‘It is such a shame we could not book him on a flight today but he will be here by tomorrow evening,’ Lucia said. ‘Now you are free to explore our city. You are two old friends, so this will be fun for you,sì?’
‘Yes. It’s so lucky we found each other again.’ Cate’s voice was genuine.
Natalie held back responding in kind; she didn’t want Cate to think her apology had been accepted so readily. Instead, she just said, ‘It’s going to be a lovely day.’ It was already warm, the sky the colour a paint company might suggest for a little boy’s room.
‘Then I will leave you to enjoy your day.’ Lucia turned to the director, speaking in Italian.
‘Well?’ Cate said.
‘Coffee next.’ Natalie used her most decisive voice.
It didn’t take them long to find a little place with empty tables to be had. It was still early; the day trippers had yet to descend on the city. The café’s chairs were comfortable: rattan with round, red cushions secured to the seats and backs. Natalie stretched out her legs, the tension of the last few days beginning to drift away like stray strands of seaweed in the canal’s green waters.
Cate didn’t seem so comfortable, sitting ramrod straight as if afraid that the red cushion’s vivid colour might rub off on her blouse if she leant back against it.
‘Are you okay, Cate? You aren’t worrying about Phil getting here, are you? I can’t imagine anything else can go wrong.’
‘Of course not. Third time lucky!’
Natalie ignored Cate’s super-bright tone. ‘There’s no point worrying; there’s nothing you or I can do.’
‘I know.’ Cate picked up her teaspoon, seemed to examine her reflection in its tiny bowl and put it down again. ‘It’s not that… I was wondering about today… if you had any thoughts about what we should do.’
‘We could take a boat trip out to Torcello. That’s one of the lagoon islands we won’t get to film on.’
‘Do you remember our trip to Murano where they make the glass? Julie Paine blew bubble gum balloons every time that fellow blew into his great long pipe.’ Cate laughed.
‘Shy Kelly bought that turquoise glass turtle for her mum and dropped it on the boat on the way back. She wouldn’t stop crying.’
‘Honestly, what a drama! Things seemed so important back then when really we had nothing to worry about.’
Natalie didn’t reply. She waved for the bill.
‘Oh, I am sorry. I didn’t mean…’
‘It’s okay.’ There was no point making Cate feel any worse.
‘Nat…’
‘What?’
‘Could we take the waterbus out to a different island? I want to go to Burano.’
‘The one where they have all the colourful houses? It’s already on our itinerary.’ Natalie fished out her phone along with her purse to pay for the coffee. ‘Yep, we’re filming there in a few days’ time.’
‘I want to go there today.’ Cate’s voice was strange; all traces of her adopted ‘to the manor born’ confidence had vanished. ‘I need to go to Burano before Phil gets here but I don’t want to go alone. You will come with me, won’t you?’
‘Sure. We can stroll up to the Fondamente Nuove and get a boat to the island from there. Why do you want to go?’
Cate’s eyes flicked from side to side. She snapped open the catch on her bag, removed a scrap of brown paper held together with sticky tape and smoothed it out on the table.
‘What’s this?’ Natalie peered at the blurred ink.
Cate’s forefinger stroked the curvy script. ‘It’s an address on Burano. The house where my mother, Lina, lives.’
‘So, you’re in touch now; that’s fantastic!’
‘No, we’re not.’ Cate’s voice was bleak.
