The woman hands Alessandro two red aprons. “We’re expecting two more, so go ahead and put these on, then find a spot at the pizza counter. We’ll get started as soon as everyone’s here.”
“Thank you,” Alessandro says with a warm smile.
I expect him to hand me an apron, but instead, he pulls me closer and loops it over my neck, then spins me gently by the shoulders, his fingertips tracing the line of butterflies down my back again as he lowers them to tie my apron at the waist.
Damn, it’s hot in here. And I don’t think the pizza ovens are even on yet.
“You’re ready to cook,” he says, low in my ear. But I’m already cooking. Scorching, more like.
I step away from him before I spontaneously combust and press my cool palms to my flaming face. On the wooden counter are ten marble slabs, five on each side. We take the last two places on the right side of the counter and the woman next to me smiles and says, “You ever done anything like this before?” in a Southern twang that reminds me of Jess.
“No,” I answer.
She leans a little closer and giggles. “Personally, I think the best part’s gonna be eating the results.”
My stomach growls loudly. Other than the tea Alessandro bought me, I haven’t eaten today, and suddenly, between the delectable smell and the thought of a piping-hot pizza, I’m starving.
The last couple shows and settles into the spots across from Alessandro and me, and we spend the next four hours learning how to create a culinary masterpiece. We start by measuring everything we need for the dough into stainless-steel bowls. When Alessandro leans in as I’m kneading it together and peeks in my bowl, I flick flour in his face.
“Mind your own business. I’m not screwing it up yet,” I say, turning to face my Southern tablemate and shielding my bowl from Alessandro’s view. But when I look down at my ball of dough, there’s a cockroach on it. “Shit!” I scream and everyone looks up.
“Sorry,” Alessandro says, lifting a hand at the instructor, a good-looking guy with dark hair in his thirties, who started out by telling us to call him Vic. He’s up front, at the end of the table, in the same black T-shirt and apron as the woman, sending us an unsure smile. Alessandro reaches into my bowl and plucks the cockroach out. He holds up the rubber bug for everyone to see. “Just a little prank.”
I spin on him and glare a dagger. “Jerk.”
He pockets the roach and goes back to kneading his dough, but he’s fighting to keep a straight face. Seeing him struggle to keep it together, I feel laughter forcing its way up my throat. The next second it sputters out through lips that I’m biting together to contain it, and when the damn breaks and it bursts out, everyone looks at me again.
“You two are having way too much fun back there,” Vic says with a grin and a wink.
We go back to work, and when we’ve all kneaded our dough into submission, we leave it to rise while we learn about what goes into authentic pizza sauce. Vic lays out all the ingredients and we slice and dice and throw it all into pots, then season to perfection. As the sauce simmers, we learn to stretch our dough onto pizza paddles and Vic talks us through toppings.
“Almost anything goes,” he says, then his eyes flash to me and he grins. “Except cockroaches. We frown on that.”
I roll my eyes, but crack up again.
Soon after, our first pies are in the oven. Alessandro has topped his with basil and tomato. “A classic Margherita,” he says.
I’ve gone with bell peppers, red onions, olives, and pepperoni. My favorite.
They come out of the oven and Alessandro slices his and pulls up the first wedge, turning it for me to take a bite. “Try it.”
I bite off the tip, and between the dough and the sauce and the blend of cheeses, it’s really amazing. “Wow.”
“Sometimes less is more,” he says.
I raise my eyebrows at him and glower. “Are you dissing my pizza?”
“Certainly not,” he says with feigned indignation.
I pull up a wedge and turn it for him to take a bite. He does and as he chews, his eyebrows arch and he smiles. “And sometimes more is more,” he says after he swallows.
We each take the rest of our dough and make another pizza, and this time I go for the anchovies. I actually like them, but I don’t usually order them because, if I’m sharing with Brett or Jess, no one else is going to touch them. But when I look at what Alessandro is doing, he’s got anchovies on his too.
“No way,” I say.
He looks up at me, then down at my pizza and smiles. “Great minds . . .”
By the time the class is over, I’m stuffed and have two pizza boxes full of pizza to take home with me. “God, I don’t want to go to work,” I lament as Alessandro holds the door and I step through onto the sidewalk. I’d seriously consider calling in sick, because I can’t think of anything more depressing than going to the bar after this, but I can’t afford to skip.
“Can I come with you?”
When I look up at Alessandro, there’s something in his eyes that I can’t quite read. “Why?”
He takes my pizza boxes and stacks them on top of his then tucks them all under his arm. “I had a nice time today, and I have nowhere else I need to be at the moment. I guess I’m not ready for the day to end just yet.”
My stomach kicks, because what I realize just this second is that frustrated, wrong feeling I had waking up next to Brett is gone. As a matter of fact, everything feels right for a change. “Only if you promise to check your cockroaches at the door.”
He smiles. “Done.”
We walk into the bar and Alessandro finds a stool as I head to the bathroom to change. I’m a little embarrassed for him to see me in my Filthy’s getup, but there’s not much I can do about it. When I come out five minutes later, he’s deep in conversation with Jerry, who’s scarfed slice of pizza from Alessandro’s box. There are two other groups in the bar, clustered into booths, and Bill-Bob and a buddy at the end of the bar. As usual, Jerry’s got the stereo blaring over the TV, which has a NASCAR race on at the moment.
“There’s not a welterweight that’s gonna touch Velasquez,” Jerry is saying as I head behind the bar.
Alessandro’s eyes catch on me as I pass, and I see them widen before he answers Jerry. “I think Jackson can give him a run for his money. And possibly Brady.”
“A friendly wager?” Jerry prompts, dollar signs dancing in his eyes.
“I’m not much of a gambling man,” Alessandro tells him with a smile.
“Stop trying to swindle the customers, Jerry,” I say, brushing him aside. I set a bar napkin down in front of Alessandro. “What do you want?”
I see him trying and failing to keep his eyes on mine instead of letting them slip down the front of my skintight T-shirt to the Filthy’s logo over my chest. Seeing his struggle sends a shiver through me. I feel my nipples harden with the rush, and I know he notices when his face flushes through his olive skin. “What’s on tap?”
“Jerry only carries the good stuff,” I say with as much sarcasm as I can muster, looking right at him. “So your choices are, Bud, Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors, or Samuel Adams, which is the only thing we have on tap worth drinking, in my humble opinion.”
Alessandro leans into the bar and smiles, and in the dim lighting I see a spark in his eye. “I trust your humble opinion. Sam Adams, please.”
Jerry smirks and heads into the office while I grab a mug and pour Alessandro’s beer.
“I’m considering interviewing for the director of Teen Services position at the Catholic youth center.”