‘That’s the view of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo.’
‘I’ve never seen anything like this. Ever.’
‘It’s a one-of-a-kind design. I had the lace commissioned by an artisan in Burano, an island of Venice. The silk is from a producer not too far from Venice, actually. In the Veneto region. And it was assembled by a couturier who owns a very private studio in Milan. Bit of a recluse. The whole process took months.’
‘Who designed it?’
Matthew blushed. ‘I did.’
‘It’s just gorgeous,’ she gushed once more. ‘And the colour is like a dusky kind of blue, but not quite navy.’
‘That was a custom hue too.’
‘What inspired you to design this?’
Matthew looked up at her and smiled. ‘You did.’ He gestured again to the white box, prompting Sarah to take another look.
Under a further layer of tissue, she found two pairs of matching underwear, both made with the same silk: a classic bikini-cut with a smaller matching skyline of Florence in lace around the waistband, and a simple G-string with an inset of the blooming violet lace across the front panel.
Before Sarah could gush again, he said, ‘Keep looking.’
Sarah continued to remove more sheafs of tissue paper until suddenly she stopped. She looked at him with fixed eyes, then reached into the box and withdrew a photo. It was a photo of her; eyes closed, awash in light, smiling brightly.
Matthew swallowed, and felt the need to explain. ‘This is you. In Piazzale Michelangelo. That night I took you up there. The night I wasdyingto kiss you.’
Sarah’s eyes darted across his face. ‘You took a photo of me in that moment? What was it, like a second?’
He nodded. ‘I wished it could’ve been an eternity.’ He held the photo against the bra and Sarah immediately paired the colour of the city’s backdrop at night with the incredible blue tones of the silk.
‘You’re amazing.’ She felt the back of her eyes prickle. ‘No one has ever – and I truly meanever– given me anything so meaningful before.’
He sat up beside Sarah and pulled her close. ‘You deserve the world. I know you wear lingerie because it makes you feel confident and powerful. That’s your thing. This,’ he placed his hand on the silk collection in her lap, ‘isn’t about me and any desire on my part. It’s all about you. I hope that when you wear these you feel just as beautiful and gorgeous as I saw you that night in the piazza. That’s what inspired it all.Thisis how I see you.’
Sarah dropped her weight into Matthew’s shoulder, and he took her completely in his arms as the emotions overwhelmed her. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.
‘Happy birthday, beautiful.’
quarantuno
‘Matthew,’ Alessandro started.
‘Dad. How are you?’ Matthew shook out his hands under the table, out of the camera’s line of sight.
‘You know. Tired. Same, same. You?’
‘Doing ok. What are you up to?’
‘Just dealing with things back here for your nonno. Paperwork. Accounts.’ He adjusted his glasses so that he could better see his son on the Zoom. ‘These things take time.’
‘I wanted to talk to you about that.’
‘About his will?’
There was a snip to his question, and Matthew wondered if he had been waiting for this call. ‘Well, kind of. Indirectly.’
‘I know he left his estate to you, Matthew.’ His eyes held his gaze through the screen. ‘We spoke about it at length . . . over many years, in fact.’
‘Really?’
