Page 90 of It's All Sun and Games

‘I’ll be right back, I’d just better go and warn Andrea that they’re here,’ I tell Priya.

‘Sure,’ she says with a laugh. ‘Do what you’ve got to do.’

I head into the kitchen where, right on cue, I see Andrea sprinkling pineapple on my pizza.

‘The pizza chef, he refused to do it,’ Andrea tells me with a smile.

‘Aw, then I owe you an extra-special thank you,’ I say.

‘Francesco, these are ready to go in,’ Andrea calls out to the pizza chef.

‘Can you pop into the office for a minute?’ I ask him.

‘Of course,’ he replies.

We head into the next room, where the office is. The second Andrea closes the door, I practically launch myself at him.

I can feel him laughing through our kisses.

‘It’s just pineapple,’ he jokes.

‘It’s not just that, it’s everything,’ I tell him. ‘I love you, you’re amazing, I can’t believe we’re getting married, and that this place is ours… and, yeah, the pineapple.’

I kiss him again.

‘I’m very happy too,’ he says. ‘But I’m also working, so I have to keep my hands clean, so… no hanky panky.’

I snort.

Since we moved back to Manchester, Andrea has been picking up all of these weird and wonderful English phrases, and he sounds so, so cute when he uses them. Especially phrases like ‘hanky panky’.

‘Oh, by the way, my mum and dad are here, with some of their friends,’ I tell him.

‘That’s great,’ he replies. ‘I’ll come out to say ciao.’

‘They would love that,’ I reply. ‘You’re so good to them.’

‘It comes with the job,’ he says simply.

I give him a look – one that he knows all too well.

‘Well, seeing as though you’re popping back out into the restaurant, and you’ll probably be shaking a bunch of hands, you’re going to need to wash them anyway, right?’

Andrea smiles.

‘That’s true,’ he says. ‘What did you have in mind?’

‘Not quite hanky panky,’ I tell him. ‘But something close.’

‘I mean, I’m sure I could make the time,’ he reasons as he kisses my neck.

‘I’m sure you could too,’ I reply. ‘But I just got an Italian chef to make me a ham and pineapple pizza, so there’s no way I’m letting that go cold.’

‘Okay then, just a taste,’ he whispers into my ear.

‘That sounds good to me,’ I reply. ‘We’ve got the rest of our lives for everything else.’