“Madame Barbieri has dinner early, she told me in advance.”
“Olly…” And his tone contains a really bizarre note – it would seem to be a warning.
He doesn’t have time to say anything else about this, because our hostess turns around and makes a motion for us to sit down. “I asked Rita to help me with the dinner, then I gave her the evening off.”
Rita, who I imagine isn’t really called Rita, is her Ukrainian pseudo-caregiver. Even if Madame Barbieri doesn’t need a caregiver, she explained that she likes to have someone in the house who helps with the housework, a task which, day by day, is more arduous for her, and who, quite simply, keeps her a little company.
“Rita won’t eat with us?” I ask because the table is set for three.
“Oh no, she says she can’t manage eating this early.”
“Yeah, what weird people…” Mutters Andrea darkly.
We sit down right away and Rita loses no time. She begins immediately to arrive with plates, like a real maid who serves course after course. Madame Barbieri has done things up in style and has prepared two starters, two pasta dishes, a second course, fruit, two kinds of dessert, coffee and an after dinner liquor.
And if she permits me to eat only what I wish to, that is, a quarter of all that which arrives, she doesn’t let up on Andrea, stuffing him and insisting with vehemence when he attempts to refuse. I chuckle often to myself, and note that Madame Barbieri glances at me from time to time with a smile on her lips. I wouldn’t want to delude myself, but I think she’s being so insistent with him to please me.
Rita looks at me and treats me very kindly all through the dinner. It takes me a while to realize that she must be happy to have the unexpected evening off.
When we’ve finished what could be the combined dinners of Christmas and New Year’s, I also help her to clear the table and clean up the kitchen. While we work in silence, I hear Madame Barbieri and Andrea chatting in the living room.
I come back to them drying my hands, having just finished, while Rita rushes off. As soon as he sees me, Andrea gets up from his chair, touches his belly and says, “Well, thank you so much for the dinner Madame Barbieri, it was delicio-”
“What are you doing?” I ask him with an expression of innocence on my face.
“Aren’t we going?” He replies, surprised.
“No, that was just the dinner…” I answer as though it were obvious, when in reality Andrea has been in the dark about my plans up until the last minute.
“Sit down Apollo dear, while Olivia prepares the table for cards.”
“Oh, are we playing cards?” He asks relaxing.
“Uh-huh,” answers Madame Barbieri. In that moment the doorbell rings and she cries, “Oh, they must already be here!”
“I’ll go!” I say making a sign for them to stay seated. Andrea has a look of surprise on his face, and I smile.
When I open the door I find two elderly ladies in front of me. One is more or less as tall as me and a little plump, while the other is a little shorter and very thin, about the same body shape as Madame Barbieri.
They are bejeweled as only the ladies of another era can be, especially the plump one, and wearing lots of makeup. They have also put on about a bottle of perfume each, I’m thinking, but they have two enormous smiles and a vitality that you can feel bursting out even from a distance.
“You must be Olivia dear…” Says the plumper one, smiling widely and showing a row of beautiful straight, white teeth, but they’re probably false.
I nod smiling and she immediately extends a hand. “Letizia, and she is Silvia.”
“A pleasure,” I say shaking the hands of both of them.
When we get to the living room, a green cloth is already spread out on the table – like a genuine clandestine gambling hall – and there is a deck of cards prepared with a notepad and pen beside it.
Andrea turns with surprise, while I hear the happy excitement of the two ladies behind me. “Oh Elisa, you were right - He’s a real Apollo in the flesh!” I hear Letizia say.
Madame Barbieri smiles nodding, while Andrea blushes. I laugh in a self-contained way to myself. I feel I’m having fun.
“And her?” Miss Letizia continues while she goes to sit down at the table with what seems to be habitual motions. “Oh!” She says bringing a hand to her heart. “A darling! With those amber eyes, so sweet!”
I believe they are speaking about me, so it’s my turn to blush. Out of the corner of my eye I see Andrea chuckle, in about the same way as I did just two seconds ago.
“You should organize evenings with the young people more often Elisa,” says Miss Silvia. “Just looking at them I feel better.”
We all sit down to begin to play gin rummy. After a couple of hands played more or less in silence, Letizia starts the conversation. “So tell me darling,” by now, that would be me, “how long have you been together?”
I’m speechless for a minute, reddening already because I think I can guess… “Who?” I ask anyway.
“You and our Apollo here,” she answers with ease, throwing a card on the table.
“Oh no, we’re just friends…”
“What a waste!” Exclaims Letizia, and I’m sure I hear Madame Barbieri murmur, “Exactly.”
Andrea has not lifted his eyes from his cards a single time during this exchange, but he looks up with a jerk and an expression worth photographing when Letizia goes on with a suddenly lower voice, “But this means that you’re free dear Apollo…”
I, after a second of hesitation, burst out laughing loudly. I laugh so hard… so hard I have to hold my belly, and I see Miss Silvia and Madame Barbieri who also can’t help but laugh.
Andrea is speechless, literally open-mouthed for a good long moment, then he turns as red as a pepper.
“I have an idea,” continues Miss Letizia, “Let’s leave off this immensely boring gin rummy and let’s play strip-poker!”
I laugh again.
“What do you know about strip poker?” Asks Madame Barbieri with a smile.
“I know a lot more than you think,” replies Letizia, waving a bejeweled hand holding her fan of cards. “And don’t cramp my style, my aim for the evening is to get him to take his clothes off.”
I’m almost howling with laughter, while Andrea is getting even redder, if that’s possible.
“Please Letizia,” Silvia implores, with her thin shoulders jumping in a suspicious way. “Leave the boy alone… We could cook two steaks on those cheeks.”
“Girls!” Madame Barbieri calls them to order. “The young people will never return if you treat them like this the first time they come here!”
After Madame Barbieri’s intervention, we’re able to play more or less seriously, even if Miss Letizia has suggested moving onto strip gin rummy, if no-one was interested in strip poker.
“The interesting thing,” Silvia says after a bit, resuming the conversation we thought was concluded, “is that Olivia is still free too…”
I clear my throat discretely.
“Yes, she’s free. Why, have you got someone in mind?” Madame Barbieri asks her for me.
“I was thinking I could introduce her to my nephew… Stefano… a nice and handsome boy,” she says to me with a smile.
I am quiet for a second, but as soon as I realize that she’s waiting for some sort of response I hurry to say, “Oh sure, I’d be happy to.”
“Hey, there’s my nephew that needs to set up house too!” Miss Letizia interrupts. “Donato is a darling boy.”
I don’t answer because a pleasant reply, just hearing the name “Donato”, does not come spontaneously. Even if it is surely not the same Donato.
“What’s his last name?” Asks Andrea, whose voice I’ve heard only now since Madame Barbieri’s friends arrived.
“Why?” Asks Letizia looking at her cards and thinking through her next move.
“I knew a Donato, maybe he’s the same one…” He persists.
“Po
ggi. From my daughter’s husband.” She answers, still not lifting her gaze. And that’s fortunate, because I feel the blood freeze in my veins. I lower my cards slowly.
“Did he do the school for surveyors?” Andrea doesn’t give up. I see that he wants to be absolutely sure that it’s him.
“Yes, and it was a disaster. Flunked two times, but then in the end he managed to graduate.” She looks at me to check that I don’t think badly of his scholastic record. “But it was the school that wasn’t right for him. Now that he’s working he’s just fine. There haven’t been any more problems.”
I remain impassive and as still as a wax statue. Suddenly Madame Barbieri says, “After this I’m going to sit on the sofa. I’m a little tired.”
When the hand finishes - won by Letizia yet again – Madame Barbieri gets up and I do the same. “You don’t mind if I stay with her while you play another hand?”
“I don’t mind at all, but you have to see if dear Apollo can manage to handle two women on his own…” Miss Letizia answers, bringing a smile to my lips and making Silvia’s shoulders quake. Not satisfied, she turns to Andrea, “Do you think you can manage dear Apollo? Hmm? Are you able to handle two women at the same time?”
Andrea turns as red as a pepper and lowers his gaze over his cards without answering. Poor guy… He’s red to the ears. Maybe I overdid it this evening.
“It depends on the women, Letizia,” Silvia answers reasonably for him.
“Quite right,” sighs Letizia. “I alone, for example, am worth three.”
I laugh, even though not as blithely as before, and dart a glance at Andrea, who I believe would bury himself six meters under in this precise instant if he could.
Madame Barbieri goes to sit on the sofa, shaking her head as she walks and I follow her. I sit beside her and take her hand. “I wanted to thank you for this evening. I’ve had a wonderful time and your friends are delightful.”
She smiles at me. “Thank you for coming and spending a little time with we poor old ladies.”
I laugh, glancing towards Letizia. “I wouldn’t say poor old ladies at all…”
Madame Barbieri chuckles.
“Elisa…” I say without leaving her hand, “is a beautiful name. I never knew…”
“Would you like to call me by name?” She asks me, tilting her head.
I think about it, playing with and looking at our hands, then I wrinkle my nose. “It’s that… now I’m attached to ‘Madame Barbieri’…”
She giggles and smiles.
“Listen, if you’d like, I can come back next Tuesday… Well, obviously without Andrea…” I launch a brief glance at him and, I don’t know what Miss Letizia is saying to him, but he’s bordeaux. “His presence is a special case…”
Madame Barbieri nods, without speaking.
“I wanted to tell you something else…” I get closer, lowering my voice and looking her straight in the eyes. “I know there’s probably no need and the thing would be dropped and forgotten about all by itself, but to be sure…” I take a breath. “Could you discourage Miss Letizia from introducing me to her nephew? If she should ever bring up the idea again, I mean…”
“Of course.”
“I already know him,” I say simply, with an eloquent look.
Madame Barbieri gazes at me intensely for a moment and then nods. “It would be useless anyway.”
“In what sense?”
She chuckles and pats my hand. “Sooner or later you’ll understand what sense on your own.”
After these enigmatic words, we hear a cry of joy from Silvia, who has finally beaten Letizia and I see that the game has finished. I take advantage of it to stand up and come over to the table. “Shall we go?” I say to Andrea, who is on his feet before I finish the sentence.
“What time does Rita arrive?” I ask Madame Barbieri, who is still on the sofa.
“Between eleven and midnight usually.”
I look at the time and it’s only ten-thirty. “If you like, I’ll take Andrea back and then return until Rita gets back,” I propose, but Madame Barbieri is already shaking her head. “I have my friends with me, don’t worry Olivia dear. It’s not the first time Rita’s gone out… There really is no need.”
Andrea is already pointed in the direction of the door and I take a last look at the living room, where no-one is giving the least indication of getting up to accompany us to the door. “But someone come to lock the door… I won’t rest easy if you don’t!”
“I’ll come!” Exclaims Miss Letizia, getting up with an effort. “That way I may get a look at his other side…”
I say goodbye and walk through the corridor laughing behind Andrea.
When we’re outside and we hear the key turn, Andrea sighs. I believe it’s a sigh of relief. In fact, in the car he says, “I’ve never been so embarrassed in my whole life!”
I just laugh.
“Was this your idea?” He asks glancing at me.
“Hmm. Let’s say that one day I was complaining to Madame Barbieri about not having anything to fill in Tuesday and… she suggested a dinner, then the card game with her friends came along later while we were chatting about what we could do.”
Andrea shakes his head, looking straight ahead out the windshield, while I head towards the cafè. “I can’t tell you the stuff that woman told me while you were sitting on the sofa…” He sighs, putting a hand on his forehead. “You can tell she’s a relative of that guy!”
“Hey! Miss Letizia is really nice. It’s not her fault that her nephew is a disgusting person!” I hurry to defend her, because I really do like her.
“About that,” Andrea begins, sitting up straight in the seat. “Maybe we should consider the idea of organizing a meeting…”
“With who?” I say quickly and aggressively, very aggressively.
“It would be a way of closing the circle…” He doesn’t let himself be intimidated.
“Andrea,” I take the opportunity of a red light to turn around almost completely towards him and glare at him. “I could care less about your psychological theories about this crap! I’m not interested in any closure of any circle! That circle has been closed for some time, thank God!”
He stays silent and I go with the green light. After a little, when we are almost to the cafè where he left his car, he dares to say, “Not even if I were there when you see him?”
“No!”
“But if I were there, at least I could punch him if it were necessary…”
I stop the car still running near his in the deserted parking lot. “Andrea, don’t do anything. I’m serious. I’m not joking. This, I would not forgive… it would end our work relationship immediately if you did something like that. I’m serious.” I regard him harshly, and then repeat it, slowly, accenting each word, “I would not forgive you.”
He looks at me a second, then nods. “Ok.”
And he says it in such a convincing way that I believe him immediately. I breathe deeply, trying to calm and relax myself. “Ok.”
When I see that he isn’t giving any sign of getting out of the car, I ask, looking at the windshield, “You know what I don’t understand?” I pause, but he doesn’t answer. “Why we’re here, three days into my Week of Power, and we’re still talking about me, about Donato Poggi and the closure of my circles?” I turn to look at him. He regards me silently, with a hand resting on his left leg and the other arm extended, as far as is possible, on the door.
I turn off the car. “Let’s talk about you for a change. About your circles to close.”
“But I don’t have any circles to close.”
“Neither do I,” I promptly reply, and he raises his eyebrows, but makes no other comment.
We remain silent for a while, looking at each other in the darkness of the car, even if there is a streetlight in the parking lot of the cafè which casts a vague light on us, without leaving us completely in the dark.
“What would you like to know?” He asks after a little.
I lift my shoulders and turn towards the windshield, thinking. “I don’t know, considering that Donato Poggi represents the absolute most embarrassing moment of my life, tell me about yours.”
“The most embarrassing moment?” He asks, and I turn to him, nodding.
He is quiet, thinking.
“So?” I press him.
He glances at me, but doesn’t lock eyes with me. Immediately he looks straight ahead, a little at his hand and a little at the window. “I was thirteen…” He stops, launching me another darting glance.
I don’t say anything, waiting for him to go on alone.
“I was thirteen years old and… and I was in the bath… I was masturbating,” he says quickly without looking at me and I can’t help but open my mouth in surprise, but I don’t make a sound, because clearly, the story isn’t finished. “And suddenly my mother came in.” When he finishes the sentence and finally looks up, he finds me with both my hands covering my open mouth.
After the first seconds of astonishment I burst out laughing, muting the sound with my hands, but the fact that I’m laughing is undeniable.
Andrea makes a face and grumbles, “I’m glad that the most humiliating moment of my life makes you laugh…”
“No, no…” I start without controlling myself very well. Little bursts of laughter come out spontaneously between one word and another. “It’s just that… that…” I stop, take a deep breath and finally manage to calm down. He casts a sideways glance at me, swallowing from time to time. I believe he’s uncomfortable. It’s the absolute first time I’ve seen him like this. When I’m sure of myself, I start talking again. “Oh Andrea… You are good at everything, right? You do everything well, even the smallest thing, true?”
He jerks his head up and looks at me. “What has that got to do with what I just told you?”
I smile shaking my head a little. “I asked you for the most humiliating moment of your life and you… didn’t back down. It was really humiliating… God!”
Training in Love Page 16