Unmasking Elena Montella (27 page)

Elena waited and waited for Rosanna to come back before finally going to bed. She was all packed for the next morning and was quite relieved to avoid having to lie to her sister about what she’d be doing the next day. She’d already written her note of apology, explaining how she couldn’t really have a trip to Italy without visiting their mother. Rosanna would understand - maybe not immediately, but eventually.

She looked up into the dark beams above the bed and wondered what Rosanna was up to. Her evening with Corrado was certainly dragging on. Perhaps she’d had second thoughts about splitting up with him. Perhaps he’d proposed and Rosanna had been swept away by the moment and had banished any thoughts of becoming a big fat Italian mama in Umbria. Maybe the prospect of having Irma Taccani as a mother-in-law paled into insignificance when compared to the bleak prospect of being alone.

Elena turned over and beat her fists into the pillow to plump it into shape. She sincerely hoped that Rosanna hadn’t given in after all they’d talked about and yet what else could have possibly happened for her to be so long in coming home? She knew, from experience, that breaking up with someone was one of the hardest things to do but it was very often one the quickest.

Reuben stood outside his hotel room and ran a nervous hand through his hair. He was shaking - actually shaking! And his breathing sounded like an asthmatic dragon. This was ridiculous! He’d never felt like this before in his entire life. He’d had more control over himself when he’d experienced his first nude model at age fourteen. He’d had more composure when he’d sold his first painting at what he’d believed to be a ridiculously inflated figure. So what was so scary about a sleeping beauty?

He knocked lightly on the door before walking in.

‘
Rosanna?’ he called quietly so as not to disturb her if she was still asleep. There was no answer. He walked across the room and saw her asleep on the bed and his mouth dropped open in wonder.

As he watched her laying her, her chest softly rising and falling, he didn’t quite know what to do so he did what he did best: he sketched. Sheet after sheet of the sleeping woman in front of him. A full body. A face. A close-up of her mouth and nose. A study of her eyelashes and the way they swept her skin. Her hands, the nails long and elegant. Everything about her was beautiful.

Time flew by and, before he knew it, he’d run out of paper. He looked at his watch and discovered that it was after eleven. He’d had no idea it was so late. What were they to do now? Should he let Rosanna go on sleeping whilst he made himself comfortable elsewhere or would she be annoyed with him when she woke up? Should he wake her now and see her safely back to the apartment?

‘
Reuben?’ a low voice caught his attention and he looked up to see Rosanna sitting up, her mass of dark curls spilling over her shoulders in a dangerously beautiful tumble.

‘
How are you feeling?’ he asked, putting his sketchbook to one side and leaning forward slightly.

She gave a weak smile. ‘A bit better, thank you. What time is it?’ she asked, looking around the room for a clock.

‘
It’s late,’ he said.

She frowned. ‘How late?’

‘
Gone eleven.’

‘
Porca Madonna!
Is it
really
? You should have woken me! Why didn’t you wake me?’

‘
Because you were asleep!’ Reuben said, his voice rising to meet Rosanna’s.

‘
Now what am I meant to do?’ she asked, swinging her legs off the bed and flinging angry feet into her shoes.

‘
I’ll walk you home, of course,’ Reuben said, standing up and reaching out for his coat.

Rosanna muttered something under her breath.

‘
Pardon?’

‘
You don’t realise how far it is, do you?’ she asked.

‘
I thought Venice could be crossed in less than an hour?’

‘
Not in these shoes!’ she said, and then stopped.

‘
What?’ Reuben asked, following her gaze.

‘
What’s that?’ she asked, looking at his sketchbook. ‘Is that me?’

Reuben grimaced as she picked up the book and flicked through it.

‘
These are of me? Whilst I was sleeping? You were drawing me whilst I was asleep?’

Reuben wasn’t sure what to say. ‘Forgive me,’ he said at last. ‘I couldn’t help it.’

Rosanna was flicking through the pages. ‘You’ve got me exactly,’ she said. ‘You’re good,’ she said. ‘Much better than Sandro. He always makes me look so heavy and I’m not that heavy, am I?’

‘
No!’ Reuben gasped.

‘
I don’t mean to be vain, but I think I can say - with some honesty - that I’m not fat.’

‘
You’re certainly not,’ Reuben assured her. ‘And you’re not vain, either.’

Rosanna gave a little smile. Her fingers continued to turn the pages until, after a few more, she stopped. A deep, beautiful frown landed on her forehead and Reuben instantly knew what she’d found – the sketches he’d drawn of her after he’d first met her – the ones he’d imagined. Rosanna – naked.

There was a painfully elongated silence when no words seemed adequate and then, neither was sure who made the first move: they just kind of lunged at each other, mouths clashing together as if that first kiss couldn’t possibly wait a second longer. Hot mouths met and tongues chased each other as hands grabbed and pulled. It was fast and furious, it was indescribably wonderful. And it was over as quickly as it began.

‘
Shit!’ Reuben said.

‘
Merda
!’ Rosanna said at the same time. ‘What was that?’

‘
Man!’ Reuben stood up and walked away from the bed as if from the scene of a crime.

‘
I can’t believe that just happened,’ Rosanna said. ‘You’re my sister’s fiancé!’

‘
I know!’

‘
I’ve never done anything like this before,’ Rosanna admitted.

‘
Neither have I,’ Reuben said.

‘
Merda
!’ Rosanna cursed again. ‘What an evening I’m having!’ She hid her head in her hands as if her headache was coming back for a repeat performance.

‘
Rosanna-’

‘
I’ve got to go,’ she said, standing up quickly.

‘
I’m coming with you.’

‘
No – don’t!’

‘
I’m not letting you walk across Venice in the dark.’

‘
Don’t be ridiculous! I’m not helpless, you know.’

‘
Well, you didn’t say no to my help a few hours ago,’ Reuben fired back.

Rosanna glared at him. ‘No,’ she said slowly, ‘I didn’t and, as a gentleman, I didn’t think you’d mention it either.’

Reuben looked down at his shoes. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean that. I only want to do what’s right.’

‘
Then you shouldn’t have kissed me!’

‘
You didn’t exactly push me away, did you?’

Rosanna threw her hands up in the air and muttered something in Italian.

‘
What?’

‘
Nothing! I’m going.’

‘
You’re not going anywhere without me.’

‘
Suit yourself. Just don’t think you’re coming anywhere near the apartment or my sister. I need to get my head round this,’ Rosanna said, heading towards the door. ‘I mean, what is all this about? What the hell are those pictures about?’

‘
I thought you liked them,’ Reuben said.

Rosanna looked confused. ‘I - do. But - I don’t think you should be drawing pictures of me.’

‘
Would it help if I told you I couldn’t stop myself? Would it help if I told you that I haven’t been able to think of anything else but you since I met you?’

‘
But you’re with my sister!’

‘
Why do you keep saying that? I KNOW! Do you think I don’t know that?’

Rosanna was wearing a pained expression now and, for a moment, they just stared at each other. ‘What are we going to do?’ she asked at last.

Elena heard the door open and breathed a sigh of relief. Rosanna was back. But she wasn’t alone - there was a man with her. Elena frowned in the darkness. How could Rosanna have let things turn out this way? She was meant to break up with Corrado, not spend the whole evening with him and invite him in for the night as well. Elena had a good mind to go down there right at that moment and give Corrado a piece of her mind.

Her fingers itched for the mask. She would put the mask on and scare the living daylights out of Corrado just as she had with his mother. By the time she finished with him, he wouldn’t want to come near Rosanna again.

Her hand crawled across the bedside table to where she’d placed the mask. She took the lid off the box and put it on without the need of a light. It was a strange experience turning invisible in the dark. She felt the tingle that was becoming as familiar as a heartbeat but it was odd to lift the bedding to see nothing there.

Swinging her see-through legs out of bed, she walked across the floorboards of the bedroom. The voices downstairs were a little louder now – Corrado was obviously invited in for a coffee and maybe something else. Well, Elena thought, she wasn’t going to allow that. She tiptoed out of the bedroom, her bare feet sneaking down the wooden steps into the living room below. She was determined to put a stop to this ridiculous relationship once and for all. It was up to her to make Rosanna see the truth. She would thank her in the long run, she was sure of that.

But, as she reached the bottom of the steps, she froze. The voice of Corrado had morphed into that of Reuben, and he was speaking in hushed tones to Rosanna.

‘
I think we should tell her straight away. Why wait?’

‘
Stop it! Just let me think for a moment.’

‘
That’s why you agreed for me to come with you, isn’t it?’

‘
No! No, it isn’t. Stop twisting what I said.’

Reuben sighed and Elena strained to hear what they said next.

‘
I don’t think I can go on without telling Elena – that’s all I’m saying.’

Elena stood stock still even though she didn’t need to; they couldn’t see her even if she’d decided to do a handstand and walk forward with her feet in the air. She noticed that they were sitting a little closer than seemed absolutely necessary. In fact, they were sharing that sacred space that was usually only shared by lovers.

She didn’t need to think of what to do next. Shaking fingers reached up and untied the mask and it slipped away with the merest of tingles.

‘
What have you got to tell me, Reuben?’ she asked.

Reuben and Rosanna’s heads span around in unison.

‘
Where the HELL did you come from?’ Reuben asked.

‘
What do you have to tell me?’ Elena asked again.

Reuben got to his feet. Suddenly, he didn’t look so confident. It was as if he’d quite forgotten what he’d been so desperate to say.

‘
What are you doing here, anyway?’

‘
Elena,’ Rosanna said, getting up from the sofa. ‘There’s something we’ve got to talk about.’

‘
I know that!’ Elena shouted. ‘Just bloody get on with it!’

There was complete silence as they all stared at one another. Elena’s eyes narrowed as she watched Reuben and Rosanna exchange glances.

‘
What’s going on?’ she said in a voice so low it was barely a whisper. It was as if she already knew exactly what was going on. She could read their faces and really didn’t need to hear what they had to say to her. ‘I don’t believe you,’ was all she said before turning away from them and running up the stairs to the bedroom.

‘
Elena!’

Elena slammed the bedroom door shut behind her. Her heart was thudding wildly - like the time she’d first tried on the mask. She was still clutching it in her hand and, for a moment, thought about putting it on but she could hear Rosanna coming up the stairs after her.

‘
Elena? Can I come in?’

Elena couldn’t speak. She stood, frozen, in the middle of the room.