Page 19 of Italy and Forever

Her heart was still pounding, goosebumps all over her skin, and her lungs couldn’t quite get enough air. When she closed her eyes⁠—

She tripped on a root, which turned out to be a lucky accident. When she looked up and allowed her vision to refocus, she glimpsed the hotel up ahead, through the trees, and turned off the path just in time.

The hotel, at least, was a reminder of something she’d done well. The white rendered building had charming wooden gables and hardy geraniums bursting from the planters on the balconies. It was set directly on the lake, the water close enough to touch and with 360 degrees of mountain panorama but, with a start, Ginny realised the hotel was the first thing she’d taken note of since her conversation with Rhys.

‘Damn!’ She’d meant to look out for a good place for a photo shoot, but her ruminations had taken up her entire headspace and she’d forgotten.

The door flew open as she crossed the car park. ‘Ginny! There you are! Some of Andreas’s buddies just turned up and apparently there are lots of traditions that have to be observed.’ Kira was going to get eye strain if she kept rolling them like that. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Hmm? Of course.’ I saw your friend naked. That’s all. One day I’ll manage to scrub the image from my memory, but until then, I’ll be permanently mortified, so just go on as normal and ignore the decomposing remains of my dignity. ‘I just went for a walk to clear my head.’

Kira smiled at her. ‘Wow, your dating ban is really working, huh? You’re appreciating solitary walks now.’

‘I suppose so,’ she responded, her voice strained.

‘Oh, hi, Rhys!’ Kira said brightly, making Ginny jump.

She turned in horror to find him emerging from the path she’d just taken. He’d walked a few minutes behind her the whole time. Didn’t he know that normal people would go around the opposite way to avoid each other?

Kira greeted him with a hug, which he leaned down to reciprocate.

‘Hello, Ginny.’

Ah, yes, they needed to pretend they hadn’t just run into each other at the far end of the lake. ‘Hello,’ she squeaked, giving him a finger-wave that probably fooled no one.

‘I’ll…’ He pointed at the door and escaped, the lucky man. Ginny blew out her deep sigh as slowly as she could, but apparently not slowly enough that Kira missed it.

‘That was weird,’ Kira commented. ‘Were you… walking together?’

‘What? No! I didn’t even know he was there. I must have gone around the other way anyway.’ She cut herself off before she said anything incriminating. For once, it worked, although she winced to realise that if they’d been going around the lake in opposite directions, they logically still would have met.

Mercifully, Kira just shrugged. ‘I thought it was too soon for you to have successfully made him like you.’

Ginny scowled at her. ‘Rhys? Like me? Tolerate, perhaps, but not like.’

‘You know it’s not personal, right? He’s just not into weddings.’

Her reply was a doubtful look. ‘Sophie finally told me about his face blindness, but I’m not sure that’s an excuse.’

‘Not an excuse,’ Kira agreed, ‘but it’s not just that. He did have a serious girlfriend once, a long time ago. They were together for years but not, like, married. He says he ended it, but I don’t think it was pleasant, whatever happened.’

‘Oh.’ She probably shouldn’t have been so surprised. Almost everyone had had a serious relationship in their lives – except her, she thought with a prick of guilt for her self-pity. ‘How old is he, if that was years ago?’

‘Too old for you,’ Kira joked, giving her a nudge with her elbow.

‘Oh, God, I’m not⁠—’

‘I’m joking,’ Kira grumbled. ‘He would eat you for breakfast. He’s thirty-nine anyway.’

Either of those comments should have been enough to banish any lingering weirdness about Rhys, but foolish, soft-hearted Ginny was only more intrigued.

‘There are some things we must observe here, when there is a wedding.’

Lucas and Marco, two old friends of Andreas’s, sat at the bar with Ginny and Kira, nursing beers and speaking in low voices, although the groom himself was out of earshot across the room, at a table with Sophie, his head tilted sweetly in her direction – if anything Andreas did could be called ‘sweet’, when he was craggy, gruff and a little scary.

‘Andreas didn’t mention any of this?’ Lucas asked. ‘I was almost surprised to get an invitation. I thought he’d just drag himself to the Standesamt to sign away his life – the town hall, you know?’

Ginny was relieved Sophie wasn’t here for this. ‘What exactly do we need to plan for?’