To Tuscany with Love (14 page)

Bella launched herself into Phillip’s arms. She clutched him as tightly as she could, her lips insistent against his, demanding. How could she leave Italy when it meant leaving Phillip? He met her kisses with matched fervor. His hands roved over her backside, pressing her even tighter against him. A groan escaped Phillip’s lips.

“Excuse me, lovebirds.” Meghan’s soft voice next to them finally pried them apart.

Phillip turned, drawing Bella against his side.

“I’m rounding everyone up for a group photo in fifteen minutes,” Meghan said. “And the driver said we need to have our luggage with us so we’re ready to blast off after the picture.”

“Shit.” Phillip’s arm slid off Bella’s shoulders. “I better pack. It’ll take me at least fifteen to finish.”

Bella playfully pushed him away. “Get cracking, then. I’ve got a towering mound of clothes to deal with myself.”

“I’ll help you, Bella.” Meghan smiled with a wistful look on her face.

Once back in the room, Meghan took one look at Bella’s messy pile and scooped the clothes out of the case and onto the bed. Meghan turned into a packing machine, folding and sorting clothes with precision. Neat stacks, sorted by type of garment, covered the bed. Army precision guided the mechanics of Meghan’s folding and sorting, but her face bore a weary sadness.

Bella recognized herself in Meghan’s expression. “You’re going through the same thing, aren’t you? Leaving Lee, I mean.” Bella sat with her legs folded underneath her on a corner of the bed, out of Meghan’s way.

Meghan shook her downcast head. She stopped folding and met Bella’s gaze. “We’re breaking up.”

“What? Why?”

“I told him we had to. He wants to get into med school, and when he does, it’ll be even tougher on him, with studying and trying to work on the side whenever he can. He doesn’t need, and can’t afford, the luxury of an out-of-town girlfriend.” Meghan inhaled so deeply that her chest rose and fell visibly. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “We agreed that if we’re meant to be together, it’ll happen someday. Just not now.” She bit her lower lip and silently returned to folding Bella’s summer garb.

Bella sprang up and threw her arms around Meghan. “No. Don’t give up so easily. You could always go visit him at school, couldn’t you? And can’t you move to be with him in med school?”

Meghan shook her head. “I’d be a distraction, and I love him too much to do anything that would hold him back. Besides,” she added, her somber face breaking into what was almost a smile, “I need to help Karen plan her wedding. We’re going to design all the dresses ourselves, and I’m going to help with the arrangements and planning. She needs me.”

“Right. I guess you do have to do that.”

Meghan looked up, her eyes lit with excitement. “While Karen and Ed are honeymooning, I’m going to be looking for a place to lease for our boutique. Our dad’s giving us some seed money, and Ed’s going to be a partner in the business, too, putting in some of his own money. You see, I have to be where Karen is so we can start our boutique. That’s always been our dream. To open our own shop after college.”

Bella nodded, but she could not imagine breaking up with Phillip. Thank God Phillip was in sync with her and was going to move heaven and earth to be with her. Bella watched as Meghan miraculously tucked the last blouse into the suitcase and closed it with only a gentle push.

Meghan patted the lid of the closed case. “So, I guess you and Phillip are going to try the long-distance romance?”

“He’s going to transfer as soon as he can figure out the money thing. Hopefully, this semester.”

“Lucky you. No, I should say, lucky him.”

Bella and Meghan were the last to tumble into the courtyard, lugging Bella’s suitcase and backpack.

With their chaperone chiding them to deposit their bags by the van and to hurry and line up for a photograph, the group laughed and jostled each other as they complied. Bella hugged each of her friends in turn by the van. She couldn’t imagine not being with them next week or next month. These seven kids were the best friends she’d ever had.

Bella punched Stillman on the shoulder to get his attention as he tucked his suitcase into the back of the van. “Hey, I need a hug from you.”

Stillman turned around. “Nope. You’re rationed. You get one at the airport, and that’s it.” His face was dead serious.

Bella pretended indignation. “After sharing a couchette with me on the train to Paris, you’re rationing me to one flippin’ hug?”

Stillman nodded in the direction of Phillip. “Doesn’t he get all your hugs?”

Bella rested her hand on his forearm. She leaned close, so only he could hear her words. “That’s bullshit. I hug who I want.” Bella wrapped her arms around Stillman. “You’re my friend, and I’m going to miss you like crazy.”

“Friend.” Stillman snorted. “The hot ones always want to be my friend.”

Phillip appeared at Bella’s side, tugging her free hand, pulling her into the line being formed for the picture. Laughing and joking, the group lined up—Phillip, Bella, Stillman, Hope, Lee, Meghan, Karen, and Rune. Summer abroad was officially over.

Phillip held her tight. Bella glanced sideways at him, giddy with the thought that he’d soon meet her mom. She couldn’t wait to be home and see her.

Being so far from her mom this summer had been harder than she’d imagined. It had become even worse when the letters from her mother stopped coming. Bella had shared her worry with Phillip, who had shrugged and chalked it up to the unreliable Italian postal system. For now, Bella pushed away the nagging worry. She’d see her mom in less than a day.

Bella daydreamed about being back home with both her mom and Phillip, all three of them together at the kitchen table. Her family.

15

JFK Airport, New York

B
ella twitched with excitement in spite of her exhaustion from being up twenty-four hours straight. Her mother stood somewhere in the waiting area.

“I’ll take off work, honey. I can’t wait to see you.” Her mother’s lyrical voice, her cadence slower than usual, had crackled through the lines during her telephone call two weeks before.

Bella couldn’t get back soon enough. This was the longest she had ever been apart from her mother. Ever since Bella had started college, she and her mother had been best friends, often talking and giggling together late into the night.

Bella blinked at the harsh airport light and breathed deeply to force out the stale airplane air. Her pace, which had been a sprint from the steps of the airplane to the shuttle bus, and then on to the terminal and the lines in U.S. Customs, had turned into a crawl in the waiting area.

Around her, voices chatted in English, not Italian. English meant home. Bella’s eyes danced through the curtain of eager faces waiting for loved ones. Light bounced everywhere; it welcomed her home.

Finally.

She skipped forward at the sight of her neighbor, Mrs. Kowalski, but the swarm of passengers slowed her progress. Her eyes searched for her mother as she walked toward Mrs. Kowalski, twenty feet away. Wrinkles framed the woman’s eyes, not just from the passage of time, but also from hours and hours of laughter. Today, though, Mrs. Kowalski’s eyes, accustomed to smiling, seemed clouded with sorrow.

Bella stopped. She felt someone slam into her from behind; hot breath swept the back of her neck, and garbled words marked the person’s sudden redirection.

Bella clawed and swam through the people still blocking her path until she reached Mrs. Kowalski. She could see that red puffiness had turned Mrs. Kowalski’s laugh lines into creases of pain. “Where’s my mom?” The breathless words echoed, too loud, too harsh.

Mrs. Kowalski clutched Bella to her.

Bella couldn’t breathe.

“I’m so sorry, honey.” Mrs. Kowalski’s husky voice against Bella’s ear excluded all other sound. “She got so weak. Your mother went into the hospital a week ago. They found cancer everywhere. I didn’t know how to reach you.”

Bella wrestled away from the fleshy arms. “Where is she?” She tugged on Mrs. Kowalski’s arm. “Let’s go. What hospital is she in?”

Mrs. Kowalski shook her head, and tears wet her eyes. “I’m so sorry. She’s gone.”

Bella stared at her.

Her knees trembled. Voices ping-ponged around her. The lights dimmed ...

Bella’s eyes fluttered open. She was sprawled on the floor. Dirty male toes in Jesus sandals stood a foot from her nose. She remembered. Her eyes squeezed closed. Her cheek pressed against the cold, hard floor. It smelled like dust and lemon industrial cleaner.

Mom.

A few weeks later, Bella sat in a molded chair, back at JFK. The terminal’s vast empty space loomed around her. Even the bright summer colors of passengers’ clothes couldn’t warm the sterile cavern.

The previous few weeks blurred in her mind. Endless paperwork, tears until she could only hack and choke up air, and a swirling fog that circled her every movement and thought. Exhaustion gripped her, even though she had fallen into deep chasms of sleep every night in her mother’s bed. The burn on her left hand caught her eye. She wondered if it would scar, a constant reminder of ironing the dress she had buried her mother in.

She hoped the oppressive fog surrounding her might lift today. Or at least not surround her until she gagged and choked, like it had each of the days since she learned that her mother had died all alone. At the same time, she, the dutiful daughter, had flirted and made love with Phillip in Italy, relishing the idea of introducing him to her mom. She had known that her mother would love Phillip.

She clutched her purse in her lap, the precious letter tucked inside. Bella sighed and pulled out Phillip’s note.

So sorry to miss the funeral ... need to see you ... had a long talk with my parents about transferring out East ... love you ... can’t wait.

I love you.

Phillip

Bella refolded the paper, weak along the fold lines from countless readings.

“Meeting a boyfriend?” a petite woman nearby asked. She wore a stylish black suit and crisp white blouse, with a black-and-white silk flower pinned to her left lapel. Her hair was twirled behind her head in a French twist. The woman smiled.

“Yes.”

“Lucky you. I’m picking up my boss. Fine thing to do on a Friday night when you’re single, isn’t it?” The woman moved one seat closer. She extended her hand. “I’m Edie Bernstein. Actually, I’m divorced. I was married seven years to an attorney who liked to jump into bed with his clients. Literally.” Her face lit up with a teeth-exposing grin. “But I know a few sharks in Manhattan legal circles, so I came out just fine, thank you very much.”

Bella couldn’t help but smile. “Bella Rossini. Nice to meet you. Sorry about the ruined Friday night.”

Edie leaned closer and lowered her voice. “My boss hates airport shuttles, and the company won’t approve a limo. I volunteered to pick him up.” She flashed another toothy grin and winked. “I got my husband’s Cadillac in the divorce.”

Edie snapped open her slim leather briefcase and exposed a pad of paper, a silver card case, and a clutch purse. As she extracted a business card from the card case, she used only the pads of her fingers; her manicured fingernails glistened.

She handed the card to Bella. “Editorial assistant. I’ll be a full-fledged editor before the year’s out, with my own author clients. A huge promotion up from gofer, don’t you think? At twenty-nine, a girl in the city has to scramble to get ahead. So you donate your Friday nights to airport runs in exchange for a promotion.” She winked again. “A hell of a lot better than fucking him, I say.”

“Amen.” Bella smiled. “My boyfriend’s going to transfer out here. Or at least he hopes to. He’s got interviews with three schools.”

The public address announcer’s garbled words prevented Edie from replying. Bella and Edie stood and edged toward the gate door being opened by two blue-uniformed women.

A balding, rotund man exited the gate third. Edie raised her left hand and waved. It was her boss, apparently. A fixed professional smile had lodged on Edie’s face. She moved behind a pillar toward the spot where her boss would enter the waiting area. Edie half-turned to call back to Bella. “Nice meeting you. Remember to come up for air this weekend, Bella.” Another wink and Edie and her boss disappeared into the crowd.