Page 11 of Love By the Slice

He said, “Are you crustworthy?”

She furrowed her brow. “Are we really doing this? You can’t out-pun me. I’ve been working here about as long as you have.”

Greg said, “Pretty sure I can make cornier jokes than you can.” When Shelly made an exasperated exclamation, he added, “Because you’re thoughtful. I’m the irresponsible one who can’t take anything seriously enough, so I can say I’m areal pizza workor I took this job because Ineeded the dough,and it’s not out of character.”

Shelly folded her arms. “Here today, gone tomato?”

Greg said, “That’s what I mean. Even joking, you’re serious. Whereas I?” He held up a mushroom. “I am a real fun-guy.” When Shelly gave him a very blank face (she was trying to channel the Easter Island statues) he raised his eyebrows. “You know? Fungi? Fun guy?”

She said, “Yeah, I got it. It’s just… That was terrible.”

Greg laughed. Then he said, “Come over here.” When she hesitated, he said, “I want you to havea peel.”

She groaned, but she did step forward. He handed her the pizza peel. “I want you to slide this under the pizza in front and rotate it toward the back of the oven. Then you’re going to move this one to the opposite side, and you’re going to pull the one in back toward the front.”

Shelly said, “You realize Ezra won’t let me do this.”

“And you realize you can. This isn’t like launching a Mars probe.” Greg let her take it. “If you’re going to make a mistake, I’ll stop you. Just remember what I said about if you’re about to drop a pizza out of the nine hundred degree oven.”

She froze. “Don’t catch it?”

Greg added, “And get your feet out of the way.”

The peel slid under the first pizza, and she moved it toward the back. There was barely enough room to do this. The pizza oven could hold four pies at the same time, even with wood burning along the edges.

The heat was intense, but not so it would burn her. Just enough that she knew how hot it was on the inside, with all those bricks warmed up to temp and focusing the heat back into the center. As hot as it was now, even if all the fire went out at once, it would still be toasty for hours. The bottom of the oven was smooth and gritty with toasted semolina, but the pizza wouldn’t move right. “It’s going to burn,” she said.

Greg reached around her and helped manipulate the peel to get the pizza toward the back. She relaxed her arm, and he pulled back as if she were just an extension of the peel, and the peel came free. She got it under the second pizza, and he said, “Nice and gentle. You want the pizza to come with it, and when you’re ready to get the peel back, you just angle it a bit.”

“This is so unwieldy.” How did he manage to keep the pizza on this thing when he got it out of the oven? Both he and Ezra made it seem natural to shoot in a wooden spatula eighteen inches across, then yank it back holding molten cheese and tomato sauce in the form of lava.

“You’ve got it.” Greg’s voice was low. “It’s awkward at first. Now move the third one.”

This one didn’t want to come forward, but again, he was right behind her, hand on her wrist to get it forward.

Shelly let go and stepped back. He said, “I’ll let it sit another thirty seconds and then pull it.” He turned to her. “Now you can tell everyone you were a-peeling.”

She folded her arms. “Did you go through all that for the pun?”

He arched his eyebrows. “But you enjoyed it?”

Enjoyed…having his hands on her arm and her hip… Enjoyed having him right behind her. Having him reassure her of the good job she was doing.

Yes. Yes, she’d enjoyed that. She said, “Can I try again?”

He checked the pies. “Next time. I’m getting these out now.”

Again, he wielded that thing like a part of his own arm. In. Up. Out. Into the box. Back. Shelly closed the box lids as the pizzas arrived, each one perfect in its own self-contained kingdom.

She checked the orders, then went for her jacket and the thermal bag.

Just before she left, Greg teased, “Are my jokes so bad that you have to evacuate the premises?”

Shelly turned to him, grinning. “Don’t you see?” She hefted the bag. “With pizza jokes…? It’s all in the delivery.”

So help her, he laughed. And it was wonderful.

CHAPTER SEVEN

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