Nanna’s Insalata
Ingredients:
Burrata (Orzoro have the best, will need to import it if I ever have my own place)
Homegrown tomatoes (Get tips from Grandpa on growing the juiciest ones)
Olive oil (Preferably homemade)
Salt
Basil
What to do:
Simply plate burrata whole.
Slice tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil and salt. Arrange alongside the cheese.
Garnish with lots of fresh basil.
Sabrina could hear Nanna was enjoying every minute with her sisters. They were laughing away in the kitchen and whipping up another something delightful in preparation for lunch. Dan and Amanda had been catching up after not having seen each other in months, though Sabrina wondered what they possibly had left to talk to each other about, and Louisa had been spending her days and nights exploring Italy with Luca. Something told Sabrina that Luca was a keeper, if Louisa’s blushing cheeks and delirious smile were anything to go by.
Sabrina had enjoyed Levi’s company when he was around, but she hadn’t seen him too much due to work calls and him needing to take care of business. This she understood to mean his mind was occupied by other more important women. She hadn’t found the right time to bring up Lydia or tell him how she felt, but it seemed that him taking care of business said it all. He liked her as a friend – she knew it. He flirted with everyone and Sabrina was no exception. How could she have been so silly to think that he could possibly fall for her when he had groupies and celebrities galore to choose from?
She pondered this thought for a moment as she sat in her aunties’ living room. She was nice and toasty, having remembered her slipper socks and Amanda’s sweatpants this time. In addition, she had on her Zia Emilia’s baggy Christmas jumper, which had become her favourite piece of clothing – it did such a wonderful job at keeping away the chill and it felt vintage.
With Levi and Dan now present she felt she best get caught up on how things had been going at work while she was away. She hadn’t had chance to talk to Dan and Levi about any gigs or radio shows yet, so having avoided all things work-related for the past two weeks, she braced herself and nervously switched on her laptop while looking around the room.
There was nothing but pictures of her family adorning the walls. In a beautiful white rustic-style frame, there was Grandpa beaming down at her, just Grandpa stood with his hands on his hips, his head thrown back in laughter in the kitchen. Someone off camera must have told him a joke. Sabrina smiled at the thought. Another gorgeous golden frame saw Zia Emilia on her wedding day. Next to her Zia Sofia stood with her late husband, whom the girls had never met. A bright baby blue frame showed their mum as a baby playing outside with her toys on the balcony and a bigger deeper blue frame displayed Mum and Dad sat together with all the family around them having a feast at the very table they sat at every night here.
She even noticed a picture of her and her sisters standing tall and proud holding a fish that they had caught with Grandpa one summer. The wall was one of Sabrina’s favourite things about the house. Off to the side the Christmas tree they had put up last night stood elegantly in the corner of the room. It added a special glow to the room and emitted a lovely fresh pine scent. She sighed. She sure did love this place.
She smiled at the candles and religious statues on the shelves near the nativity before bringing her attention back to her laptop. It pinged to life with an email, from Lydia Jones. ‘Oh crap, what does she want?’ Sabrina said out loud, scared to open it up. Her hands trembled slightly. Her stomach did a flip as she double clicked the email and on the screen staring back at her were the words: ‘You’re fired. Sincerely Lydia Jones.’ Followed up with a bunch of more formal-looking words and phrases.
In an instant she felt sick. How could she possibly fire her? She had told her why she was going away; did she not have an ounce of compassion in her? It took a minute before the words sunk in, her usual laid-back demeanour completely diminished as Sabrina started to panic. She couldn’t go back to LA without a job, she couldn’t afford her apartment without a paycheque and oh my God, what had she done? Who would take over San Francisco Beat now?
She had made a promise to the boys and now she was leaving them with she didn’t even know who. Her mind raced as to what she was going to say to Levi. Would he hate her? She was sure the boys really liked having her as a manager. Now she’d messed it all up. She loved her job.
***
Sabrina had always loved music. When she was younger she would often sit by the fire in the living room with Nanna, singing along to the most beautiful melodies and powerful vocals of Frank Sinatra, Andrea Bocelli and Pavarotti, while Amanda was busy cooking with Grandpa and Louisa busied herself with sewing and designing. Sabrina had loved sharing this time with Nanna. Many times they would get up and sway to the music, not a care in the world, just the music leading the way.
That feeling stayed with her throughout her teen years. She embraced everything she heard from pop, to rock, to punk. She even tried getting into heavy metal, though admittedly that wasn’t quite her scene, but she respected and appreciated it all. At sixteen she got a job in HMV and whenever she had free time she would be at gigs or buried in a book, learning her music history and how the music business worked.
At twenty-one she had a lucky encounter with John Mayer, OK maybe not that lucky. She had finally bumped into him after she had been stalking him for several days. He had taken a liking to her and expressed his amusement at her boldness, and indeed bravery, for following him into the men’s bathroom at Leeds Music Festival. He liked her bubbly, flirty nature and suggested she spend the summer on tour with him.
Sabrina jumped at the chance and spent the rest of her summer holidays basically playing cheerleader, keeping him caffeinated and occasionally supplying interesting conversation. And she enjoyed every single minute. She loved being behind the scenes and made sure to speak to every member of the crew, picking their brains along the way.
It was after this stint that she felt confident to push herself in the direction of the big leagues. She had no desire to leave home but when an opportunity arose at one of California’s top record labels, she immediately jumped at the chance. It had been four years and she had worked her way up from office runner to manager’s assistant, to manager.
And thanks to Amanda’s trip to San Francisco three years ago, and Amanda’s encounter with Dan, she had been able to step out from under Lydia’s Dolce & Gabbana heel and become manager to the hottest band the world had seen for some time, in San Francisco Beat. Now all her hard work had gone down the drain and for what reason? Did she get fired because Lydia knew Levi had come to see her? Would Lydia really do that out of jealousy? She guessed now was as good a time as any to talk to Levi.
‘Levi, I’ve been fired, I’ve been fired,’ she shouted down the phone, slightly irked at herself that her usual problem-solving, calm and collected manner had been completely tossed out the window.
‘I’ll be right there,’ Levi replied. She heard him grab what sounded like his hotel keys and slam a door behind him.
The boys were staying at the renowned Hotel Stella just minutes from the house, so Levi burst into the small living room before Sabrina had figured out exactly what she wanted to say to him. She was shaking and tugging on her jumper, confused as to how she was going to fix this.
‘Levi, what happened? I thought you guys said you would be fine without me when I spoke to you on the phone? I sent you all the schedules – did something go wrong? Did I do something wrong? Why did she fire me by email?’ she asked, still tugging on her jumper, her eyes searching Levi’s face for a clue.
‘I’m sorry that she emailed you like that. She really is heartless but it’s going to be OK. You were too good to work for her anyway,’ Levi said, in response to her flustered mumblings. He had joined her in pacing the room, though his strides were much larger than hers. He cleared the room in two steps. His constant turning around was making her dizzy. She plonked herself back down on the couch.
‘Levi, it’s not about me being too good for her. I need a job, I need to pay my bills. That’s what adults do, and I worked so hard to get to the position I was in. It’s been four long years and now it’s all gone. What happened? I had everything planned for you guys – you promised me it would be OK. You said it was all about the music. What scandal did you guys get caught up in? What hotel room did you trash? Uh which celebrity did you sleep with?’ Sabrina asked, head in her hands. The thought made her stomach turn. Though she didn’t truly believe that the boys were capable of such awful acts of pretentiousness, she was out of options and way past freaked out.
Her voice turned soft. She felt drained and hurt. ‘What happened? How could she do this?’ she repeated, in a hushed and deflated tone.
‘It’s not like that, Brina. It’s nothing like that at all. Jesus, we’re not exactly your typical rock stars, are we? Look, we were all a bit out of it when you rang. It was hard to think about work when you were in so much pain. Dan was a mess and couldn’t focus on anything. He just wanted to be with Amanda. We had been following your schedule up until that point and it was going great. The interview segment went well on The Late Late Show with James Corden and we played those two awesome pub gigs you set up. The radio DJs were cool and loved the new stuff. It was great, Bri, you did great.
‘But then after hearing the news about Grandpa, our heads weren’t really into it and Lydia showed up on Monday night when we were in the middle of an interview. She was a huge distraction and kept feeding lines to the DJs or interrupting. Then she informed us the schedule had changed and that we would be following her schedule for the remainder of the media tour.’
Sabrina was trying to comprehend everything that Levi was telling her. She was pleased that her spots had gone down so well but she couldn’t believe the nerve of Lydia. She ran a hand through her hair and tugged at her bottom lip, thinking.
‘Wow,’ she exclaimed allowing Levi to pause for breath. He seemed flustered, trying to get everything off his chest. He had stopped pacing now too and stood in front of her.
‘We turned up on Tuesday morning and she had us at some sort of photo shoot for boxer briefs, some designer brand or something I don’t know – well you know Dan wasn’t going to have that. Everything you set up she basically changed. No more gigs just photo opps and fragrance commercials. She kept telling us that if we thought album one was a hit then we were out of our minds and that if we listened to her, album two would be bigger than our little minds could dream of.’ He shuddered. ‘So …’ he paused causing Sabrina to feel queasy ‘… so, so we walked,’ Levi finished, shrugging his shoulders while putting one hand through his windswept hair.
‘You what?’ Sabrina said, her jaw dropping in shock. Her brain felt scrambled as she struggled to comprehend just how little Lydia had really thought of her. How could she possibly have thought for even a second that she would make her proud through hard work and all that she was doing with San Francisco Beat. She would obviously never be good enough in Lydia’s eyes, especially if Lydia was always going to treat her as competition instead of an equal and try and screw with every band that worked under Sabrina’s management. The thought that the boys had stuck up for her clawed at the tiny thread of confidence that she had left.
‘We walked. James told her how we felt, and we left,’ Levi said, squatting down to make eye contact with her.
‘That’s why you could be here,’ Sabrina said, putting two and two together.
‘Well, it made things easier, but we were always going to come. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I didn’t want you to worry about us missing dates or to tell you and then have something come up, though that wouldn’t have mattered. I wanted to be here, Brina, and like I said Dan has been a mess not hearing from Amanda as much lately. He couldn’t get here quick enough. You should have seen the look he gave Lydia as we left.’ He smirked ever so slightly at the memory.
‘So, there was no big celebrity fight or drama that’s caused her to fire me?’ Sabrina asked, feeling slightly ashamed that she had thought that of her boys.
‘Not to my knowledge,’ he said, with a shake of his head. ‘And look, I’m sorry for acting like your job doesn’t mean anything. I know how hard you’ve worked. I didn’t mean it like that but the thought of you working for someone like that when you are so talented, well it just gets on my nerves,’ he added, suddenly finding the rug on the floor fascinating.
‘So, let me get this straight. She fired me because you wouldn’t strip for her and she’s jealous I get to work with you?’ Sabrina said, catching Levi’s eye, a flicker of playfulness back in her gaze.
‘Well, I guess, if you put it like that, yeah.’ He half chuckled and shook his head, embarrassed. ‘I’m sorry that she fired you. I will help you sort it out.’
Sabrina looked at Levi. She couldn’t help but feel he was being honest with her as that had to be the first time she had ever seen him get embarrassed. Then her breath caught as she remembered seeing him in Lydia’s office that night before she left.
‘I saw you,’ she whispered, now too finding the rug incredibly interesting.
‘Saw me where?’ Levi asked, his eyes narrowed, and his brows creased in confusion.
‘With her, in her office, before I left for the UK,’ Sabrina stammered. She closed her eyes. Was she really about to tell him how she felt? This had gone way past professional.
‘Oh, God, Brina,’ Levi said. He placed his head in his hands. He looked ashamed. ‘Brina, that was nothing. I didn’t know you were there. I’m so sorry. But trust me, I was an idiot. It was my fault.’
‘Do you like her?’ Sabrina couldn’t help but ask. Her eyes found their way back to his. This would tell her everything. She needed to look at him, to know if her feelings would mean anything or she had missed the boat with Levi. After all this time, had he moved on?
‘After everything I’ve just said you think I like her? Of course I don’t like her. She’s horrible and the way she has treated you is appalling.’ He stood for a moment and stretched out his legs before kneeling down in front of her and continuing, ‘She sent an email calling for an urgent band meeting or something, said it was important, something about the new album. I was out so didn’t get chance to clear it with the boys. Being the fool that I am, I didn’t think to text. I thought I’d meet them there on the way home, then I turned up to find no one else there but her. I’m sorry. I didn’t see your light on.’
‘Did anything happen? Not that it’s any of my business anyway,’ Sabrina said, getting lost in his soft brown eyes and simultaneously trying to stay focused. She wasn’t in the clear yet; she had no idea if Levi liked her the way she still liked him.
‘No, nothing happened. She tried it on with me – it was pretty creepy. I told her no a few times and made it clear that nothing like that would ever happen between me and her and I left.’ Levi’s eyes stayed with Sabrina’s and his lips curled into a grin. ‘What do you mean it’s none of your business?’ he said with a nudge. ‘Do you want to try saying that without pouting? It would make it a tad more believable.’
‘You can sleep with whoever you want, I don’t care,’ Sabrina replied, though her smile didn’t reach all the way to her eyes and she was still very much pouting.
‘I think I’ve been making it pretty clear over the past few years who I’d like to sleep with and I have to say that she’s been a pretty good flirt too; though, I don’t know if she knows that? I thought I had read her correctly. And, when we kissed, I wanted her more than anything and not just the sleeping with her part. I thought we could have thrown dates in there too.’ The way he scrunched up his nose and his eyes twinkled as he said this caused Sabrina’s insides to somersault.
She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath. With Levi’s words she let out a sigh of relief, but it caught again just as quickly as she released it. It was her fault that those dates hadn’t happened. She had to face her fears and be honest with him, like he was being with her.
‘I know. Oh gosh, I know, Levi and I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. I didn’t want to push you away, I wanted you too, but oh…’ She pushed a hand through her hair and broke eye contact. Levi took her shaking hands in his. ‘I shouldn’t have listened to her. Lydia threatened my job. She said you needed to date models and celebrities. And I didn’t want to come across unprofessional, so I pushed you away. I wasted time. I’m good at my job, I could still be professional, but I didn’t want to harm the band or do anything to hinder your success.’ When she finally looked up at him, Levi was smiling at her.
‘Babe, you are amazing at your job and while I admire your dedication to the success of my band, who I date has nothing to do with Lydia. And from the moment I walked into your office I had a feeling work and pleasure would mix rather nicely.’ He cleared his throat and gave her a small wink. Then his eyes fell serious. ‘But I am sorry too. I didn’t chase you. I didn’t tell you how I felt. I admit to getting a little caught up in this fame game and the attention and I just settled with our flirting, unsure what you wanted, instead of asking you.’ He squeezed her hands.
Sabrina felt the tension in her shoulders ease. There was a comfort in knowing they had both made the same mistake, and a relief in finally knowing he felt the same way. She smiled. This time it reached her eyes. She didn’t want Levi to feel bad. They had wasted too much time already. She was just glad they were now on the same page.
‘I have not been flirting with you, Levi. I am a professional and it was my job to take care of the talent. I was only being nice.’ Sabrina’s heart was beating with a flurry. She had missed her banter with Levi. She wanted to get back to that.
‘Taking care of the talent, huh? Well what was that kiss all about? What would you call that?’ He was back to being his charming, cocky self and it made Sabrina feel like a hopeless romantic. It felt out-of-this-world good.
‘Taking really good care of the talent.’ She laughed, and Levi wiggled his eyebrows at her. ‘Oi, the Virgin Mary will have something to say about your naughty thoughts – stop it,’ she added, laughing and pointing at the living-room décor. He laughed with her and sat himself on the couch next to her, facing her.
‘I’m sorry that I cost you your job and caused you to worry. The past few days have been rather hectic. I haven’t wanted to be away from you but with Dan distracted I’ve had a lot of work to do. And, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you how I felt sooner, but are we good now?’ he asked, his eyes wide, pleading.
Sabrina laughed. ‘So, this is what I get for finding a band with a hot and irresistible drummer? I’d hate to think of what she would have done to me had I brought in Niall Horan. Yes, we are good,’ she said with a nod.
Not showing a care in the world at being listed as second best to Niall Horan, Levi – with all his confidence and charm – cupped Sabrina’s face and kissed her like he had been waiting to do for the past two years.
As soon as Levi’s familiar lips touched hers, Sabrina felt at home. She kicked herself for having run away from this for so long. How silly she was, she thought. She would not make the same mistake twice. She kissed him back, matching his need and urgency. After a few moments and feeling suddenly bold, she pulled away, her lips tingling from his touch.
‘Without meaning to sound too forward, would you like to stay for Christmas?’ she whispered, his face mere inches from hers.
‘I would love to,’ he whispered back, then leant in to kiss her again.
After a few minutes, Sabrina pulled away, breathless once more. ‘Are you sure? Will your family be OK with it? Italy isn’t exactly like LA or San Francisco. It’s a lot quieter and …’ Levi placed a finger on her lips.
‘My mom has the whole family with her this Christmas – my brother and his kids, my grandparents – she won’t be on her own. I could do with quiet, no paparazzi coming down my chimney pretending to be Santa. And most of all, yes, I am sure. I want to be with you.’
In that moment Sabrina felt eternally grateful for the magic of Italy and the amore that it unleashed.