so happy for you.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Hang on,’ Kate said, reaching for the mug of coffee she’d just made and holding it up. ‘A toast, to Jamie and Brad getting married in Rome!’
‘Possibly,’ he said, and laughed, but he raised his wine anyway. ‘I’ll drink to that!’
Hi Kate,
Thank you so much for your email. Your friend was right – I am very busy at the moment and help would be much appreciated. I’d be interested in having an informal chat with you, to get an idea of your background and tell you more about what we need. Would you like to meet for coffee? I have lunchtimes free during the next week, so let me know and we’ll get together.
Yours,
Shauna Davies
Kate read the email again. It sounded promising, though she tried not to get too excited about it. After all, she was going to have to come clean about the fact that her ‘very little estate agent experience’ actually meant none at all. But she could negotiate that, and she was sure that if she met up with Shauna she could create a rapport good enough to convince her she was the woman for the job. After all, nobody got anywhere without taking risks and sometimes being just a smidge economical with the truth, did they?
She quickly typed a reply, expressing her delight at Shauna’s interest and suggesting some days and times when she could meet. Twenty minutes later they’d fixed a meeting for the coming Friday, so Kate had four days in which to read as much as she could about property buying and selling in Italy and expat residency laws.
As she clicked send, she reached for her phone. Alessandro would be thrilled at the news. But then she hesitated. It was hardly in the bag yet, and what if she didn’t get it? Better not to jinx it by assuming success. She put the phone down again. Her insides were fluttering, though, and if she was keeping this to herself for the time being, she needed to get all this nervous energy out of her system somehow. Her gaze flicked to the swathes of fabric on the table, still there from her shopping trip with Nunzia the day before. Those dresses wouldn’t make themselves, and if she needed to take her mind off her coffee with Shauna, this was as good a time as any to start them.
Shauna looked exactly like her photo. Sometimes Kate struggled to recognise people from online headshots, but there was no way she was going to mistake Shauna, whose statuesque figure and striking white hair drew every eye in the café as she entered. Kate stood from the table she’d settled at to wait, having been around twenty minutes early in her bid to look efficient and enthusiastic, and beckoned her over.
‘Ciao, Kate,’ Shauna said, kissing her on the cheek like a true native. ‘It’s lovely to meet you.’
‘You too,’ Kate replied, feeling flustered and wondering whether she ought to kiss, hug, or offer a good old-fashioned handshake. In the end, she was saved the stress of making the decision by Shauna taking a seat at the table and shrugging off an expensive-looking forest-green woollen jacket. Kate, always with a keen eye for a good sew, couldn’t help but admire how exquisitely tailored and finished it was as Shauna draped it over the back of her chair. ‘Thanks so much for coming to meet me.’
‘On the contrary, I should be thanking you. I’m glad you got in touch. If we can come to some agreement you may have saved me a lot of admin.’
Before she had a chance to elaborate, a waiter glided over and took her order for espresso, while Kate went for plain and simple white coffee.
‘So,’ Shauna continued as he left them again, ‘tell me about yourself.’
‘I can type fast, I’ve got lots of experience in administration and for ten years I ran a busy department in a high-end pet-care distribution business.’
Mr Woofy, Kate’s previous employer, was being flattered immensely by her description, and her job as an office clerk even more so. But the fact was that, although she was embellishing the truth a tiny bit, her colleagues in the office were so lazy, and the boss so perpetually and mysteriously absent from duty, that she might as well have been running the place.
‘Oh. . .’ Shauna waved a nonchalant hand, ‘I’m sure your credentials are all wonderful, and we can certainly talk about those later, but what I really want to know is what brings you to Italy. You’re obviously planning to put down roots if y
ou’re talking to me about a job.’
‘Yes. I divorced from my childhood sweetheart, back in England.’ She shrugged. ‘At his instigation, not mine. Moving felt like the right thing – a new start somewhere far away from the constant reminders.’
‘That’s an awful long way to go. He must have smashed your heart to smithereens.’
‘I suppose it is a long way. . .’
‘So you still love him?’
‘Oh, God, no!’ Kate smiled. ‘No, that’s all water under the bridge. In fact, he’s about to have a baby with someone else – probably any time now.’
‘Was it amicable? The split, I mean.’
‘I tried at first. But he. . . well, he made things difficult. These things are never quite that simple, are they?’
‘No, I don’t suppose they are. I’ve never managed to stay married myself. Too much of a control freak, I expect. I can’t be bothered with men now.’
‘I suppose your business occupies a lot of your time.’
‘It does.’ The waiter returned and Shauna thanked him as he left their drinks. Then she turned to Kate again. ‘So you’re looking to stay permanently in Rome? No plans to go back to England?’
‘No.’ Kate gazed into her cup for a moment as she stirred her coffee. She shook herself and looked up with a bright smile. ‘I love it here, and I’m going to make it work no matter how hard it gets.’
‘I take it that means it’s been hard so far?’
‘A little.’
‘If you don’t mind me saying, you might have made it harder by waiting until you were here to look for a job. More pressure on you, and they’re not exactly easy to come by.’ She took a sip of her espresso. ‘Why aren’t you teaching?’
Kate frowned. ‘You mean English?’
‘It’s what a lot of the other expats of your age do and there’s plenty of teaching work about. Everybody in Rome wants to learn English; it’s good for business.’
‘I would, but my Italian is terrible, and I think I’d need to be able to communicate with my students in their own language too. Besides, I don’t think it’s for me. I wouldn’t know where to start.’
‘And you would with estate agency? You told me in your email that you didn’t have much experience.’
‘No, but I do know how to talk to people, especially British people. Half an hour’s debate on the weather and we’re best friends, aren’t we?’
Shauna chuckled as she placed her cup back on the saucer. ‘Well, a sense of humour certainly helps.’ She folded her hands over one another on the table, a huge aquamarine ring glinting on her middle finger. ‘We manage properties not just in Rome, but in the surrounding areas too: Tuscany, Umbria. . . how would you feel about driving out to those places to meet people?’
‘I don’t have a car, but I can drive. I’ve not actually driven in Italy yet but. . . Well, I can’t say I’m super confident but I expect I’d get the hang of it if I had to.’
‘And the hours would be long. When we’re closing a sale it’s intense, then there’s all the after-sale legalities to keep an eye on. If the buyer runs into problems, we’re the first port of call whether it’s our responsibility or not, and often they don’t care as long as it gets sorted. Clients can be rude, snobby, quick to blame and often resort to threats along the lines of us losing the sale to get what they want. Sellers will lie about their properties and buyers will lie about their cash flows. They play us for devil’s advocate at times. And the Italian property laws can be your undoing if you’re not absolutely on top of your game. Not to mention all this dreadful Brexit business hanging over us, and none of us can be certain how that will go right now. It can be a very pressured environment.’ She took another sip of her coffee. ‘You understand, I’m not telling you all this to put you off, but so you’re aware of exactly what you’d be taking on.’
‘I just want a chance to prove myself. I realise that you don’t know the first thing about me, and I can write all the CVs in the world but you wouldn’t be able to get the measure of me until I’ve worked for you. I’d be happy with a trial at this point, but I understand that I don’t have any experience and neither of us knows if I’ll be suited, so I completely get it if you don’t want to take the risk at all.’
‘The problem for me is that I can’t afford to carry someone. If you’re on my payroll then you must be making money for me, and an inexperienced agent won’t be doing that. However, I do have a feeling that you could be a good fit for the position.’ She paused, regarding Kate steadily before speaking again. ‘How about you shadow me for a while as I work? I’ll go out to meet clients and you come with me, learn as much as you can. I won’t be able to pay you for this time, but you can look on it as an investment, and if things move in the right direction, I might be able to take you on as a fully-fledged member of the team. How does that sound?’
‘That sounds OK,’ Kate said.
‘You don’t seem certain.’
‘It’s just. . . how long do you think that arrangement might last for?’
‘I would say as long as it takes for me to feel confident you could operate on your own. It’s impossible to judge at this point. If you’re not comfortable with that, I completely understand.’
Kate chewed her lip, deep in thought. It was a risk, and the time spent training without pay would mean she wouldn’t have much spare to look for another job if it went pear-shaped, or to earn enough to keep her afloat while Shauna decided whether she was going to employ her at the end or not. But it could be a golden opportunity, at least until she made some real progress with her dressmaking business. And who knew, perhaps she might grow to love working at Piccolo Castelli so much she’d settle into it and not want to pursue riskier self-employment?
‘Can I think about it?’
‘Of course. I’m sorry if you came here under the assumption that you would leave with a job—’
‘Oh, no!’ Kate cut in. ‘I didn’t think that at all! It sounds like a fantastic opportunity, but I’d like some time to work out if I can do it. . . you know, with the no pay and all. I’m not exactly rolling in it and though I have funds, they won’t last forever.’
‘I understand that. Think it over, talk about it if you like with any significant other and let me know. You have my email address, and you can ring me at the office any time if you need to chat more about it.’
Shauna drained the last of her coffee and reached for her jacket. ‘It was really lovely to meet you, even if we don’t end up working together. And if we don’t, then all the best for whatever future you build here in Rome.’ She smiled as she collected her handbag from the table. ‘You never know, our paths might cross again anyway. There aren’t that many of us Brits living here that we can miss each other so easily.’
Kate watched as Shauna turned to go. What was wrong with her? Here she was, being handed an opportunity to do something really different, to meet people, to do a job that commanded some respect, to work with a lovely lady like Shauna, to get to travel the countryside of Italy and wander around gorgeous homes. She was crazy not to say yes straightaway, if only for the experience. And she could prove her worth, she was sure of it – then Shauna would employ her properly. What was that old saying: you have to speculate to accumulate? She could knock on the doors of Rome’s backstreet restaurants until those proverbial cows came home, and maybe eventually she’d get a little job that would just cover the rent every month, but this was a real opportunity not to be missed.
‘Wait!’ She almost leapt from her seat in her haste to halt Shauna’s exit. ‘If you’ll have me, I’d love to come and shadow you for a while. I’ll do my best to be a good pupil.’ She gave a tiny shrug. ‘And it’s not like I’m doing a lot else at the moment.’
Shauna smiled. ‘That’s fantastic news!’ She took off her jacket and sat down again. ‘In that case we’d better get some more coffee and make some concrete plans.’
Chapter Six
‘NO!’ Alessandro shouted. ‘She thi
nks you are a fool! And she is right!’
Kate’s arms tightened across her chest and she scowled at him. ‘It’s alright for you! You have a good job, and you would find one easily if you wanted another. I have to take what I can get!’
‘This is not a job! This is slavery! People do not work for no money!’
‘People have a right to choose, though! And I wouldn’t really be working, I’d be training – there’s a difference.’
‘When I learned my police work, I was paid. They want you to learn, they pay – that is how it works.’
‘Shauna can’t afford to do that. You’re talking about the police, who have all that public funding for trainees. But this is worth taking a chance on even without money. . . you must be able to see that?’
‘You must telephone Piccolo Castelli, tell this. . . this woman that you will not be her slave! If you want to work for nothing, there is a house for the poor in the city where you can give them soup and at least they will be grateful for you!’
‘I can’t,’ Kate replied, steel in her voice that her quivering insides would betray if she let them. ‘I’ve already said I’ll do it now and how would it look if I backed out?’
‘It would look as if you had been given some brains!’
‘I am not backing out! You don’t get to tell me what to do – not now, not if we’re married, not ever! I had enough of that with Matt – and never again. I am going to join Shauna next week and that is an end to it.’
‘You will not listen to sense?’
‘I have listened but I won’t change my mind.’
Alessandro threw his hands into the air, swore under his breath in Italian and then stalked out onto Kate’s tiny balcony, slamming the French doors shut behind him. She could see him through the voile curtains, hands gripping the rail as he stared out over the streets below. It would be easy to go to him now, apologise, take back everything she’d said and agree to break her arrangement with Shauna – but she wouldn’t. She loved Alessandro, but that didn’t mean he was right about everything. The Pope himself could ask her to back down now and she wouldn’t.
A Wedding in Italy: A feel good summer holiday romance (From Italy with Love Book 2) Page 9