Jodi stood by, watching her friend’s face and taking clear note when it fell into despair.
‘Was that Danny?’ she asked quietly.
Beth nodded. ‘He’s working late. Said he had to go back to the office.’
Jodi let out a sound that sounded disturbingly like a dog’s growl. ‘Jerk. I would love to give it to him for you, sweetie. But don’t mind him – this has nothing to do with him. Let’s stick to the plan. Put him out of your mind.’
Beth swallowed hard and knew that her friend was right. It was true: this had nothing to do with Danny. She wouldn’t let his deceitful antics sully the treasure hunt.
The pair continued to wander around the perimeter of the fountain. Beth could almost feel the nervous tension radiating off Jodi’s body – almost as if she was waiting for a silent assailant to lunge upon them, or maybe she was just still angry about Danny’s behaviour.
But Beth didn’t feel any of that anxiety. She was focused squarely on putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
‘So like, how does this work then?’ her friend asked. ‘Are we looking specifically for something to do with the movie? Because remember, I’ve never seenOne Fine Day, so I don’t know how much help I can be.’
Beth shook her head. ‘No, that’s not really how it has worked up to now. So far I’ve shown up at a location to which a clue pointed. And it’s there that I’m provided with another signpost. Think about when we were on the boat yesterday. The reference fromRomancing the Stonepointed me – or should I sayyoupointed me – to the location of the boat. And it was there I received the clue toThe Seven Year Itch. So it’s likely that by figuring out this clue’s location, I should come across another pointing me somewhere else.’
Jodi yawned. ‘Seems like waaay too much work to me.’
‘Not if you love this stuff as much as I do. I think it’s great fun, and very sweet too.’ She thought again about Ryan and how much in character this was. He was such a flirt by nature, and she supposed that’s exactly what this was – a form of extended flirting; wooing, even.
But where will it all lead?
Beth and Jodi circled the fountain twice. Darkness had fully set in, the streetlights were on and people were beginning to leave and head back out to the city. Beth started to wonder if her timing with this one might be off. And then another thought occurred to her. What if she was in the wrong place?
‘Beth, it’s getting late,’ Jodi said. ‘Maybe it isn’t your night for this one.’
But Beth wasn’t satisfied just yet.
Now that the crowds at the terrace were thinning out, she was able to get a better view of the space – and the first thing that caught her eye was the small exhibition. It seemed to be a collaboration of various festive craft stalls and art exhibits, and many of them had finished selling their Christmas wares and tourist trinkets, and were closing up shop for the night.
However, one artist who continued to sit with his paintings, seemingly in no rush to leave, caught Beth’s attention. Suspecting that this guy might be key somehow, she made her way over to his stand.
‘Hey there,’ said the man as she approached one of his canvases. Beth saw that he was showcasing a number of hand painted reproductions of various famous works. There were some that she recognized on sight,The Starry Nightby Van Gogh,Water Liliesby Monet, and various others. But nothing in particular – certainly nothing in relation to theOne Fine Daymovie – jumped out at her.
‘Did you paint all these?’ she enquired of the young man, who had a sallow complexion and swarthy appearance, as if he had grown up on some Mediterranean island. When he spoke he had only the subtlest hint of an accent – he had obviously been in the States long enough to lose it. So, longer than she had, anyway.
He smiled. ‘Yes. I did. Not as good as some of the greats, I’m humble enough to admit, but not bad either, yes?’
Beth smiled and considered the paintings one by one. She noticed that Jodi was at the other end of the display, also studying the young man’s work.
‘Here you go, Beth. If you still need a Christmas present for me, this is what you should pick. More my style,’ said Jodi, pointing at one particular canvas.
Beth approached to see what she was looking at and she had to laugh. ‘Yes, that would fit right in with your décor. Perfect.’
The young man, who had been watching the pair, smiled and waved his hands around with great flourish. ‘Ah yes, Coolidge’s unsung masterpieceDogs Playing Poker.’ On the canvas were various breeds of dogs sitting around a poker table, throwing chips in, dealing cards.
Beth looked at the painting again, and then looked at the two canvases on either side of it.The Son of Man, originally by René Magritte, was there too. Famous for its ambiguous corporate appeal, the painting depicted a man in a suit with a bowler hat and an apple covering his face. And then, another painting she knew immediately on sight –San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk, originally by Monet.
It was perhaps the view she remembered most from that time in Venice with Danny all those years ago. In the famous painting, Monet had skilfully captured a Venetian sunset across the lagoon waters. She had to admit, it was a very good copy – this young painter did indeed have some skill.
Noticing her interest, the man approached. ‘You like this one?’
Feeling emotional, Beth nodded and felt tears pricking the back of her eyes.
Quickly she placed a smile on her face, determined not to succumb to all the wonderful memories from that trip. Danny kissing her cheek in a gondola and holding a camera with his left hand, his arm outstretched to capture the moment on film. His green eyes crinkling around the edges and that dimple that she loved on his left cheek, one that only appeared when he was about to burst out laughing, which had been the case then. Thinking back, she recalled the moment and remembered what had been funny – two gondoliers in the canal next to them had been serenading Beth. One of them had subsequently fallen off the back of his gondola into the canal, only to emerge from the water, blowing kisses their way.
A veritable movie-reel of memories continued on – she and Danny on Rialto Bridge, dancing amongst the pigeons to the café orchestra on St Mark’s Square, in the Biblioteca di San Barnaba – the library in which a scene fromIndiana Jones and the Last Crusadehad been filmed. It was actually Danny who’d informed Beth of that piece of trivia, and while it wasn’t an overly romantic movie, she’d had a hard time keeping her heart from pounding at the thought of swashbuckling Harrison Ford. And she had an even more difficult time not breaking into giggles as she imagined Danny trying to pull up the manhole cover that in the movie the dashing Dr Jones had crawled out of in front of the library following an escapade in the city’s sewer system.
