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twenty
    minutes, and the pappardelle, which you have cooked for - what?’
    he said into the phone.
    ‘Fifteen,’ Laura said. Through the door of the kitchen she
    could see her father and Cassie, his odiously young personalassistant-cum-girlfriend, glancing at their watches.
    ‘Fifteen,’ Tommaso repeated, looking at Bruno significantly.
    Bruno winced. ‘Fresh pasta,’ he murmured.
    ‘You’ll need to cook another lot of pappardelle,,’ Tommaso said
    to Laura.
    ‘But not yet,’ Bruno added hastily. ‘First we need to deal with
    this hare.’
    ‘But first, we need to deal with the hare.’
    ‘Does she have a frying pan?’ Bruno wanted to know.
    “Is there a frying pan?’ Tommaso asked.
    Laura, at the other end, said, ‘Yes.’
    ‘Yes,’ Tommaso relayed to his friend. Laura looked at her
    phone, a little puzzled. Either there was an echo, or Tommaso was repeating everything she said to him.
    Bruno nodded. ‘Good. Now let’s take a look at what’s in her
    fridge. We won’t be able to do proper sugo di lepre, not if she
    wants to eat before midnight, but we may be able to do something a little bit similar.’ He picked up a lemon and began to dice the zest into tiny pieces with a paring knife as he talked Tommaso, and by extension Laura, through the preparation of a simple meat
    sauce. He had always been able to do two things at once if they
    Were associated with food. It was only when it was nothing to do with cooking that he became all fingers and thumbs again.
     
    It was midnight before the two young men left Templi. They had
    a nightcap at a small bar before walking home through the warm,
    quiet streets to the tiny apartment they shared in Trastevere.
    Tommaso had stored Laura’s number in his phone when she
    called. As they walked he dialled it.
    Hey, Laura, it’s Tommaso. How was your meal?’
    ‘Oh, hi, Tommaso. It was wonderful. I can’t thank you enough.”
    ‘Where are you? I can hear a kind of reverberation.’
    ‘Oh, I’m in the bath, soaking. I was just going to bed.’
    ‘She’s in the bath,’ Tommaso whispered to Bruno. ‘It’s a good
    sign.’
    ‘That thing with the hare and the tomatoes was just inspired.’
    Laura said. There was the sound of splashing. ‘Though I guess my sauce wasn’t as good as you’d do it,’ she continued. “I mean, if I hadn’t messed it up in the first place …’
    Tommaso grinned at Bruno. ‘You know, I’d like to cook something
    for you, Laura. Properly, I mean.’
    ‘Really?’
    ‘What are you doing tomorrow night?’
    Laura paused. She didn’t want to appear too keen, but that
    hare really had been delicious.
    ‘Nothing much,’ she said.
     
    Tommaso ended the call and let out a whoop that echoed down
    the narrow street. ‘She wants me to cook for her!’
    ‘Fantastic,’ Bruno said dryly. “I will be interested to see what you decide to serve.’
    ‘Ah. Well, I thought you might give me some advice there, my
    old friend.’
    LHai voluto la bicicletta …*’ Bruno shrugged.
    ‘Aw, come on. You know I’d do the same for you.’
    ‘You could hardly do the same for me,’ Bruno pointed out,
    ‘seeing as how you can’t cook for shit.’
    ‘You know what I mean.’
    They walked on for a few moments. Bruno said carefully, ‘Just
    so I’m clear, what are you asking me for?’
    ‘Just to come up with some ideas. Something so fantastic, so
    sumptuous and sexy that it will make Laura, the beautiful Laura, swoon with love and fall into bed with me.’
    Bruno thought about this. ‘But which?’ he said at last.
    ‘Because, you know, to make someone horny and to make someone
    fall in love are two very different things.’
    ‘How so, philosopher?’
    ‘If you want to make someone cry,’ Bruno said slowly, ‘you
    give them an onion to chop. But if you want them to feel sad, you cook them the dish their mother used to cook for them when they
    were small. You see the difference?’
    Tommaso shrugged.
    ‘And to make someone