As he fumbled with the key swipe on our door, he spoke very quietly. ‘No, Maddie. I love you. And that is not what I’m saying.’
So why didn’t I believe him?
Chapter Eighteen
I waited with Daisy in the courtyard of the Uffizi Gallery. It was a stunning building – two long corridors, three stories high, supported by a series of marble pillars. Then, at the end, overlooking the Arno, a shorter series of archways and corridors connecting both sides. And on the top, I noticed it now, the Vasari corridor Aidan had told me about. I let myself imagine Cosimo de’ Medici striding through it on his way to work in fifteen hundred and something, avoiding the minions swarming the streets below.
Daisy was in her own little world and had had her earphones in with her music on full-blast since we’d left the hotel. On the walk here – back across the Piazza della Signoria – I’d asked her what she was listening to and she’d pretended not to hear me. Something told me things were not going to go smoothly this morning. I sort of hoped that Aidan wasn’t serious about turning up now, too. And then at the same time, after the night I’d had with Nick, when we’d barely spoken and I realised I’d started to develop a pathological hatred of Sophia, it felt like the grounding, familiar presence of somebody who didn’t find me intensely annoying (Aidan) might be just what I needed.
‘You are here for the Uffizi tour?’ asked an attractive, blonde-haired Italian woman in her late-thirties.
‘Yes, that’s right,’ I said, thrusting the booking voucher they’d given me at the hotel into her hands.
‘Very good,’ she said, checking something off her list. ‘You are Madeleine, yes? And you are Daisy?’
I nudged Daisy, who reluctantly took her earbuds out.
‘I am Francesca and I will be your guide today,’ said the Italian.
Aidan chose that moment to appear, striding across the cobbled courtyard like Mr Darcy striding out of a lake. Even Daisy noticed him.
‘There’s that guy,’ she said. ‘From the wine-tasting tour.’
‘Oh yes,’ I said, feigning surprise.
‘Hope I’m not late,’ he said, coming to a stop next to us, giving Francesca one of his smiles. ‘You must be our guide for the morning.’
To be fair to her, she didn’t seem fazed by him. I decided to channel this composed, earthy Italian woman who seemed like the sort of person who wouldn’t put up with crap in a relationship. It had dawned on me last night that perhaps this wasn’t how things had to be – perhaps I didn’t have to feel the way Nick’s family made me feel, and even Nick, sometimes. And my parents. And Tim at work. Perhaps there were people out there who would respect me. Perhaps I could feel good about myself regardless. It felt like Francesca, whatever her situation, probably already felt that.
‘And you are Aidan, yes?’ she said.
‘Yes,’ he confirmed.
‘Do I really have to come on this tour?’ said Daisy.
‘Yes, you do, because your dad booked us on it,’ I replied. ‘Anyway, it’ll be fun.’
‘This isn’t my idea of fun,’ she remarked.
‘You do not like art?’ said Francesca, surprised.
Daisy shrugged. ‘I do. But I like shopping more.’
‘But shopping you can do any time, anywhere,’ commentedAidan. ‘It’s not every day you’re standing in the courtyard of the Uffizi Gallery.’
‘I’m just not into it,’ shrugged Daisy. ‘And I don’t see why I should be forced to spend two hours of my life doing something that I don’t want to do.’
‘I did suggest you said all this to your dad,’ I pointed out.
Because there wasn’t much I could do about it now, was there, and, to be honest, it would have been much nicer for me to have come on my own if she was going to moan the entire time. I didn’t know why Nick had insisted that she come, the poor girl seemed to have been forced to do things she didn’t want to do the entire trip.
‘Can’t I go shopping and meet you back here after?’ she asked, looking at me hopefully.
‘Daisy, I’m responsible for you. I can hardly let you go wandering off on your own, can I?’
‘But I go out on my own all the time in London. What’s the difference?’
Francesca gave me a sympathetic look. ‘Here,’ she said, pulling several headsets out of her bag. ‘While you decide, you can put these on. Then you can hear me wherever you are. It is very busy in there and it can be hard to hear me without.’
