Dial a Stud: Dante's Story

by J. a Melville

  “That’s quite a pool.” I said, still staring at it, seemingly hypnotised by the sparkle off the water in the winter sun.

  “Not really the time of year for swimming though.” He pointed out. “Come everyone, I’ll show you inside the house. It’s divided into two sections. One is the private wing, and the rest of the house is for guests. There are also some guest cabins on the property, but I’ll show you more later on. For now, we should go inside and get warm.” Dante took my hand again, and led me towards the house, with Mel and Alex following us.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Dante led us all up, a series of stone stairs, which rose to the front of the house. Stone was a major feature of the house, and yard, I could see. Either side were beautiful gardens, surrounded by more of the stonework, which formed borders around them all.

  Dotted around were large concrete pots, made to look like Grecian urns, filled with many varieties of plants.

  The front entrance was all undercover, but with four large archways that allowed a person to sit out the front of the house if they wished and take in the views.

  From what I could see of the upper level, there were windows that matched the size and shape of the archways; we walked past, on our way to the front door.

  There was a beautiful paved courtyard with a gazebo, and just about every surface of the house, surrounding buildings, and the gazebo had vines growing over them, which just added to the overall beauty of the home.

  Before Dante could open the door, it swung open first, and a tiny grey haired woman stood there, a huge smile, lighting up her face, when she saw him. She was accompanied by two small children, a boy and a girl, about four or five years of age, I guessed. They were both dark haired, brown eyed, and with such solemn faces as they gazed up at us, until they saw Dante, and their expressions transformed.

  He bent down to take the woman in his arms, nearly dwarfing her, with his sheer height and size. The rest of us stood around, bemused expressions on our faces, as he chatted to her in Italian.

  It was funny to hear them talk. What was it about the Italian language; that made it seem like they were always yelling at one another?

  The two children must have realised, it was their turn to get his attention, because they launched themselves at him, wrapping their thin little arms around his legs.

  Laughing, he hauled them up into his arms, hugging them both, as they began to chatter excitedly to him in Italian. I watched him with them, how sweet he was, how much they obviously adored him, and I felt a flash of deep seated pain, as I shifted my gaze back and forth, between them. He was going to make a wonderful father one day.

  After conversing with them for a few moments, he lowered them to the floor, where they tucked themselves up alongside of the woman again.

  Finally he turned to where we all waited, introducing the children as Antonio and Isabella. They were the grand children, of the woman, whose name was Maria. When we all mumbled some kind of greeting, she in turn nodded, and smiled at us all.

  “Maria is married to Marco. They caretake the property, and oversee the other staff. Marco takes care of everything outside of the house, including the harvesting of the grapes, etc. Maria runs the house, and all that goes on in here. This place is also open to tourists, and has five cabins on the land, for those who wish to have a more self-contained place to stay, and one wing of the house is set up similar, to what you would know, as a Bed and Breakfast.”

  We all smiled and said hello to Maria, who responded in broken English. Did any of the staff speak English, if they had tourists stay here?

  “Come inside, I will show you around.” Dante waved us all in, and kissed Maria’s cheek, when she said something to him. She smiled at us again, and quietly slipped away, to do whatever it was, she was going to do, taking the children with her.

  Surprisingly, there was little on the ground floor level of the house. There were areas for people to sit and take in the views, a more industrial styled kitchen, with barbecue facilities too, numerous tables and chairs, benches with bar stools, and at one end, a huge grand piano.

  It was pretty obvious looking around, that it was not part of the private quarters, but more for the tourists to perhaps prepare themselves a meal, if they so wished.

  That was pretty well confirmed when we saw people wandering around, some others in groups talking, some sitting relaxing. Dante smiled at everyone, spoke a few words in passing to some.

  It was like most people seemed to know who he was, or maybe it was just, that he had that kind of presence about him. He was not an easy man to ignore, and I noticed he was drawing the attention of more than one woman, as we passed through.

  I started glaring at them, my hand curling around his arm, in an attempt to stake ownership on him. I wanted people to know, he was mine, and to get their eyes off him.

  Dante gave me a questioning look. “What has given you such a fierce expression cara?”

  “All those women are staring at you.” I hissed.

  His hand wrapped around mine, where it lay on his arm. “I only have eyes for one woman in this room. My heart is hers, fully, completely, eternally. Let them look Grace. It makes no difference to me. I am yours as much as you are mine.” He raised my hand to his lips, kissing me softly.

  “Bloody hell Gracie girl, he’s a keeper.” Mel piped up from behind us, and when I turned my head, she was grinning at us. “Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have a man say that to me.” I could hear the wistful tone in her voice, and I gave Alex a pointed look.

  He wouldn’t look at me though, but I did have to wonder, what was going on with him, when I saw colour flood his cheeks. Even under his tan, he was blushing.

  I knew he cared about Mel. I think he loved her, but I didn’t know for sure, plus he couldn’t have said anything to her, or she wouldn’t be wishing for a man, to be with her, the way Dante was with me. I could only hope my friend got her fairy tale ending.

  “So how many bedrooms does the house have?” I asked, as we started climbing some stairs to the upper level.

  “There are ten guest rooms, and in the private wing, there are eight bedrooms.”

  I gaped at him in shock, and nearly stumbled on the stairs. “Did I hear that right, eight bedrooms? What the hell kind of house has eight bedrooms?”

  “This house cara. As I said, one half of the house is guest accommodation.”

  We rounded the top of the stairs, and I just stared when I saw the room before us. It was huge, with four large arched windows, through which, brilliant sunshine, was streaming in.

  The room was filled with lounges, positioned at various points around the huge area. There were low coffee tables, padded benches, which sat before each window, and up the far end, several dining tables. Overall, it was a massive area.

  Again, there were people getting around, talking, sitting, some of them eating. We didn’t stop though, in fact, Dante passed by them all, finally taking us up a few more stairs, before turning down a long hallway.

  The hallway was amazing. It wasn’t like any hallway I’d ever seen before. It didn’t have walls that ran to the ceiling, on either side, instead it had what looked like half walls with handrails along the top. When I stopped to look over the edge, I could see the long length of the room we’d just left, below us.

  When we finally reached the end of it, I saw we were at a kind of ‘T’ intersection. To the left was a closed door, but to the right, another hallway headed off, deeper into the sprawling home, where I could see doors on either side, down its length.

  “Those are the rooms for the guests, but through this door, is the private wing. We’ll all be staying in here of course. It’s fully self-contained as you will see, so don’t worry that you might run into guests during the night. This door is always locked to keep them out.”

  I could see straight away, that the private quarters of the house, were more intimate than the guest area. We walked into a large living room, filled with overstuffed lounges, coffee tab
les and very ornate, very solid looking timber sideboards on each wall.

  There was a widescreen TV mounted on one wall, but it was bigger than anything I’d ever seen.

  Dante kept walking though, and we all followed him through, to an area that was divided up, into a dining room, what looked like a family room or rumpus room and to one side, a beautifully appointed kitchen.

  It was all highly polished timber cupboards, black marble benchtops, and stainless steel appliances, everywhere. I noticed everything, was gleaming, so whoever cared for the place, did their job.

  “Your home is beautiful Dante.” I smiled up at him; feeling a little overwhelmed by it all. “It’s stunning.” It really was too. The floors were all tiled; the walls raw stone in some areas, the ceilings very high, and with exposed rafters through a lot of it.

  “Thank you cara. Now come, everyone, I will take you to the bedrooms.”

  His grip tightened on my hand, as he led us down yet another hallway, which opened up into an unusual, hexagonal shaped room.

  Everyone except for Dante gasped at it; it was that amazing.

  A tall central pillar held up the domed roof, which was inlayed with numerous glass panels, letting the sunlight stream in.

  The floor was tiled like the rest of the house, but with several, what looked like Persian rugs around the room. There were four large lounges, set in a square configuration, in the middle, yet another coffee table and huge cushions scattered around, both on the lounges and the floor.

  To one side of the room was the biggest pool table I’d ever seen, the other side had a bar, with six bar stools lined up at it. It was a great area just to hang out.

  There was another hallway running off the room on the far side, and Dante led us towards it. This one wasn’t as long but it had four doors on one side and four doors on the other, with one isolated door down the end.

  This had to be all the bedrooms he’d mentioned. Sure enough, he stopped by the first door. “These are the bedrooms. You can take your pick.”

  “What’s the door down the end? Is that the bathroom is it?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “No, there’s a central bathroom, first door on the left. The rest are all bedrooms and the room you speak of, is our room cara. It’s the biggest, it’s mine, and now it is yours too. Each bedroom has its own bathroom.” He turned to Alex and Mel, who were looking a little overwhelmed by it all. I wasn’t used to seeing Alex so quiet, but then, I felt much the same way. This house of Dante’s, this whole other lifestyle he had, was bloody mind blowing. The vineyard had to be worth millions. Either way, whether he kept it or sold it, he was a very wealthy man. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. I knew because of Dial A Stud, that he wasn’t poor. His home in Australia certainly wasn’t a bargain basement special, but it wasn’t exactly a mansion either. This was different. This put him into a whole, different world to me. A world that was both foreign, and intimidating to me.

  We left the others to find a suitable bedroom. It was like pick a room, any room, and obviously the choices were something else, if Mel’s squeals were any indication.

  Dante pulled me through the doorway of the end bedroom, and I came to a skidding halt when I saw it. Like the rest of the house, it was huge.

  It wasn’t just a bedroom either, from what I could see. It had a small living area, with a TV and lounges, which took up one corner of the room.

  The rest was bedroom though, with the biggest bed I’d ever laid eyes on. It had to be the king of all king size beds, but it was also a stunningly beautiful canopy bed. I felt very much like I’d stepped onto the set of Arabian Nights or something, with the heavy, but ornate posts that rose up from each corner, to support the overhead woodwork.

  From the structure above, sheer, cream coloured fabric hung like curtains, tied back to each corner post. The wood of the bed was a dark timber, so dark, it was almost black, and it was a high bed, high enough that a couple of steps actually led up to it.

  It bordered on being ostentatious, but somehow pulled it off, because it was also very glamorous and decadent looking. I had an insane desire to go all Paul Hogan as Mick Dundee, when he’d compared the knives, but I would scream, ‘That’s not a bed, this is a bed,’ still; I controlled myself, smirking inside, at the insanity of my thoughts.

  There was other various pieces of furniture around the room, chest of drawers, a beautiful writing desk, and a couple of wall units, that helped act like room dividers, for the small living room, or parents’ retreat. They were filled with DVD’s and books I noticed.

  Slowly, I stepped further into the room, conscious of the fact, that Dante was watching me closely. I studied the walls with their various paintings, mainly of the vineyard from what I could see, before heading towards the doorways, I could see over the other side of the vast room.

  It was carpeted which was a surprise. With all the tiling right through the house, I’d expected all the bedrooms to be tiled too.

  The first room I walked into was a bathroom. It was no ordinary bathroom though. It was tiled all in a cream colour and black. The toilet and bidet were off white porcelain, as was the vanity and bath. The taps were gold coloured, the bath was big enough that I figured I could possibly swim laps in it, and the shower was built for a party, not just one or two people.

  Nothing was small, low key, cheap looking, and I found myself feeling more and more out of my depth. When my eyes landed on the bidet again, I knew I was really out of my depth. There was no way in hell, I’d straddle some toilet looking thing, and let it spray my ass like I was going through a carwash.

  Spinning around, I brushed past Dante, who had come to stand, leaning against the door frame, watching me. I shot him a brief look as I passed him, before entering another doorway, in this vast, room, which was unlike any bedroom, I’d ever seen in my life.

  As soon as I stepped inside, lights began to come on like magic all along the length of the room. It was a walk in robe, but it was more than that, it was massive. Not overly wide, but long. There were shelves everywhere, hanging rails, things that looked like turntables but with hooks on them, for hanging something, I guess. Mirrors ran down one side, with lights at the tops and bottom of them. In fact, there were lights everywhere. Chances are, when the lights came on in here, half the lights dimmed on the estate.

  There were racks for shoes, seats for obviously getting comfortable to put on shoes, socks, whatever a person needed to sit down for. This thing was bigger than Ben Hur, it was unbelievable.

  Finally when I had seen enough, and I was feeling so overwhelmed, I was nauseous, I walked back out into the bedroom.

  Dante watched me walk out, and collapse onto one of the lounges. He joined me, sitting on the coffee table facing me, rather than by my side on the lounge.

  “What is wrong cara? I sense you are disturbed about something?”

  I couldn’t answer him straight away. I searched for the right words, to explain why this was all too much.

  “This wasn’t what I expected.” I finally said softly.

  “What isn’t what you expected?” I could hear the confusion in his voice.

  I waved my arm around. “This, all this, it’s…I…didn’t know. I…I don’t know…about all this.” I struggled to express how I was feeling.

  “I don’t understand Grace. Please, be open and honest with me. I can’t help you if I don’t know what bothers you.”

  I turned to him, realising he was right. I couldn’t leave him, hanging on this. I had to tell him how I felt.

  “I had no idea, you were so wealthy.” There, finally I’d said it. Well, part of what troubled me.

  “It’s not something I generally broadcast. I don’t consider it a problem, so neither should you.”

  I gave him my best, ‘you’ve got to be kidding,’ look. “Dante, this is not a case of you having a few dollars more in the bank, than I do. You are into millionaire status. I am not, and I’m never likely to be. I can’t…I can’t compete wit
h that.”

  Dante’s fingers teased their way over my cheek. “This is not a competition. I don’t care that I have more money than you. I don’t believe for one moment, that you are a gold digger, or money hungry. Please, don’t worry about this. Can’t you just enjoy your time here with our friends? I love you, and I want you to learn to love, the home my Grandparents left me. I don’t want to sell it. I have ideas for it, but they’re only ideas at this stage.”

  I looked at him curiously; convinced there was something he wasn’t telling me. I wanted to ask him, to find out what he was thinking, but I could see how much he just wanted us all to enjoy our time here. I would bite my tongue for now, and give him what he asked for. I would leave this discussion for later.

  Looking around from my position on the lounge, I still felt horribly intimidated. My family had been financially comfortable. I was financially comfortable. I had been ok with Dante’s wealth, when I thought; all he had was his house and Dial A Stud.

  This was different though, really, really different. He was movie star kind of rich. He was intimidatingly rich. It didn’t sit well with me, I wasn’t sure I could ever just accept it, and brush it off, the way he seemed to think I should. Then there was the other thing, that thing I usually kept buried deep inside me, that thing that I knew would become an issue.

  For the first time, I suddenly felt doubtful about our future. I wasn’t sure, we could have one.

  Four days later and I was still struggling to cope with Dante’s wealth. The vineyard was amazing, the sheer scale of it, immense. There were people everywhere. People who maintained the stunning grounds and gardens, numerous people who cleaned the house, not to mention those, who cooked and catered, to not only the guests, but us too. Basically, we didn’t have to lift a finger, if we didn’t want to.

  The house was equipped with a gym, which was more like a professional one, with personal trainers, and just about every piece of exercise equipment, known to mankind.