“You’ve both got the wrong idea,” Sacha insisted. “I can’t tell you about it now because I need to freshen up, but you can take it from me that even if I did like him, Alessandro is too hung up about his ex-girlfriend to get serious about someone like me.”
Jack looked hurt. “What do you mean, someone like you?”
“Yeah,” Bella frowned at her. “I remember seeing his ex,” she lowered her voice even though there were only the three of them left in the café. “I looked her up. She was gorgeous, wasn’t she?”
“Yes, she was,” Sacha said.
Bella hugged her. “But so are you.”
Sacha could feel the irritation rising in her, not wishing to have to hear about how she should be more confident about her looks. “Livia was stunning, that’s true, but she was also sophisticated and there was something ethereal about her. Now,” she said, tucking a loose strand of sun streaked hair behind her ear, “I appreciate you being nice to me, but there is no way in any of my wildest dreams that I could ever be described as sophisticated or ethereal.”
Both stared at her in silence. She could see they were trying to think of some way to disagree with her.
“Fine,” Jack said eventually. “You might not be all that sophisticated, and I’m not exactly sure what ethereal is, but you’re more of a… um… beach bum.”
“Beach bum!” He was supposed to be cheering her up, not insulting her. She glared at him.
“No, not a beach bum,” Bella said, trying not to giggle. “I think your stupid brother is trying to say you’re more of a beach babe. Yes, that’s it. Or, or maybe a mermaid.”
“Right, you two can go now. Thanks for trying, I think I appreciate it, but seeing as you’ve dropped me into accepting an evening tasting Alessandro’s gelato, I think I’d better get a move on, don’t you?”
Bella linked her arm through Jack’s. “I think that’s our cue to leave.” She winked at Sacha. “Go and freshen up before his gelato melts, and you,” she said to Jack. “Stop winding up your sister and come with me. If you’ve got something to do, then do it and if not, you can join me for the glass of wine I was going to enjoy on the beach with Sacha, before she got a better offer.”
He glanced at Sacha and opened his mouth to say something. She folded her arms and he changed his mind and let Bella lead him out of the café.
Stopping just outside the door, Bella turned to point at Sacha. “Stop frowning, it’ll give you lines.”
Sacha waved her friend away, locked the café door and ran upstairs to her flat to shower and change. Through the open windows, she could hear them chatting as they walked along the boardwalk.
“Beach bum,” she murmured, amused by her brother’s attempt to compliment her.
Five minutes later, she hurried down the stairs, pushing a damp strand of hair from her face. At the bottom, she dropped the flip flops she was carrying and slipped one on, careful to ensure she didn’t jab her tender toe, when she heard a noise.
Turning, and nearly toppling over, she spotted a movement through the opening to the kitchen. Heart pounding, she shoved her other foot into her flip flop and crept through, grabbing a spatula on the way. She caught Lucy bending down in front of one of the store cupboards in the bunker at the back of the building.
“What are you doing?” she asked, jumping back when Lucy leapt up and screamed.
“I didn’t see you there!” Lucy’s face reddened. “I thought you were upstairs.”
Sacha couldn’t see how that excused her from sneaking around, so asked again. “Why are you here, Lucy? You left an hour ago.”
Lucy chewed the inside of her lip. “I was, er...”
Was she stealing something? Sacha looked past Lucy, at the open cupboard. “Is there something you need?”
“I, um...” Her blush deepened, but she seemed embarrassed to be caught rather than disingenuous.
Sacha couldn’t help feeling guilty for giving Lucy such a fright.
“What where you putting in there? It’s where we keep the boxes of cones for the soft ice creams.”
“I worry that if I leave my rucksack out someone might steal it when I’m busy.”
Confused, Sacha closed the cupboard door. “I’m sorry, I have to dash off.”
She motioned for Lucy to go with her to the front door. Grabbing her keys on the way, she wondered if Jack had left the door unlocked, for Lucy to have got in without her noticing.
“If you’re that worried, then of course you can keep your rucksack in a cupboard, but not one where we keep the supplies,” she said, waiting for Lucy to step outside. She seemed to be hanging back. “Are you sure everything’s alright?”
“No, no, it’s all good,” Lucy said, giving Sacha a smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes.
Sacha studied her. “You can keep your stuff in one of the cupboards towards the little door at the back. We’ll work something out tomorrow, okay?”
“Thank you, that’ll be amazing,” Lucy said, relief flooding across her drawn face.
“Maybe though,” Sacha added gently. “You should leave any valuables at home, if you’re worried about them being misplaced.”
Lucy looked horrified by this suggestion. “No. No, I can’t do that.”
Sacha moved slightly closer to Lucy and lowered her voice, checking first that there wasn’t anyone in earshot to hear what she was about to say. “If there’s anything you need to talk to me about Lucy, I hope you’d feel you could confide in me. Do you?”
Lucy thought about this and nodded her head several times. Sacha didn’t believe her though, and it troubled her to think that Lucy might have problems that were causing her distress. Maybe that was why she was picking up strange vibes. Sacha decided to keep an eye open for any further signs that something could be wrong.
“I’d want to help you if you ever needed me to.”
Lucy studied her feet for a moment and then looked at Sacha and gave her another beaming smile. Far too much of a forced smile to be accepted as real.
“Thanks, Sacha,” Lucy said, pulling her rucksack up over her shoulder and turning to walk away. “I appreciate your kindness, I really do.”
Sacha returned the wave Lucy gave her as she walked away along the boardwalk towards the bus stop, unable to shake off the troubled feeling their talk had given her. Then, remembering that she was already late to meet Alessandro, she locked the café door, turned and ran to his gelateria as fast as her flip flops would allow without her falling over.
She arrived at his door and spotted him tidying up inside. She knocked.
“Ciao, Sacha,” he called, waving her inside.
She walked in, inhaling the heady scent of fresh strawberries. “It smells heavenly in here,” she smiled, sitting down at the counter on the cushioned stool he indicated.
She saw several delicious looking sundaes in front of her. “They look extraordinarily tempting,” she said, desperate to taste one.
“This one is a Strawberry Meringata,” he said, handing her a long-handled spoon. “Please, try.” He waited while she dipped her spoon deep into the tall glass and slowly drew out a spoonful, lifting it to her mouth and savouring it.
The sensation of fresh strawberries, vanilla gelato, and broken meringue made her close her eyes and groan. “Now, that really is heaven in a glass.” She pushed her spoon into the mixture again and had another taste. “You’ve given me the best sundae first, you can’t possibly beat that,” she said, hopefully. If he was her competition then she was going to have to up her game, and how. “Tell me, what’s in it?”
He raised an eyebrow. “You expect me to share secrets with my competition?”
Sacha spooned out some ice cream and pointed it at him. “Don’t think I won’t flick this at you,” she teased. “Tell me your secrets, now.”
Alessandro grabbed her hand, forced the spoon up to his mouth and licked the ice cream she’d threatened him with.
“You might be a tough Jersey lady,” he laughed, letting
go of her wrist. “But I am also determined.”
Changing tactics, she pursed her lips. “Please. I told you how I made my sundaes.”
“You did,” he conceded. “Okay, as you know in Italy the gelato must have at least 3.5% butterfat. This is made with my father’s exclusive recipe of crema gelato, made with fresh Madagascan vanilla pods.”
She loved vanilla and presumed using these ones, as well as the butter fat was what must make such a difference to the taste and texture. “It is truly delicious.” She went to have another mouthful but he lifted another gelato sundae from the refrigerated counter and placed it in front of her with a clean spoon. “I just finished making this when you arrived,” he said with satisfaction. “If you would try this sample first?”
Again, there was that blissful creamy sensation on her tongue. “I wish you’d set up this business somewhere else,” she admitted. “These are far too good, I’m not sure I can compete.”
He came around the counter and sat on the stool next to her. Picking up a spoon, he took a mouthful of the meringue sundae. “I disagree,” he said. “You offer so many other options.”
She thought of the pancakes that were becoming more popular each week. “Maybe.”
“Your café is very English. It’s how I imagine English cafés used to be in the sixties when my father first came to this island. I saw you also cater for beach picnics, with those clever…” he struggled to find the word.
“Jam jars?” she said, having noticed his surprise when she’d served a smoothie and a sundae to a couple of teenagers a few days before, which they’d taken outside to enjoy.
He was making sense and it made her relax slightly. “I suppose you’re right.”
“We could set up a stall at the fête serving both our specialities,” he said. “That way, people can try both and I promise you some will like what you have to offer and others will prefer mine. There is room for both of our produces here, Sacha. I really believe that is true.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said, beginning to believe that maybe he had a point. “I know that when Bella and I go out anywhere, or when my aunt and I went away, that we both chose different things from the menus, wherever we went. We can emphasize that we cater for all tastes, both local and familiar, or new and from overseas.”
“The contrast might help boost our sales rather than hurt them,” he said.
She could see he was willing her to agree with him. “We may as well give it our best shot,” she said. “If we publicise our differences and promote them with a positive twist, I think it will add a layer of interest that would otherwise not be there.”
“Yes. That is exactly what I was hoping you would say. So, we work together on this and make everyone happy.”
They smiled at each other and he leant forward and kissed her, then dipped his spoon into the cream on the top of his sundae and dabbed her on the nose.
“Hey,” she said, laughing at the unexpected coldness.
Alessandro kissed her nose and removed the cream. “All gone now,” he said, making her laugh.
“Why did you kiss me?” The question was out of her mouth almost as soon as it had registered in her brain. She grimaced as he stared at her, a confused expression on his face.
“It was wrong?”
Embarrassed, she took a deep breath, trying to find the words to explain how she felt. “Well, no, not wrong, but not exactly fair.”
His posture stiffened. He looked angry, or maybe hurt.
Not wishing to ruin the mood, although fearing that she’d already gone a long way to doing that, she repeated, “Not wrong, no. It’s just that, well, we’re following different paths, so it probably isn’t a good idea.”
“I do not understand.”
Neither do I, Sacha thought, but was too embarrassed to bring up the subject of Livia again. She didn’t want to upset him, but he was obviously far freer with his kisses than she was. Was she just assuming Alessandro was still in love with Livia? She couldn’t imagine he was ready to move on after losing his fiancée. Or maybe she just thought that way because it had taken her so long to get over Giles and what he’d done to her.
“I was thinking about our dads,” she said changing the subject to safer matters.
After staring at her quizzically for a moment, Alessandro said. “We must introduce your father to mine and hope they agree with our suggestions about our businesses. Do you think they will?”
Sacha’s mood dipped further. “My father’s very traditional and set in his ways, so probably not.”
“Mine will be the same, I think.” Alessandro shrugged, “No matter, we will have to persuade them to think again.”
A thought niggled in Sacha’s brain. She mulled it over for a bit before sharing it with Alessandro. “You don’t think they could have known each other when they were younger and working over here as waiters, do you?”
“I do not know,” he thought for a moment. “It is possible, of course. We should ask them.”
Relieved to have some sort of plan in mind, or at least the first step to making one, Sacha took another mouthful of the delicious concoction in front of her. “This is too tasty for my liking,” she said, smiling at him.
“No tastier than those that you make,” he said.
She wasn’t sure he was right, but had to hope that each of their products had strengths that would appeal to different tastes.
Chapter Eleven
Through her bedroom window, Sacha could hear laughter, the buzz of friendly conversation and the sound of glasses clinking. It was Alessandro’s launch night. She put down her straighteners and leant out to see what was going on. Bella and Jack were chatting with Lexi and her artist father outside the gelateria.
Sacha smiled. It was a perfect evening for the party, she decided, standing back and pulling open her wardrobe door. Noticing that her blonde hair had already returned to its wavy self, she switched off her straighteners. Sacha could not think what to wear. She wasn’t going to try to compete with Bella and Lexi who were dressed up in their finery.
She might not be sophisticated, but she could do casual. Sacha scanned the dresses and skirts hanging in her small white wardrobe. She hadn’t had the time or the inclination to go shopping for new clothes since taking over the café, so it had been a relief when her aunt had treated her to a couple of summer dresses for their cruise. Sacha lifted out a yellow dress with daisies printed all over it. This was perfect. She would just have to make the best of what she had and if that was the casual beach look, then so be it.
Quickly shrugging off her thin dressing gown, she stepped into her summer dress and pulled the shoestring straps over her tanned shoulders.
“Shoes,” she murmured, spotting a pair of pale blue flip flops. These would do. No one at the party would expect her to wear anything else, and it was summer after all.
She bent down in front of her dressing table mirror and brushed her hair, then quickly applied a little lip gloss. Grabbing her keys, she hurried downstairs to join the party.
“Here she comes,” Jack shouted, spotting her as she left the café. “Always in a rush, yet never on time.”
“Cheeky sod,” she said, hurrying up to join her friends. She gave him a playful push to the shoulder which she soon realised hurt her more than him.
“I’ll let you and Bella have a catch up and fetch you drinks,” he said, laughing at her discomfort.
“Don’t worry.” Sacha breathed in the smell of the cool English lager being served nearby. “I need to see Alessandro and wish him good luck, first.”
“Not too much good luck, though,” Jack teased.
“No, not too much.”
For a small place, there were a lot of people. Sacha didn’t recognise some of them and wondered where they’d come from. Alessandro only really knew the people in the village, he hadn’t had time to meet anyone else, so she assumed some of them must be associates of his father’s and the people who’d worked on getting the gelateria
ready.
She heard a tinkly laugh and standing on tiptoe, spotted her aunt’s dark hair piled up on her head in a topknot. Aunt Rosie saw her at the same time and held up her hand to stop Sacha coming into the room. Waving her back, her aunt mouthed that she would join her outside.
Sacha made her way back out to the cooler boardwalk and waited.
“You weren’t very long,” Jack said.
“And you haven’t got our drinks,” Bella winked at him. “This is supposed to be a party you know, one where we toast Alessandro’s new business. We can’t do that empty-handed.”
“Yes, Jack, you did say you’d get them for us.” Sacha inched past a red-faced man laughing at his own joke. “I thought I’d know everyone here.”
“Me, too,” her aunt said, finally reaching her. “Good grief, it’s bedlam in there. That poor boy is run off his feet.”
Sacha looked over and saw Alessandro smiling and chatting to a group of people. “I think he’s enjoying himself. As long as it’s a success, I’m sure he won’t mind how busy it gets,” she said, wondering if she’d have a chance to catch up with Finn, the new manager.
“That looks like Salva, his father,” her aunt said, looking inside the gelateria. “I didn’t expect to see him here, I thought he was unwell.”
Sacha peered over her aunt’s shoulder through the crowd of people and spotted a silver-haired man, only slightly shorter than Alessandro. “He must have recovered,” she said, wondering how ill he’d been. “He’s like an older version of Alessandro,” she added, assuming that’s probably how Alessandro would look when he reached his father’s age. “You never told me his father was so handsome,” she teased.
“Do be quiet, darling,” her aunt said, raising an eyebrow. “I have to admit I have a penchant for Italian men and can fully appreciate why you’re attracted to young Alessandro.”
Jack worked his way inside and fetched a glass of wine for Sacha. She stayed outside, enjoying the warm summer evening, glad for the slight sea breeze, relieved not to be stuck inside the gelateria with all those people.
Summer Sundaes: Escape to the seaside with the perfect summer read! (The Boardwalk by the Sea Book 1) Page 18