New York Series: Office Affair

Chapter 19

Francesca POV

"And then I look at the booking confirmation and almost faint. Francesca had booked me business class to Europe," laughed Angèl as he recounted the anecdote of my failures at the Iglesias agency around the table.

"Oh please. Then don't leave out the part that got you your second biggest client!" I added with a smile as I ate my dessert.

We had an outstanding dinner. The starter was a melon and mint feta salad, the main course was fish and the side dish was vegetable paella. The two of them rounded off the meal with a crema catalana. A typical dessert from the Spanish region of Catalonia. And Angèl was at least as good at making dessert as my grandad. Every bite took me back to my childhood.
My favourite childhood memories were with my grandad as he prepared dessert with me on Sundays while telling me about his home town in Spain.

"We had tried to rebook the seats, but unfortunately it wasn't possible. So I had to fly business class. And Marco Ferro, who was still looking for an organiser for his restaurant opening in Spain and whom I was able to win over for our agency, was sitting next to me," he added proudly.
Marco Ferro was an international, Spanish star chef. Known for his Mediterranean fusion cuisine.

"I just think Angèl you need to express yourself more clearly. Instead of saying I wanted the big seats and not the cheap seats, you should have told Francesca to book the seats with legroom but not business class," Christina remarked and actually wanted to be on my side and justify my mistake, but I was young and inexperienced at the time and instead of just booking flights, I should have asked again exactly which seats he wanted.

"Yes and no. I had simply misunderstood and should have asked again instead of just booking the flights with the company credit card."

Today I had learnt from my mistakes back then and was able to laugh about them with Angèl, but the fact that he hadn't fired me on the second day still amazes me today. Without him, I wouldn't be where I am today and I would never forget his commitment and the time he invested in my training and I would be forever grateful.

"Yes, Francesca often has that. She gets a lot of things wrong. Sometimes she's just too careless and naive," Carlo suddenly said, exposing me to our hosts. His words stung me and normally I would have discussed it with him now, but I couldn't settle our differences in front of the two of them. Carlo didn't seem to notice that his behaviour was out of place and suddenly started comparing me to a difficult work colleague.
I was seething with anger inside and urgently needed to let off steam, so I promptly asked for a toilet and apologised.

"If you go back to the entrance. On the left-hand side next to the chest of drawers. There's another guest bathroom there. Then you don't have to go upstairs."

I nodded quickly and tried to suppress my anger with a thin smile. After all, Angél and Christina couldn't help it and I didn't have to let them feel how angry I was. Angèl looked at me insistently and I thought I could read the question "Are you OK?" in his eyes. I quickly fled the table, afraid that I would no longer be able to hide my disappointment from Angèl.

Inside in the entrance hall, I suddenly heard a penetrating ringing of one of our mobile phones. Curious, I picked it up and saw that it was Carlo's mobile phone.

The message on the display pulled the rug out from under my feet.

Carlo, please let's talk.
You can't ignore me.
My father knows. He wants to talk to you.

MARIA?!
Who the hell was Maria!!!
What did she have to talk to him about?

Curious, I opened his messages and laughed inwardly at Carlo. Who wouldn't change their password? Who's naive now?