One Step to You (The Rome Novels #1)(49)

Step leaned forward, in pain. No, it hadn’t been dumb luck, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, Pollo could also deliver incredibly painful punches.

The afternoon passed slowly that day for both of them, though neither knew that was true of the other.

*



Step was all alone, driving around the city on his motorcycle, when it started to drizzle. He looked up. Menacing dark clouds sailed quickly overhead, swirling. As a distant clap of thunder sounded, he accelerated. He didn’t want to get soaked.

The air around him suddenly turned chilly. Another thunderclap. Bigger drops, one after another, constant, thicker and faster. Now it was really coming down, so he sped up on the wet road.

He splashed through a puddle. A few drops of water hit the hot engine, and steam swirled around his legs. His Tobacco Motorwear trousers darkened, spattered by the rain. His jacket was getting wet. He could feel the rain pour down his neck.

Via Bevagna. Step decided to pull over. He braked to a halt in front of the market, which was closed now. He rode up onto the sidewalk and stopped in front of the newsstand. Plenty of water was already rushing past in the gutter. He looked at his jeans. They were drenched below the knee. A car went past fast, leaving behind it wet patches and the reflection of its headlights.

The rain was showing no signs of stopping. Step lit a cigarette and, before he knew it, found himself in the nearby phone booth. He had a crumpled sheet of paper in his hand.

Moments after that, the phone rang at Babi’s place. Daniela immediately punched the button on the little wireless handset that she kept next to her on the sofa cushion. “Hello?” She stared at Babi, stunned. She couldn’t believe her ears.

“Oh, yes, I’ll put her on.” Babi turned unruffled to look at her sister. “Babi, it’s for you.” It only took that instant, a quick glance, the look on her face to make it all clear. It was him.

Daniela handed Babi the telephone, doing her best to maintain her self-control in front of her parents, who were watching TV with them on the sofa. Babi took the phone delicately, as if fearful to touch it, as if one vibration too many might cut off the call, making it disappear forever. She slowly lifted it to her lips, emotionally stirred even by the utterance of that simple “Yes?”

“Ciao, how are you?” Step’s warm voice directly reached her heart. Babi looked around, appalled, worried that someone else might have noticed what she was feeling, her heart racing at three thousand kilometers an hour, the happiness that she was desperately trying to conceal.

“Fine, you?”

“Fine. Can you talk?”

“Hold on a second. I can’t hear myself think in here.” She got up off the sofa, carrying the phone with her, her dressing gown fluttering behind her. It’s hard to say why, but with certain telephones, you can never hear a thing when you’re around your parents.

Her mother watched her leave the living room and then turned suspiciously toward Daniela. “Who was that?”

Daniela was fast on her feet. “Oh, Chicco Brandelli, one of her admirers.”

Raffaella stared at her for a second. Then she relaxed. She turned back to the movie. Daniela, too, turned to the television with a faint sigh. It was over. If her mother had stared at her just a little longer, she would have collapsed. It was difficult to meet that gaze. It always seemed as if her mother knew everything. She paid herself a silent compliment for the idea of Brandelli. At last, that knucklehead had served some purpose.

Then Daniela grew emotional as she thought about her sister. Step had called her, not to be believed. She wondered what kind of a look Giulia would have on her face when she told her all about it tomorrow morning. Happy now, Daniela got comfortable on the sofa. No doubt, Giulia would eat her heart out.

The lights were off in Babi’s bedroom. She was leaning against a pane of glass, streaked with raindrops, the telephone in her hand. “Hello, Step, is that you?”

“Who else do you think it could be?”

Babi laughed. “Where are you?”

“In the rain. In a phone booth. Should I come over to your place?”

“I wish. My folks are home.”

“Then why don’t you come meet me?”

“I can’t. I’m grounded. They caught me when I came home yesterday. They were at the window, waiting for me.”

Step smiled and tossed away his cigarette. “So it’s actually true! There are girls in the world who are still being grounded…”

“Yep, and now you’re dating one.”

Babi shut her eyes in sheer terror, waiting to hear what would happen when the bomb she’d thrown exploded, but there was no taking it back now. However, there was no explosion so, slowly, she opened her eyes. Outside the glass, under a streetlight, the rain was more visible. It was starting to slow. “Are you still there?”

“Yes, I was just trying to figure out what it feels like to have been outmaneuvered by a very clever girl.”

Babi bit her lip as she walked nervously and happily around her room. So it was true. “If I was such a clever girl, I’d have picked someone else to outmaneuver.”

Step laughed. “All right, truce. Let’s see if we can keep it up for at least a day. What are you doing tomorrow?”

“School, then I’ll study, and the whole time I’ll be grounded.”

“Well, I could come and pay you a visit.”