Page 157 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

‘I know...’ She hesitated, not wanting to break her new friend’s confidence. ‘Look, I just do a little here and there...not much at all. I think...’ She looked at his pale face, his dark eyes, and for a second all thought stopped.

‘You think...?’ he persisted.

‘That I should go,’ Susie said. ‘It’s late...’

Somehow he made her want to be indiscreet. And not just with Gio’s secrets. He took the cold air away; he made the night somehow shiny.

‘It was a long shift,’ she added.

‘Of course.’ He nodded. ‘Where do you live?’

She pointed in the direction of her apartment.

‘I’ll say goodnight, then. Again, I am sorry for earlier.’

He gave her a nod and walked off, and Susie stood there, a little unsure what to do. Her apartment might be where she’d pointed, but her favourite ice-cream shop was in the direction Dante was headed!

And after a very long shift she wasn’t missing her treat.

She gave him a small head start and then followed him along the pathway, hoping he wouldn’t notice...

Dante didn’t notice her at first.

It wasn’t her clumpy shoes that had him turning around. More that he turned to catch another glimpse of the woman, Susie, who been the sole reason he’d smiled a few times today.

And then he saw her—a few steps behind him.

He frowned, and got back to walking, but he could hear her footsteps now, so he turned again.

‘I’m not following you,’ she told him. ‘I like to get an ice cream at the end of my shift.’ She’d caught up with him now. ‘I think about it all night.’

‘Do you?’

‘Yes.’

‘What flavour?’

‘I don’t know yet,’ Susie told him as they took the steps down from the walls. ‘I’m trying to work my way through the list, but I adore the red velvet.’

‘Then get the red velvet, surely?’

‘I want to try new things. My ice-cream-at-night habit only began when I started working at Pearla’s.’

‘When was that?’

‘I’ve been there a month now. I started a week after I arrived.’

She told him she was here studying the language.

‘And I’m off to Florence soon, to do a cookery course, but I have to be fluent to do that... I’m going for total immersion.’ She looked over to him then. ‘I ought to be speaking to you in Italian.’

‘Lieto di accontentarla,’he said, but then he saw her slight frown and translated. ‘Happy to oblige.’

‘Thank you, but please, no...’ She drooped. ‘It’s nearly midnight and my brain’s a bit fried.’ She peered over at him. ‘I’m sorry, too.’

‘For what?’

‘I was mean.’