Summer in Sorrento

by Melissa Hill

  It had been exasperating at first, but now it was something she looked forward to every week; her own personal human advent calendar.

  And he was the best kind of work mate – a fixer. If he suspected or sensed Darcy or Ashley, Chaucer’s other store assistant, was hassled, down in the dumps or full-on exhausted, look out; the place would be full to bursting with his own personalised ‘Joshua bucks’, handwritten coupons he’d slide into pockets or beside the cash register. They were always for cheery little things, like ‘this entitles the bearer to one free back massage’ or ‘cover for one half shift’. In short, Joshua was a sweetheart, a pleasure to manage and great fun to work with. Plus his literary knowledge was exhaustive and he had a particular talent for obscure, cult books, which combined with Darcy’s more classic bent, made them a fantastic team.

  Dropping his fur-lined sheepskin jacket behind the counter, he put on the purple and gold striped Chaucer’s apron and Darcy in turn went to untie hers. Up close, he smelled like the holly berry hand wash he’d been using ever since it went on sale at the nearest Bath and Body Works. He was truly the most effeminate straight man she had ever met. She had been truly astonished when she’d first met his girlfriend a couple of years back, a stunning long-legged blonde who would have looked right at home on the fashion pages in Darcy’s old magazine job.

  ‘So what are you up to this evening, boss?’ Joshua asked. ‘Besides today’s special from Luigi’s?’

  Darcy’s apartment was situated over a popular little Italian restaurant just off West Houston Street, a good twenty minutes from the store but worth what she paid in rent to be within cycling distance to work. She’d lived in three different apartments in Manhattan since making the move from Brooklyn, and while by far the smallest, her third floor walk-up over Luigi’s was easily the best located, close at it was to Hudson River Park, a riverside oasis amidst the hustle of bustle of the city.

  She loved going down there on her days off, taking long walks along the water with views out to Lady Liberty and Staten Island. And of course in the summer months, the grassy areas amongst the pretty flower beds were ideal for reading, and the welcoming river breeze perfect for surviving the worst of the city’s heat and humidity.

  ‘Actually not tonight,’ Darcy told Joshua. For once she had somewhere to be. ‘I’m headed to a book launch actually.’

  ‘Ooh, anyone we know?’ Due to the shop’s miniscule dimensions, Chaucer’s didn’t hold launch parties or literary events, but even if they did Darcy guessed that this particular author wouldn’t draw too many of their regulars.

  ‘Oliver Martin. Science fiction author …?’ she nodded at Joshua’s blank look. ‘He’s just hit the Times bestseller list and according to Aunt Katherine he’s a ‘big deal.’’ She mimed quote marks with her fingers. ‘I’m only going because I haven’t seen her for a while and we’re long overdue a catch up.’ Oliver Martin must certainly be a very big deal indeed if Katherine Armstrong was deigning to attend his book launch.

  A formidable figure in society New York, for over fifteen years Katherine had been at the helm of Ignite - one of Manhattan’s most prominent event management companies with offices close to Union Square.

  While her aunt was forever extending invites to various glamour-filled events and gatherings the company hosted all over the city, Darcy only tended to favour the ones with a more literary bent. She loved meeting authors, although it had to be said that the more successful ones were often insufferably pompous, but still it was nice to occasionally be able to dip her toe into the more glamorous side of her industry.

  ‘And you’re going like that?’ Joshua glanced balefully at her.

  Darcy looked down at her grey trousers, forest-green woollen sweater and chunky leather boots. ‘What’s wrong with it?’ She pulled out the elastic from her ponytail and fluffed out her black curly hair, letting it fall loose around her shoulders. A pointless action as it would very quickly be flattened by her bike helmet on the journey downtown.

  Joshua shook his head and smiled fondly. ‘Like I keep telling you, if you’d tried making an effort now and again – maybe some eyeliner and a touch of lipstick – you could almost pass for Megan Fox’s older, chunkier sister. Oh, and lose the spinster glasses, for tonight at least?’

  ‘I wish…’ Darcy said, by now well used to his teasing. ‘But not all of us are lucky enough to possess your rather…unique fashion nous,’ she added wickedly, eyeing his drainpipe trousers. ‘The literati will just have to take me as I am.’

  It was true she had no fashion sense whatsoever and wasn’t particularly interested in the contents of her closet, which were in truth minute compared to the contents of her bookshelves. The fact was there was barely enough room in her tiny apartment for furniture, let alone possessions, and for Darcy the choice was simple. She’d happily sacrifice less of everything, even food, if it meant she could fit in more books.

  While her wardrobe consisted mostly of functional work clothes (in a bookstore paper dust clung to everything) she did possess a few items for special occasions – a seventies-style wrap dress she’d found in a cute little vintage store down in Greenwich, and incongruously a pair of unworn Jimmy Choo heels that her aunt had bought her a couple of Christmases ago.

  Still now that Joshua had openly pointed out her sartorial shortcomings, she guessed she was due for a similar earful from Katherine on arrival at the party being held in fashionable Chelsea.

  While Darcy loved her aunt and was massively grateful for everything she had done for her, Katherine’s outspoken and no-holds-barred personality had also caused a certain level of heartburn, because of the fact that she was not only focused on an eternal attempt for Darcy to improve her career, but to improve herself in general. Not to mention a seemingly endless quest to match-make her niece with reputable (in Katherine’s opinion) New York men.

  The truth was that Darcy was perfectly content on her own and had no interest in partaking of the complex, relentless, often terrifying Manhattan dating scene. It was a million miles from the romantic rituals outlined in the novels of the Brontes or Austen, and she didn’t see the point in submitting herself to such a trial. While it might be wishful thinking, at the end of the day Darcy wasn’t going to settle for anything less than being swept off her feet.

  While she’d had relationships with guys over the years – mostly quiet, bookish types like herself - none of them had been especially serious, lasting little longer than a couple of months.

  ‘No flesh and blood man could ever live up to those fictional heroes you’re so crazy about,’ Joshua often teased and Darcy supposed there was some truth in that.

  There was certainly no denying that she’d always been taken with the idea of true love and proper passionate romance like that between Romeo and Juliet, Lancelot and Genevieve, Scarlett and Rhett, and her favourites, Elizabeth and Darcy.

  Saying goodbye to Joshua, she wrapped up warm in her purple North Face ski jacket and woollen scarf, and prepared for what was for her, unlike most New Yorkers, one of the most pleasurable parts of her working day: the commute.

  Navigating Manhattan’s Upper West Side was something tourists paid good money to do on a regular basis, and Darcy did it twice a day, five days a week for free.

  Going out back to the tiny outside yard behind the store, she unlocked her bike and put on her safety helmet, fastening it tightly beneath her chin. Of course, her bikes had morphed and changed over time as much as the city had, but she was proud of her knowledge of New York’s streets. She knew them almost as well as the books she held so sacred – like the nifty shortcut via the Meatpacking District she relied upon when needing to avoid the traffic on Sixth, or how a simple hidden passageway near Chelsea whisked her away from the worst of the 42nd street horde.

  She particularly loved riding around town this time of year, with all the festive shop displays, cosy cafes and trattorias lit up for the season, white and coloured fairy lights blinking, candles aglow, early-evening dine
rs holding hands in window seats, or braving the al fresco tables that sat mere inches from the kerb, bundled up in thick woollen coats and gloves as they had a crafty cigarette.

  Darcy cruised along steadily on the bike, marvelling at the colour of the sky, that bleak city blue she loved so much at this time of evening in the last few hours before complete darkness fell upon the city. Manhattan’s music filled the air, a mix of honking horns and hissing pipes, vendors shouting and people chattering.

  It was all a blur as she sped by, obeying traffic signals as she hugged the kerb yet stuck to the street. She was zinging now, the lights green, the air cold and crisp, her eyes open and alert, her long legs loose and limber. She felt truly alive.

  She knew that cyclists in Manhattan and their natural proclivity for speed and deft weaving through traffic were generally considered by most New Yorkers, and taxi drivers in particular, as only barely above sewer rats and cockroaches in the food chain, but Darcy wouldn’t swap her beloved three-speeder - and the addictive sensation of almost flying through the streets - for any amount of abuse. In truth, much of the bad reputation was derived from daredevil city couriers who defied traffic laws and sometimes gravity, as they zipped through the streets as if on a kamikaze mission rather than a job.

  It wasn’t snowing, not yet, but Darcy could feel it teasing her in the crystal sky. Slowing at the corner of Broadway and Columbus Avenue, she passed by a fancy bistro full of well-heeled patrons sitting at tables with white cloths and big glasses of rich, red wine and plates of delectable pasta in front of them. Her mouth watered. The air felt clear as she continued, bustling through half-crowded streets lined with people heading home from the market, fancy brown bags with gold seals brimming with organic carrots and loaves of Cuban bread or carefully boxed truffles; another night of opulence in America’s favourite city.

  Darcy felt like an imposter in these parts sometimes, particularly on the Upper West Side, amongst the galleries and restaurants and bistros, cafes and high-rises and appointment-only vintage stores and photography studios. She was an ordinary person in an extraordinary place, one who ate Ramen noodles three nights a week and half-price specials from Luigi’s the other four, who didn’t own a car and took care of what few clothes she had so she wouldn’t need to spend her hard-earned wages on new ones. And her entertainment of choice generally took place in her own apartment between the pages of great books rather than in the nightspots of New York.

  But still it was all worth it to live in the most magical city on earth. She smiled. Maybe one day she’d find someone to share in the fairytale.

  Chapter 2

  ‘Her heart was a secret garden and the walls were very high’ William Goldman

  A little while later, Darcy pulled her bike up to the hip Chelsea bistro hosting the science fiction author’s book launch party. Parking it next to a lamp post, she took her bike lock out of her messenger bag, and clipped it around both. Despite the media’s harping about New York crime statistics, in all the years she’d lived in the city she’d never had one stolen. Satisfied, she turned towards the entrance and inside by the door, immediately locked eyes with the only person she was likely to recognise here tonight: her aunt.

  A tall statuesque blond in her mid fifties, and dressed in head to toe Chanel, Katherine Armstrong was holding a martini glass in one manicured hand and critically assessing every inch of Darcy’s windblown appearance.

  Feeling under examination, Darcy shook out her flattened hair, straightened her coat and adjusted her bag on her shoulder, just as light snowflakes began to descend from the sky, melting on contact with her increasingly flushed cheeks. She turned her face upwards, briefly revelling in the sensation. Then steeling herself for the inevitable assassination, she walked towards the front door, all too late noticing the salt stains on the back of her trousers.

  Well nothing she could do about that now, she thought as she opened the door to the restaurant and hastily brushed down the legs of her pants, hoping that her aunt wouldn’t notice.

  Before Darcy made it two steps inside the entrance, had a chance to scope out the room or even take off her coat, Katherine accosted her.

  ‘Darling, why on earth are you still riding that dreadful thing in December, in the middle of winter, when it is starting to snow.’ Darcy took careful note that this was a statement, not a question. ‘Do you have some kind of death wish?’ This was a question, though.

  She smiled tiredly. ‘No Katherine, I don’t have a death wish, and you already know why I ride my bike.’ Over the years they’d had countless ‘discussions’ about Darcy’s preference for the bike over any form of public transport, something which according to Katherine thumbed its nose at reason and indeed personal safety. But riding on public transport was actually detrimental for Darcy, because though such journeys afforded her the opportunity to immerse herself in reading, she’d lost count of the number times she’d gone miles past her stop, lost in another world, and ended up late for work.

  Her aunt shook her head. ‘You know, your parents are probably spinning in their graves, may they rest in peace. They had the wherewithal to entrust you to me all those years ago, and what do you do to honour their wishes for your personal welfare? You pedal a bike around the streets of Manhattan just asking to be mown down. Why can’t you be like any self-respecting New Yorker and just take the subway or a damn cab?’ Darcy opened her mouth to protest, but Katherine held up one heavily bejewelled hand to silence her. ‘I mean, thirty-three is a little old to be clinging on to the hippie thing, isn’t it? Which leads me to my next point; what successful man these days would be interested in some sort of tree-hugger they would have to walk her and a bicycle home from a date? It’s like something that happens in the school yard … No man worth knowing, I can tell you that. Men in this city want women as sophisticated as they are, and how on earth would you even ride a bike to a date anyway? Those Jimmy Choos I gave you would be completely destroyed if you tried to pedal in them. Then of course there’s your job….’

  Darcy shook her head good-naturedly, the litany of her aunt’s complaints sailing right over her head. She had heard all of this before, and she knew there was no point in letting it get to her or bother trying to argue her case. If she allowed Katherine to get a foothold with the cycling thing, the lack of relationship or gather speed with the job criticism, she knew she wouldn’t be able to get past the entry of the restaurant for the rest of the night.

  So much for a catch-up. More like an ambush!

  ‘Anyway, sweetheart,’ Katherine continued, as she took Darcy’s elbow and led her further into the restaurant, steering her forward until they were in front of the bar. ‘I invited you here because there are some people I want you to meet. Actually, one person I want you to meet in particular. He’s the author being celebrated tonight. Oliver Martin,’ she said triumphantly as if she was personally responsible for his success, looking at her niece for a reaction. When Darcy seemed unmoved, she gave a resigned shake of her head. ‘You know, given that you work in a bookstore, I would think that you would know who Oliver Martin is.’ She turned to the bartender. ‘My niece will have a dirty martini, three olives, blue cheese stuffed, with Belvedere vodka.’

  Darcy quickly shook her head at him. ‘No, actually, I’ll just have a glass of cabernet. Whatever the house is—no big deal.’

  Katherine’s eyes widened. ‘House?’ she said, horrified. ‘She doesn’t want the house. Give her the Clos du Bois. Or the Fourteen Hands.’

  ‘Really, the house is fine,’ Darcy insisted to the bartender who was uncertainly juggling bottles trying to determine who was in charge. He gave a small smile as Darcy mouthed, ‘Seriously.’ Even so, he must have figured that Katherine was the more redoubtable of the two because he duly uncorked the Clos du Bois.

  Well at least it isn’t a dirty martini, Darcy thought, feeling a small measure of triumph. She didn’t like vodka, but no matter how many times she said it, Katherine seemed to believe that eventually it wou
ld grow on her. It wouldn’t.

  ‘So,’ her aunt continued eyeing the crowd to see who was nearby and worthy enough to talk to. ‘Seems Oliver Martin is going to be huge -’

  ‘Isn’t he a sci-fi writer?’ Darcy asked as the bartender passed her a wine glass. ‘I haven’t read anything of his because I’m not especially interested in that genre. Not my thing.’ It was one of the few genres that she didn’t read, as Darcy would gladly read the back of a milk carton if there were no alternative available. However, possibly down to being a self-confessed Luddite she found it difficult to immerse herself in futuristic technologically-based worlds.

  Katherine waved a hand airily. ‘It doesn’t matter whether or not you are interested in sci-fi. The point is he has recently become a New York Times best-selling author so I want you to meet him. Word is he is in talks with Spielberg about something too.’ She once again grabbed Darcy’s arm and directed her through the bodies towards a corner of the room where a large crowd was gathered. Darcy did her best to manoeuvre her glass accordingly so as not to slop red wine all over someone’s Prada shoes.

  ‘Excuse me, excuse me …’ Katherine ordered, elbowing through people as Darcy smiled apologetically and tried in vain to put on the brakes as her aunt dragged her forward.

  Finally, they reached the edge of the crowd to where the man of the moment, Oliver Martin, was holding court.

  Darcy blinked. The guy standing in front of them might have been a celebrated bestselling sci-fi author, but his wardrobe choices evidently stopped at the door of his teenage closet. Not that she could talk, but at least her choice of clothing bore some resemblance to twenty-first-century fashion. She turned to Katherine with a pleading look, trying to convey the message that this short, greasy-haired man-child, outfitted in a Marvel Comics T-Shirt and chequered blazer belonging firmly in the nineteen eighties was a million miles from her type. While he might have been presentable enough if he decided on a shave, a haircut, a change into some adult clothes and a departure from the wide frame glasses popular amongst the laboratory set, he was definitely no oil painting.