KATE:No! You need to think about Leo as well.
ME:I know
GINNY:Don’t be so cynical you guys.
KATE:Sort out Nicky’s first. Promise me.
GINNY:Love destroyer
KATE:Realist
ME:I’ll cool it. I have to. I need to find a bit of space.
KATE:Without being rude, just in case
GINNY:
KATE:And call us any time. We’re like your sponsors, okay?
ME:Emergency buzzkill hotline. Got it
GINNY:Sorry but I’d just encourage you to take one taste
KATE:Call me, not Ginny.
ME:XXX
I put my phone away feeling a sense of relief. Cool it, until I sort my head out about the restaurant. I can do that.
Leo shuffles back toward his seat, but when he gets to mine he stops.
“I spoke to my auntie. She’s very excited. She wanted to know if you were keen to come to my third cousin’s wedding with me,” he says, with a sort of embarrassed half laugh.
“As your date?”
“Your dad was going to come with me,” he says.
“As your date?” I say again.
“Well, I guess as my plus-one,” he replies, laughing.
“I... um.” I try not to think of the conversation I’ve just had with the girls. “Sure,” I say, looking back down at my phone and closing our text thread. I can go to a wedding with Leo and still cool it. “I’ll need to go shopping.”
“Don’t you have a Versace dress on you?” he says.
“Fine. I’ll wear my nine-euro Versace knockoff,” I shout down the aisle as he heads back to his seat, cackling, with his hand raised like he doesn’t want to hear it. “Would you like that? Maybe I’ll pick up a pair of matching Crocs? Is that Tuscan Wedding enough for you?”
18
HOLY SHIT,” I say.
I am completely stunned by the beauty of it.
The villa, which will be our home for the next ten days, is nestled on the side of a hill, down a short gravel drive flanked by poplars, grapefruit trees, apricot trees, and a huge cherry tree, already showing plump black fruit. We stand for a moment taking it in, the sounds of a warm breeze rustling the leaves, the chirp of crickets, the cooing of a pair of turtledoves.
The front of the two-story stone villa is almost completely covered by crawling vines, with only the four square windows peeping through the foliage, their green shutters already closed to preserve the cool.
“Isthisyour auntie’s house?”
