‘Is there anything I can get you?’
‘I’d love a coffee.’
‘That can be arranged,’ he said with a warm smile, opening the door of her room. ‘You sit down. I’ll be back soon.’
She walked inside the attic space and noticed immediately how much darker it was. The filmy sheers had been covered by thicker, blackout curtains. Tears prickled at her eyes and she wiped them away. He knew about her photophobia. Again, it was something Leo had done for her.
She put her sunglasses on a side table and flopped onto the soft, overstuffed couch. The neutrals of the room soothing on her overworked brain. She leaned her head back, and shut her eyes. Sifting through her memories of the wedding, Lake Garda, the waterfall, until she hit the blankness of the last few moments on the night she fell.
Nothing.
Or maybe something… There was a prickle of sensation. She opened her eyes. Leo stood at the door of her room with a tray, looking awfully domesticated.
‘I thought you were asleep,’ he said, walking in and setting the tray with two cups and a little bowl down on the occasional table in front of her. The rich, toasted aroma of coffee filled the room.
‘Not yet. I’m trying memories out for size.’
Leo handed her a cup. Placed the little bowl in front of her, which she now saw contained some hazelnut pralines.
He sat down next to her and took a cup of his own. ‘Did any fit?’
‘No. My actual accident’s still a blank.’
‘Perhaps that’s a good thing,’ Leo said. ‘It’s not something you should want to remember.’
‘I hate having moments of my life missing, even if it’s only a few.’ It reminded her of how fragile she was, how arbitrary life could be. ‘Though I guess everyone has something they’d like to forget.’
‘Indeed.’
The look on Leo’s face seemed stark. Haunted. It suggested what he might have seen. From the moment she’d woken it appeared to her like he was looking at a woman returned from the dead. In the fortnight she’d been in hospital, once her shocked brain had started thinking a little more clearly, she’d begun to realise how close she might have come.
Simone didn’t know what to say to make any of it better. Instead, she grabbed a chocolate and took a sip of her coffee.
‘Thank you, Leo… I—’
He held up his hand in a stop motion. ‘I don’t want any thanks. There’s nothing you have to say. If you need anything, call me and I’ll come. But for now, rest. I’ll see you later.’
He picked up his own coffee and stood. Striding out of the room as if being chased by a ghost, before closing the door gently behind him.
The next week passed in a blur. Given their honeymoon had been cancelled, Leo had started working again. Not going into the office but working from home. A somewhat remote yet powerful presence, as he gave Simone her space. Whilst recovering, she hadn’t realised how much sleep she’d need, or how much even the little things took out of her. They’d taken a quiet walk to the local café since she was getting cabin fever and she’d slept for half a day afterwards. Her doctor had reassured her on the follow up visit that it was completely normal and she was doing remarkably well, even though her head felt like it was stuffed full of oatmeal when she woke up each morning.
All she wanted was to feel like herself again. At least her hair had been washed and styled, which helped. She was pleased with how it looked in a new below the shoulder bob. Quite a bit shorter because of how medical staff had cut into it but she could still wear it up if she wanted, which she took as a small win in what felt like weeks of losses.
She went to the bathroom and dabbed on some concealer, hiding the worst of her remaining bruises. She still looked pale and tired. Nothing a little cream blush wouldn’t fix so she put some of that on too. After satisfying herself that she looked a bit more human again, Simone walked to her lounger and flopped into it, grabbing her phone. She hadn’t had much communication with Circolo. Marchesa had sent her a text asking if she was okay and telling her everything was under control. Leo had shielded her from all talk of work, saying he didn’t want her to worry about anything, which of course made her worry abouteverything.
Simone wanted to feel as though things were getting back to some kind of normalcy, so she opened her calendar. Checked on what she’d missed in those hazy few days when she’d woken, terrified, briefly not knowing where she was or evenwhoshe was till she heard Leo’s voice and it came trickling back.
Her diary was absent any of Leo’s appointments, which was strange because his diary was usually back-to-back. Had he cancelled everything because of her fall? It seemed shocking to her that he might have when in her experience, his business waseverythingto him. She went into his diary and it was all there. Meetings, the charity ball they were meant to attend. It must have been a glitch. Yet toggling back to hers…zero.
She flicked to her emails then, squinting and turning down the brightness of her phone’s screen. Taking it slow as she scrolled because the movement of the screen still made her feel a bit woozy. Marchesa had done a great job of clearing out most of the admin emails. There wasn’t much that hadn’t already been read and attended to. She glimpsed an all-company email from Leo personally, about admin support. Opened and read it.
What. The. Hell.
She gripped her phone hard. He was excluding her? Marchesa was—
Simone stood in a rush. Probably too much of a rush, her head pounding. It didn’t matter. She stormed to the door of her room and flung it back, marching down the stairs to Leo’s level. Stalking to the top of the stairs that would take her down to the living area. As she reached the landing, a flash of something streaked through her, like a sense of déjà vu, her heart pounding against her ribcage. Simone stopped, took a deep breath. Grabbed the railing and as much as she wanted to run down the staircase in righteous anger, she composed herself and walked slowly, carefully, till she reached the bottom.
Even though she’d taken a moment, it didn’t dampen the sensation scorching and furious, surging through her veins. He wouldn’t be in his study. He’d turned that into a downstairs bedroom for her, which hadn’t yet been changed back after she’d refused it.Ha!She’d thought his offer sweet but he was yet someone else in her life who was intent on making decisions for her with no consultation. The other place she knew he appeared to enjoy was a beautiful terrace off the lounge area that led to the garden, where you could sit at a large table under a pergola covered with grape vines.
