Page 49 of Far from Home
Amy’s ears pricked up, but she refrained from asking for details, hoping he would say more. But all she got were a few words.
‘It’s a long sad story. I’ll tell you some time.’ She saw him glance at his watch and finish the last of the wine in his glass before standing up. ‘I’d better get back, I’m afraid. The trouble with working with the US is that it’s the middle of the afternoon over there and, of course, nobody thinks about the time difference. I have another Zoom meeting with Hollywood in half an hour, so I have to go.’
Amy stood up as well and, as she did so, she felt the Labrador stir at their feet. ‘Thank you for coming, and good luck with the award application.’
‘Thank you for inviting me, and for helping me with that damn form.’
‘Any time. Be careful in Somalia, won’t you?’ This was all sounding a bit stilted but what else could she say? Blurting out that she liked him a lot and felt attracted to him wasn’t going to help. If she did and it resulted in an outpouring of affection from him, it would make her return to London even more bittersweet. If it just resulted in him giving her a peck on the cheek and disappearing, that would do nothing to temper the sadness she was feeling at losing him from her life – or at least seriously limiting the times they would be able to meet up. His voice interrupted her thoughts.
‘When will I see you again?’
She wondered if he had been thinking along the same lines as she had, but his face gave nothing away. She could only shrug her shoulders.
‘I don’t know. Hopefully quite soon, but I’ve now used up all my back holiday entitlement so it’ll probably be a few months before I manage to come back over here. If you ever come to London, do give me a call and let’s meet up.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind. Thanks again.’ He reached out with both hands and caught her gently by the shoulders, pulled her towards him and for a moment she felt her eyes closing in anticipation but all she got from him were the usual pair of chaste pecks on the cheeks.
‘Arrivederci, Amy.’
I’ll see you again.But the question was when?
Chapter 28
Amy got back to London on Saturday evening still feeling downbeat. There had been tears in her eyes when she had presented the other Labrador dish she had made to Signora Grande and had given the big dog a last affectionate hug. All the way back on the plane she had been unable to concentrate on anything but Sant’Antonio and its inhabitants – all of them, both human and canine – and she knew she was going to miss them and laid-back life in the lovely old Tuscan town. And then, of course, there was l’Ospedaletto and the memory of her father, but even thoughts of him did little to cheer her. He had left her a wonderful house, but she was having to leave it. He had, by all accounts, been a lovely kind, generous man, but she had been prevented from ever meeting him. A combination of his insistence upon keeping the promise he had made to her mother, coupled with her inflexibility and stubbornness, had ruined the lives of both her parents and, looking back, had probably impacted her own. It was therefore with a heavy heart that she unlocked the door to her flat and turned on the lights.
Lying on the door mat was a jumble of mail, mostly adverts for pizza delivery services and cheap funerals. Underneath these she found Gavin’s key. It appeared that he had respected her instructions to return it to her after removing his belongings. That chapter of her life, at least, now appeared to be finished. She set down her bags and wandered into the kitchen. Needless to say, the fridge was empty – all except a lone bottle of Pinot Grigio. She took it out and opened it, poured herself a glass and located a packet of cheese and onion crisps. She was just sitting down to this meagre dinner when her phone started ringing. It was Lucy.
‘Welcome home, Amy. Glad to be back?’
‘Hi, Luce. To tell you the truth, I have no idea. Yes, in a way it’s good to be back on familiar territory and I’m looking forward to going into the office on Monday, but I can’t help thinking about Sant’Antonio.’
‘Anybody in particular you’re thinking about?’ Lucy didn’t give her time to answer. ‘Tell me later. I’m guessing you’re sitting there all alone with an empty fridge, so why don’t we meet up for a curry?’
‘That sounds like a marvellous idea, Luce, but haven’t you got better things to do on a Saturday night? I assumed you would be entertaining one of your phalanx of men friends.’
‘I’ve got some news on that front. I rather think that the phalanx – good word, that – has reduced itself to one man.’ Sensing Amy’s heightened interest, she continued. ‘I’ll tell you about him over a rogan josh.’
‘That’s excellent news – both the man and the curry – but why aren’t you with him tonight?’
‘He’s a pilot with British Airways and he’s on his way back from Agadir as we speak. I’m meeting him at midnight.’
They met up in the Bengal Palace and Amy immediately quizzed her friend about the man in her life. It turned out that this was a new boyfriend and, at long last, it sounded as though Lucy might finally have decided to abandon her wild ways after finding Mr Right. Needless to say, in return for this revelation, Amy had to sit through an interrogation of her own that finished with Lucy wagging her finger at her.
‘Your man is obviously off his head. From what you’ve told me, and from the way you speak about him, it’s clear to me that the two of you are made for each other. Now, if you’d just listened to Auntie Lucy and jumped on him, you wouldn’t be in this position now.’
‘What position?’
‘Sitting here with a face like a wet weekend. You should be bubbling over with joy. You’ve found out who your dad was and that he was a famous writer; you’ve discovered you’ve got a brother you knew nothing about; you’re the owner of a medieval palace, and you’ve got more money in the bank than I could even dream of having. Instead, look at you: you look as miserable as sin.’ She produced a mischievous grin. ‘Although in my experience sin can be a lot of fun.’
‘No, I’m not really miserable.’ Amy held up her hand to prevent Lucy from interrupting. ‘I’m just confused, that’s all. I’m looking forward to going back to work on Monday but at the same time there’s a part of me that questions whether I’m doing the right thing. Maybe my future lies in Tuscany. Just give me a few weeks to sort my head out.’
After ordering their meal, Lucy returned to the subject of Adam. ‘Do you think he’s got another woman? Is that it?’
Amy had been doing a lot of thinking about this. ‘When I told him I’d broken up with Gavin he made a comment along the lines of, “That’s tough, I know what it feels like,” or some such. I wonder whether he was in a relationship that ended badly and it’s a question of once bitten, twice shy.’
‘You could be right, but if that’s the case you just need to work on him. Get him talking about it and let him get to know you properly.’ Lucy waited until the waiter had brought them two bottles of beer. ‘The only thing is that in order to do that, you need to be there, not here.’
Sunday was overcast but Amy did her best not to let the weather affect her mood, which was subdued enough as it was. She spent the day cleaning the flat, doing the laundry and she only went out briefly for a food shop to refill the fridge. She only had one iffy moment when she saw a blind lady with a black Labrador guiding her along the pavement. Amy had to struggle for a moment not to drop her bags of shopping, fall to her knees, and embrace the dog, who just wandered stolidly past her. Yes, it wasn’t just humans over in Italy that she was missing.
