Page 115 of The Moon & His Tides
Andrea didn’t say a word. He put on a playlist through the speakers, snorting a little under his breath whenun anno d’amorestarted playing. When he moved to change it, I knocked his hand away and settled comfortably against the window, staring out into the dark streets and up at that glowing face of the moon.
“I take it you’ll be staying with me until we leave for New York,” my friend said after some time when we were racing through the outskirts of London on our way to his hamlet in the countryside.
“If you’ll have me. I know Adam is a friend, and we met through him. I’m not sure what this means for you now that our… friendship has ended. If you’re still committed toBlood Oath––”
“Let me stop you right there,ragazzo,” he insisted, holding up a hand. “If I stopped projects the moment someone had a falling out with someone else, I’d never film a movie. I am not trivializing what you have been through, but this happens in an industry where sex and ego are rampant, hmm? Do not worry about me. I fell in love withBlood Oathbefore I met you, and now, we are friends,si? Neither have anything to do with Adam Meyers.”
“He’s a producer,” I pointed out.
He shrugged in that same way I had, one shoulder quirked casually. “He’s also an idiot. I doubt either will change because of some silly gossip.”
My sigh exploded from my slack mouth. “You saw?”
“I am a film director. I heard because it is my business to have my fingers to the pulse.”
I waited for him to say more, and when he didn’t, I pressed, “Well, don’t you want to ask me about it?”
“If you would like to,” he offered flippantly. “But I do not care if Adam Meyers kissed a bloke nor do I care if that bloke was you. I care about the hearts and minds of my friends. So if you need to tell me about what happened, I will listen. However, I suggest we wait until we reach the house because I believe this calls for good wine or grappa. But if you want to never speak of this with me, then, that is okay, too, Sebastian.”
He slanted me a look, mouth curling slightly at my shocked expression. “This is friendship,” he said in Italian. “To me, this is what it means. Being here for you however you need me because your grief is yours alone until you want to share it.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, trying not to cry for the millionth time that night. At this point, my eyes were so dry from their effort that my lids felt like sandpaper. “I think for now, I don’t want to speak of it. It’s too… raw.”
“Bene,” he said as if the matter was closed. “We will thank our lucky stars that we met, no matter who introduced us, and we will focus our considerable efforts on creating the best movie the world has ever seen, shall we?”
Despite everything that had happened in the past few hours, I found myself grinning at him. Because I might have lost Adam and Savannah, but I hadn’t lost everything.
I still had the friends I’d made, Chaucer, Linnea, and Andrea.
I still had my family, even if we were scattered across the world.
And I still had other dreams.
OnesIwas in control of seeing come true.
Was there any other cure for heartbreak as healing as throwing yourself into work?
I was ready to find out.
And if I wondered secretly whether Savannah and Adam would see my meteoritic rise to fame and fortune and wonder forevermore if they’d made the worst mistake of their lives, well, that was a secret I’d keep just for me.
In the next few weeks,things moved quickly, even though my wounds healed at a glacial pace.
Andrea and I moved to New York City to filmBlood Oath.
Elena and Mama came with us.
Using some of my savings and money Cosima sent from a particularly lucrative modelling contract, we put a down payment on a small brownstone in Little Italy for them. Andrea had an old friend who ran one of the best Italian kitchens in the city who gave Mama a job, and Elena was accepted in the law program at NYU.
They were safe and happy.
Knowing I’d played a part in that helped fill some of the bottomless pit the Meyerses had carved out of my soul as I worked tirelessly on the passion project they’d set into motion for me. I poured all the angst and turmoil and anger they’d left me with into my role as Roberto. It was healing only a little more than it was painful. Being on set of the film they’d both believed in so profoundly reopened my wounds every single day.
But it meant I gave the performance of a lifetime.
Or at least, that was what Andrea said every time we went over the dailies together.
Honestly, I had to agree with him.
