I’m not trailed by huge amounts of security all the time, although four Ferrara men who live in Paris are at my beck and call. They are around but never in my way, I hardly know they are there. And when I visit my mother in Milan, I do fly home in one of the Ferrara jets. Lorenzo won’t allow me to catch a commercial flight, some things will never be completely normal, but that I can live with.
“Amber is twenty-four,” Anna reads.
“So?” I mutter into my coffee.
“Giuliano is twenty-nine, that’s a big age difference, don’t you think?”
“Have you seen her?” I mutter dryly.
“I can just imagine her lying all over his yachts in her skimpy bikinis,” she continues. “God, she would be loving herself sick.”
“Ugh.” I roll my eyes in disgust as I imagine it. “Don’t even.”
My buzzer sounds on my desk. “Francesca, Pierre would like to see you in his office.”
“Thanks, Inga. On my way.”
I close down my email and make my way up to the top floor, Pierre Moran is my boss. One of the most well-respected interior designers in the world. He has been the most amazing mentor possible and I owe him so much.
“Knock, knock.” I stand at his door.
“Francesca.” He smiles. “Take a seat, darling.”
I smile and walk in and sit down at his desk. “Did we get it?” I put my hands together as if praying. “Tell me we got it.”
He smiles broadly. “We got it.”
“Yes.” I jump from my seat in excitement. “I knew it. Yes. We got it!” I screech in excitement.
We just got the Remington job, the most luxurious hotel chain in the world has just hired us to do their entire refurbishment.
Pierre swings on his chair and laughs out loud. “It’s incredible, isn’t it?”
“Oh my God.” The magnitude of this begins to hit me and I put my hands over my mouth. “Can you believe this?”
“One hundred and eighty-eight hotels around the world are going to be redesigned by us.” He smiles. “And we have you to thank for it. Your tender was incredible. Take a bow, my dear, you deserved this.”
I laugh out loud, I worked for months on this tender. “Thank God it paid off.” I smile. “Can you imagine if we did all this work and we didn’t get it?”
“But we did.” He laughs. “But we did.”
“I’m so excited.”
“Now comes the work.” He smiles. “You know that it will mean a lot of international travel.”
“I know.”
“And long days and even longer nights.”
“I know.”
“I want you to head the design team.”
What?
My eyes widen, I put my hand on my chest. “Me,” I gasp.
“Why not? It’s your pitch that won us the account.”
I open my mouth to object, I’m not experienced enough for this. No way in hell.
He holds his two hands up. “Now, now, I’m not taking no for an answer. You are the right person for this job.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind working under someone on this, it’s a big responsibility, Pierre.”
“One that you can handle.”
“Thank you.” Oh my God, this is incredible. “Thank you so much.”
Pierre smiles. “We start in two weeks, I’m unsure of the first hotel they want to start on. I’ll get more details shortly, I’ll keep you posted.”
“Thanks.” I beam as I stand.
“Congratulations, Francesca, this is an amazing coup for our company. Take next week off, you won’t be getting a break for a while.”
“Okay, that sounds great, thank you so much.” I bounce out the door and float back to my desk, I immediately dial Marcel’s number.
“Hi.”
“We got the account,” I splutter.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes,” I whisper in excitement.
“Congratulations, well done.”
“Can you believe it?”
“I can. Are we celebrating tonight?”
“You bet we are.” I laugh.
“Cordoni’s for dinner?”
“Yes.” I laugh. Cordoni’s is my favorite Italian restaurant, there are a few things from Italy I can’t live without.
“Do you want Anna and Frank to come?”
“Is that okay?”
“Of course.”
“Okay, I’ll call Anna now.” I laugh. “I’m just so excited.”
“Congratulations.”
“I have next week off so I might go home and see Mom for a few days, maybe you could meet me in Milan for the weekend?” I offer. “If I go Tuesday, you could meet me there on Friday and we’ll fly home together on Sunday night or something?”
“Yeah, okay, that sounds fun.”
I smile, excited. “See you tonight?”
“Goodbye.”
Cordoni’s is bustling and busy, the restaurant is semi-lit with a tantric beat being pumped through speakers, it has a trendy European vibe.
There’s a cocktail bar and a dance floor and the restaurant spans over three stories. Frank and Marcel are friends, they met through Anna and me but are happy to hang out together, which makes life a lot easier for us.
They are at the bar getting our next drinks and Anna and I are sitting at the table, we are on our fifth margarita.
Liquid gold.
“Oh my God, I feel drunk.” Anna hiccups.
“Right?” I whisper. “I’m seriously a lightweight now.”
“Wow.” Anna’s eyes widen. “Look at that guy over there.”
“Where?”
“At the table over there.” She gestures with her glass and I casually look over.