“I hope you know I’m not happy about this,” Giovanni said into the phone and sunk back into the restaurant’s chair. “I told you what needed to be done - made it explicitly clear and you said you understood, but clearly you didn’t understand, or you did understand, but for God knows whatever reason you - “ Silenzio, he immediately reminded himself just as his voice was getting louder. It was rare for Giovanni’s temper to take over in public, but because the restaurant was relatively empty, he had, for that split second, forgotten that he was not at home and it took the awareness of his own temper being lost and the arrival of a customer to realise that this was no conversation to be had in public and so he hung up discreetly, but kept the phone against his ear and said, “Listen - listen - please don’t interrupt me this time and listen. My guest arrives next week and I thought the dinner was all set and there were no problems. Now you call me and tell me that what I asked for a month ago - and what you said your service could provide - can’t be done. Do you always treat your customers like this?” Giovanni kept still and feigned, convincingly as always, concentration and dissatisfaction before sighing and adding, “Listen, we’re going in circles here. If your service is as good as you claim, I expect a call from you personally tomorrow at exactly eleven in the morning with a solution to the problem.”
Then, he hung up, placed his phone inside his pocket and finished his Grappa quietly before turning his head to see the person now sitting on the table beside his.