by Lily Zante
Ava nodded.
“And you’ve got this half baked idea of still going on honeymoon. Alone? Is that really true?” asked Rona. The muslin square had come to a complete standstill.
Ava nodded.
“Does Connor know?”
“Does he need to? He’s not in my life anymore.”
“Right,” said Rona, backing off. The idea was still alien to her. But her mother and sister were convinced it would be the best thing for Ava right now.
Ava pulled off her trainers and sat with her back flat against the wall. Her morning run had done its usual wonders for her mind and body. When she ran, the blood flushed through her veins, her lungs fought for air and her muscles strained to go the distance. It was all of these things that made her feel alive and free.
It was also on her runs that she thought about Connor and tried to sift through the debris of their relationship. It was at these times that her mind allowed her to focus on three years together, to hone in on different events and to piece together just when it had all started to go so wrong.
If he hadn’t been as blunt with her about the woman he slept with at the convention she might have had a harder time letting go. But for Ava, trust and loyalty were everything. And for her it wasn’t even worth fighting for the relationship. She knew she could never trust him again.
Connor didn’t know it, but by performing that very act of betrayal, he had allowed Ava to sever the heartstrings that bound them together.
“When are you going?”
“Tomorrow,” replied Ava calmly, waiting for the bomb to burst.
“Tomorrow! And you waited until the last minute to tell me?”
Ava nodded apologetically. “I didn’t mean to hold out on you but if I had told you any sooner, you would have tried to talk me out of it.”
“What exactly do you propose to do out there all on your own?” asked Rona, not without a touch of malice in her voice. She placed the baby onto the floor where she sat down and drooled some more onto her bib.
“Enjoy myself?” said Ava cheekily. “You know Rona, it finally occurred to me, that I don’t need to have a man around me to feel validated.” She rubbed her aching feet with her slender fingers.
“That may be but this man who validated you,” said Rona, mimicking Ava’s words, “he was with you for three years.” There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice before she softened her tone a little. “Look, I’m glad he’s out of your life. I’m glad that the one decent thing he did after ditching you was to tell you about that whore he slept with.”
“She wasn’t a whore, she was a woman from another firm.”
“Right,” said Rona, walking around, picking Tori’s things up off the floor. “Like I said, she was a whore.”
“She might not have known that he was engaged.”
“Are you best friends with this woman all of a sudden?”
“She might have done me a favor, said Ava hotly, her face was glowing now and she needed to take a shower. In actual fact, she needed Rona out of her apartment because she needed time alone to think.
“How’s that?” asked Rona, stopping and waiting for an answer with a baby rattle in her hand.
“Maybe we wouldn’t have worked out. Maybe I got too carried away with the wedding and it scared him. I feel as though we’ve been walking different paths this past year. Mostly. Maybe she was the last straw. He was in denial and I was up to my eyeballs in pink organza wedding favors. I just don’t feel ….as……….sad as I think I should.” Ava pulled her knees up and hugged her arms around them.
“Maybe that woman did me a favor. What if I’d married Connor and it was the wrong thing to do?”
Rona slid down on the floor next to Ava and tapped her on the knee with the baby rattle. “I never had any of those doubts, so I can’t tell you the answer to that. But, maybe, like you said, maybe this holiday will do you some good. Take time out and clear your head.” She leant her head against Ava’s and they sat quietly for a few moments while Tori gurgled happily on the floor.
There was only one thing left to do and Ava didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want to face Connor, even though he had left many messages on her phone, sent her texts and emails and even turned up at her apartment. But that was only the one time. After that she hadn’t seen him again and he had stopped trying to contact her. It wasn’t that he wanted a reconciliation because Ava knew it was the furthest thing from her mind. Connor only wanted to talk. He wanted to explain himself. But as far as Ava was concerned, they had had their three years of talking and no amount of explaining was going to change anything anymore.
“Just be careful. And promise me one thing?” said Rona, getting up and putting all of the baby’s toys into her baby bag. “If you insist on taking this trip alone, it’s not that I’m worried about you crying and feeling sad ‘cos I see that you’re done with all of that.”
Ava shrugged and wondered what her sister was going to make her promise.
“I’ve heard that in Italy, the men are hot blooded. You with your long dark hair and dazzling gray eyes are going to attract a lot of attention, especially going alone and all that. I know what you’re like, you’ll take off here and there by yourself with no thought for your own safety. Promise me that you’ll at least wear your wedding band.”
“I don’t have a wedding band. Remember? We didn’t quite make it to the altar.”
“Here, take one of mine. It’s not my wedding ring but it’ll do. It’s the least you can do for me.” She twisted off one of the many rings she wore on her fingers and handed Ava a plain one. “Here,” she said, handing it over. “It’ll keep you safe from the men who’ll hassle you if they think you’re single.”
“How?” asked Ava, getting off the floor now and facing Rona with her hands on her hips. “Tell me,” she insisted, her curiosity piqued more than ever.
“They will think you’re married and they’ll leave you alone,” said Rona smugly.
Ava let out a small gasp, more like stifled laughter. “You’re really serious about this aren’t you?”
“Of course I am. Someone has to look after you.”
Ava shook her head. “You’re impossible. And impossibly silly too.”
“I love you and I want you to be safe.”
“I’m going to have a ball on this trip,” said Ava, walking over to her bag and taking something out of her purse. “I’ll wear your fake wedding ring if you promise me that you’ll hand deliver this to Connor.” She held out the 1.2 carat engagement ring he had given her a year ago.
“Can’t I just wear this for a few weeks first?” said Rona, slipping it onto her fingers and flashing her hand around, admiring the way the light glinted off its facets and sparkled brilliantly.
“Do what you want with it,” replied Ava with a bored tone in her voice. She picked up the baby and hugged her to her chest, then swung around with her. Tori gurgled, enjoying the motion.
“Look after your crazy mom for me will you Tori? And make sure she returns that ring after I’ve left. And don’t tell him I’ve gone either.” She handed Tori back to Rona.
“I’ll give it back, once you’ve gone I promise. But don’t you think you should at least meet once face to face?”
“We did meet once and I slapped him.”
“Ouch.” Returned Rona, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Ava had a look of satisfaction on her face as she recalled the time Connor had turned up at her apartment just as she was on her way out. He had started with his apologies and possibly the next sentence was that he was worried about her. It didn’t matter, because Ava had been unable to resist the urge to slap him. And she had. Hard. She would never forget the look of complete astonishment on his face before she walked away.
He hadn’t come again after that.
When Rona left, Ava started packing her suitcase. She would be travelling light on this trip of hers. She packed a couple of dresses but mainly jeans and tops. She closed her small suitcase,
got her hand luggage ready and prepared for an early night. She had said her goodbyes to her family early in the day.
Tomorrow she would be setting off on her little adventure and leaving Denver for Rome.
Chapter 4
Ava stared at her reflection in the starkly lit mirror inside the crowded cubicle of a toilet. She looked a complete mess; her large puffy eyes had dark shadows smudged underneath. She closed her eyes and splashed cold water over her face then gasped as the plane tanked a little from slight turbulence. Half of the water went all over her shirt; the sudden shock of the cold made her gasp.
Patting her face dry with a small face tissue, as much as she could without swaying from side to side, she stared in the mirror. She couldn’t even brush her hair properly. With her throat parched, Ava coughed roughly and swept back her long, brown hair away from her forehead.
She had been up for more than fifteen hours. The connecting flight had been delayed in Rome for a couple of hours and all she could think of was falling into her bed at the hotel. The thought of getting into her comfy pajamas after taking a long, hot bath gave her something to look forward to. The seatbelt sign dinged and lit up again and she squeezed herself out of the toilet and made her way back to her seat.
She stared over at the handful of business suited people on the plane. It was a much smaller aircraft than the 747 she had boarded at Denver. She was relieved that it would be a short flight because flying in this little dinky plane gave her an uneasy feeling.
About an hour later, Ava found herself waiting at Verona airport for her luggage. The other passengers, all six of them, had only had carry on bags and were all dressed in suits. It looked as though they were on a business trip.
The absence of any other holiday makers on the plane made her wonder whether now was such a good time to be taking a vacation in Verona.
She looked around her disdainfully. The airport was small and mostly empty. It was quiet. She had never known airports to be quiet. In her entire life, travelling was a buzzing, busy, energetic activity with a hive of people scurrying everywhere.
Obviously it wasn’t the case here. Not at Verona airport.
She had been watching the dull grey conveyor belt circling around and around and now, as she blinked her eyes, she saw that it was empty. She double checked the monitor. Her flight number was no longer showing. She glanced at her watch, it was almost seven o’clock. There was hardly any luggage to get off the plane but it seemed as though the airline luggage handlers had messed up with the little that they had.
With anger bubbling inside her, Ava rushed off to find the Information Desk. She saw the brightly lit sign, high up in the air, a few blocks down and as she charged towards that direction, her tunnel vision bought into her focus the face of the clerk sitting innocently beneath it, unaware of the tsunami heading his way. As her tunnel vision led her directly towards the object of her fury, Ava’s eyes rested on the clerk’s face and she saw nothing else. Until she went crashing directly into the body of a tall, dark haired man. The cardboard signs he was carrying fell to the floor with a thud, and as they did, Ava caught sight of the hotel name on them: Casa Adriana.
It was the name of the hotel she was staying at.
Without any hint of an apology, Ava unfolded the itinerary she was carrying in her hands to double check the hotel name and sure enough, it was the Casa Adriana. Manners and civility flew out of Ava’s head and the previously reserved anger, intended for the information desk clerk, was now directed solely towards the tall stranger in front of her.
How useless was this man if he had come to pick up passengers for the hotel and he hadn’t even bothered to look around for her?
“Casa Adriana?” she asked haughtily, her large Louis Vuitton bag, dangling crazily from the crook of her arm. “Where have you been? I’ve been waiting here for hours,” she said, her eyes narrowing accusingly.
The man had bent down and was gathering together the cardboard hotel signs that were now scattered all over the floor. Only when he had finished collecting them all up, did he get up off the floor and then he stared at her coldly.
The first thing she noticed was that his eyes blazed like dark granite stones. The second thing she noticed was that he was impeccably dressed, in a well cut dark suit with a white shirt.
She certainly wasn’t going to apologize to him.
He nodded his head as if to acknowledge her without so much as opening his mouth and continued to stare at her.
“Well at least you’re here. I suppose I should be grateful for that,” she spat out. His inaction was starting to grate on her nerves but for a split second she started to think that she had mistaken him for someone else. She cocked her head to double check the name on the cards he was carrying. It distinctly said Casa Adriana.
Finally, he asked, “Can I help you?” His tone was low and steady.
“I should hope so. Casa Adriana, yes? That’s where I’m staying. Sorry I’m late but your little helicopter got delayed on take-off and it seems the people here have lost my luggage”.
The man pursed his lips in annoyance. “I don’t actually own a helicopter and I haven’t touched your luggage.” He looked at her unsure of what she expected him to do about it.
Ava threw her shoulders back and placed an authoritative hand on her hip. “What? Are you just going to stand there? Aren’t you going to to……do anything?” she challenged, waiting expectantly for him to do something. Jetlag did not sit well with her at the best of times and she was in no mood to suffer poor service on top of the awful flight she had just experienced.
The more she stared at him, wondering why he was not leaping into action to fix her problems, the more he became annoyed by her request.
“What exactly do you want me to do about it?” he finally asked, peering at her with mild irritation.
Ava stepped back in disbelief. She was astounded by how unhelpful he was. The service here was undoubtedly dire. She was fuming with so much rage that the words she could not get the words out as fast as she wanted. Any minute now, she was going to erupt with anger or cry from exhaustion.
“You want me to find your luggage?” The tall stranger stared at her in disbelief.
“You are carrying the sign for the Casa Adriana in Verona, no? And you are the driver from that hotel, am I right?” asked Ava, her nostrils flaring as she roughly laced her bag over her shoulder. She crossed her arms against her chest and stood in front of the man daring him to respond.
The man’s smoothly sculpted face hardened even more. What Ava resented above all else, was that he appraised her as if all of this was her fault.
“The level of service in your country is appalling,” declared Ava again, standing up straight and staring at his nostrils. She was wearing her pumps and was therefore at a slight disadvantage, even with her tall height.
“I’ll need to speak to the manager of your hotel, when you get me there. This is outrageous,” she complained. Then without any warning at all, Ava’s eyes welled up and she felt her defences crumble. She had started to cry, no sound no sobs, just a subtle breaking down of her armor. The journey on the plane, and the actual meaning of the journey here had overwhelmed her. She quickly took out a Kleenex and wiped her nose, refusing to look up at the driver.
Just as suddenly, the driver’s features relaxed and he managed a tight smile. “I’m so sorry madam. Sorry that you had such an awful journey here and now that you’re here things are still not going well.”
Such an abrupt change of face embarrassed Ava. She had put the man in a difficult situation and now he was going over the top making up for his earlier rudeness. She watched as he leapt into action; he summoned the clerk over from the Information desk and ordered him to chase up the missing luggage.
“I’m so sorry” he said, apologizing to Ava profusely. “Hopefully we will find your luggage soon, madam. I’m sorry, I seem to have mislaid my customer sheet. What did you say your name was?” His attempt at trying to be nice all
of a sudden after such an icy initial meeting made her uneasy.
“Ava Ramirez. From Denver,” she replied, looking at the sign that he was still carrying in his hands.
“Welcome to Verona, Ms. Ramirez. My name is Nico,” he replied, the expression in his eyes had softened, but only a little.
Ava looked around her at the clerk over by the Information desk. He was on the phone. She turned her gaze back towards the man and saw that he was watching her, with a distinct look of worry on his face.
She cocked her head. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’m tired that’s all.” Her tone was harsh. But before the driver could reply, the clerk returned, looking uneasy.
“We’re sorry Mr.-“
“Go on,” the driver cut him off short.
“The lady’s luggage is still at Rome airport. The flight was delayed initially and it appears that they didn’t get the luggage onto the plane in time. It will arrive on the next flight.” He looked at Ava apologetically.
“When would that be?” Ava asked coldly, rubbing her forehead with the palm of her hand. She could feel a headache coming on. In the weeks leading up to her vacation, she had never imagined it would start out like this.
The clerk blushed deeply and seemed even more agitated than ever. “Not until tomorrow morning madam. I’m sorry.”
Ava looked from the clerk’s face to the driver’s face and raised an eyebrow. She took a long, deep breath in. The driver had dismissed the clerk and now it was just him the two of them. She stared at him coldly. “Could this get any worse?” She didn’t expect him to answer but the man raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t worry. I’ll see to it that you have everything you need. Come.” He ordered, leading the way.
Had he just ordered her to come?
Ava was too exhausted to question his authoritative tone. She weakly followed him. First the plane and now my luggage,” she muttered under her breath.
The driver let out a sigh and turned to look at her, trailing after him. “Madam, please accept my sincere apologies. Technically, as you know, the plane being delayed is not my fault. Nor is your luggage going missing-“
