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‘You sounded like a real Aussie for a while,’ she said, s at the memory ‘Till your dad sent you off to university in Ro all Italian’
‘Did I? I didn’t notice’
‘And now you sound totally English’
Sergio shrugged ‘Well, I have lived in England for the last eleven years’
Bella put down the reio?’
Before he could think better of it, Sergio started telling her all about his life since their parents’ divorce, beginning right back at his first year in Oxford where at last he’d found true male friendship with Alex and Jere her about their formation of the Bachelors’ Club Adht to let Bella think that their vow to ree deadline He wasn’t about to give her any inkling that, shortly, he would be looking for a wife
He then went on to explain how he and his two best friends first got into the wine-bar business, relating that one day, shortly after they’d formed the Bachelors’ Club, he and Alex had spotted a dilapidated old bar for sale not far fro, insisting it could be turned into a good business with the right décor and the right wine to appeal to the mainly student clientele They’d raved about its location, being situated near the university, and they’d known Jererand before they made a deal with him that they would do all the physical work if he put up the money
‘Alex and I did all the refurbishing ourselves,’ Sergio told Bella ‘We sanded and varnished the wooden floors and painted all the walls and ceiling black’ He laughed at this reat special froe posters of grapes and vineyards on the walls and covered the bar stools in a dark purple vinyl We got a special on that too Oh, and we got rid of the ht they were too in your face After that, we hunted the charity shops and flea e furniture and coffee tables at reasonable prices and in reasonable condition We figured our patrons would like somewhere they could relax, or study on their laptops whilst drinking our very affordable wine The lighting we kept low, hts over the bar area Then we hired the prettiest girls as staff, but dressed the too sexy’ He grinned at Bella ‘As I said, they were very pretty girls’
At this point in his story Sergio realised that Bella was staring at hi at him
‘What?’ he said
‘But I’ve been to a wine bar that looks just like that And it wasn’t in Oxford It was in New York, in a street just off Broadway It’s not far from where I live It’s called Wild Over Wine, but everyone calls it the—’
‘WOW bar,’ Sergio finished for her ‘Yes There’s a couple of them in New York now’
Bella’s face could not have been more astonished ‘You own them?’
‘No The Wild Over Wine bars are now a highly successful franchise After the success of our first bar, we bought another, then another Always near a university at first, but in the end anywhere which had a good location Eventually, things got toofinally coot this bright idea to start up a franchise And it took off Soon there were WOW bars all over Great Britain and even some in Australia and New Zealand, thanks to Alex I did tell you Alex was Australian, didn’t I?’
Bella nodded
‘Brilliant salesman Brilliant all round, actually Anyway, recently the franchise started creeping into Aht add’
‘I can ihly individual ambience with its black walls and comfy furniture But I wouldn’t have said the as all that cheap’
‘Yes, well, we did change our ideas on that in the end You can still buy cheap wine at WOW bars if that’s all you can afford, but ere forced to also cater for well-heeled clients whose palates required soroundon ly
‘Heavens!’ Bella exclaiuessed you would becoined you as some kind of academic’