by Patricia Mar
Daniel kissed her nose and continued to caress her face. “It’ll all be fine, you’ll see. We love each other so much that everything will come naturally. We’ll be able to solve any problem, starting from the place where we’ll live.”
“You’re right,” she said, throwing her arms around him again.
“We’ll get a new place that will be ours, not just mine. I don’t want you to feel like a guest. You’ll get to choose the furniture and turn it into our nest – a place where we can both hide away from the world.”
“Oh, Daniel… We’ll choose the furniture together! It’ll be fun, and it’ll be our home… Oh damn it!” She stiffened and stopped talking.
“What’s the matter now?” he asked, gently turning her face towards his.
“You’ve gone and made me cry, you stupid model!” she said between sniffs. She imagined that she didn’t look particularly sexy with a nose as red as a beetroot.
He seemed to think differently, though, and began tenderly kissing away her tears. “So… when do you want to get married?”
“Well, spring is my favourite season. It’s the season of new life and everything is so joyful… Why don’t we get married in May?”
“Do I really have to wait that long?” he laughed.
“When were you thinking?”
“Tomorrow?”
“You idiot!” she said, giving him a gentle punch on the bicep. She looked at him solemnly. “I want it to be perfect. I’m an old fashioned girl, and I demand that this marriage lasts forever.”
“Well, so do I!”
“In that case, you won’t mind having an old fashioned religious ceremony,” she said, looking at him through half closed eyes to check his reaction. “I want to get married in Church.”
“You’re already bossing me about,” chuckled Daniel, already well aware that he would accept any request that she made.
“Of course I am – don’t you know that behind every great man there’s a great woman?” she said, affecting a deep voice. “You’ll soon find out who wears the trousers in our house, my boy!”
“Oh, will I?” asked Daniel, startling her by suddenly sneaking one of his hands inside her bathrobe.
“That’s not fair, you’re cheating!”
“Well, you can cheat too, if you want!” Daniel teased her.
Sara glared at him with feigned disapproval. “So you’re challenging me… I could accept, but we wouldn’t have time to talk about our marriage any more… We’d end up in bed in no time flat.”
Daniel bit his lip. “Maybe, but we do have the whole night… And I can wait for a few minutes.”
“You’re the most demanding man I’ve ever met.”
Daniel gave her a piercing look. “I should be flattered, but the truth is that I’m extremely annoyed to discover that you’ve apparently known plenty of other demanding men in your life.”
Sara burst out laughing. “Don’t be jealous, you already know about all my ex-boyfriends. It’s so easy to wind you up, though! I hadn’t realised that you were so possessive. If I just think about your face when Giovanni turned up…”
“Please,” he said, cutting her off, “let’s not talk about my cousin. I finally have you in my arms and I’m already thinking about the spectacular sex we’re about to have.”
“See? You’re jealous.”
“Ok, you asked for it,” said Daniel with a snort, and so saying, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, just the way he’d done at her grandmother’s house in Gubbio.
“Daniel Gant, put me down immediately! You know that I don’t like heights!”
“I’ll find a way to make you forgive me, you’ll see!” he said in a confident tone while he carried her off to the bedroom. He would be leaving for Los Angeles in just a few days, and all he wanted to take with him were some good memories and a date for their wedding.
He spent the whole night convincing her to forgive him – and Sara let herself be convinced.
17
Polyester and Booze-Ups
She couldn’t stop laughing. Bent, her arms clenching her stomach, she kept laughing loudly, not caring about what people might think. The most hilarious thing, though, was that she didn’t even remember why she was laughing. If she had realised that, she would have laughed even louder.
Virginia and Lia were by her side, and laughing just as convulsively as she was. They must have said, seen or done something that had provoked all that hilarity, though Sara reckoned they might just have drunk a little too much. There was a good chance that there was so much alcohol in their systems at that particular moment that they would have found even the bride-to-be’s red hair hilarious. It kind of was, truth be told… it reminded you of carrots and it made you feel immediately hungry! She guessed that was the reason why they were laughing… Someone had pointed out that red hair made them hungry, and it was such a stupid idea that they hadn’t been able to stop laughing about it! It was also the definitive proof that they’d already been drunk for some time already.
They were sitting at a small table on tall stools drinking exotically colourful cocktails which reminded them of the future bride’s hair, too. Gaia Olivieri’s hen party was a success: there were at least a hundred dancing, shouting, laughing and drinking women packed inside Mickey’s Corner. They were all hoping to see a stripper soon, although if a man had appeared at that moment, he’d have been forced to fight for his life like a gladiator in an arena full of starving lionesses all ready to rip him to shreds.
Sara took a deep breath to try and stop the hysterical laughter. She shook her head and noticed that it felt incredibly light, then looked around her. The place was usually a trendy retreat with a welcoming Irish atmosphere, but they had redecorated it for the occasion using any kind of obscene object they’d managed to get their hands on. They had also reserved a table for the buffet where the main attraction was the huge penis shaped cake which would have shocked even Lorena Bobbit.
“What are we still doing here?” asked Lia, brushing her hair from her face with her hands. She was looking for a man to hit on, but the only available one was the bar’s owner, who was doing his best to keep the situation under control. He was way over fifty, but that hadn’t stopped the female partygoers from voicing their appreciation of his charms and making smutty propositions. They were acting as though they were completely out of their minds – it was as if their drinks had been spiked with an aphrodisiac or something.
“Give up, babe,” said Virginia, her ponytail swinging in time to Candyman by Christina Aguilera, “we won’t be finding a trace of a man tonight.”
“A party with no men is a boring party,” snorted Lia irritably while she adjusted the generous neckline of her top, which showed enough flesh to attract attention. The expression on her face said that wearing it for an evening like this had been a waste.
Sara looked at her face, but couldn’t quite bring her features into focus… She wondered why, but soon remembered that she was wearing Gaia’s glasses, as she’d wanted to know if they suited her. She took them off and said, “Don’t worry, Lia, you’re going to find your Mr Right sooner than you think. It’s certainly not going to happen in a pub full of randy women though…”
“Oh, you can shut up, Mrs Superwife!” mumbled her friend, unable to articulate her words properly. She was very drunk.
“I’m not even married yet,” replied Sara, sounding annoyed.
“You soon will be! And I’m going to be your amazing maid of honour!” said Virginia, while she drained the last drop of her cocktail.
“Yeah, I’m about to marry Daniel… Don’t you think that’s crazy?”
“What’s crazy is the amount of weird paranoid thoughts you’ve had over the last few months,” sniggered Virginia, giving Lia a wink.
“Come on, that’s all water under the bridge now.”
“Luckily you’ve had your epiphany!”
“Oh, shut up, Virginia – why don’t we talk about you for a change?!”
Lia frowned and gave Virginia an inquisitive look. “Is there something you haven’t told me?”
“Why don’t you tell her how you plastered yourself to Alessandro for the whole of New Year’s Eve? You even danced a waltz with him at midnight… And you two held each other pretty damn close!”
“Okay, yeah,” sighed Virginia with dreamy eyes. “He’s my Clark Kent.”
“He’s your what?” asked Lia, glaring at her through half closed eyes in what looked like a threatening way.
“My Clark Kent!” Virginia repeated, shocked that her friend hadn’t understood the first time.
“Superman’s alter ego, the reporter, Lia…” explained Sara. “Do you get it now?”
“So why didn’t you just say he’s your Superman then?”
“Because I don’t want Superman, I want Clark Kent!”
“But they’re the same person!” Lia replied angrily.
Sara looked at both of them compassionately. She couldn’t believe the idiotic conversation they were having and decided she’d be better off joining the crowd of women dancing.
“Anyway, I really like him. He’s smart and he knows how to make me laugh. I don’t care that he’s short and he only comes up to here on me,” she said, indicating a part of her body.
Sara resisted the impulse to tell her how often Alessandro made fun of her behind her back. He was a good guy, but sometimes his sarcasm was a bit too cutting. Luckily Virginia was a sweet, intelligent woman and it was hard to make her lose her patience – especially for someone like Alessandro, who didn’t actually mean any harm.
“You mean Daniel’s friend? Right, now I come to think of it, I remember Sara talking about him.”
“Yes, him,” said Sara.
“Girls, I think I’m in love!”
“With Clark Alessandro Kent?” asked Lia in astonishment.
“Yeah.”
“I thought you’d only met him once – am I missing something?”
“No, you’re right, but once was enough. I’m sure he’s going to be mine forever.”
“Oh my God! I think we’ll need another round of… of whatever it is we’re drinking,” said a dismayed Lia. “I need to forget what I just heard.”
“When you meet the right man, you know it right away!” said Virginia, determined to go on about her infatuation, “I just felt these really positive vibes right from the first moment I saw him!”
“Vibes?!” asked Sara, giving her a dumbfounded look. For a moment, she actually thought she could see her mother’s face on her sister’s body. “You’re starting to sound like Mum! Cut it out right now, for God’s sake!”
Virginia burst out laughing. “Don’t worry, I’m not that crazy… well, not yet.”
Lia leaned forward on the table and whispered. “The only vibrations that a man should be causing are the ones in bed!” she said, and they all cracked up laughing again.
When they’d got their breath back, Virginia announced, “Anyway, I’ve made up my mind: he’s going to be mine. If I can’t have him, nobody will!”
“That sounds like a good plan for ending up an old maid with a houseful of cats!” replied Lia with an arched eyebrow. “Even though I’ve never really understood why everyone seems to think that spinsters must love cats!”
“Me neither,” replied Sara. “I’ve never had a cat.”
“I’ve got a cat!”
“Okay, but you’re not an old maid!” said Virginia.
“Of course I’m not – I’m just taking a break from men.”
“A break that I’m sure won’t last too long,” said Virginia sarcastically.
“Well, I don’t like being alone. Don’t make me feel guilty about it!”
“I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, I’m just saying…” Sara was suddenly interrupted by a shout from the crowd. The pub owner had also turned up the music so loud that she felt as though she was about to go deaf.
“What’s happening?” said Lia, stretching out her giraffe like neck to see what was going on at the back of the hall. “Oh my God, I can’t believe what I’m seeing!”
“What’s going on?” asked Virginia, then stood up and went over to see what was causing all the interest, followed by Lia and a reluctant Sara.
“Get ‘em off! Get ‘em off! Get ‘em off!!”
As they danced to Maroon 5’s Like Jagger, the whole crowd was chanting excitedly and the women had formed something like a human wave that was pushing towards a man who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere dressed as a policeman.
“Oh what, are you kidding me?” muttered Sara. “He looks like one of the Village People!”
“Shut up! He looks like one of the guys out of Magic Mike is what he looks like,” replied Lia, before joining the crowd and shouting and clapping her hands along with the rest of them.
At that point, the man, who was tall and muscular, put a chair in the middle of the room and started moving his hips to the music. He had blond curly hair, full lips and a perfectly straight nose. On his face was a happy, mischievous smile.
“Good job, Gaia,” shouted Virginia to another woman. “You’re a hero!”
Sara took a step backwards. She realised that everybody else was enjoying the evening and she shouldn’t let her streak of prudishness ruin it for them. Daniel had left the previous day, and she hadn’t regretted accepting Gaia’s invitation to her hen night. Sara watched Gaia as she sat on the chair and let herself be drawn into the stripper’s sexy dance. She looked happy, and her happiness was contagious. Sara couldn’t help smiling and imagining what her own hen party would be like. She really was about to get married!
She went back over to where Virginia was and started clapping her hands with the others, committed to enjoying herself. There was one important detail she felt she needed to clear up, though. “Hey, mega maid of honour, don’t you dare book a stripper for my hen party, are we clear about that?” As soon as she said it, the stripper ripped away his trousers and threw them into the crowd, where they landed right on her head. Well, she’d lost even the little dignity the alcohol had left her, she thought, and she hoped she wouldn’t get his underwear in her face too, if he decided to take that off! Luckily for her, the man’s loincloth hit Virginia instead, and she seemed to quite enjoy it. What would Clark Kent think of that?! Sara, though, was baffled at how such a tiny piece of material was able to cover the man’s intimates. How was it even possible?
Once the party was over she crawled back home and went straight to bed without even taking off her make-up or her clothes. While she lay there, she wondered if she should tell Daniel that in his absence she had been drinking like a sailor and that her sister had almost managed to push her into taking part in a strip show.
Her eyelids were too heavy though, and she couldn’t stop herself from falling asleep. She dreamt of another striptease, only this time it was her boyfriend who was the star of the show. And this time, nobody had to push her towards him – she was happy to go of her own free will.
18
Developments
“Heeeeeey, come in, come in!” said Tony Price, flashing a wall of snow white teeth in a broad smile as he walked towards them. So this is Hollywood, thought Daniel, trying to behave in the same artificially warm way. Universal Studios had sent a limousine to pick him up from his hotel and for some reason it had made him uncomfortable. As used as he was to luxury, all that false friendliness and ostentatious wealth had really annoyed him.
He was thinking how much he missed Rome already when Tony led them into a sitting room and closed its heavy doors behind them. At his side, Marc was constantly smiling too, and Daniel realised that he was the only one who didn’t look like a total idiot.
Tony Price was a pleasant looking man of about forty, with short reddish hair and green eyes which looked perhaps a shade too calculating.
“Let’s take a seat,” he said, and when the three of them had sat down, he joined his hands together and said in his high pitched vo
ice, “Daniel, we are very honoured to have you here.”
“Thank you, Tony,” replied Daniel in a friendly tone.
“I was really pleased when Marc told me you had agreed to meet with us. There are great things in store for you – for us!”
Daniel attempted to ratchet things down slightly. “I don’t want to sound negative, but I haven’t actually decided anything yet. The script is great, but I am still not sure about taking part in the project.”
“You’re right, our screenwriter is the best. We’re running the risk of picking up a best film Oscar with this one!”
Daniel started, and asked himself just how much coke the man he was talking to had already sniffed that day. He said nothing, though, because Marc was looking at him reproachfully, like a father who is trying to keep a difficult son under control.
“I’m sure you will,” he said. Nervously he ran his fingers through his hair. He never usually had problems with interviews or casting sessions, but right now he was feeling very uncomfortable. Deep down, he knew that he didn’t belong in Hollywood, but had let Marc talk him into agreeing to this meeting. Not even Sara had tried to make him change his mind, although the reason she hadn’t said anything, he thought, might be that she was trying to show her support. Or maybe she just didn’t want to force him to make a bad career choice.
“So, Daniel, what can I do or say to convince you?”
“You’ve certainly made us a very tempting offer,” said Marc in a smooth, professional voice, “and we are definitely going to look at it very carefully.”
“I think we did our best, but we can of course talk about the details. We really want to work with you, Daniel. Your name, your face and your charisma would add significant value to our production. And our female protagonist, Delia Marquez, can’t wait to meet you. She was nominated for an Oscar a couple of years ago, for her role in The Wings of the Wind, where she played a Red Cross nurse. She’s over the moon at the idea of working with you.”