Twice Upon a Time (3 page)

Cinda and Jonas stood at the end of the pier, the large yachts radiant like shining stars on the water around them.

‘What time did you say he was coming?’ asked Jonas, wearing a scowl on his usually very pleasant face. His tall and slender frame was decked out in white linen and, as usual, his sandy-coloured hair was tousled just so, with just the right amount of designer stubble on his face. He squinted his clear green eyes sceptically at Cinda as she scanned the water.

‘Eight o’clock,’ Cinda replied. She felt nervous but tried to sound reassuring. ‘He’ll be here any moment.’

‘I can’t believe you let yourself get picked up by some Euro-rat,’ he said crossly. ‘You’re such an easy mark, Cinda.’

Jonas had wanted to stay in to watch Italian TV, which he found hilarious, and flirt with the Swedish boys who’d arrived that afternoon. The news that Cinda was dragging him out with some guy she’d met on a walking track didn’t appeal to him at all.

‘Since when have you ever said no to a party?’

‘It’s true, I was born to party,’ conceded Jonas. ‘Like you were born to paint. But waiting on the pier? A yacht? Really, it’s probably some shitty leaking boat with bad wine and a stereo with one working speaker.’

Cinda looked at her watch. It was nearly eight. It would almost be morning back in Sydney. In a few hours her mother would be getting up. She’d make herself a cup of tea and probably check her online dating profile first thing, sitting at the old wooden table in the kitchen.

Cinda repeated her prayer that this time her mother would choose a decent guy.

Cinda’s father was a jazz musician who had run off when he found out Allegra was pregnant. Cinda hated him for not owning up to his responsibilities. Allegra’s second husband was a serial womaniser who ended up on a current affairs show for fleecing women – including Allegra – of hundreds of thousands of dollars. And her last husband, a South African guy who was, admittedly, fun, turned out to be a gay man who was more interested in citizenship than Allegra.

‘I told you he was a mo,’ Jonas had said when Cinda had revealed the truth to him.

‘I know, I know,’ Cinda had groaned, but Allegra had been smitten with his colourful friends and knowledge of music, theatre and opera.

Having had enough, Cinda had insisted on setting up an online dating profile for her mother before she left.

‘You need a decent guy, Mum. Not some douche who just wants whatever he can get from you.’

Her mother had argued about it, but when Cinda found her uploading a different profile picture from the one Cinda had chosen, she knew her mum wasn’t as opposed to the whole thing as she made out.

‘No-one more than five years younger than you, and they have to be employed,’ Cinda had said sternly, adjusting the settings of her mum’s profile accordingly.

‘And no Aries,’ her mum had added. ‘They’re all
stronzos
.’

Cinda knew that Allegra was secretly enjoying the attention she was getting from her online profile, even though she found fault with all the virtual suitors.

‘This one doesn’t have a chin,’ her mother had said, pointing to a winemaker who looked perfectly pleasant to Cinda.

‘Mum, you haven’t had any standards until now, and suddenly you’re an expert on chins?’ Cinda had snarked.

Cinda’s thoughts of home were interrupted by the sounds of a motorboat and then someone hailing them from a little way out to sea. She looked down to see Ludo in a slick speedboat.

‘
Ciao
, Cinda,’ he called with a wave and a smile, and she could have died from an overdose of lust and glamour right then and there. Ludo, standing confidently at the helm of the speedboat, was wearing a dark shirt that clung perfectly to his torso, and casual but clearly fabulous jeans. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen a guy looking better.
Why don’t all guys look like that
in jeans and a shirt?
she wondered. She made a mental note to ask Jonas later.

‘Well, hello sailor,’ muttered Jonas in Cinda’s ear, and she grabbed his hand.

‘Ludo, this is Jonas Cooper,’ she said, trying not to laugh at Jonas’s expression, which was a mix of lust, admiration and disbelief – no doubt a mirror of her own expression.

‘
Ciao
,’ said Ludo. He gestured at them. ‘Come on down.’

‘I’ll go down on anything he asks,’ Jonas muttered, and Cinda burst out laughing as she climbed down the steps and took Ludo’s outstretched hand and leapt onto the boat.

Jonas did the same and then turned and shook Ludo’s hand in a very exaggerated macho way, which Cinda knew was his modus operandi when captivated by a guy.

‘You ready to party?’ Ludo asked them, flashing the smile that Cinda was beginning to find addictive. He revved the engine.

‘Hell yeah,’ said Cinda, laughing, and she felt excited in a way she hadn’t felt before, as though something amazing was out on the horizon and only Ludo knew the way there.

‘Which one is yours?’ asked Jonas, looking ahead as Ludo pulled out from the pier.

‘The last one on the right,’ called Ludo over the noise of the engine. ‘Where we party till morning.’ He raised one arm above his head and Cinda and Jonas laughed.

‘Your Peter Pan is divine, little Wendy,’ whispered Jonas.

Cinda giggled as the engine roared underneath them and Ludo expertly navigated the water. Soon they were roaring past the other boats, most of which were decorated with fairy lights.

She had never met anyone quite like Ludo. It wasn’t just the clothes and the accent and the speedboat. It was his elegance, the sort of elegance she’d never encountered before. She had painted a few artists’ models that had a sprinkling of this quality. The way they held themselves, the way they moved about. But Ludo oozed elegance and charm through every pore.

The speedboat moved towards a huge yacht and Cinda turned to Jonas and made an excited face.

‘Is that your boat?’ asked Cinda, as she took in the sleek vessel, elegantly lit with twinkling lights and heard the beat of music becoming louder as they approached.

‘It’s my family’s yacht,’ said Ludo, as though he was pointing out something entirely ordinary.

‘That’s not a yacht, that’s a ship. A ship that will be hereafter called the S.S.
What the Fuck
,’ proclaimed Jonas.

Cinda and Ludo burst out laughing.

As they pulled up, the two men from the walking path, still in the same polo shirts, stood on the deck, looking down at Ludo. They didn’t look very happy.

‘They’re my bodyguards,’ said Ludo apologetically to Cinda and Jonas. ‘They're harmless enough.’

‘Bodyguards? Whitney Houston Brown Almighty, who the hell are you?’ Jonas exclaimed.

Ludo paused. ‘I’m just me,’ he said casually, and he stepped onto the yacht and put his hand out for Cinda to climb across.

She stepped out and turned back to Jonas. ‘Come on, Whitney, get on board.’

Cinda felt nerves bubble up. She was fairly certain her green striped maxi dress, rope of coloured beads and leather sandals weren’t quite right for a night on a yacht like this.

The deck of the ship was lit by overhead lamps, and silver fittings gleamed in the evening light. A cool summer breeze surrounded her, and Cinda wondered what it would be like to live in a place as lovely as this.

If this were my boat, I would never leave the deck
, she thought, as she followed Ludo down a few steps and into an open area below.

As she took in her opulent surroundings, she took that thought back. She could live below deck very happily as well.

The room was elegantly decorated, with lamps dotted around the room and a dining table to one side, laden with fabulous-looking seafood and salads and other rich-people food. Incredibly beautiful people were standing around, chatting easily, and a few others were dancing. Two women who were surely models reclined on the cane lounges, all long limbs, perfect skin and glossy hair. Not one of them turned to see who the new arrivals were. In the twinkling light, Cinda could see what looked like a champagne fountain.

‘Lord,’ hissed Jonas, visibly trying to keep his cool. ‘What are my eyes seeing? I’m in a super-rich kid’s Instagram photo!’

‘It’s so beautiful,’ said Cinda breathlessly. She turned to Ludo. ‘You’re very lucky.’

‘I know,’ said Ludo simply, shrugging. ‘Come and meet my friends,’ he said, taking Cinda’s hand and leading her and Jonas around the room, introducing them to girls with exotic names and slim bodies, and boys with classic names and perfect hair.

‘Seriously?’ said Cinda a little later, when she and Jonas moved to the side of the boat to take stock of their new world.

‘Seriously,’ nodded Jonas.

‘It’s unbelievable,’ she muttered as a waiter came over with fresh glasses of champagne.

‘To the S.S.
What the Fuck
,’ Jonas said, grinning and holding his champagne aloft.

Soon Cinda found herself talking to a very nice girl called Alex. She was from Greece, and seemed to know Ludo well, but gave away very little about him or herself. She asked Cinda questions about her life in Australia. She was exactly the sort of person Cinda would have been friends with back home, if she knew anyone who wore earrings with diamonds the size of peas.

Alex pulled Cinda and Jonas to the dance floor, joining a Spanish guy named Pedro, who wore a green straw hat, which Jonas thought was hilarious and fabulous in equal parts.

It wasn’t long before Ludo joined them, and soon Cinda was dancing closely with him. Maybe it was the champagne or the joint that was passed around but, either way, she was dizzy at the way he pulled her to him and how hard he was against her stomach.

She moved with him and let him kiss her neck a little. When she found they were in the shadows of the deck, away from the others, she let him kiss her, right there against the railing, and she knew he wanted her as much as she did him.
But not on the first
night
, she told herself. Even in her tipsy state she felt certain that a yacht like this called for higher standards.

‘I need to go back to the hostel soon,’ she said, slipping away from him to try to clear her thoughts.

Ludo pulled her back to him. ‘Stay the night with me,’ he whispered in her ear.

‘No,’ she said, hoping she sounded stronger than she felt.

‘Then come to my country with me tomorrow,’ he said, holding her hand in his. ‘We set sail in the morning.’

She saw he was serious.

He bent over and kissed her on the mouth again and she felt like she was falling away from everything she had ever understood. Was this love or just really convincing lust?

God, who cares?
she thought, as she pulled his hips to hers and kissed him back passionately.

‘Only if I can bring Jonas,’ she whispered, not even thinking about what Jonas would say, or their travel plans or anything else, just wanting Ludo as much as she had ever wanted anything.

‘Is he your chaperone?’ Ludo asked sexily. ‘Don’t you trust me?’ He moved his hand down her back and lower. ‘Or don’t you trust yourself?’

‘I trust no-one,’ she said in a mock-mysterious voice, and they both laughed.

They kissed for what seemed like hours, or maybe it was minutes, she couldn’t tell.

She finally pulled away. ‘Where are you from?’ she asked him, feeling dizzy. Had they been over this already and she’d forgotten?

‘Sardinia,’ he said as his hand crept along her side, feeling the rise of her hips.

‘Is that where sardines come from?’ she asked, as lust rolled through her.

Ludo laughed into her neck. ‘You’re so gorgeous, Cinda. I don’t know anyone like you.’

‘Nor I you,’ she said honestly.

As she gathered her thoughts she wondered how the hell she was going to explain to Jonas that she had just decided they’d be making a detour to a country famous for smelly little fish.

4

‘I feel like we should have watched
Taken
last night, just in case he’s selling us into slavery,’ whispered Jonas the next morning, as they waited for the speedboat at the pier.

They had made it back to their hostel at four in the morning, driven by the goon squad, as Ludo called his bodyguards.

Before they left, Ludo had taken Cinda by the hand. Most of the guests had gone to bed and one or two lay in repose on the deck, in a stoned, drunken haze.

‘I think you’ll like Sardinia, there’s plenty to paint,’ he said.

‘We’ll see you tomorrow,’ said Cinda, feeling the desire between them.

Ludo leant forward and she closed her eyes and held her breath. But his lips didn’t meet hers; they brushed each of her cheeks like tiny butterflies and she smelled his scent of lemons and soap, and a hint of champagne. He really was delicious.

‘
Buona notte
, Cinda,’ he said.

‘
Buona notte
, Ludo,’ she answered. She didn’t know if she hadn’t got her sea legs yet or if Ludo was rocking her world, but either way she found she didn’t mind it at all.

Finally she and Jonas made it up to their room with the single bed. The room looked even sadder after a night on a fabulous yacht.

‘I need the bathroom,’ she said and wandered down the hallway, still tipsy and so tired.