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Reach for the stars, and if they’re t
oo far away, wear higher heels.
—Paige
PAIGE SAT, SLUMPED at her favorite corner table at Romano’s, with Eva and Frankie, trying to formulate Plan C, since Plan A and B had crashed. It had been two weeks and they were nowhere.
The comforting smell of garlic and herbs wafted from the kitchen and through the open window she could see her brother talking on the phone to a client.
It was Friday night and dinner had been his suggestion, his treat, but his phone hadn’t stopped ringing from the moment he’d sat down.
Her phone, on the other hand, had been depressingly silent.
No one had taken her call, and no one had called back in response to the messages she’d left. This wasn’t what she’d imagined when she’d dreamed about starting her own business.
She promised herself that one day she was going to be successful enough to buy her brother a million dinners. Her phone would ring so often she’d have to hire someone to answer it. She hoped that day wasn’t too far in the distance.
“You’ve been rushing around all week.” Maria put heaped bowls of pasta in front of them, topped with her signature red sauce. “You need food. Buon apetito.”
“Soon we won’t be able to afford to eat,” Paige said gloomily. “We’ll be sniffing around the trash like stray cats.”
“Claws was a stray cat.” Frankie picked up her fork. “She eats like a queen most days.”
Maria patted her shoulder. “You can eat here every day. We love having you.”
Carlo, who happened to be passing, nodded agreement. “With you three girls in the window, business booms.”
Everyone’s business seemed to be booming but hers.
Paige glanced around the crowded restaurant. There wasn’t an empty seat in the place.
Normally just being in Romano’s lifted her mood. She loved the intricate metalwork of the tables and the photographs of Sicily on the wall. She knew each one in detail. There was the familiar snowcapped peak of Mount Etna, the pretty town of Taormina with its twisting medieval streets, a fishing boat bobbing on a sparkling blue sea.
Laughter and conversation echoed around the room.
Everyone was having a good time.
Everyone, that was, except the team from Urban Genie.
Paige was in charge of company morale and so far she was failing.
“It’s early days.” She made a superhuman effort to be positive. “There are plenty more businesses out there.”
Frankie glanced at her. “You’ve made one hundred and four calls and the only business we’ve been given is to pick up someone’s dry cleaning and arrange a cake for a woman’s ninetieth birthday.”
“Her name was Mitzy and she was adorable.” Eva twisted pasta around her fork, her appetite apparently unaffected by the pressures of their new venture. “Do you know she flew American military aircraft in the war?”
“No.” Paige frowned, distracted. “How would I know that? And how do you know that?”
“Because I spoke with her when I delivered the cake and we bonded. She showed me some amazing photographs, and then one of her grandsons turned up to visit and she asked me to stay for tea.”
Frankie paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. “You stayed for tea?”
“Of course. It would have been rude to say no, and anyway she was interesting and he was pretty cute, in a slightly uptight banker sort of way. Mitzy is worried he’s single, but she’s even more worried about his brother. He’s a well-known writer. He lost his wife in an accident a few years ago around the holidays and since then he’s become virtually a recluse.” Eva’s eyes filled. “Isn’t that awful? I keep imagining him all alone in his big empty apartment. Money doesn’t matter, does it? It’s love that matters. It’s the only thing that’s important in the end.”
“Unless you don’t have a job.” Paige handed her a napkin. “And then money becomes pretty important. But I agree, it is awful. Can’t be easy to get over something like that.”
“He hasn’t. Mitzy is worried he never will and she’s tried everything to get him out there again. Poor man. I want to pick him up and hug him.”
