Page 54 of It Takes Three To Tango

“Hey, Wis? Can I bring a couple of friends?” After he agrees, I ring off. I don’t want to go into lengthy explanations on the phone. My cousin knows me the best, so I think he might be surprised when I bring Rafe and Florencio. It’s still pretty surprising to me.

When I take the breakfast tray to the bedroom, Rafe and Florencio are as I left them, still lying in bed, facing each other, talking and laughing. Seeing them together causes a fluttering in my chest that stops my breath. I can’t think why. Maybe I’m having a heart attack, yes, that must be it.

I put the tray down a little too sharply.

“Are you okay, Con?” Rafe asks and I take a deep breathbefore turning round. My heart returns to normal. It could be an early warning. Perhaps I should get it checked out.

“I brought breakfast.” I pass them each coffee as they sit up.

I bring my own coffee and the plate of croissants over and sit on the bed.

“Mmmm, I could get used to this,” Rafe says, taking another bite of his croissant while I tell them the plans to visit my cousin and his vineyard next week.

“Damn.” My phone rings just as I’m retrieving some polvorones, shortbread biscuits, from the oven. I dance across the kitchen to put the hot tray down as quickly as possible and slide the phone out of my back pocket as quickly as I can.

“Hi, Julio,” I say as I cradle the phone to my ear.

“Hi. I can’t talk for long. I’m going to send you a file. Look at the profile for Caerus. Gotta go.” He rings off before I can ask him anything more.

This is the information I’ve been waiting for. I start to clear away the pots and utensils I’ve been using and stack the dishwasher. I clean down all the surfaces in the kitchen, even the ones I haven’t used. I look at the time and reason with myself that I might as well make a start on the sauce for dinner. I’m stalling. Now I have something significant enough for Julio to send it, and I’m reluctant to see what it might be.

After finishing the sauce, clearing away, and unloading the dishwasher, I stand for several seconds wondering if Ishould clean the fridge. Even though I know it’s going to be a problem, I just need to bite the bullet and take a look. I don’t want to be alone when I do it, though, so grabbing my laptop from my room, I head to the Hollywood room, where I know Rafe and Constantin are working. Rafe, with our help, is over halfway through my aunt’s diaries, and we’ve looked at most of the press cuttings too. Rafe has started to create an outline and fill in most of the references from the diaries. He’s also building a huge bank of questions for Estrella. She’s kept to her rooms since the dinner a few days ago, and I haven’t been to see her. We’ve been relying on updates from Juana, but I want to check in with her soon.

“Hi.” Rafe looks up briefly from where he’s bent over his large paper plan across the table. Constantin is in his usual place, sprawled across the couch.

“I received something from Julio,” I say, putting my laptop on the table but keeping it closed. “I’m not sure I want to look.”

“Will it be bad?” Rafe asks.

“I don’t know.” I’m starting to get a headache just thinking about it. I lean forward and rest my head on my laptop.

“Hey.” Constantin’s hands on my shoulders are a comfort and I raise myself up and lean against him. “It will be all right, I’m sure.”

Rafe scoots his chair round to sit next to me and takes my hand. “Whatever it is, we’re here for you.”

With their support, I feel ready to at least take a look. As I wait for the laptop to fire up, I ask if there have been any interesting snippets from my aunt’s diaries today. Sharing some insights into her life and some of her wittiest comments has been one of my favourite activities over the last few days.

“Well, there was a time when she told Brigitte Bardot that chasing passion was never going to bring her love,” Rafe says.

“She really did that?” I can’t believe how she managed to get away with it. But then again, Ihavemet my aunt.

My anxiety ramps up as I navigate to my emails and see Julio’s at the top of the list. The message is short. Not even a greeting.

This is all I could find. If you have any questions, you can call me after seven tonight.

I click on the file to download it. It’s a spreadsheet with several pages. There are a lot of lists of large sums of money, but understanding these is not one of my strong points, which is one of the reasons why I didn’t join the family business.

“What does all this mean?” The figures swim in front of my eyes, and the looming headache inches closer.

Constantin releases my shoulders and claims a chair on the other side of me. “May I?” He gestures to the screen, and I swivel it round for him to take a closer look.

“It seems to be some sort of financial forecasting and investment sheet.”

“When Julio called, he said to look for Caerus.”

Constantin frowns for a minute, as if thinking. “It sounds Greek, but I’m not familiar with it?”

“You know Greek?” Rafe asks.

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