Roman Encounter

by Lily Zante

  Christian shook his head. “I’m not interested.” He didn’t want it, and he had other things he was working on.

  “But it’s a good job.”

  “If it’s that good why are you leaving?” He relaxed his shoulders and slipped his hands into his trouser pockets, waiting for his friend’s reaction.

  The unsettled feeling that had been gnawing away at him for months, had suddenly worsened, and he couldn’t wait to leave. He was desperate to go.

  It had been over two weeks since he had seen Gina and told her about Rachele. She hadn’t been back to Rome since then. He had gone to the Cazale Roma to ask, only to be told that she worked in Verona and wouldn’t be back.

  It was over, whatever he’d hoped he could have salvaged, a friendship, at the very least.

  “Are you still pissed off at me about getting the job?”

  Emilio’s words pulled him out of his reverie. “No. I’m over that.” It didn’t matter now. “But I really don’t want your job.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Who knows?” He was damned if he was going to tell Emilio his plans. Not getting the job had dented his ego, but it had also made him reconsider.

  Like Gina, he needed a change of scenery. Milan was the financial hub. It was where his friend Leon had gone. There were plenty of banks and financial institutions there and he could cross-train to other types of systems if he managed to convince an employer to take him on. There would be more possibilities in a place like Milan than there were here and he had already heard back from a few companies who had shown an interest in his resumé.

  “You sure you don’t want to come for a drink?” Emilio glanced over his shoulder as he made his way to the door. The guy seemed to be up for drinks every evening.

  Christian shook his head. “I’ll leave the heavy drinking to you guys.”

  He had something to do this evening and had been working himself up to calling Gina. He didn’t know what sort of reception he would get, but he had a legitimate reason for getting back in touch with her. Someone from the police station had called a few days ago to tell him that they had found Gina’s stolen handbag. He had been amazed that they had found it at all. Apparently, a whole stash of stolen goods had been recovered at an address, and the handbag had been one of them.

  He had gone to the police station to retrieve it and, surprisingly, they had believed him when he said the bag was his girlfriend’s. He had called to tell Gina but her phone always went to voicemail lately. She was impossible to get a hold of. Even when he’d called her at work the receptionist had taken a message. He would have put this down to her avoiding him, but since he hadn’t told the receptionist who he was yet, it didn’t seem to be the case.

  He decided to try one more time and nearly fell back into his chair when she answered.

  “You answered,” he said, his voice as level as he could keep it.

  “Christian?”

  “Ciao.”

  “This is a surprise.”

  “I can imagine.” He cleared his throat. “I’ve got something of yours.”

  “Like what?”

  He debated making a joke about it, making her think she’d left something behind that night—a night he often thought about—but time and distance had changed things between them even more than her coldness, and he knew any attempt at lightening the conversation would probably fall flat. So he got straight to the point. “They found your handbag.”

  “My handbag?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “They raided a place and found a whole stash of other stuff.”

  “I never expected to get it back.”

  “Me neither.”

  “Is there anything still in it?”

  “Your donor card and a couple of hairpins.”

  She laughed. “They didn’t think they were worth taking.”

  “Probably not.”

  Another laugh.

  “What do you want me to do with it?”

  “You have it?”

  “I picked it up from the police station. You put down my contact details, remember?”

  “Thanks for getting it.”

  “No problem.”

  “This news has made my day.”

  “It doesn’t take much to please you, does it?” Most of the women he had dated in the past were high-maintenance; most worshipped in the houses of Gucci and Prada but Gina was different and he loved that about her.

  “No. I have low expectations.”

  He didn’t know how to take that, and not wishing to upset her again, he asked her if she wanted him to send the bag to her via post.

  But she didn’t want that. “It will cost too much and I’m not in a hurry to have it. I might still come for that course at the end of April.”

  He sat up, a flicker of excitement running through his body. “I’ll keep it for you, or, if you like…” But he could hear her talking to someone else in the background.

  “Sorry about that,” she said, returning to their conversation. “It’s hectic at the moment. I have to go.”

  She hung up before he had a chance to say goodbye.

  ~~

  “Nico’s found a replacement for you.” Demetrio seemed to enjoy breaking this news to her.

  “Wh—what?” Nico hadn’t said a word to her.

  “It’s a second interview,” Ines said, leaning forward on her desk. Gina had popped into their office to grab some folders. “Why didn’t you tell me?” She glared at her friend. Of all the people, she had expected Ines to keep her informed.

  “There was nothing to tell.” Ines threw a filthy look at Demetrio.

  Gina weighed up the information. “Thanks,” she said, taking the files she needed and made her way back to her office. This had been a crazy week. In fact, ever since she had returned from Rome, everything had gone haywire. She knew it would have, as she had a backlog from her training course in Rome. Being away that week hadn’t helped, and then she’d had to go again to help with the audit.

  Work aside, her private life was upside down and her mother’s impending knee operation only made things worse. Like most things in her life, she had no option but to keep her head down and get on with things.

  She had decided against asking for time off, and did her best to juggle work and dealing with her mother. She hadn’t told Nico, or even Ines, preferring to put her nose to the grind stone and get on with things. Even her job applications were being put on the back burner, because she couldn’t think about anything else but focus on the here and now.

  Yet, inevitably, things were falling through the cracks. She was late to meetings and had forgotten to do certain things.

  “You missed a couple of conference calls yesterday.” Nico had walked into her office the day after her mother’s operation.

  “I did?” She looked up, genuinely shocked. “Sorry. I’ve had a few things to deal with.”

  Nico folded his arms and leaned back against her door. She didn’t like this pose of his. He was a lot more relaxed when he was sitting down. When he paced around, or stood, it was usually a sign that he was thinking of what to say.

  “Interviews for jobs?”

  “Uh—not really. I’ve been too busy even to think about that.”

  “That’s good to know.” The Cazale Ravenna was now open for business and bookings had been brisk. It had been taking reservations from the moment it had opened, and Nico was over the moon.

  “Do you need any help? Anything I can take off you, now that I’m a little freer?”

  She paused and tried to think of something she could hand over to him but all she could think of was that she would never have a boss as thoughtful and as kind as Nico.

  Was she doing the right thing by leaving? And did she really want to go and work in Rome knowing Christian was around the corner? Once again, she wasn’t sure. The magic of Rome had worn off.

  “I heard you’ve found a replacement for me.”

  �
�A replacement for you? Never. You’re irreplaceable, Gina.”

  She smiled in response. “So you haven’t found a replacement?”

  “Not yet, although I’ve shortlisted two candidates from the first round of interviews.”

  “You have?”

  He nodded. “They’re good,” he said. “But I’m not convinced that they’re exactly what I’m looking for. I’ll have to interview them again.”

  “Oh.” She felt suddenly low.

  “I think it will take me a while to find the right person, Gina.” Nico looked at her and smiled, but she could tell it was a forced smile. As forced as the one she returned.

  Chapter 34

  She was glad to get home. Her entire Saturday had been spent by her mother’s side at the hospital, and her mother had been in a stinking mood for the most part.

  Gina let her off. She had already been warned by the doctors that the post-surgery pain was excruciating, but even so, it was difficult to be sympathetic when her mother was more unbearable than ever.

  It was with great relief that she left the hospital and, by the time she got home on Saturday evening, she was beat. Her neck and shoulders were tense, and she could feel a headache coming on. She braced herself knowing that the coming weeks, and possibly months, were going to be hell. A glimmer of light beckoned in the distance. It wouldn’t last forever. She needed to be there for her mother through her time of need but she hoped that with Mimi being nearer and bridges being built again, that she could rely on her sister at times. She was eager to see when and how her sister would come through this time.

  And of course, there was a strong chance that the second knee would need an operation soon after.

  In the coming months, Gina expected to have secured a new position. She had learned a few days ago that she had an interview for a high paying management job for a hotel in Rome. It was something to think about later, when all of this current drama was over and her mother returned home. She would need to learn to walk properly again, and do her exercises on the road to recovery.

  For now, a long hot soak in the bathtub would help, followed by dinner.

  Desperate to get out of the clothes she’d been in all day, she went all out, pouring bath bubbles and letting a lavender bath bomb fizzle away in the bathtub that was filled almost to the brim.

  She stepped into the soothing water and sat back with her head resting on the rim and sighing with contentment as the tension slowly melted from her body. She closed her eyes as silky bubbles clung to her like a second skin.

  It was heavenly. An indulgence she rarely allowed herself and she wondered why she didn’t do this more often. And the answer came to her in an instant. She was never able to relax when her mother was at home. Home for her was not a place where she could unwind or be herself. This was why these past few days, while her mother had been in the hospital, had given her a rare opportunity to do that. But it would be short-lived, with doctors hoping to discharge her mother by Monday or Tuesday.

  This was also why the Casa Adriana was more her home, why she spent so much time there, taking on any task that was given to her, and working hard. This was why Rome had meant so much more to her. It was a place where she had taken chances, dared to be different, and less the Gina of old.

  Her thoughts led her to a better place, a promise of what she could have, a way for her to get over her upset of leaving Verona, Ava and Nico and the Casa Adriana. She hoped she would find the same happiness at work in Rome that she had in Verona.

  With her eyes closed and her body softening, she thought of Christian again. It always ended up like this. She thought of him every day. The harder she tried not to, the easier it was for his face to slip inside her head.

  Hearing his voice the other day when he’d called to tell her about her handbag, had brought her days with him in Rome back into sharp focus.

  With the state of things in her life as they were, and with all that had gone on between them, with her no longer there, and with the passing of time, fact and fiction combined. Instead of being angry with him, instead of wanting nothing more to do with him, she couldn’t help but romanticize him.

  Was she in love, or falling in love, or falling into something? Whatever this was, it was impossible to find her way out of it. She couldn't forget him, any more than she could forget her name. What was she supposed to do? Wait out the months and years until she met another Christian Russo?

  When she finally dragged herself out of the bathtub, it was almost an hour later. She felt much better, relaxed and unwound. The tension of spending the whole day in a place full of sick people had been washed away by lavender water. Reinvigorated, she slipped on her comfortable lounge pants and cotton cami top, and with a new found sense of purpose, she set about getting her dinner ready, her hair swept up in a towel and perched atop her head like a white cotton swan.

  She placed the remainder of the creamy parmesan chicken pasta dish back into the oven to heat up. She had made it earlier and taken to the hospital because it was one of her mother’s favorites, and there was enough here for tonight and tomorrow’s lunch. She was just about to settle in front of the TV when the doorbell rang.

  Her body tensed again. She wasn’t expecting anyone. A sinking feeling settled in the base of her stomach; she hoped it wasn’t one of her mother’s friends who had come over to ask after her. She rushed over to the door and opened it, and her eyes almost popped out of her head.

  Seeing him was like a punch to her stomach.

  “I was about to give up on you.” Christian’s eyes traveled up her face and settled on the oversized towel on her head. She wanted to shrivel to dust and disappear knowing she couldn’t have looked more ridiculous if she tried.

  “What are you doing here?” And how lucky she was that her mother wasn’t here.

  “I was in the neighborhood and wanted to pass by.” He peered at her, “But if now’s not a good time…” He backed away a step.

  She was too shocked to move. “It’s fine,” she said, but she didn’t feel fine. Shell-shocked would be a more accurate description.

  “I’ve called you many times, but your phone kept going to voicemail.” She remembered that her phone battery had died, and she hadn’t had a chance to charge it up in the hospital. She needed to do it now.

  “I feel as if I’m interrupting you,” he said, “I’ll go.”

  “No, you didn’t, you’re not—interrupting me,” she said, suddenly snapping into action. “Come in.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  ~~

  He’d never seen her like that, with a towel on her head. And he’d never seen her in anything other than her business clothes. Looking at her now, he wasn’t even sure she was wearing a bra. His eyes slowly trailed down her body taking in her tight-fitting top, and he looked away immediately. He’d turned up without warning and he could see that she clearly looked uneasy.

  Coming here had been a gamble. He’d tried to tell her that last time he’d called but she was always so busy at work he didn’t get a chance to properly warn her. But then he never knew quite what to expect from Gina and sometimes he just plain couldn’t figure her out.

  So here he was, taking a chance, and she had asked him in.

  He stepped inside her house, his gaze sweeping around the small living-room. It was dingy and dark inside but it smelled homey and was filled with the aroma of home-cooking and warm cheese. He set his small suitcase on the floor and couldn’t help but notice the religious relics and crucifixes that hung on the walls. They lent a somber ambiance to the place which didn’t look anything like the kind of place a young person would live in. It was yet another thing about Gina that he didn’t understand.

  “Are you going somewhere?” she asked, looking at his luggage.

  “I’m on my way back,” he said, “But I wanted to give you this.” He opened his suitcase and pulled out her handbag. Her eyes sparkled in delight.

  “My bag!” she cried. />
  It had been a while since she had smiled, he noted. A lot had happened between that last time and now. A lot of things that had muddied the air and the feelings between them, things he hoped to clear up at some point. Now, if possible.

  “You came all this way to give me this?”

  “Actually, no.” He would have come all this way just to see her, if he’d ever had an inkling that she wasn’t about to slay him with that stony expression of hers. “I had an interview. Two actually.”

  “Two interviews in Verona?”

  “In Milan.”

  “Milan?” She sounded surprised and then let out a yelp before rushing away. Curious, he followed her into the kitchen and noted the unopened bottle of wine on the countertop. “Saved,” she said, closing the oven door and placing a casserole dish down on a cane mat. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. “It’s not burnt.”

  “Smells delicious.” It really did. He’d been living on panini and dried up pizza slices. The interviews had taken all of the day yesterday, and he’d spent today looking around the city, trying to get a feel for the area and accommodations, just in case.

  “It’s creamy chicken parmesan. My mother’s favorite. I was just about to eat. Have you eaten?”

  “Sort of.”

  “What do you mean by sort of?” she asked. “You said this smells delicious.”

  “It does.

  “Then stay for dinner.”

  “I don’t want to impose.” And he had to catch the late train back to Rome tonight.

  “You’re not imposing.”

  “I don’t want to get my head bitten off.”

  She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Why would I do that?”

  “I don’t know. After the last time.”

  She waved her hand, dismissing that conversation. “I appreciate you coming to give this back to me, and it would be nice, now that you’re here, if you stayed for dinner.”

  “If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Then I’ll stay. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  She ladled out food on two plates, and asked him to pick up the bottle of wine and get the glasses from the cupboard.