Professional Restraint

43 Seriously

Liam

"Seriously," I parrot.

Ella's wide eyes are locked on my finger, reading strike one. She may have gotten an early lead, but that's not going to last.

She shakes her head and narrows her gaze, determination burning brightly in her eyes. I knew she had some fight in her. It would peek out from time to time, but I've underestimated her and couldn't be happier about it.

Well, winning would make me happier... but that's the beauty of this game. No matter who wins, we're both in for a great night.

"Focus," she hisses, drawing me out of my thoughts.

Everyone is gathered around the ingredients with their formed pizza dough infront of them. I look down at mine, seeing it still as a puck.

"Didn't think I was going to let you get out of this, did you?" She asks, batting her lashes.

My hand itches, eager to remind her who she's playing with, but I push that side of me away. I arch my brow and wait for instructions.

"K, flour your hands so they don't stick to the dough this time." She gives the flour bowl on the counter a nod and waits.

How hard can this be? Declan did it...

I dip my hands in the flour and clap them over the dough, dusting everything. El catches me off guard by grabbing my wrists, pressing my palms into the dough.

"The trick is to coax it into the shape you want," she murmurs, focusing on her work. Her hands are on top of mine, guiding my movements and pressure, but my mind falls right off track.

Like always, there's a calm, precise quality to her movements. She knows exactly what she's doing, and the confidence shines through.

"See how it pulls back on itself?" She asks. The smirk tugging at her lips warns that she knows I'm not focusing very well.

I watch her hand as she palms the dough away from us and it pulls back half way like an elastic. "What did I do wrong?"

She shakes her head. "Punching your fist through it probably didn't help," she muses, biting her lip to hold back a laugh. "But it's a two-stage process. You start it by gently pushing it out, then finishing by stretching it."

Ella wraps her fingers around my hand and tugs slightly, pulling me to face her. Her attention is fully on her task at hand, but I can see the effect our proximity is having. How her body presents to me, her head tilts aside and moves in sync with mine, and how her breath comes in short rapid puffs.

She drapes the pizzaesque shape over my knuckles, then guides my hands to move it. For what confidence she lacked the first time I met her in the boardroom, it's clear that cooking is her happy place.

Under her guidance, I'm able to toss the dough and have a full sized pizza in no time. She dusts a flat metal sheet pan with fine ground corn and helps me lay it down.

Looking down the counter, Declan and Sophia are already done and putting theirs in the oven. Emilio and Tim are putting the finishing touches on theirs.

"Now the fun part." She winks and slides ours down the counter, then doles out the sauce. "You can add hot sauce here and it makes spicy pizza sauce."

I pick up the two bottles of hot sauce, quickly setting Emilio's favourite death sauce back down. Next comes the cheese, then toppings. Ella picks a strange combination of chicken, bacon, caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, and roasted red peppers.

I can't pass up the meat and basically make a gourmet meat lover's pizza, but add a bit of the onions I nearly shed a tear over and green peppers for good measure. Already this looks better than most pizza I've had and it's not even cooked yet.