A Place in the Sun(39)

My brain hurt from trying to think past my tipsy haze.

“That was wonderful,” Katerina sang as our group stumbled out onto the platform. “We’ll have to do it again before the summer’s finished.”

“Absolutely!” Chiara clapped.

“Count me in,” Paolo said, tossing his soccer ball from one hand to another.

I stood off the side, wanting to get on with it. I only had a short walk back to my hotel room and I was sick of being around Gianluca and Chiara. If he was going to invite her back to his villa, I’d rather not be around for it.

“All right, well night everyone,” I said, tipping an imaginary hat and turning on my heel. Katerina called after me, telling me to phone her as soon as I arrived home, but I didn’t respond. She’d understand when I explained it to her in the morning.

My sandals slapped against the stairs on my way down from the train platform and when my feet hit the main road in Vernazza, I breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t just Gianluca I was pining for, it was Italy. Even if he went off with Chiara, I still had this place with its golden light and its painted buildings and its overflowing abundance of sea and sky. I strolled down the road toward my hotel, slightly aware of my tipsy state. I wouldn’t have walked around in London alone like this, but Vernazza was different. Besides, my walk wasn’t long and the sun hadn’t completely set. Tourists were still out in hordes, buying up gelato and wine and finishing their dinners at a snail’s pace. I was halfway home when a hand wrapped around my forearm and pulled back.

“Wait up, will you?”

Gianluca’s voice sliced through the sounds of Vernazza and then the feel of his hand wrapped around my forearm sank in; he’d come after me.

“I’ve been calling your name.”

“I didn’t hear.”

He grinned. “Which is why I had to plow through a family of five back there just to get to you.”

He wasn’t kidding. Just over his shoulder, two parents were glowering at us and brushing dirt off their son’s shorts.

“Wait, did you really trample a child to catch me? That’s so sweet—unless, wait have you really hurt him?”

He waved away my concern. “He came out of nowhere, really. He’ll be okay.”

I started laughing then, really laughing, and all the pent up rage from the last few hours just sort of faded away. Gianluca wasn’t going home with Chiara.

“All right, well you’ve caught up to me. Now what?”

“I didn’t want you walking home alone. It would be a shame if my only employee drunkenly drowned in the sea before the place even opens.”

“Well I’m nearly halfway home, and I haven’t even tripped. I’m not half as drunk as you think I am, although I’m less than a quarter as drunk as I should be.”

“Good, then let’s stop in here for a drink.”

We just happened to be standing in front of a small restaurant close to the main square, and they just happened to have a small table available in a dark corner nearest the kitchen. It was noisy, but we huddled over our bottle of wine and replayed the day, picking our favorite parts and moaning about how annoying it’d been when Massimo and Katerina went into lover-mode.

“I invited the lads for you to get on with and you completely ignored them.”

“Did I? I let one of them rub sun cream on my back for Christ’s sake.”

He laughed. “And then you proceeded to ignore him for the next eight hours.”

“Well I must have been focusing on Katerina or something.”

He shook his head, trying to hide his smirk. “And nice going inviting Chiara by the way,” he said sarcastically. “I tried to pry myself away from her half a dozen times.”

“What?! I thought a bigger group would be fun. And it didn’t look like you seemed to mind all that much.”

“She’s been infatuated with me for years, and I haven’t had the heart to set her straight. The signals bounce right off of her.”

“Poor Gianluca has to deal with girls throwing themselves at his feet.”

“Ha ha. You didn’t even respond to Matteo half the time. The poor bloke has probably lost all his self-esteem thanks to you.”

I moaned and tossed back another sip of wine. “All right, let’s toss today in the bin. I swear next time you arrange for me to meet a decent bloke, I’ll mount him right then and there in front of everyone.”

He looked away and laughed.

We made our way through a shared dinner and another bottle of wine. We people-watched when we were tired of talking and teased each other at will. We were still in the restaurant when the owner wanted to close up shop, and he nearly had to pry us from our seats in the end. He shot me a smile and started rattling off to Gianluca in Italian. I had no clue what they were going on about, but as we strolled down the dark street toward my hotel, Gianluca insisted that it wasn’t anything too serious.

“He said you were pretty and asked if he could take you out.”

My mouth dropped. “What’d you say?!”

“That he’d have to get in the back of your very long line of suitors.”

“Oh god, you didn’t. Gianluca, that’s embarrassing!”

“It’s true isn’t it?”