‘The man you date?’ Jade asked, feeling curious.
Erin grinned. She’d drunk a full glass of Franciacorta and topped all the glasses up already. ‘Only work.’
‘You work weekends?’ Rosalie lifted finely marked eyebrows.
‘Lots of events at weekends and I took this time off at short notice. Anyway, you and Jade both work in the leisure industry, so you must work weekends too.’
‘Almost always,’ Jade answered.
‘True, I suppose dressing up as a cartoon character is part of the leisure industry. It doesn’t sound as grown-up as working in a comms agency or a pensione, though,’ said Rosalie. The sun had moved around so they were now in shade, and she tucked her sunglasses into the vee of her top.
‘You told me you made that top. Wouldn’t you like to do something more creative?’ Erin asked bluntly.
Jade had already noticed that Rosalie’s top was an unusual garment of yellow-rose-strewn fabric sewn together in panels so some flowers were upside down.
‘Making stuff out of charity-shop finds is just a hobby. I like living a stress-free life where my biggest worry is whetherwearing Professor Donut’s head will put a crick in my neck,’ Rosalie answered serenely.
‘Does it?’ Jade asked, to head Erin off if she was about to suggest Rosalie should be more aspirational.
Rosalie nodded. ‘Those costumes should come with health warnings. They’re hot, smelly and heavy. The worst was when I was dressed up as some fat bear and a group of teenage boys shoved me over and rolled me around. The bear head twisted so I lost the air holes. I thought I was going to suffocate, till someone chased the boys away and took my head off. The bear’s head,’ she added, as if that needed clarification.
Her solemn delivery of the story made Jade laugh. ‘Sorry. It must have been scary.’
‘Do humans crap in bear suits?’ Rosalie said, parodyingdo bears crap in the wood?She cast a longing look at Mia delivering steaming, oozing pizzas to a nearby table. ‘I need to order one of those.’
‘I’m fancying salad.’ Jade thought the evening was the most relaxed since the others had arrived. In Italian high summer, the evening was often the best part of the day – warm but not scorching.
Mia came to them next and they gave their orders, Erin joining Jade in a salad. But the comfortable atmosphere evaporated abruptly when Jade returned to the subject of their absent father, a crease between her brows. ‘Gran’s photos of Joey have made me think, Rosalie. It must have been devastating if, after bringing you up, he disappeared without contact. I’m sorry if we brushed over that.’
Rosalie sipped water, expression guarded, her rings flashing in the sun. ‘I didn’t say I have no contact. I said I haven’t seen him since I went to uni. I have his phone number.’
Both Erin and Jade gasped as if Rosalie had confessed to having the phone number of a unicorn. Hesitantly, Rosalieadded, ‘Sorry if that rankles. But I have a different relationship with him to you two.’
‘Completely different,’ Erin answered blandly, tipping the last of the Franciacorta into her glass and waggling the empty bottle so Hector could note it and nod enthusiastically.
Jade felt odd. Not queasy, but as if her stomach and knees had gone missing. ‘You literally could call him up and say, “Hey, Dad”?’ For her, Joey was a unicorn – spoken of but never seen.
Rosalie returned her glass to the table with a clunk. ‘Yes. Obviously, I check in on him to see he’s OK.’
‘Obviously.’ Jade felt a lick of unreasoning anger. ‘I assumehenever checks in onyou.’
‘I never said that.’ Rosalie’s eyes shone for an instant, as if she were holding back tears.
‘But does he?’ Erin asked stiffly.
Rosalie snatched up her paper napkin and blotted her eyes. ‘Only occasionally. OK? Does that make you feel better?’
Nobody chatted much after that. Jade’s scalp felt tight with frustration. With Rosalie? Or with Joey? Or herself because Rosalie was obviously upset? Then Jade felt exasperated because whenever Gran had asked her to establish contact with Joey, she’d refused. So why feel wounded? ‘Sorry, Rosalie,’ she muttered. She glanced at Erin and found her looking back, as if trying to communicate something. But Erin’s eyes, though similar to Jade’s own, weren’t sufficiently familiar for her to read them.
As agreed, when the time came to pay, Erin and Rosalie shared the bill to make up for leaving Jade to pay at Cavalla, though Erin insisted on covering the lovely, bubbly Franciacorta as Rosalie had drunk mainly water.
They walked together the few steps around the corner to Three Sisters. At the door, Erin asked Jade, ‘Can I use my Uberapp here, to get to the airport in the morning? Shall we share transport, Rosalie?’
Though it was a friendly-enough offer, Rosalie might still have been smarting over the Joey conversation, because she snorted. ‘It’s only a ten-minute walk to San Giovanni train station. Then you can get to Milano-Malpensa for under ten euro. It’s only about an hour on the fast train.’
Erin looked surprised. ‘But then you have to change to the airport shuttle.’
Neutrally, Jade said, ‘I can give you the number for a local taxi. Pensione Three Sisters is an independent business, so we’ve always tried to steer work to other independent businesses in Como.’
