G – Gio

'I'm thinkin'...tuna melt on Rye, right?'

She looked up from her work at the cocky young man standing outside her door. No doubt he had been on this floor several times, but the cart he was pushing and the apron he wore means she probably had never spared him a second glance. 'I hope for your sake that there is a chubby Latina girl with a mouth full of metal sat on my windowsill right now.'

'Name's Gio, by the way.'

'Did I ask?'

The man laughed and pointed at her. 'You're funny...strange, that's not the first thing people tell me about you.'

'I'm a laugh riot, now push your sad little trolley over to someone that doesn't care what they put in their body...I'm sure Betty's at her desk.'

'Ah don't worry, I've already fed the eater.' He snatched a sandwich from his cart and walked inside. 'C'mon, treat yourself, I've been coming here every day for months and I've never seen you eat so much as a stick of celery.'

'There's a reason for that.' She went back to her work, hoping he would take the hint and leave; he didn't, he smiled wider and stepped forward, his floppy hair falling in his eyes as he placed the sandwich on her desk.

The smell of the melted cheese reached her nostrils and outwardly she wrinkled her nose in disgust, inwardly her stomach rumbled and begged to be fed real food for the first time in months. 'Take that away.' She ordered him.

He smiled and pushed it closer to her.

'Do you know just who you're antagonizing!'

'From the ungodly sounds coming from behind that desk I'd say a very hungry woman. You know you might find you're less hostile if you don't starve yourself.'

'I like being hostile, it gives me my edge.'

'Ok ok, fair enough. How about you see it as a reward then? Once a week, I'll stop by, if you've made ten people cry, you get one of these.'

'Ten? Please, at least make it challenging.' She smirked, finding herself liking him.

'Look, forget the challenge. Take it, it's on the house. I'm a people watcher, I like to observe. I see you in here looking miserable. Now I ain't good with words. I don't have a great deal of money. All I have is my food, and if I can make people smile with that then I'm happy.' He put a hand to his heart and put on his best wounded soldier look. 'You wouldn't deprive a poor sandwich boy of his happiness would you?'

She arched her eyebrow. 'You really don't know me do you?' She smirked. He was still staring at her and the heavenly scent coming from the sandwich was becoming too much to bare. She rolled her eyes and huffed, picked up the sandwich and tore the wrapper off. Bringing it to her mouth, she bit the corner, her eyes instantly popped out her head. 'Oh my God.'

Gio smiled and nodded. 'I told ya.'

She took a bigger bite. 'If you could make these fat free, you'd be a millionaire...don't EVER tell me how many calories this is.'

'Why? You gonna be having more?' he smiled.

She narrowed her eyes at him and continued eating, closing her eyes as her stomach celebrated having a proper meal. Gio looked at her, bewildered at what people would do for beauty and smiled at her obvious enjoyment of what he considered his art. 'I'll uh...I'll leave you two alone.' He quipped.

'Gio.' She stopped him.

He looked at her. 'You're good...really, very good with flavours. Is this something you want to make a go of?'

'Yes ma'am. I want to find my flavour.'

She nodded at him, she was more impressed by his moxy in the first 5 minutes of knowing him than she was with most people after years. 'If you're really serious...I think Rome would be the perfect place for you'

'Rome?'

She leaned over the desk. 'Have you ever heard of Scamorza?'