As soon as I prodded him, it was like a switch had flicked, and the tension eased from his face.
‘I was part of a retrofit for the Roman amphitheatre in Catania, and a colleague had a sailboat at the marina. It was a summer-long project, and on weekends he taught me to sail. When it ended, I was on my way to Singapore and had a sort-of epiphany.’
‘An epiphany?’ It wasn’t a word I’d heard Tommy use before.
‘That I’d spent the better part of ten years living and working abroad, but knew next to nothing about the places I’d been to. Sicily was the first time that life was more than just work, sleep, and repeat. I owe a lot to my colleague – Mario. Sicilian, about fifty, knows everyone… Probably more people than you,’ he teased with a smirk. ‘His wife was lovely – Francesca – and they had five kids.’
He grimaced dramatically, and I sniggered. When we were married, we’d talked about having one child, maybe two – but neverfive.
‘They’d host these incredible lunches – half the town would show up…’ He reminisced fondly, his gaze unfocused. ‘And it was lively and vibrant and oh god, Ally, thefood. Francesca is the mostamazingcook.’
‘I won’t tellYiayiáyou said that.’
‘Huh?’ he asked, his focus jumping back to me. ‘Oh right,Yiayiá. Please don’t. Older European women can be quite terrifying.’
‘Is that right?’ I asked, amused.
Admittedly, the conversation had got away from me. I’d intended to pin Tommy down and ask the hard-hitting questions but in a matter of minutes, we’d circled back toYiayiáand the cooking class andus. An in-joke that was barely one day old.
‘A story for another time,’ he said lightly.
Another time… Didn’t he realise that alluding to the future – asharedfuture – was cruel?
‘Look, all these questions… Can we please get back to Julian?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, yeah – course,’ I replied, even though my insides were coiled tighter than a spring. ‘So, to recap: your girlfriend, who is a communication specialist’ –my fucking arse, she is– ‘has discovered that one of the most famous people in tech is coming here, andsomehowthis implicates Julian in some sort of nefarious –yourword – scheme. Which will inevitably and irrevocably destroy Aetheria as we know it. Have I got that right?’
‘Ally,’ he warned.
‘No,’ I said, pointing a finger at him, now cross. ‘You do not get toAllyme. Because then I get toTommyyou and if you think older European women are scary, you should see just how terrifyingI’vebecome.’
I don’t use my lower vocal register very often, but when I do, I mean business. Only Tommy started sniggering softly, which should have fuelled my fury but, instead, disarmed it.
‘How do you do that?’ I asked, regarding him through slitted eyes.
‘I know you, Ally.’
Oof. Why don’t you just pommel me with a tin of kippers? Far less painful.
I cleared my throat, acknowledging that Tommy was probably right – we should focus on the situation with Julian and keep well away from the topic ofus.
Only…
‘Just one more question and then we can get back to Julian.’
He remained perfectly still, fixing me with his penetrating gaze while he weighed up my request. I figured he probably knew what I was going to ask. If he did, I half expected him to sayno. But then again, he had said to ask him anything.
After several excruciating moments of unbroken eye contact, he said, ‘Ask away.’
Immediately, he dropped his eyes and his lips straightened into a line – girding his emotional loins was my best guess.
I inhaled deeply.Here goes everything.
‘What did it mean, what happened here last night?’
He nodded, confirming that he’d expected the question.
‘I don’t know.’
