by Patricia Mar
Seeing how much she was blushing, Daniel couldn’t stop laughing. “And anyway, chocolate’s also no friend to bottoms and waistlines.”
“You…” muttered Sara, an offended expression on her face. “You’ll pay for this when we get home…”
“I’m counting on it, so you’d better keep your word.” He gave her a light shove on the shoulder and she ‘accidentally’ dropped the biscuits into the trolley before setting off again.
“Listen, can you explain to me how you manage to look so attractive despite having that ridiculous hat on your head and that baggy coat?” she said, pulling the sleeve of his jacket innocently.
“I’m incognito, I mustn’t be recognised,” he joked, imitating Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, while he diligently continued to push the overloaded trolley.
“It’s not fair – if I dressed like that, I’d probably get locked up,” she grumbled.
“Well anyway, I prefer you naked, as you know.”
Just then Sara’s face turned bright red and Daniel felt her body stiffen. That reaction couldn’t have been caused by that innocent comment – or at least not just by that. He followed his girlfriend’s gaze and saw a guy standing in front of them, studying them with an intrigued expression on his face. Daniel looked back at Sara and noticed that she was clenching her teeth. Daniel took a couple of steps towards her, suddenly feeling the need to protect her. Who the hell was that guy in the yellow jacket and glasses who was staring at them?
“Sara?”
“Carlo…”
Carlo? A light went on in Daniel’s head.
Her ex, the asshole who had taken a certain Greta to bed while he was still with Sara. That Carlo? Daniel clenched his fists and involuntarily even his jaw. He had a sudden desire to give the guy a punch on the nose so as to rearrange his features – which, incidentally, weren’t up to much. His eyes were relatively small, his mouth was rather thin and he had a weird nose. What the hell had Sara seen in him?
Carlo moved towards them and then stopped a few steps away.
“Sara, you’re looking well… Shorter hair suits you.”
Sara shook her head. She seemed to be snapping out of it. “Well, yes, thank you, a new cut.”
Polite but not inviting any further conversation. Daniel pretended to cough. He really didn’t feel comfortable. Perhaps Sara should introduce him? What was she waiting for? He decided to take matters into his own hands.
“Hi, I’m Daniel,” he said, and extended his hand towards Carlo. “Sara’s boyfriend.” He puffed out his chest as he said it, hoping to make that worm, whose betrayal had so deeply hurt Sara, squirm. But what was he thinking? He needed to calm down. Sara smiled at him and took him by the arm. Carlo took Daniel’s hand without much conviction. “Nice to meet you.” He was uncomfortable too.
How the hell could Sara have ever gone out with a guy like that, wondered Daniel, feeling annoyed. His grip was limp and his body feeble looking, like someone who has never done any exercise in his life. He had a rather pale complexion too, even though his features weren’t actually unpleasant. Not that he could judge him very objectively.
“What a surprise to find you here! This isn’t your part of town.” Sara’s voice sounded very shrill, as though she were having a hard time controlling herself. And she wasn’t the only one. Daniel was shaking quite a bit too. Finding out that he felt jealous – jealous enough to make the blood rush to his brain – wasn’t a good thing. But after all, that was the man she had once been in love with, with whom she had planned to build a future…
“No, it isn’t but I was here in the area for work… you look well…”
“You’ve already said that!” said Sara, feeling more and more agitated.
Just at that moment, the sound of giggling attracted the attention of the unlikely trio, who turned around to see where it was coming from. A small group of four girls was approaching them, all with cell phone in one hand and pen and notepad in the other. Daniel pulled his hat down over his eyes, as if he could hide behind it. He loved the relationship he had with his fans, but right now he was feeling a bit irritated and would have preferred not to have been noticed. But it was too late.
“Daniel, hi!” Every group had one who was the bravest – the one that came forward for all the others. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling at her exuberance. “Don’t be angry with us, we couldn’t not stop you… I mean you’re Daniel Gant! Wow…!”
Once she had spoken, the three other giggling girls came closer and he found himself surrounded. The merry-go-round of photos began: the group photo, the individual photos, the selfies and all the rest, plus autographs and random questions. Daniel tried to remain as friendly and kind as usual, but inside he was shaking and he glared at Sara and Carlo who were talking to each other. If only those girls weren’t so loud he would at least have been able to listen in on their conversation.
“Is your boyfriend famous?” asked Carlo uncertainly, without really understanding what was happening.
Sara couldn’t help but gloat. After the initial blow, suddenly finding him in front of her dressed up in yellow like Tweety Pie, she was beginning to feel like herself again as she recovered from the shock. Her emotions had piled on top of each other and were pushing their way out. Seeing him after all that time had reminded her of how awful it had been when she had discovered him intent on illicit gymnastics with Greta, who had been a dear friend of hers. Her first instinct had been to punch him in the stomach, but the presence of Daniel at her side gave her a new kind of strength, and she managed to control her impulse to hit him. Could she bear to be in the same place as that revolting piece of… Her rage was coming back! The sense of humiliation, the feeling of betrayal, the hurt suffered, the lack of respect! It was devouring her – and Carlo wanted to have a conversation?
“Yes, Daniel is Daniel Gant, one of the most famous models in the world!” She hadn’t really wanted to say it, but she just hadn’t been able to stop herself. She wanted to make him feel as insignificant as a worm.
“Sorry, I’ve haven’t heard of him.” Hmm, that wasn’t fair. There really was no justice. “But anyway, I’m really glad that we bumped into each other, because I wanted to apologise for the way I behaved towards you…”
Now she was totally amazed. “You want to apologise to me now, in a supermarket where we’ve bumped into each other by chance, after all these years?” She had to calm down or she would turn into the She-Hulk.
“To be honest, I would have done it before, but you didn’t give me the chance!”
He was unbelievable. Was he trying to provoke her?
“That actually isn’t quite how things went, Carlo, you obviously have a bit of a dodgy memory.”
“You didn’t want to talk to me any more.”
“No offence, Carlo – well, actually, now that I come to think of it, a bit of offence, really – but what the hell did you expect? You went to bed with my friend while you were with me. I doubt that I’ll ever be able to find the right words to describe just how shitty the way you behaved was.”
Carlo stared at her. “Here we go again. It’s been years but you haven’t changed at all!”
He was beginning to get annoyed. He was getting annoyed! How dare he?! Sara was on the warpath now – why had he stopped to talk to them?
“I hope that I haven’t changed, because I like myself the way I am, full of paranoia, anxieties and with an obsessive need to be in control of everything, but also with a decent boyfriend who loves me, respects me and doesn’t care about anyone but me!” said Sara, giving Daniel a look of gratitude as he tried to escape from his fans.
“I just wanted to apologise and to tell you that I was wrong.” Carlo seemed full of remorse, but Sara had no more time to waste. What on Earth had she seen in him? He was a perfect example of what she and her sister called ‘sushi men’ – the type of men who are only good for one date, and then after that… get rid of them!
“I accept your apologies, and I’l
l tell you why – because thanks to you cheating on me and us breaking up, I didn’t waste any more time on you and now I have him!” Magically Daniel had reappeared next to Sara, putting his arm round her waist and smiling confidently.
“Nice to meet you, Carlo. We don’t want to keep you…” said Daniel calmly. Too bad that behind that patina of calm his emotions were boiling away like a witch’s cauldron.
“Yes, maybe I should be going… sorry again, Sara.” He lowered his head and turned his back on them, departing rather hastily.
“The ugly little…” Okay, maybe she hadn’t really forgiven him. Sara was about to chase after him but Daniel held her back by her waist.
“Let go of me! Hey, let go! Oooh, I want to hit him, I swear. I was so close to doing it.”
“You weren’t the only one, believe you me! As soon as I realised who he was, I wanted to grab him and… What’s up?”
Sara stared at him in amazement.
“Let’s calm down, both of us. Carlo is the past. He’s water under the bridge, ok?”
Daniel had a dark expression on his face as he began pushing the trolley again. He couldn’t wait to get out of there. As they were heading for the car, he suddenly said. “Did you really go out with that loser, Sara?” He was livid and could no longer restrain himself.
Sara couldn’t help laughing. “I must have had some serious problems with my eyesight, self-esteem, and intelligence. At the time he just seemed quite sweet – so kind and caring.”
“To me he just seemed like a flea you’d want to flick off!”
Sara loaded the bags into the trunk of the car then took the ones Daniel was carrying while he stood there looking at her. She put them side by side in the trunk then went over to him, stroking his face and then gently kissing him on the lips.
“And what was that for?”
“For being you. For being you who loves me, for being you who gets jealous, for being you who means everything to this girl. And for being you who prevented me from killing him with my bare hands and ending up in jail for murder.”
Daniel chuckled. “You’ll have to try a bit harder than that.” His voice had grown soft and sweet and his hands on her back pulled her to him, nullifying the space between them.
“The truth is that I should be grateful to my ex… Thanks to what he did to me I managed to find you. Every little step that I took, I took in your direction, and you were there waiting for me. I would go through all of it again – the shock, the humiliation, the pain. It felt so awful back then, but it seems so insignificant now that I find myself here again, in your adoring arms, with you being jealous and possessive of me. I never felt for Carlo what I feel for you, ever, and I can’t even remember what it felt like to be with him. It’s as though he never even existed.”
Daniel buried his face in her neck and breathed in her scent, brushing her skin with his lips. “Sara, I love you with all my heart!”
“I know,” she sighed, feeling her body trembling with the little shivers that Daniel was giving her. “And anyway, now you know how I feel every time I hear about Delphina and every time I met her!”
He couldn’t stop himself from smiling. Justice was done. Laughing, Daniel broke away from her.
“You’re terrible!”
“And you’re jealous – and I adore you just the way you are, Daniel Gant!”
14
This Time the Past Comes Knocking
A week had passed since they had argued and things were back to normal – or even better than normal in some ways – and that made Daniel really happy.
They had spent the last two evenings cuddled up on the couch reading the script of Down in the Valley. They’d had a good time laughing at the main character’s lines and imagining how to shoot the scenes.
Daniel had underestimated Sara. He’d been wrong to worry about opening up to her, but now he found that they could talk about it all normally, and once he had told her everything, the project had appeared less menacing. He wasn’t even sure that trying to become an actor was a good idea. He had always bragged about being able to make a success of anything he tried his hand at, and he didn’t want to fail or make a fool of himself. A box office disaster would damage his image, and he wasn’t ready to make a mistake in front of the whole world.
He was in no rush to decide anyway. He had to go to Los Angeles and meet the producer first, then there was the audition, and only after that would he receive an offer. He was still keeping all his options open.
In a few days he would be leaving on his own, as Sara had gone back to her full time job. Over the past few days they had managed to see each other every evening, as he was taking part in a shoot inside Villa Borghese. They both knew that distance would soon become a real problem, though – especially if he accepted Tony Price’s offer. That convinced Daniel that it was time they decided on a wedding date. He didn’t want to wait too long to turn Sara into Mrs Gant.
That morning he had woken up feeling really enthusiastic, and had got straight to work planning a romantic date with his girlfriend where he would propose a day for the wedding to her and they could talk about the ceremony and all the other details. He put a pair of jeans and a hoodie on, grabbed his bomber jacket and, already holding her leash, called Spank.
“Come on, let’s go for a walk! It’s a nice sunny day outside!”
Spank appeared out of nowhere and trotted towards him, then jumped up into her owner’s arms and started licking his face. Daniel laughed.
They were all set to go out when the doorbell rang. Daniel frowned. “Who is it now?” He asked Spank – who, obviously, couldn’t reply. He put the dog down and opened the door, only to be very surprised by the person who was waiting behind it.
“Hey cuz, how are you doing? The front door was open, so I decided to come straight up and ring the bell. Is it a bad time?” said the man, an ironic smirk on his face. He was about six feet tall with a square jaw and a rebellious lock of hair that fell over his forehead. He was wearing an aquamarine top and black trousers, and his jacket hung folded over his arm. The most shocking detail, though, was the large bag at his feet.
“Giovanni?”
“In person! I’d ask you what brought you here, but it was me who came looking for you – I need your help.”
Daniel’s astonishment passed and he moved aside and gestured to him to enter, saying, “Of course, come in.” He put the leash down on a shelf and took his jacket off.
Bag in hand, Giovanni Salvi entered the apartment quickly and closed the door behind him. Spank greeted him happily, seemingly completely unbothered by the sudden change of plan. The man leaned down and started scratching her behind the ears, immediately earning her eternal love, then he joined Daniel.
“So, what kind of help do you need?”
Giovanni leaned back and opened his arms, resting them along the back of the sofa. “It’s a real hassle – I’m homeless.”
“What do you mean? Have you been evicted?”
“No, nothing that serious… They’re just renovating the apartment I bought, and I wasn’t planning to be back in town before they finished, but here I am. I need a roof over my head for a few days – any chance I can stay with you?”
Daniel started pondering about the correct answer to that question. He wasn’t over the moon at the idea of having his cousin living with him – and he had plenty of reasons not to be. First of all, he didn’t really get along all that well with Giovanni, a journalist who made his living writing and travelling around the world for Travel Times, a magazine whose headquarters were in Rome. There had always been some kind of ongoing competition between them, and they would inevitably end up trying to outdo each other over something. But despite this, they did respect one another, and perhaps, deep down, were even fond of one another.
Daniel was about to leave town, though, and he had been planning to spend the last few days there with Sara. His lumbering cousin would spoil their intimacy for sure.
“Oh-oh, you’
re thinking about it too long… that’s a bad sign.”
“Well, you could have called me before showing up. I’ll be going away in a few days, and…”
“That’s perfect! You won’t even realise that I’m here, then,” said Giovanni, leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees. “Come on, do me this one favour, please. I would never ask if I didn’t really need to, you know that. I’m kind of broke at the moment, I can’t afford a hotel, and I wouldn’t know who else to ask.”
“Kind of broke?” asked Daniel.
“Yes,” said Giovanni, suddenly growing serious. “Travel Time” is shutting down.”
“Shit!”
“Yeah. They just called and said that they don’t have the funding to keep publishing the magazine. It all happened from one day to the next. This recession has been hell for the industry, cuz. Now I have no job and a mortgage to pay off. I need to start contacting all the magazines I can think of right away – I really can’t afford to stay unemployed.”
“Hey, sure you can stay,” said Daniel. He would have had to be a total bastard not to have offered to help him – though that didn’t mean he was enthusiastic at the idea of having him around.
Giovanni relaxed. “You won’t even notice that I’m here,” he assured him with a laugh. “I promise. I’ll behave and keep quiet… Well, as quiet as I’m able to, anyway.”
Daniel had to struggle to control his irritation as an image from the past appeared spontaneously in his mind. “Do you remember our last camping holiday together?”
“Sure, I was fourteen years old.”
“Right – and I almost drowned in the lake because of you.”
“It was a swimming race. Hey, I couldn’t have known about the currents in the lake – I’m no lake expert!”
“You knew how to talk me into doing whatever you wanted, though.”
“Well, I was older than you, and you always did what I said.”
“You’re actually only two years older than me,” Daniel pointed out.
“Two years can make a lot of difference,” Giovanni replied. They glared at each other for a moment and then both burst out laughing.