Thursday 8thAugust
Me: You’ll never believe it. That Tony guy is Paolo’s brother! He’s staying in the room opposite me!
Holly: What? Oh nooo! Awks! Mia said he was coming to stay, but I had no idea – I’ve never met him xx
‘Hey, neighbour,’ Tony whispered, lifting my headphones and making me jump. I was engrossed in a true crime podcast and just getting to the good bit. I slid my headphones off and sat up on my lounger, shading my eyes from the sun.
‘Hey, yourself, how’s it going? Have you settled in?’
‘As if I’d never been away. I’ve already hired a Vespa and I’ll probably be smoking again before the week is out.’
I wrinkled my nose on both counts. That felt like quite the unravelling.
He started to unpack his rucksack on the next sunbed. Towel, book, hat, sun cream, then stopped as I watched. ‘Mind if I sit next to you?’
‘Er… well, actually, I’m…’
‘Don’t worry, I’m not thinkinganything.’ He laughed, making quote marks as he said it. ‘And I’ve brought beers,’ he added, pulling two bottles of Peroni out of his bag.
‘Well, why didn’t you say so?’ The bottles exhaled as Tony popped the caps off, and he passed me one. ‘I’m sorry about all the drama yesterday, but you could have just told me you were staying here. You tricked me,’ I said, feeling hot and bothered about making embarrassing assumptions.
Paolo dragged a sunbed over and sat down. I was suddenly surrounded by handsome Italian men – just as I’d always imagined Tuscany to be – and I repositioned my sarong, to show some decorum. My bikini didn’t leave much to the imagination.
‘I want to ask you both about something,’ Paolo said, seriously.
‘Go on,’ I said, as Tony oiled up his legs.
‘As you know, we are trying out some different activities this week to find out what works well at the vineyard. Not just bed and breakfast – we want to offer things for our guests to do too,’ he said, leaning back on his lounger.
‘You mean the bikes and the yoga?’ Tony said.
‘Exactly. The bikes are there for guests, and yoga will be every morning. The yoga was Viola’s idea, actually – how has it been?’ he asked.
‘Really good!’ I smiled, enthusiastically. ‘It would be even better if this little man was involved,’ I said, as Nero snuffled over. I picked him up and kissed him. ‘They do yoga with puppies in London these days, you know – they call itdoga. You could try that? It’s a thing.’
Paolo laughed. ‘I’ll suggest it to Viola, but I think I know what she’ll say.’
Tony joined in. ‘She’ll say yoga is new-fangled enough, without adding animals into the mix.’
‘We have some other ideas, wine tasting, writing, massage, and one in particular I wanted to talk to you about,’ Paolo said, earnestly. ‘Mia is going to run an art class at the weekend. On Sunday, I think. She is very nervous about it, so I wanted to ask you to support her?’
‘Absolutely!’ Tony said.
‘Ah, how lovely. Yes, Holly mentioned it at dinner the other night. It sounds great – of course I’ll be there to support Mia. I’d love to do some painting while I’m out here.’
‘Holly tells us you are a very talented artist, Abi?’ Paolo said.
‘Did she?’ I was touched at the compliment, but it had been a long time since I’d picked up a paintbrush. ‘I used to be, but I haven’t done any for years.’
‘It’ll come back to you, it’s like riding a bike,’ Tony said. ‘Although you’re quite wobbly at that, from what I’ve seen.’
I laughed. ‘Well, even if it doesn’t, it’ll be fun to find out. Thank you for organising it, Paolo,’ I said, excited at the thought of flexing my artistic muscles.
‘Grazie millefor taking part,’ he said, beaming. ‘It will mean a lot to Mia if you’re both there. And to me as well. I will check with the others too.’ He stood up and wandered over to Ian and Cathy, to give them the same sales pitch.
‘So, you’re here until at least Sunday, then?’ I said, eyeing up Tony’s glistening torso.
‘Very good, Sherlock Holmes.’
