by T A Williams
Polly arrived back from the airport and went off to park the bus and then, surprise, surprise, decided to have a little lie-down in her room. Sarah stuck to her resolve of taking a tour of the sights and soon decided Orvieto was one of her favourite towns in the whole of Italy. The town was tiny, easy to walk round, with spectacular views at the ends of the narrow, cobbled streets out over the stunning landscape, back into the hills of Umbria to the east, down into Lazio to the southwest, and up to the mountains of Tuscany to the northwest. The only downside was the fact it was clearly a major tourist destination and was very crowded. No doubt in July and August it would be positively claustrophobic up here.
Finally, at the end of an exhaustive and exhausting tour, she bought a card for Lynnie and sat down to write it. It soon turned out that a number of her companions had also been out walking round the town, as a steady trickle of them started to appear and, seeing her, came to join her. Miles appeared before long, but was sitting some way from Sarah and, although they exchanged waves, they didn’t have the opportunity to talk. In the end they pulled three tables together and collected over half the group around them. Even Polly emerged as evening approached, with Dan arriving a suspiciously short time after her. As the memory of Lars’s accident began to fade, the atmosphere was once more buoyant. Today had been the hardest so far and they had all come through with flying colours.
It turned out it was Chuck’s birthday – he didn’t reveal which one – and he insisted on buying drinks for everybody. As the sun set, they were all in high spirits. Even Sarah, in spite of all her doubts and worries, in spite of what James had done to her, and in spite of Miles’s revelation about his wife, felt more cheerful. The weather was fine and sunny again and so was her mood. They had dinner in a pizzeria and when they emerged afterwards Sarah stood for a few moments at the entrance of the restaurant, breathing in the night air, feeling pleasantly relaxed for a change.
‘Feel like a walk?’
She turned towards him with a smile and nodded. ‘That sounds like a great idea, Miles.’
They said good night to the others and then set off on a gentle stroll around the cobbled streets and, as they walked, Sarah realised she really was feeling good. The day trippers had all got back on the tour buses and the town was much quieter, their footsteps echoing in the near-deserted streets. After a while, she and Miles sat down on the steps at the side of the cathedral and breathed in the medieval atmosphere of the place. Somewhere off to the left of them a violinist was playing what sounded like Bach. Somehow, it suited the mood of the moment perfectly.
‘It’s been a good day.’ Sarah stretched her legs and leant back against the steps behind them. The stone was still warm with residual heat from today’s burning sunshine. As she did so, her arm brushed against his and the now-familiar tingle ran through her body. She gave a little sigh of contentment.
Looking back over her time with James, she couldn’t recall ever having felt the way she had for those few seconds last night when Miles had smiled across the table at her and their eyes had met. And never, as far as she could remember, had a simple touch been able to set her whole body alight. Maybe, she wondered to herself as she watched a couple walking slowly past them towards the front of the cathedral, there were different kinds of love. The couple were linked tightly together, the man with his arm stretched around the girl while she gripped him round the waist. As Sarah watched, they reached a patch of shadow, stopped, and he bent towards her and kissed her. The girl stretched up on tiptoe and draped her arms around his neck as she kissed him back. It was a lovely, long, romantic kiss in a lovely, romantic place and it was clear they were very much in love.
But, she found herself thinking, was love an absolute? Had the affection she’d felt for James been love? Did love maybe come in different colours, shapes and sizes? Why did people talk of true love? Surely if it was an absolute, the word true was superfluous. Love was love, was love. Or was it? Mind you, her pragmatic self did its best to tell her, love is a reciprocal process. It needs to be shared by both sides. What was the point of developing all these feelings for a man whose heart had been broken? It was pretty clear he wasn’t interested in her or any other woman at the moment, and for goodness only knew how long. And, she reminded herself for the hundredth time, he was her boss and, even supposing he were to demonstrate more than passing affection for her, getting involved with her boss was a no-no, as far as she was concerned. Or at least, as far as she had been concerned up to now.
Chapter 11
Tuesday saw them ride all the way across to the west coast of Italy. It was another brilliant sunny day and Sarah was delighted to find Miles in the breakfast room when she came down at seven-thirty. She went across to join him and he gave her a broad smile of welcome that spread a glow through her whole body.
As she sat down, the waitress appeared. Miles glanced up at the girl before looking back at Sarah. ‘Sarah, what would you like? An espresso, a cappuccino?’ She mouthed the word cappuccino. ‘Due cappuccini, per favore.’ As the waitress went off, Sarah spotted Glynis and Jo coming towards them. She and Miles looked up and gave them a big smile. Whether it was the effect of his smile or just natural clumsiness, Glynis immediately managed to trip over her own feet and project a full glass of orange juice straight into Sarah’s face and all down her front.
‘Oh God, Sarah, I’m so, so sorry.’ Glynis made an ineffectual attempt to dab her with a napkin, but Sarah waved her away, not unkindly.
‘That’s all right, Glynis. I was thinking of getting myself some orange juice anyway. Now I can just suck this. Anyway, why don’t you two join us for breakfast?’ She glanced down, wiped a few sticky drops from her chin and decided she wasn’t really indecent. As Glynis and Jo sat down, she returned her attention to Miles and was delighted to find his eyes on her soaking cycling shirt. He hastily raised his gaze and tried to look casual while, inside, she was secretly rather pleased he had been checking her out. Of course, she thought to herself, he might just have a thing for orange juice. She heard him clear his throat.
‘What day is it today? Tuesday?’ Sarah nodded. ‘And we get to Rome on Friday? So that’s only four more days on the bikes.’ He caught her eye. ‘Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?’
Just then the waitress arrived with their coffees and a cloth with which she did a good job of drying the table. Her eyes met Sarah’s for a moment and Sarah shook her head. ‘I’m just going up to change. I’ll be fine.’
She picked up her coffee and reflected on what Miles had just said. Only four more days to go and then she would be on her way back to London, to see James about dividing up their belongings, looking for somewhere to live, trying to get back into normal life again after the seismic shock inflicted upon her. Although there had been a few awkward moments and, of course, the accident yesterday, Sarah really had been having fun here in Italy. And then, of course, there was this man beside her.
She did her best to dismiss the thought of Miles from her head and took refuge in the practicalities of the route. ‘We’re taking in three lakes between here and Rome, all volcanic in origin. Today we head round the Lago di Bolsena and from there it’s fairly straight all the way to the sea.’
‘So this area’s volcanic?’ Glynis sounded worried.
Sarah had been doing her homework. ‘Yes, indeed, and still active, although the area we’ve just come through is where most disasters have happened. There was a major earthquake in Assisi less than twenty years ago and there was a big one fairly recently not that far to the east of us. But the area round here’s less at risk, or so I believe.’
She gave Glynis an encouraging look and carried on with the route. ‘Tomorrow, Wednesday, we’re doing a wiggly tour of the Etruscan sites, ending up in Viterbo, which is supposed to be a very historic old place. Thursday we’ll be staying the night down by the lakeside at Bracciano, and then on Friday it’s just a half-day ride to the airport.’ As she spoke, she felt a nagging pang of regret that she
would soon lose contact with people like Chuck and Mike, Terri and Gianluca and, of course, Glynis. She would still see Miles and Paul but, working with them, it would inevitably become a different relationship. She spotted a few more people lining up to take a look at her and her soaking wet shirt and glanced down at herself again. On reflection, maybe she would do well to pop upstairs and change.
When the time came to set off, she gave her newly rinsed shirt to Polly to hang in the sun in the van, knowing it would be dry as a bone long before the end of the day. Today was set to be the hottest of the trip so far and, even now, at nine o’clock in the morning, the temperature showing on the illuminated green cross hanging outside the nearby chemist’s shop was already in the mid twenties.
They stopped for coffee down by the lakeside at Bolsena and three or four of the boys, led by Paul, stripped off their shirts and plunged into the water for a swim to cool off. As Paul returned, dripping, to the table where Sarah was sitting with Diana and Jo, Sarah could almost feel the bubbling passion in the women beside her as they saw Paul emerge from the water. Sarah, while acknowledging to herself that he was a good-looking man with a great body, felt no such attraction. Now, she thought to herself, if it had been his elder brother…
By the time they reached their destination on the coast, it was mid afternoon and the temperature was scorching hot. Their hotel for the night was right beside the sea. It had its own piece of private beach in front of it, complete with the usual deckchairs and changing rooms. Needless to say, everybody headed for the sea. Sarah hadn’t had anything for lunch and, as a local benefactor had arranged for them to have a wine tasting before dinner, she thought it might be a sensible idea to eat something in advance of the wine. She found herself a table in the bar area of the beach and was about to order a sandwich, but decided to go for a quick swim first to cool down. The water was beautifully clear and remarkably warm, noticeably warmer here on the west coast than it had been on the east. She waded out, looking up and down the beach as she did so. There were a few of her companions already in the water, but not many people otherwise. Probably most people were sleeping off big lunches and waiting until it got a little bit cooler before venturing forth.
As she was standing up to her thighs in the water, bracing herself to duck down and start swimming, she heard a mad thrashing noise and was showered with spray as Paul came charging past and flung himself into a clumsy dive, engulfing her with a tidal wave as he did so. She had been intending to keep her hair dry, but that was now out of the question. She shook herself off and glared in his general direction as he swam out to sea.
‘He’s just an overgrown kid, really.’ She turned towards the sound of the voice and immediately stopped glaring. She was very pleased to see Miles wading towards her. ‘Did he splash you?’
Sarah shook her soaked hair, wiped water from her face and raised her hands to the heavens. ‘What does it look like?’
‘Sorry about my brother. Oh, that’s so good.’ Miles flipped sideways and floated on his back alongside her. ‘Today’s been the hottest yet, hasn’t it?’
Together they swam slowly onwards until they were just out of their depth. They didn’t talk, but Sarah was very happy just being with him. After a bit, Miles stopped swimming and turned his body towards the shore. Sarah followed suit, gently treading water beside him, admiring the view. The sandy beach stretched way out in both directions with, behind it, a thick stretch of pine forest, through which they had ridden earlier, where the scent of resin had been almost overpowering. Far away in the distance was the hazy outline of hills. Sarah pointed. ‘That’s where we’re headed tomorrow.’
‘Only three days left.’ There was regret in Miles’s voice. ‘Apart from poor old Lars, it’s been a great trip. We’ve seen some amazing places.’
‘Like the cable car of death where you saved the life of a poor damsel in distress.’
‘I’m sorry you got such a scare, but I enjoyed being up there with you.’
‘Apart from thinking I was going to die a horrible death any second, so did I.’
Miles turned his head towards her and she saw he was smiling. She could feel a smile on her own lips in response. He reached out with his fingers and brushed a few strands of wet hair out of her eyes. His touch, once more, was electric. This time, however, he let his hand rest against her cheek as the movement of the sea brought their bodies closer together. Sarah held her breath, wondering what was to come. His eyes were barely a hand’s breadth away and his lips right opposite hers. Still without daring to breathe, she let her eyelids close in anticipation of his kiss.
It didn’t come.
Only a second or two later, she felt his hand leave her face, the impression left behind so clear she could feel the mark of each of his fingers as if they were still on her skin. She was roused from her near-catatonic state by the sound of his voice.
‘I think I’m going to go for a good, long swim.’ He sounded strangely reticent, his voice gruff.
Sarah opened her eyes and, as she did so, remembered to start breathing again, a growing sensation of disappointment building in her that a turning point in their relationship had come and gone. Alas, as she took a deep breath, a little wave splashed her face, filling her mouth and nose, and she erupted into a choking fit. A look of concern flooded Miles’s face and he caught hold of her in his powerful arms, lifting her head out of the water and pulling her towards him as he did so. Even through her coughing fit, she felt the thrill as her body made contact with his all the way down from head to toe, and the feeling of regret at what had so nearly come to pass was hard to bear. She let him hold her like that until she had stopped coughing, bobbing up and down in the water with him before finally extricating herself from his grip. She floated away from him and looked out to sea where Paul was rapidly disappearing into the distance, churning up a spray of white water as he did so. Doing her best to sound matter-of-fact, she gave Miles her answer.
‘You go ahead. I think I’ll turn round and go back to the beach.’
‘You sure you’re all right again now? Good. Well, enjoy your sandwich.’ His expression was impassive, his tone neutral. With that, he turned away and broke into an effortless front crawl, heading away from her, out into the deep water. She stayed there, immobile, watching his retreating form for some minutes before ruefully shaking her head and starting to swim in towards the shore. If she hadn’t known before, she knew now: Sarah and Miles was never going to happen.
***
The wine tasting took place on the hotel terrace, overlooking the sea. The hotel faced due west and from there they were able to watch the red orb of the sun as it dipped to the far horizon. It was an enchanting sight and a gorgeous place, the temperature still high, but bearable, the incessant chirping of cicadas and the hiss of gentle wavelets against the beach the only noise to be heard except for an occasional motor scooter whining past. The wine tasting had been arranged by supporters of a local cancer charity who had brought a representative mixture of wines from all over the region of Lazio, where the group now found themselves. As a result, there were a lot of wines to be tasted and many of them were very good and, as a result, got drunk, as did most of the group. Even Sarah, although she was doing her best to take it slow, could feel her head spinning a bit by the time the sun finally set.
Sarah chatted to most of her fellow cyclists, although she and Miles were stationed at opposite ends of the party. Every time she intercepted a glance from him he immediately looked away, and she felt yet again that deep sense of disappointment. Positioned right beside him for the whole evening, she noticed, was Jo from Cardiff and, from the look in her eyes, Jo really rather liked Miles. He was very well turned out, no longer wearing his brother’s T-shirt, but a fresh pair of dark-blue shorts and a very light-pink polo shirt that showed off his strong chest and bronzed arms to advantage. Jo was obviously making a real effort and her V-neck orange dress with thin shoulder straps was both pretty and minimal, with a lot of skin visible. As
for herself, Sarah had brought very few changes of clothes, so she was wearing the same lightweight dress she had worn for dinner at Roberto’s villa. She felt pretty sure she looked all right in it, particularly as she, too, had got suntanned limbs, but if she had been expecting to hear a compliment from Miles, she was to be disappointed. In fact, she heard nothing from him all evening.
Her expression must have given her away, because partway through the proceedings, she felt a hand on her arm. It was Glynis, a concerned look on her face. Gently, she led Sarah off the terrace, back into the hall.
‘What’s happened, Sarah?’
Initially Sarah tried to bluff it out. ‘Happened? Nothing’s happened, Glynis.’
It didn’t work.
‘Don’t give me that, Sarah. I know you well enough by now. What was it? Have you and your Miles had a lovers’ tiff?’
‘What do you mean, my Miles?’
‘Well, he is yours, isn’t he? It’s been pretty bloody clear for quite a while now that you and he are meant for each other.’ Glynis waved away Sarah’s attempted protestations. ‘And you make a really good couple. We all think so.’
‘We all…?’ Clearly, her interest in her boss had been rather too obvious and, she thought frantically, if Glynis and the others had noticed, then no doubt Miles had, too. Maybe his rejection of her earlier had been caused by his feeling pressured. Swallowing her doubts, she did her best to set Glynis straight. ‘I don’t think anything’s going to happen there, Glynis, but it’s sweet of you to be concerned. I like him a lot, but that’s about as far as it goes.’
‘It’ll all work out. You’ll see.’ Glynis gave her arm another squeeze and Sarah couldn’t help reaching out and giving her a warm hug.