Honeymoon For One (13 page)

What had just happened here?

 
The
moment had taken her completely by surprise. She hadn’t realized until now,
just how strong her feelings for Nico had become. The magic that had hung in
the air, vanished into it as fast as it had appeared and all at once Nico
seemed in a hurry to get back. He jumped up from the bench and started to walk
away.

Ava found herself getting up and following him but
her mind was still processing what had just taken place. He
did
have
feelings for her. Or did he? All of a sudden, she wasn’t sure any more. He had
turned hot and cold, in an instant. She was fully aware of her feelings now.
But she was left totally confused about his. Nico seemed in a terrible rush all
of a sudden and that bothered her. The possibility that he now saw her as an
embarrassment bothered her even more.

“What just happened, Nico?” she asked, trying to
keep the irritation out of her voice, as she half ran to keep up with him.

“I remembered I have a meeting later this
afternoon,” he said impatiently, glancing at her for the first time since he
had pulled away. Her eyes met his briefly before he looked away but Ava had
seen the anger in them.

“You remembered you had a meeting?” she said
deliberately inflecting her voice. “You’re always having meetings. Who are you
seeing now?” she asked bitterly.

“My boss,” said Nico, avoiding her gaze.

“And who’s your boss?”

“Mr. Cazale, the owner of the hotel,” said Nico,
before adding, “My father.”

The complete silence that followed was broken by
Ava’s derisive laugh. “And all along I’d been thinking that
you
were the
owner.” It wasn’t true at all, although she had started to wonder exactly what
role he did play. But she wanted to hurt him and, by the way he responded, she
knew that she had.

Nico stopped in his tracks and turned towards her
with such a ferocious look on his face that she stopped suddenly too, not
daring to take a step further. He glared at her, then cocked his head. “Why
would you think I was the owner?” he growled.

What had gotten into him? He had opened up to her
and shared his past with her and then gone from hot to cold, all in the space of
about ten minutes. This sudden change in character frightened her. Answering
him in a voice that was deceptively more confident than how she felt. “Your
Breitling watch, your Armani suit, your ability to come and go and do as you
please. Maybe things are different here in Italy but where I come from, hotel
drivers don’t walk, talk and dress the way you do.”

From where she found the nerve to say exactly what
she had been thinking Ava did not know. Especially now, when his face looked
like thunder; she wanted to cower before him, but her arrogance made her stand
even more upright.

Nico’s eyes never left her face and she could feel
them burning into her. More than that, she sensed that she had somehow let him
down - that he was disappointed in her. And when he said the next few words,
she knew for sure that she had.

“You thought
I
was the owner? Was that why
you kissed me?” he asked in a voice so condescending that she wished she could
turn and run.

“It wasn’t something that I did by myself. Don’t
delude yourself.”
The cheek of it. Did he really think she had come onto
him?

All at once she understood his  anger. He thought
she was no more than another gold digger who was after his money. But before
she could utter another word in her defense, Nico shot her down. “I’m so sorry
to disappoint you Ms. Ramirez. But I am not the owner of the hotel. I just
happen to work there.”

He gave her one final look of disgust, as though
she was dirt beneath his feet and walked off towards the street where he had
parked the car.

Visibly knocked back, Ava slowed down to a crawl.
She didn’t want to look like the whimpering weak woman running after him. She
purposefully lagged behind him and slowly made her way to the car.

So this was what he really thought of her? A
scheming, gold digger? He had given her no chance to explain herself. Perhaps
he wasn’t the owner. Maybe he was just another well paid hotel worker here.
Maybe she had it all wrong.

To hell with Verona.

Her
time here was almost over and soon she would be heading to Venice. She had
escaped Denver to have a break in Italy and now here she was in the same
situation, only this time she was eager to escape to Venice.

When they arrived back at the hotel, Ava rushed
out of the car, slamming the door hard behind her. She stormed into the main
hotel lobby and saw, on entering, that it was busy today. Gina and another
assistant were dealing with a small party of guests. She paused with relief to
see that Nico had not followed her in. She didn’t want to see him yet. Coming
out of the hotel conservatory was a tall, thin and blonde woman who looked vaguely
familiar. She had by her side a small child carrying a teddy bear. The woman
smiled at her and Ava smiled back, still not sure who she was.

“Enjoying your stay, I hope?” the woman asked her,
as she approached Ava. “Go and wait for me in the dining room Alessa,” she said
to the little girl by her side.

“Have we met before?” asked Ava, watching the
little girl, holding her bear by the ear and walking towards the conservatory.
The woman gazed at Ava curiously. She put out her hand, “I’m Silvia Azzarone. I
think we met a few days ago, in Verona. We didn’t
meet
  as such.
You pretended not to see us and well, Nico saw you and he seemed quite
worried.”

Something about her tone instantly put Ava on
guard. Verona, a few days ago. Yes,  she remembered her now. It was the woman who
had been sitting with Nico outside. She remembered the child there that day as
well.

Silvia looked over her shoulder at the child and
then looked back at Ava, and when she did, the smile was gone from her face.  “Don’t
get too close to Nico,” there was the tiniest hint of a threat in her words.

The unexpected comment from this almost total
stranger had Ava at a loss for words. “What did you just say?” asked Ava, not sure
she heard it right the first time.

“I’m telling you to stay away,” said Silvia
smiling sweetly in readiness for the blow that she was soon to deliver. “We
have a child together. Or did he forget to mention that to you?”

The tinny sound of her high stiletto heels clipped
sharply on the marble floor as she headed back into the conservatory leaving
Ava standing under the chandelier with her mouth agape.  

She felt as though she had been blindsided by a
ten tonne truck.

Nico sighed heavily then punched the steering
wheel with his tightly clenched fist. His shoulders rose and fell in line with
his heavy, labored breathing. He watched Ava rush out of the car and slam the
door hard behind her, without so much as a backward glance.

He couldn’t move. He needed time to calm down
himself down.

He hated the way the day had turned out. She had
done what they all did and she was really no different to the rest of them. As
soon as they found out who he was, they changed towards him. He had been so
sure that Ava didn’t know who he was, and frankly, to anyone outside of Italy, who he was simply did not matter.

He braced himself as he got out of the car and
walked into the hotel only to see a worried looking Gina standing behind the
reception desk. “Your father is waiting for you in his office,” she whispered.
There was an urgency in her voice that prepared him for what was to come.

No sooner had Gina warned him than Mr. Cazale
opened the door behind the reception desk and stood in the doorway, looking at his
son. Nico could see that the old man looked none too happy.

“You’re late. And you are the one who called this
meeting.” His father’s tone was cold and quiet. Nico bristled inwardly, knowing
that he must not fly off the handle, not now, when the next thirty minutes
could change the course of his life. As he took a sharp intake of breath,
Silvia glided into his view, slipping in from the side by the conservatory.

Her
face was bright and she wore her usual fake smile. 

“Nico, darling, I’ve missed you so much!” she
gushed walking towards him with arms outstretched. She approached him
confidently, placing her hands on either side of his shoulders and leant in to
kiss him on both cheeks.

Her demeanor didn’t surprise Nico. He knew she
believed that the results would fall in her favor but even so, she was
unusually upbeat. Then he saw Ava’s gaunt face as she slowly walked out behind
Silvia and all at once he knew what Silvia’s whole charade had been about.
Unable to contain the build up of slow anger, he took Silvia’s wrists in both
his hands and pulled them down, placing them back by her sides. His body was
rigid as he started to take a step towards Ava but Alessa skipped past happily,
dragging her teddy bear by its ear. The little girl gurgled when she saw Nico
and then ran to her mother’s side.

Rooted to the spot, the anger inside Nico was
insurmountable and he strained to keep his composure. For a few seconds,
everyone’s eyes were fixed on him. Until Ava made the first move and rushed
upstairs, her hand tightly clasping the handrail as if for support.

Nico watched her, unable to move; he had seen the
hurt in Ava’s eyes but he could not comfort her just yet.

“I’ll look after Alessa,” offered Gina.

“Would you like to do some drawing with Gina?”
asked Silvia. Alessa nodded enthusiastically.

“If you could give her some pencils and some
paper,” said Silvia kissing the little girl.

“I’m sure I could manage a few sheets of paper,”
said Gina coldly.

Mr. Cazale Senior smiled as he stepped forward and
out into the main lobby to welcome Silvia and Alessa. He greeted both of them
warmly and kissed the little girl giving her a tight embrace.  He beckoned
Silvia to follow him into his office, as Gina made a space for Alessa to do her
drawings.

Nico watched Silvia head into his father’s office
and his dark eyes blazed with a searing fury. He knew that Silvia’s little show
had been for his father’s sake, as well as for Ava’s. He hoped she hadn’t said
anything untoward to Ava. Although he knew Silvia had seen him running after Ava
that day outside the Casa di Giulietta.

He watched his father and Silvia as they linked
arms and walked back through the door into his father’s office.

“Nico!’” he heard his father’s voice. With a heavy
sigh, Nico followed them, stopping for a moment to look sideways at Gina. “Wish
me luck,” he said gloomily.

“Good luck,” Gina said after him as the door to
the office closed behind him.

She turned her attention to the little girl who
was busy drawing happy smiling faces on her sheet of paper.

 “Sit down Nico,” said his father slowly. He
saw that his son looked rather forlorn and he wondered why. He knew his son
didn’t love Silvia and therefore this was a heavy price to pay, to take on
fatherhood as the result of a few nights of passion.

“Alessa is not aware of anything?” asked Mr.
Cazale carefully, addressing Silvia.

“No. She thinks its just another visit to the Casa
Adriana before going shopping,” replied Silvia.

Nico tried to suppress the sarcastic laugh he felt
was coming on. He adored Alessa as much as anyone. What was there not to adore?
She was a cute five year old, happy and carefree and with all the sense of
wonder and amazement of a five year old. She had none of the malice that made
up most of her mother’s character.

Alessa had been born out of wedlock. Silvia, the
daughter of one of the richest men in Verona, and the youngest of four
children, had been rather spoiled by her parents. So when she announced that
she was expecting a child, with no marriage in hand, the news shocked her
parents but they stood by her, in this conservative country with tight moral
values. A child born out of wedlock to such a well-known and respected family
was not the norm here.

But Silvia, being stubborn and wanting things her
way, had demanded to keep the child. This action of hers was probably the first
unselfish and responsible thing she had ever done. The problem arose when she
insisted that Nico was the father.

The short summer romance that she and Nico had
shared, was what she had penned all her hopes and dreams on.

For Nico, Silvia had been a comfortable presence,
someone he had known since childhood. The news of his mother’s illness, just
then diagnosed, had been hard to bear. And Silvia, whom his mother had adored,
had become close to Nico and had helped him to deal with the soul destroying
news that his mother was terminal.

A few of those comforting nights had led to other
things. Shortly afterwards, Silvia announced that she was pregnant with his
child. Throughout the years Nico had strenuously denied this accusation. He
chose to ignore it because he knew the depths of Silvia’s deceit and knew that
she would use anything to get close to him.