But Tanya didn't let that deter her. She launched into her own deductions eagerly.

"You know what I think, Rio? I think that waitress told me something she wasn't supposed to. Because I distinctly saw her close her mouth after she saw something, or someone. She was going to tell me more."

Ilario took a long swing of his aperitivo. Presumably, all that shouting had made him thirsty.

"Tanya, listen to me. If I knew you were going to put yourself in this much danger, I'd never have involved you in anything."

She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off, "I don't understand what happened. You said you didn't want any part of this issue, then why did you go back there? That too, unsupervised?" He shook his head, his accent thickening noticeably. "It doesn't matter. Because I forbid you to go there again. Or to work on this project. Forget everything about it, capisci?"

She suppressed a huff of annoyance. Forbid? And thought better off it and grumbled, "I shouldn't have told you about it."

Ilario's eyes glittered, threatening to give away to that dangerous gleam again like when he was shouting. "You're not going to do anything foolish like that again, Tanya? Promise me."

She stuck her tongue out at him, and said nothing as she turned her head towards the canal.

A smile threatening to break his composure, Ilario lifted a finger to turn her face to him. She was like an angry kitten, and refused to look at him, but with a gentle pressure, she did.

"What?" Tanya was annoyed.

Ilario locked their gazes together, not giving her any chance to turn away again.

"Prometti?"

"Umm." She hesitated, but his intense gaze bored into her, holding her hostage until she acquiesced and gave in with an exasperated sigh, "Yes."

Tanya picked up her drink and took a sip, in an attempt to calm herself down. Truth be told, whenever he looked at her like that, staring into as if her very soul, her heart started fluttering. So much, that sometimes she was afraid that he'd hear it. It was mortifying, making her blush like an idiot.

"Tanya." He called her, softly, a slight infliction of something... mellow in his voice.

It took a few seconds to turn towards him. Pasting a smile on her face, she said, "Umm?"

"I know what I asked you to do, but my intention has never been to put you in danger. I know that the way I put it to you doesn't seem like it, but..." Uncharacteristically, Ilario swallowed, as if thinking better of saying out loud what he was going to say next. "I... I care about you."

There was no hiding it now, Tanya thought. She was sure anyone who'd walk by their table could hear the drumbeat of her heart. Why, oh why was she affected like this? Why Ilario?

"Tanya?" He prompted her to say... what? What did he want her to say?

Tanya cleared her throat. "Uh, I think the negroni has got to me. I need food." She said in an attempt to will away the red flags off her cheeks.

He too, seemed to take his cue from her, "Food, yes, we need food."

Suddenly all business like, he got up from his seat and extended a hand to her, "Let's go then."

"Huh, where? She asked, placing her palm in his. Darn it, why did she do that? Now how was she going to stop herself from enjoying the warm tingly feeling shooting across her hand, the feeling of his much larger palm holding hers in a very secure grasp?

They set off on a brisk walk along the Naviglio Grande, past glittering crowd in the eateries, enjoying the vivaciousness of the place. The style of Italy here was muted, relaxed and casual, bohemian. She liked it a lot. Both of them unaware that their walk slowed down, Tanya hunched a little closer to Ilario to put her arm in his and he pulled her a little closer so he could put both his palms on her, effectively binding her. He gave a short description of the type of food one would get in the eateries they were walking by, and she asked teasingly if he really knew or was he joking, to which he shrugged, a twinkle in his eyes.

Finally, they came in front of a restaurant.

"Pizza?" Tanya said incredulously. "That is so cliché!"

Ilario turned to her, "What's the harm in trying the cliché? They are cliché for a reason."

And he was right. The pizza was divine! Just, absolutely divine. Tanya never thought she would enjoy having pizza so much.

"I am definitely coming back here again." She declared, licking the melted cheese off her lips, her eyes closed to savour the bite. "And I am getting my mother here. She is crazy about cheese."

She opened her eyes to find Ilario looking strangely at her. Which made her a little self-conscious.

"What?" She asked defensively, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

He shook his head slightly, "No reason. Just happy that you enjoyed my recommendation."

"Oh yes, very much." She said happily, taking another bite.

"Grazie."

She laughed, "I should be saying that. What are you thanking me for?"

He shrugged, still with that strange light in his eyes, his gaze never moving away from her face, "For trusting my recommendation."

Tanya nodded, but didn't really understand what he meant. She wanted to giggle, Ilario sounded so formal sometimes. In any case, she was enjoying herself. So she launched into the different cuisines she had enjoyed in Italy so far. Which were not that many, since she didn't really have anyone to take her to places. Her colleagues recommended some, and some of them were good, but some were not to her taste.

"Oh, and get this, you wouldn't believe where I had the best kiwi? In Apollonia's store. Can you believe that?" Excitedly, she recounted her time.

Ilario listened without interrupting. "So you enjoyed your day today?"

"Oh yes. I was so angry with you, you know." She said teasingly, "But honestly, once I was inside the boutique, I could have kissed you for sending me there." She continued with her usual exuberance. "I have never been to a place like that."

She noticed a slight tinge of red on his face, but didn't think much of it. Seeing his obvious interest in hearing about her experience of the boutique, she continued. Finally, when she finished, Ilario had an amusing smile on his face, "Hmm, seems like I made the right decision."

"Indeed." She agreed. "Oh gosh, look at the time. It's almost midnight." Tanya was genuinely surprised, she hadn't felt the time passing, "We must go."

"Why?" Ilario asked lazily, "Do you have somewhere to be tomorrow?"

"Umm, no." She agreed reluctantly, "I don't really have plans for the weekend."

Tanya felt foolish admitting it. Especially after the look Ilario gave her. It was inscrutable, but she imagined that he was judging her. She'd got to make some friends.

Despite his words, Ilario took her home. As the car stopped in front her building, she felt a strange reluctance to get out of the vehicle. He didn't seem very keen to ask her to get out either. They just sat there awkwardly for few minutes while Tanya racked her brains to say something intelligent, but came up with nothing better than, "Well, I had fun tonight."

He smiled in return, "I am glad."

"What was the history lesson?"

"Huh?"

"You said, before we started, that a history lesson is in store. What was it?"

She could see that he had to think hard about what he had said. In the end, he recalled and waved an elegant hand, "Oh, it was nothing. Just a thought in passing."

"No, no, please tell me. Where were you originally gonna take me?" Tanya was genuinely curious.

Ilario looked at her, a little sheepishly. "Naviglio Grande."

"You're kidding."

"No. I told you it was interesting how our thoughts were similar."

Tanya's mouth was a perfect 'o'. "Really you meant that?"

"Yeah."

"Wow, great minds think alike." She attempted a joke, a lame one, but still...

There was pause before he agreed, "They seem to be."

"So, what was the history lesson?"

"Nothing much really. I was just going to tell you about the history of how the canal came to be, and how the neighbourhood developed into having this bohemian vibe to it."

Wow, her boss was using words like vibe, Tanya thought. Then she frowned, mentally.

Although he wasn't that old, Ilario gave off this aura of being much older than his age. So much so that, not only Tanya, other people in the office too had an impression of him being old fashioned and there weren't really any exchange of jokes or light banter between him or the other employees that worked on that floor.

That might also be because he was the CEO.

"Where'd you go off to?" The object of her musing asked her quietly.

"Huh? Nowhere."

He said nothing, just stared ahead like her.

Tanya interrupted the silence with obvious reluctance when it became oppressive, "Umm, I should probably go."

"If you have to." He said quietly.

In reality, she should stop having such kind of days with her boss. She had been enjoying these too much, and even with the impulsive creature Tanya was, she knew the feelings he evoked in her were too intense.

She sighed, "I really do have to."

She got a similar sigh in return as Ilario unlocked the car door for her.