Black Death And White Roses (1) Mafia Romance

5. The rocky roads down South

Roxana

Una mattina mi sono alzato
E ho trovato l'invasor
O partigiano portami via
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao

"Kary! What the hell are you doing with this loud music so early in the morning? It's eight a.m. on a Sunday. It's one of the very rare occasions when I can sleep in, bitch," I cry out.

"Celebrating with you," says Kary, opening the door and stretching her tongue out.

I show her my middle finger and lay back down on the pillow.

"What? Your Italian problem was solved. My brother Said said that dad is considering Switzerland for mom's treatment. So, yeah, I am in a good mood, and I want to celebrate with you. Come on, we will go out for brunch."

"Kary... You know I can't afford brunch."

"Who said anything about you paying? I am certainly miles away from my past life financially speaking, but this occasion deserves celebrating."

An hour later, we are looking at the snow-covered Alps from behind the glass wall of a nice restaurant in Bern. Since the break-up from Bogdan, I have not been to a restaurant or a bar or anything that meant I had to pay money on frivolous things. Yes, those things that make life worth living, I didn't experience them in a long, long time.

So here we are soaking in the sun and the coffee. Even if my pseudo-relationship with Christian didn't improve significantly, he is in a better mood since he got that call from the staff of the Italian dude.
Apparently, they are still thinking about hiring our company despite everything that happened.

I mean, if I would hire a company it would not matter to me that a little employee embarrassed herself a bit, or a lot, only the professional credentials would matter.
So, thank you hunky Italian dude for reconsidering. Regardless of the reason, I owe you one.
I can't help wondering if Lisa will proceed in having an affair with the guy if we will be working for them. It seems to be her project when it comes to planning, that's why Christian took her to the meeting. From this point of view, I am happy to not be the one working on that building. Lisa is very good, I respect her as a professional, but she really does not like me personally and has shown me that several times. It's okay, I am not everyone's cup of tea, but it makes working together way more difficult if you share your profound dislike for me at every step.

Not sure if Christian knows about her strategic hand placement. In all honesty, I don't know how she thought that would be a good idea. It is anyway difficult to be taken seriously as a woman in this domain of work, you are not doing yourself a favor by doing that.

The moral of the story is, that if Christian is happy so am I.

"Who is going to do that fabulous project in Italy?" asks Kary.

"Not me for sure. I think Christian wants to put a safe distance between me and that Italian guy, which I am more than okay with. I guess Peter. He wants to impress the guy because seemingly he is quite rich and can give us further work."

"Cool. And how about the raise?"

"That is probably gone after the 'crouch' incident."

"Too bad. Lisa is very hot. I wonder why she does that; it is not like she lacks male attention. Was the guy that hot?"

"Agreed and dunno' why. She is probably insecure like most pretty girls. And about the guy, I guess you could say he is conventionally attractive. I couldn't take a good look at him as I was paralyzed with embarrassment and fear but I remember he had nice eyes and was hunky."

"And rich and Italian. I suppose that is enough for most women," says Kary smiling.

"Bah, why is it an asset being Italian?"