Roman Encounter Read online

  “He did,” Ines agreed. “They’re being distributed to corporate clients next week.”

  The launch party to herald the opening of the 9th Cazale hotel was taking place towards the later part of the month. Only, she wasn’t looking forward to it as much anymore. She had envisioned taking Davide with her and introducing him to everyone. Everyone else was taking a plus one, and it had never bothered her before; she had been good at keeping her private life separate from her working life—something which wasn’t difficult to do when everyone else around her seemed to have a drama of their own going on at any given time. It had always been easy for Gina to slip into the background, to become part of the furniture and observe everything going on around her without ever playing a major part.

  “Great work,” said Gina. She knew how much effort Ines had put into these, coming in early and working all those late nights like she often did except that Ines was newly married and had a husband to go home to. She had a spring in her step, and a vibrancy about her which Gina assumed came from having a secure and loving relationship; of being in love and not having a care in the world.

  Ines was a few years younger than her and Gina didn’t know why it bothered her so much these days, the whole thing about age and growing older, but it did. It grated on her.

  She was becoming increasingly conscious that she hadn’t done anything significant with her life. Watching others around her move on with their lives only served to remind her of how much she hadn’t with hers.

  Even Mimi seemed settled and happy now. Relations between them all had been strained further when she moved to France with her boyfriend and daughter. But bridges were slowly being built, especially after her father’s death years ago. A year ago, Mimi and her family had moved closer and were now no more than an hour away.

  Nico himself had settled down to marital bliss and fatherhood. She had known him from his playboy days and remembered his father, Edmondo, lamenting that his son would never be responsible enough to take on the family business. Looking at Nico now, and what he had accomplished with his new hotel, she knew that Edmondo’s fears had been totally unfounded. It was sad that he wouldn’t be around to see the final culmination of this project which had started soon after his untimely death.

  Gina missed him. He had been like a father figure to her only he never knew it. But then, nobody did. Not Elsa, or Nico, or Ava. These people were like a second family for her, and the Casa Adriana was like a second home. They had no idea what they, and this place, meant to her.

  Even now, though Nico always made it a point to thank her for the work and time and effort she put in, he had no idea how much she loved her work. How much she loved being at the Casa Adriana.

  She had power at work. She was in control, and Nico passed over a lot of the decision making to her on account of having his own hands so full. Everyone respected her; the staff, Ines and the managers at the other hotels. Everyone it seemed, except for Demetrio. Nico had created a new position of chief technical officer and Demetrio, not even thirty years old yet, had impressed Nico sufficiently enough, it seemed, that he got the job.

  As time passed, however, the over-confident new recruit seemed to bear a grudge against Gina and she had no idea why.

  “Are you ready?” She stood up and smoothed down her skirt before grabbing her folder and pen. They had the usual Monday morning meeting to attend.

  “Yeesssss.” Ines held a hand to her mouth and stifled a yawn as she rose.

  “What time did you get here this morning?” Gina noticed dark circles under Ines’ eyes. “You’ve got to stop putting in all the crazy hours, Ines.”

  Ines looked away as a flush crept along her face. “We went to Padua for the weekend to visit friends and we only drove back this morning. We ended up staying an extra night. Felice wanted to make the weekend last as long as possible.”

  “Padua?” Gina murmured wistfully, thinking of her own weekend. Even a funeral would have had more appeal compared to the type of weekend she’d had. Ines and her husband seemed so happy, so in love. In fact, it seemed to Gina that everywhere she looked she was surrounded by happy couples.

  “You should go, if you’ve never been,” Ines suggested, happily. “You should definitely mention it to your boyfriend. I can recommend some amazing restaurants and places to visit.”

  “We’ll see,” replied Gina, in a voice that indicated she was considering it even though nothing could have been further from the truth.

  She’d already made up her mind to make the most of her trip to Rome next week. It was something she was looking forward to a great deal. A feeling of restlessness had stayed with her since the weekend. It was more than an inability to sit still. She longed for escape. For a new start. For something different. More than that, she felt an urge to do something daring.

  She had always been a cautious person, treading carefully and her life had been safe, and average. Boring, on an even keel for most of the time. She didn’t rock the boat, or push too far out of her comfort zone. For the most part, she was a people-pleaser, and that had been fine while it had served her, but this restlessness had been growing and gnawing at her for months.

  Davide leaving her had been a turning point. She now felt compelled to do something, only, she didn’t know what.

  With her trip to Rome imminent, she was focusing her attention on that. The way she was feeling, even a one week project management training course seemed like fun. Such was her rock ‘n’ roll life.

  Her thoughts drifted again to a sadder place as they walked towards the training room. Demetrio was already there, as was Nico who was talking about his plans for the coming week and impending launch party in Ravenna.

  “Are we late?” she asked, looking at her watch.

  “No,” replied Nico. “Demetrio was asking about the launch but now that everyone’s here, I want to go through the plans for the next few weeks. We’re in for a busy time, as you all know.”

  The mere mention of Demetrio’s name put her in defense mode, and she sat down, inwardly skeptical already. This was typical of that little upstart. He was like a human lapdog, trailing after Nico like a dutiful servant, eager to please him and to be around him at every opportunity.

  She was pulled back to the conversation when Demetrio’s sharp voice grated on her ears. “Having revised the timescales, I expect to finish the upgrade in a month or so.”

  In a month or so?

  “It shouldn’t have taken so long.” She found his estimations vague. At the rate he was going, he was spending close to a week at each site. She had been watching him closely, and she knew he was the type of worker who dragged things out unnecessarily. As someone who had no option but to multi-task and get many tasks completed daily, Gina didn’t understand where this man was wasting his time. It was all well and good for Nico to tell her to give Demetrio some space, but he often went out of his way to make things difficult for her, and she was eager to let him have a taste of his own medicine.

  While she respected Nico’s advice, Gina sensed that Demetrio was deliberately taking advantage of Nico being too busy to notice. It wasn’t going to happen while she was around.

  “We’ve used IT contractors before, and they haven’t taken as long.”

  “With all due respect, Gina,” Demetrio gave her a long, cold stare, “I don’t have your experience, but I do know my hardware and software. An upgrade and testing everything properly takes more than the quick one to two day turnaround you’re expecting.”

  Nico coughed, and looked at his cell phone. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said, “But something urgent has come up and I need to go to Ravenna. Can we discuss this further at our next meeting?” They mumbled in agreement and started to pack up.

  “Gina.” Nico grabbed her as she was about to leave. “A word, please.” She hung back.

  “I have some paperwork that needs to be dealt with today, some invoices which need to be paid. Do you think you can deal with them? There’s a pile of paperwork o
n my desk. I won’t be back until much later.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” she said, the magic words flying out the way they always did.

  Nico gave her his usual nod. “Thanks, Gina. I owe—oh.” He stopped short. “You’re in Rome next week, aren’t you?”

  She nodded. She’d postponed the course because things kept coming up, and like always, she was used to pushing her own things aside so that others could do the things they needed to, but, at long last, she was going back to Rome for the second part of a course she had taken a few months’ ago.

  “I might need you to stay on and help out at the Cazale Roma.”

  “While I’m on my course?” While she often multi-tasked like an athlete on steroids, if Nico expected her to go on her course as well as keep an eye on the Cazale hotel in Rome, he was insane. She wasn’t Wonder Woman.

  “No. A week or so after. The hotel is due for an inspection and Matteo often panics at these things. I need you to give him a reassuring hand, be around, and guide him. That sort of thing. You know the score. We’ve had many audits here and you’ve dealt with these things before.”

  She would have normally jumped at the prospect of being useful, indispensable even, but she was drained. Her life was all work and it was becoming dreary. But she couldn’t let him down, and she couldn’t say ‘No’, nor would she want to.

  “It’s not a problem, Nico. Leave it to me.”

  “I knew I could rely on you.” The expression on his face softened as he beamed at her, then rushed off before she could say another word.

  Chapter 3

  “Mama?” She walked in from work to find her mother lying on the sofa with her eyes closed and her hand resting across her forehead. Terrified, she flew across the room to her. “Mama?” She shook her gently, fearing the worst.

  “Where are my blood pressure pills?”

  “In the pillbox, where they usually are.”

  “They aren’t,” her mother insisted, her face turning ugly. “What are you trying to do, kill me?”

  Gina bit down on her lip. Anger simmered inside her, and it was difficult to keep it from exploding. “I’ll show you.” She got up and rushed into the kitchen, then remembered she hadn’t taken ones from the new prescription out yet. She rushed upstairs to the medicine cabinet and grabbed the new ones she had just picked up for her mother last week. She ran back downstairs again and filled a glass of water.

  “Here, Mama.” She waited for her mother to raise herself slowly into sitting position. Her body had tensed ever since she’d set foot inside, and she realized that she had been holding her breath in. She forced herself to relax her stiffened body. Her mother was becoming more difficult, and Gina no longer had the energy to pander to her ever-increasing tantrums.

  “Didn’t you check upstairs?”

  “You expect me to go up and down the stairs all day with my knees?” Her mother took a pill and swallowed it. “

  “Not all day, Mama. You would have only needed to go upstairs once.”

  “I called you at work. Not once, but twice.”

  Damn it. The receptionist had given her the message but she had been so busy, she’d forgotten to call back.

  “Sorry, Mama. It’s been busy at work.”

  “It’s always busy at your work,” her mother hissed. “You spend more time there than you do here.”

  She almost snorted in exasperation. “I can’t be at your beck and call all day, Mama. And if you called me twice just because you couldn’t be bothered to go upstairs to get the pills, I’m glad I didn’t return your call. Nico’s opening the new hotel soon and we’re busier than ever. Please don’t call me again unless the house is on fire!”

  The words tumbled out of her mouth.

  “You would like that, wouldn’t you?”

  “Less of the drama, Mama,” she said, rubbing her eyebrow.

  “If Mimi was here, she would take better care of me.”

  Gina was incensed. This was rich, coming from the woman who had thrown her sister out all those years ago. “Why don’t you get Mimi to come and look after you, then, if that’s what you believe?”

  “She called me today.” Her mother gloated.

  “It’s about time she did something,” Gina muttered. Mimi hadn’t visited them in months even though Gina had told her about her mother’s impending surgery.

  “She said she’ll come and visit soon.”

  “Let’s roll out the red carpet.” She was still incensed by her mother’s earlier remark. The hell Mimi would take better care of her.

  “Why are you so nasty to your sister?”

  “I learned it from you, Mama.” She regretted it immediately, and took it back. “I’m not nasty to her, and I wish we’d see them more. We would have, if you hadn’t been so narrow-minded.”

  “She sinned. She made a mistake, she had to learn that what she did was wrong, having a child that young, and not even married.”

  “She’s still with the same man,” Gina countered. “He can’t be all that bad.”

  “Quiet.” Her mother waved her hand at her. “I don’t want to talk about that anymore.”

  “Next time she calls, why don’t you tell her to come and spend a week with you?” Gina suggested. She could do with having another pair of hands to help her after her mother’s surgery.

  “She’s busy looking after her own family. She doesn’t have all the time in the world like you do.”

  “I don’t have any time at all, Mama,” Gina snapped, “and Lord knows I try and do my best with you.”

  “Don’t you dare take the Lord’s name in vain.”

  She breathed in, making a guttural noise in her throat as she did so.

  “It’s true,” she said, composing herself. “I look after you as best as I can, even though you are the most impossible woman on this planet.”

  “Impossible or not, I’m all you have, so you might as well get used to it.”

  “You’re not all I have, Mama!”

  “I don’t see men beating down the door to put a ring on your finger. Do you really think you’re going to find anyone who’ll want to marry you and start a family? Don’t you think someone would have snapped you up by now if they thought you were worth it?”

  The color drained from her face as she stared in shock at her mother who lay on the sofa again with her eyes closed. The ground felt suddenly uneven, as she struggled to keep standing while all around her the room spun out of control. Her mother’s words, cruel and heartless as they were, carried a grain of truth. She knew this. And it was the truth that cut deeper than the malice.

  Most women had mothers who inspired and supported them, who comforted them in times of need. But her mother talked to her as if she couldn’t bear the sight of her. At times like this, Gina envied Ava for having someone like Elsa to guide her through her life.

  She wanted to believe that it was the high blood pressure that had made her spout off, but she knew she would only be lying to herself.

  With her crumbling sense of self, and a sinking heart, Gina slowly walked up the stairs to her bedroom.

  She had scribbled the letter in rough at home last night and had sent Nico an email requesting to see him.

  Now that she had done the thing, now that the idea was no longer percolating inside her head but was real and out there, and on paper, she could no longer drag it out. Nico was due to have lunch with Ava today, and she didn’t want to wait until the end of the day, in case he had something more urgent to deal with and she got cold feet.

  If she didn’t see him now, she feared that she might change her mind, and she couldn’t afford to change her mind. Something had to change. She couldn’t go on like this.

  She stared at the letter in front of her, the one she had typed up properly this morning when she’d come into work. A night of sleeping on it had her waking with a clear decision.

  A change of environment, a new city, a new home and a new perspective were the things she needed. She had been stu
ck in her safety zone for years and the time had come to venture out.

  A knock on her door was followed by Nico walking in. The white envelope lay on the table and Nico’s gaze fell on it the moment he stepped into her office.

  “Is this about wanting to take some time off?” he asked, sitting down on the edge of the seat, not sitting back all relaxed. He looked to be in a rush, with his jacket on and she knew he was probably on his way out for that lunch date with his wife. His eyes settled on the envelope lying so conspicuously on the desk.

  “What’s this?”

  “My resignation letter, Nico.” It was too late to back out of it now. Her heart thudded inside her as the enormity of the life-changing decision she had made now stared back at her.

  “You want to leave?”

  She winced and nodded. “It’s been a difficult decision.”

  “I was under the impression that it was only time off that you wanted.” He looked shell-shocked, and she felt at once sorry and guilty for putting him in such a position. It was careless and thoughtless of her to do this now—weeks before the opening of the new hotel. She rubbed the back of her hand, not knowing what to say back to him. “Could that still be an option?” Hope sounded in his voice.

  She shook her head, seeing in her mind’s eye the months stretching out before her. A few months off would help with the post-surgery hell her mother was sure to put her through, but the rest of it would still be the same. It wasn’t time off that she needed, as much as a new start.

  As people around her moved forward with their lives, she felt more stuck in hers. It had only been with Davide that she had started to believe that she too could have a life with someone. That she wouldn’t need to be single forever. For the first time in months, years even, she had found a piece of happiness for herself. It had been the sudden wrenching away of it, so unexpected, so out of the blue that had hit her hard.

  “I don’t think so, Nico.”

  “But why? What can I do to make you stay?”