‘Another one of your serendipitous meetings,’ I said, as he held me close on the dance floor.
‘My inner knowing that if it was meant to be, we’d see each other again,’ he replied, eyes twinkling.
‘I did wonder why Gem was so fiercely on my side. Blake tried to get her to fire me.’
‘As I say – we go back years. She’s been doing my make-up for the big gigs since my first Oscar nomination.’
‘Oh wow. You’re a pretty big deal then?’
‘They don’t call me Access-all-areas Almagno for nothing, remember?’ I rested my head on his shoulder, trying to take it all in. Ireallyneeded to get better at knowing who was who in the film world. ‘Anyway, now we’re here together, we can solve the riddle in your message. What have you changed your mind about?’
‘You wanted to take me out for dinner,’ I said, looking up at him and hoping he still did.
‘Ohhhh, the dinner,’ he said, nodding. ‘I did say something about a dinner, didn’t I, in San Gimignano. Hmm… and you thought you’d wait until I was back in LA to say yes?’
‘Sort of,’ I said, feeling like an idiot.
‘Lucky for you I’m a flexible, globe-trotting kind of guy. First date Venice, second date LA, third date London. No problem with me.’
‘Don’t get ahead of yourself,’ I murmured, putting my head back on his chest.
‘Well now you’ve finally said yes, how about breakfast tomorrow?’ he said, slowing our dancing to an almost stop and staring into my eyes.
‘For our first official date?’ I replied, my heart a-flutter.
‘Yes. Our first date in Venice.’
‘It’s as good a place as any, I suppose,’ I said, with a shrug.
‘I’ll take that as an affirmative. Oh, and this might sound strange, but is it OK if I bring a friend?’
‘A friend?’ I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly. Although they did do dating differently in America.
He nodded, looking at me, thoughtfully. ‘Only if you don’t mind? It’ll be me, you and…’ He put his hand inside his jacket and pulled out Sophia Loren.
*
Sunday 8thSeptember
I opened my eyes and Tony was already reading the news on his phone with a coffee. He put it down and leant in to kiss me. The feel of his body next to mine, the satin sheets on my skin and the view of Venice from the window, were a pretty delicious combination.
‘Ready for our first date?’ he asked, with a smile.
‘Mm-hmm.’ I couldn’t wait. ‘Our very first date after all this time. We’ve been doing things in a very strange order.’
‘Works for me, if it works for you,’ Tony said, snuggling in and kissing my neck. ‘Sex first, then living together, and finally, we get to go on a date.’
‘How long have we got?’ I sank back into the pillow and pulled him on top of me.
Tony double-checked his phone. ‘That’s a very good point. I was enjoying lazing around too much and now we’ve only got twenty minutes,’ he said, leaping out of bed and running into the shower.
‘I thought you Italians were way more relaxed than that,’ I called after him. ‘Unless you’ve got a hot-air balloon landing on the roof?’ The power shower went on and there was a rattle of bottles as he crashed about, panic-washing.
‘Your turn!’ he shouted, his chest puffed out like a prize rooster and a towel around his waist. The two of us scrambled about to get ourselves ready, then raced downstairs and out the front door.
‘Where are we going?’ I asked, breathless, as he dragged me towards the water taxis. Oh no. ‘It’s not the speedboat, is it?’
The captain gave me a smirk as we whipped past. ‘No boat ride today,signorina?’
