Roman Encounter

by Lily Zante

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Book Description: An escape to Rome…

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  An Excerpt From November Sun

  Booklist

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Roman Encounter

  (Italian Summer Series, Book 4)

  Lily Zante

  Book Description: An escape to Rome…

  For years, Gina Morosini has been the hard-working and reliable hotel manager at the Casa Adriana. Trust-worthy and reliable, she's had her share of helping guests and colleagues with their own personal dramas. She's been there for everyone, from her boss to her mother, and everyone else in between.

  But now she's had enough and the chance to escape to Rome for a week provides the perfect respite.

  Christian Russo works for a training company in Rome but the lure of the job and the city wore off months ago.

  Over-confident and self-serving, he's only interested in doing what's best for him. And right now, working this job isn't it.

  He can do better, earn better and he knows it.

  But even a stud like Russo needs help sometimes, especially when his résumé needs to impress.

  Asking the quiet mouse of a woman on his course is the start of a journey he never expected.

  Because an encounter like this, in Rome of all places, is destined to lead to other things.

  Author’s Note

  ‘Roman Encounter’ is the fourth book in the ‘Italian Summer Series’, which is a spin-off from the ‘Honeymoon Series’. The first book in that series is ‘Honeymoon For One,’ and it is currently free at all retailers.

  ‘Italian Summer’ consists of a series of books which tell the stories about the characters who first appeared in the ‘Honeymoon Series’.

  In addition you also get to discover what is going on in the lives of the main couple, Ava and Nico, from the Honeymoon Series.

  If you haven’t read the first three books in the Honeymoon series, please be aware that there will be spoilers in this book.

  The timelines of both series are connected and you can find a recommended reading order here.

  ‘Roman Encounter’ is Gina’s story.

  Honeymoon Series:

  Honeymoon For One

  Honeymoon For Three

  Honeymoon Blues

  Honeymoon Bliss

  Baby Steps

  Honeymoon Series (Books 1-4)

  Italian Summer Series:

  (A spin-off from the Honeymoon Series)

  It Takes Two

  All That Glitters

  Fool’s Gold

  Roman Encounter

  November Sun

  New Beginnings

  Italian Summer Series (Books 1-4)

  Sign up for my newsletter and get a FREE book

  Chapter 1

  “Don’t, Mama. Don’t say things like that.”

  “It’s the truth” her mother snapped. “They only want one thing.” Gina gave her mother a weary look and wished that she would at least show a morsel of happiness for her today. But instead the old woman waggled a finger at her. “Don’t go making the same mistake your sister did.”

  “Stop it, Mama.” She hadn’t expected her mother to wish her well, or to hope that she had a good weekend but she hadn’t been prepared for a level of vitriol.

  Her mother had never met Davide. In fact, her mother had never met any of Gina’s boyfriends, as few and far between as they were. This was the way Gina preferred it.

  Running into her old school friend at Nico and Ava’s wedding last summer had been the strangest thing, especially when so many of the people she had gone to school with had moved away or gone abroad. But Davide had recognized her—it probably wasn’t difficult, she guessed, even though fifteen years had passed. She hadn’t changed much. Her hair was longer and she had more fine lines on her face, but other than that she looked the same now as she had then.

  He had come up to her at the evening reception party. It was a pleasant surprise once she got over the shock of seeing him after so many years. Men tended not to hit on her, or notice her much but Davide had come up to her and they had been inseparable for the rest of the evening.

  Their courtship had been slow. For months they had remained friends, catching up on the past and slowly rekindling their old romance.

  “A weekend in Venice,” her mother sniffed. “Don’t come back pregnant.”

  “Mama!” exclaimed Gina, her face burning. She had been looking forward to her weekend away with Davide and didn’t need her mother’s venomous words to taint it. This would be the first time the two of them had planned to go away. Finding time alone wasn’t easy. She never allowed Davide to come here, to the house she shared with her mother, and he lived in a rented house shared with a few friends. With both of them busy with work, they never found much time to spend together but having him around these past few months had made the time more bearable.

  Working at the Casa Adriana hotel fulfilled her completely. Nico, her boss, relied on her more than ever and she had never worked harder. Even after he had hired two new people to join the management team, Gina found that her workload hadn’t decreased; neither had Nico’s. Taking on more people had made her life busier because she had been responsible for helping them to settle in while Nico concentrated on the new hotel and spa center that were due to open soon.

  She thrived on the frenetic pace of her working life because it took her away from the misery of her life at home. Having Davide around made it even better.

  “I’m leaving now, and I’ll call you when I get there, Mama.” Not so much to tell her mother that she had arrived safe and well in Venice but more to make sure her mother was fine. Her mother mostly was fine, albeit that she was getting nervous, and acting up because of her upcoming surgery. Her mother being a glass-half-empty person considered herself as being ill, and therefore in constant need of attention.

  “Don’t forget to take your medicine on time,” Gina told her, glancing over her shoulder as she picked up her overnight bag. “The taxi’s here, Mama. I have to go.”

  She could barely wait. They had agreed to meet at the train station in Verona at 10. It meant they would be in Venice in time for lunch.

  Her mother waved her hand dismissively. “Then go. It’s not as if you care whether I get sick. You probably wish for it to happen so that you won’t have to look after me. Go and leave like that sister of yours.”

  Gina squeezed her eyes shut. Increasingly her mother was becoming harder to live with. It had been her fault for coming back home six years ago after the friend she had shared an apartment with got marrie
d. Her mother had fallen ill then, and Gina had been the only one around to help. Moving back home and taking care of her mother had seemed the right thing to do.

  Her sister Mimi had been the lucky one who got away. In her parents’ eyes she had made the cardinal mistake of getting pregnant at 17 and had left home after a huge row with them.

  “Did you get my medicine?”

  “Yes. You have enough for the weekend, Mama.” She inhaled deeply. It’s only one weekend. “Ciao, Mama.” She stepped outside, not even bothering to wait for her mother’s goodbye.

  She got into the taxi and breathed easier when the car pulled away, leaving the row of tidy houses further behind her. Her body and her spirit seemed lighter and freer as she made her escape and it suddenly dawned on her that this feeling was becoming more common each time she left home. Having Davide in her life had also given her something other than work to look forward to. He was a much needed injection of light into the bleak canvas that her life seemed to have become.

  Yet she always felt better, so much better the instant she set foot on the marbled hallway of the Casa Adriana. There, Gina felt truly at peace, but lately even that was becoming a place she wanted to avoid. It had never grated on her before, but it was starting to now and she couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment that she had started to feel this way. Was it before Nico and Ava’s wedding, when Nico had gone to Denver leaving the running of the hotel to her? Or had it been after his wedding when the warehouse fire had happened, or around the time of Nico’s car accident? During all of those times, she had worked all the hours she could because Nico had needed her to. And even now, months after that, the pressure was still on, for there were other things, newer incidents to take care off.

  Things were never in a state of peaceful quiet. And now that Ines and Demetrio had joined a few months ago, there had been so much more to do. The last few months hadn’t been any easier and now, to add to her pile of things to deal with, she was learning to get along with difficult colleagues, something that she had never had to worry about until Demetrio had joined.

  People passed things on to her that they couldn’t manage; managers from the other hotels offloaded their problems on her and expected her to magically solve them. Nico demanded more from her and now with his new hotel getting closer to opening, the pressure was full on. Everything was piling up and she found it difficult these days to be as chirpy in the face of mounting work pressures as she had been before.

  Her reserve of enthusiasm had begun to run dry. She had no more compassion, no more words of sympathy, no more empathy left in her. No more could she be a sounding board, a smiling face, or a listening ear.

  Some days it all got to be too much, and lately there had been some days when she had flirted with the idea of getting away from it all. In moments of pure chaos, she started to toy with the idea of leaving Verona, leaving her mother’s house, leaving the Casa Adriana and starting over.

  She waited with happy expectation outside Porta Nuova, watching the swarms of people coming and going and it wasn’t until she looked at her watch that she realized she had been waiting for going on half an hour. They were supposed to catch the 10.30 train.

  But she didn’t panic. She was too blissfully happy for anything to dampen her mood. Davide would turn up soon, she was sure.

  Five minutes later, he did, just as she started to rummage around in her handbag for her phone. He was at her side, breathless, with a flushed face.

  “Ciao,” she cried, her face and eyes lighting up at the sight of him. Happiness flowed through her veins and then stopped, puzzled, when she saw that he carried only a small knapsack on him.

  “Where’s your…?” Luggage, she wanted to say, but the word died in her throat. He stared at her, half-frowning, half-uneasy. Something wasn’t right. She could tell by the way he averted his gaze, by the way he didn’t lean in to kiss her, and by the way he didn’t greet her.

  By his silence.

  “Gina, I…” He took her arm, stared down, and there it was again, his refusal to meet her eyes for more than a second. “We need to talk.”

  And then she knew, even before he opened his mouth and recited the lengthy explanation. She knew because her insides felt heavy as if her heart had been weighted down by lead chains.

  It was word vomit, his long, rambling sermon. His talk of not being ready, of needing his own space, of feeling that he had rushed into things.

  “I see.” She heard herself say, even though she couldn’t see because everything blurred through the tears in her eyes. But she couldn’t cry. She couldn’t let him see that he had hurt her. He had led her away from the busy main entrance of the station and taken her around the corner which was quiet, where less people would turn and stare and might wonder why this young couple looked so intense and unhappy.

  “It’s not you, it’s me,” she heard him say. “I need my own space.”

  She frowned. “You couldn’t tell me before?” Like last night, or earlier this morning.

  “I thought it would go away, I thought what I felt was just that—a feeling, nerves, whatever you might call it. It’s taken me all morning to realize that I can’t do it. Going to Venice would be a mistake, Gina. I wanted to tell you sooner but you seemed so happy about going away, I didn’t want to burst your bubble.”

  A knot of anger formed in her throat. “You think it’s better telling me now?” His timing couldn’t have been lousier. Telling her now when she’d bought fancy lingerie from a boutique that Ines had recommended, when she had painted her nails, and had moisturized her body to baby-softness with the most expensive brand of body lotion, when she had spent two hours grooming and getting ready last night for a wonderfully romantic weekend with her lover. Telling her now when she was packed and dressed and about to walk onto a train thinking that this man was the best thing to happen to her in years.

  “It’s not you, it’s me.”

  “You keep saying that.”

  “I jumped from one relationship straight into this. I just need some time on my own, to do my own thing. I jumped in too soon. And I need to figure out what I really want.”

  Listening to him, she wondered how he could stay so calm and composed when inside she was crumpling into herself, but she also knew she didn’t need to think about these things right now. Not with him around.

  In private, when she was alone, then.

  Drawing on her usual reserves of strength—the things that helped her through all sorts of predicaments in the past—she steeled herself for a show of strength she didn’t feel.

  “If that’s what you’ve decided.” She paused, knowing that she didn’t need to say this, but she wanted to. She needed to get it out so that it wouldn’t fester inside her, so that she could tell him what a difference he had made to her life, before he left it forever. “We were good together. You made me happy.” She needed him to know because she believed it and because he had made her happy. She wanted him to say he’d made a mistake, that maybe he would give her another chance that they could try again. That she was right. But instead he stared at the floor as if it was too much of an effort to even look at her.

  “I think it’s best if we …you know…we…” He couldn’t say it and she resisted the urge to rescue him and to make it less painful. “I like you Gina, but this isn’t the right time for me.”

  “I heard you the first time. I have some things at your place.” She remembered she had her toothbrush, a few clothes and some undergarments.

  “I brought them with me.” He opened his knapsack and took out a small plastic bag.

  Extending a stiff arm, she grabbed it and wondered if he felt even a morsel of the hurt she did. Glancing at him, she saw that he looked perfectly fine. “Thanks.” She took her bag without opening.

  She could do this. She could make a strong exit. She needed to make a strong exit. “Ciao, Davide. I hope you find that space you’re looking for.”

  “Will you be alright?” he asked. As if he cared.
<
br />   “I’ll be fine.” She had to be because everyone around her depended on her to be.

  She turned around and walked as fast as she could, away from him, and the train station. Her tears fell, blurring her vision as she tried to hail a taxi and wondered what to tell her mother, of how she would go back home with her tail between her legs, and humiliation written all over her face.

  Chapter 2

  It was a white lie she didn’t feel guilty about, telling her mother that Davide had come down with a bug. That he had insisted on going, but she had seen how bad he looked and had told him to go home, and that they would arrange their getaway for another time. It made for an easier life, not to have to hear her mother’s vicious comments had she told her the truth.

  She had walked around the city center for as long as possible but at the end of the day, she still had to return home.

  Her spirit was heavy, the weight of rejection dragging her down.

  She didn’t want to deal with the truth just yet. But the weekend dragged. She wasn’t ambling along the cobbled and meandering streets of Venice, crossing the quaint little bridges dotted around the snaking canals. She was doing chores at home. The usual; cleaning, cooking and reading.

  By the time she went to work on Monday, she was over the worst of her sadness. Outwardly, at least. She hadn’t mentioned her weekend plans to anyone at work, not even Ines, and was now grateful that she hadn’t let her enthusiasm for the trip run away with her. Crazily in love, and happily married, Ines would have been mortified if she’d heard what had happened to Gina.

  Not long after she’d locked herself into her office, Ines came by.

  “What do you think of these?” she asked, showing Gina the shiny new brochures for the new hotel.

  Gina made an approving noise in her throat. “Very nice. Very, very nice.” She sighed as she flicked through the glossy brochure. “Nico will love these.”