How hard was it to lend a girl some money? He still felt guilty for what had happened and if he’d let her return to her hotel when she wanted to, this might not have happened. If there was a saving grace it was that she hadn’t been hurt worse. While the chances were close to zero of her bag ever being found, it made him feel better that she at least had some money to get her through the week.
When they filed out for lunch, he noticed that Gina was laughing and seemed to be getting on better with the other students. He waited until everyone had left then headed to the deli to get his favorite panini.
Walking down the hallway, he stopped and knocked on the door to Emilio’s training room. When he strolled in, Emilio was putting his jacket on.
“Hey,” said Christian.
“Hey, I’m running late. Taking the Belgians out for lunch. Looking after them,” he sighed, as if the burden were too great.
“I’ll walk out with you.” They walked towards the reception area. “So, what happened last night?”
“We stayed at the bar until midnight.”
“No, I meant with the sales guys.”
“It went well. You know how it is. They’re hoping for another huge order.”
“But did you mention anything about the, you know.” Even now, he felt it difficult to ask anyone for a favor.
“The what?”
“You said you would have a word with the sales guys about the vacancy, remember? You said you’d put in a word for me.”
“Right, right” Emilio tugged at the sleeves of his shirt and stopped. “That’s right. I told them you were interested in the sales vacancy, and that you knew the software inside out and that I highly recommended you. Email Nesta your résumé and make it good. It needs to stand out.”
“Stand out? My résumé is shit hot.”
“The guy gets a ton of résumés every week. Nesta likes you and he thinks you’ve got the right personality for the job, the bullshit factor, as they say.” Emilio laughed and Christian slapped him on the back in jest. “Just make it stand out, okay?”
Christian’s face broke out into a smile. “Okay.” Francis Nesta was the head of sales and Christian had spoken to him on a few occasions. Nice guy. He felt confident about the Fordana sales job and knew it would be a good option as a backup if any of his external applications failed.
“They’re going to start interviewing in the next few weeks, and they’re looking both internally and externally. If he likes what he sees, he’ll call you in right away, so be ready.”
Christian had a good feeling about this. As yet, he still hadn’t heard back about the interview yesterday morning, but having more fingers in more pies was a good strategy. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” Emilio punched him lightly on the shoulder then pushed through the door, and left.
Update his resumé?
Prettying up Word documents wasn’t his strong suite. Performing well at interviews was and he knew he could sell himself easily. All he had to do was to get his foot in the door and once he convinced Nesta to give him a try, the interview would be a piece of cake.
The way he saw it, Nesta would be stupid to look outside the company for a sales guy to train. Why would he look elsewhere when he had a perfect candidate within the same company? Christian was the right man for the job and knew the software better than all the salespeople, probably better than all the other trainers, barring Emilio.
Returning to his room eager and pumped up, he decided to forego lunch and make a start on his resumé. He didn’t have long before the afternoon session started.
The afternoon flew by and by the end of day two, they were on schedule, following along the course nicely. But Christian sensed that Gina was avoiding him. It was something he wasn't used to, something he hadn't had to deal with before and he wondered why it bothered him.
Was she embarrassed because he’d leant her money? It was hard to figure out what was going on in that head of hers because the woman had hidden depths, and not in a good way. She could be hard work and he could never work out where he stood with her.
Rachele, on the other hand, was as transparent as a freshly washed window. He felt a stirring in his loins just thinking about her and their casual arrangement. It was supposed to be mutually beneficial, but her going away on business for so long was giving him grief.
A rumble in his stomach reminded him that he hadn’t had any lunch, but he was eager get his resumé done and emailed to Nesta by the end of the day. When the class ended, he got himself a cup of coffee to tide him over while he worked.
When he returned to his room, the first thing he saw was Gina’s small frame in front of her computer. Did this woman not have anything better to do with her time? She looked up as he walked in.
“I thought you’d left for the day.” She sounded disappointed that he was back.
“I forgot to have lunch.” He placed his coffee cup on his desk. “What are you doing here again? Are you stuck on something?”
She seemed to hesitate before answering. “Not really. I just wanted to go over a few things we covered earlier.”
“What are you stuck on?”
“Ummm…” She stared down at her notes. “Some of the project variables.”
He sensed a wariness about her that hadn’t been there before.
“If you need help I can—”
“No,” she said quickly. “I think I’ve figured it out.”
Suit yourself. She obviously didn’t want or need his help. He strode over to his desk, sat down and let out an exhale. He didn’t have time to worry about her quirks. He had better things to do. It would take one hour, probably less, to fix his resumé, and then he could go home and hit the gym. Exercise helped take the edge off the frustration he felt.
It needed sprucing up, he decided, and started typing, adding all the certifications he had earned and the sales leads he’d worked on occasionally with the other salesmen.
When it was done, he read it through one final time. Slapping his hand on the back of his neck, he was satisfied. It was perfect. He could almost see it happening before his very eyes—an interview, followed by an offer letter.
Smiling to himself, he looked up and glanced across at Gina, oddly, at the exact same time that she looked at him. Their gazes locked for the briefest of seconds, and he would have given anything to see inside that head of hers. For sure, she was wired differently to the women he was used to. The difference between her and Rachele couldn't have been more defined.
“How come,” she cleared her throat. “How come you’re working so late?”
“I updated my résumé.” He stared at his computer screen in admiration. “And it looks pretty damn good, if I say so myself.”
He heard the scrape of a chair against the floor as she got up and walked over. “Mind if I take a look?”
“Go ahead.”
“Mind if I make some suggestions?”
He was intrigued. How could she make this better? “Let’s hear them.”
“This is only a suggestion, but I think it might stand out more if you bolded your details.”
“Okay,” he said slowly, not sure whether he agreed with her, but he made the change anyway.
“And maybe if you split up your experience, and your accreditations, and had bullet points to list them…”
“Bullet points?”
“You don’t have to,” she said quickly. “And it looks good as it is, but there’s not a lot of white space.”
“White space?”
“So that it’s easier to read.”
“Hmmm.” He frowned. “You see a lot of résumés, do you?”
“I’ve seen a fair few,” she replied. “My boss was away a lot when we were recruiting, and he left me in charge of the first round. I carried out the initial interviews for our recent hires.”
Hmm. He considered it. Maybe she knew what she was talking about.
“The résumés that were nicely formatted and laid out clearly, the ones which were easy on the eye, were the ones that got my attention.”
“You seem to know what you’re talking about.” He rose to standing and moved out of the way. “How about you take a look and make those changes for me?” It would take him longer, and she seemed to know what layout would look good for his resumé. He wanted the edge, anything to make him stand out, and Gina talked as if she could give him that edge.
“Okay.” Her cheeks flamed pink again, something he’d noticed earlier.
“Are you hot?” he asked.
“What? No.” Her tone was indignant, and her cheeks turned a deeper shade pink.
“I can turn on the AC if you like.”
“I’m fine.” That was what she always said, even after the robbery had happened, she had insisted that she was fine. Rachele would have clung to him and not let go. She would have fallen apart like tissue paper. Gina seemed to be made out of titanium.
She typed away, and he felt useless standing around doing nothing. Instead, he wiped down his whiteboard and walked around the classroom, checking that all the PCs were switched off. With nothing else to do, he checked his cell phone for messages.
“I’m almost done,” she called out, a while later.
“Okay.”
Then, “Come and take a look.”
He walked over and stared at the screen. It looked nothing like the résumé he’d started off with.
“It looks much cleaner,” he agreed.
“Can you see there’s more white space and it’s easier to read? She moved the chair back as he peered over her shoulder. The scent of flowers wafted over to him. Her scent. And it went straight to his head. He took another deep inhale.
“I didn’t modify anything; I just formatted it and moved the text around.” She stared at the screen as if waiting for him to say something, but he was silent, in another place. He’d been transported to a field of flowers by her scent.
“It looks much better,” he said, clearing his throat. He could see that all of his work experience and qualifications, his personal and business details were laid out in easy-to-read sections. “Thank you for this,” he said, genuinely appreciative of her help.
“You’re welcome.” She smiled, and her eyes lit up.
“It looks professional.”
“It needs to.”
They smiled.
“Do you have plans for this evening?” He felt indebted to her. Every little thing mattered, and Gina had given him a fighting chance. He suddenly felt the urge to make it up to her. And especially after yesterday, he didn’t like the idea of her wandering around Rome alone. The city was safe, most of the time, and she’d just been unlucky, but she was small and vulnerable, and he felt protective about her.
“Plans?” He seemed to have caught her off guard. “Uh, yes.”
“What?”
“Well, I was thinking of maybe going to the Colosseum.”
“Great idea.” He reached for his jacket and slipped it on. “I’ll give you a personal tour.”
She blushed. She did that a lot. “Not as in personal,” he explained, in case she misinterpreted what he meant.
“No, of course not.”
“But I know it well, and I know of the nice places around there, if you wanted to eat. What do you think?”
“I think it sounds like a good idea.”