Chapter 6
In the lobby, Leo sat on the turquoise settee in front of the fireplace. Eyes fixed on his cell phone, his long legs stretched out in front of him. He looked poised and ready to convince a tourist to spend heaps of money on a one-of-a-kind piece of art at the glass studio.
“Hi,” I said, sitting down beside him. I leaned my head on his shoulder.
“And how did it go?” Leo asked, looking up from his phone. “You want to talk, or should we get out of here?”
I held up my hand and did a thumbs down.
Leo inhaled through his teeth. “That bad?”
“That bad,” I said. “I’ll tell you everything, but I just want to sit for a moment and pretend I have a different life. Thank you for running my boxes over here. What would I do without you?”
“Oh, sweetie. I don’t know, perish?” Leo said, looking skyward. “Wilt like a beautiful flower that never sees sunlight?”
I swatted his arm. “You make me sound like I’m one day away from being a housebound agoraphobic.”
“Bella, you didn’t leave your house for two weeks before I intervened,” he said. “You are a beautiful creature with gifts to share with this fucked-up world, even if no one in your family sees it.”
“I hope I didn’t mess up your morning,” I said.
“You didn’t, darling.” He kissed the top of my head.
“Is this a new suit?”
Leo always looked good, but today he looked runway perfect. He wore a gorgeous, deep blue suit, pressed and shining slightly as if the threads were silk. He paired it with a white shirt and bright yellow tie.
“It’s Valentino,” Leo said. “It cost a mint, but David got me a discount. He hand-picked it for me. You know how he is.” He shrugged. “I’m annoyed. Not with you, with him. He has another show this month in Paris. I wish he would invite me, but it’s busy season.”
“Awww, you miss him,” I said.
“Of course, I miss him. I just don’t want to come off as needy.”
“It’s not needy to want to spend time with someone you love, Leo.”
“Love.” He laughed and clutched his throat in mock shock. “Oh, no. Let’s not start talking about love.”
“You two are the most beautiful and well-dressed men in Italy,” I said. “Your love makes me happy. You know that, don’t you?”
“Don’t tell my clients,” Leo said. “I’m having dinner with one of the women from yesterday’s tour, Valerie. She has a ‘farmhouse’ in Virginia and wants me to source art for every room.”
“Let me guess, but first she needs to see how you fit in her bedroom?”
“Oh, you know I don’t sleep with my clients,” Leo said. “I kiss. I snuggle. Who am I to deprive these lonely women of some affection?”
“Aren’t you a generous lover.” I patted his leg. “Let’s walk and talk. I’m ready to tell you about the horrible meeting and the mistake I made last night.”
Leo stood up and helped me to my feet. “By ‘mistake,’ are we talking sex? Please say it’s about sex. You know I’ve been telling you that you need to fuck someone to get over Roberto.”
“What I need has nothing to do with Roberto. It’s done. I don’t want to think about Roberto anymore.”
“Well, you need something to bump out your funk,” Leo said.
“Is that what the kids are calling it these days? Bumping out your funk?”
“If the kids are not calling it that, they should. I think it’s catchy. Bump out your funk.” Leo took out his phone and started typing. “I bet that hashtag has already been thought of.” He bit his lip. “I was right, but that doesn’t mean I can’t tag us. Smile, darling.”
He held his phone up for a selfie. I gave him a smile and a quick kiss on the cheek. “Please don’t post me. I am not ready to share my bumping with the world.”
“Don’t you ever be ashamed of bumping or funking.” Leo held up his phone. “‘Come see me at Lido Glass Factory to satisfy your every artistic need and don’t forget to sample Bella Baci caramels. #bumpoutyourfunk.’ I’d tag you if you weren’t a luddite.”
“You know I am not a technology person.”
“And your self-esteem is probably the better for it,” Leo said, finishing his post. “Let’s go. It’s time for you to walk with me and tell me about every moment of your beautiful mistake. I can tell it’s going to be juicy.”
We stepped outside into the sunlight. It was a crisp, clear, blue-sky day. White puffy clouds floated overhead, and if my breath weren’t freezing in front of me, I would have sworn it was springtime, instead of January.
Tourists crowded the square. Cafe tables ten rows deep lined all sides of the columns in San Marco. Tourists followed guides and couples took selfies. A few people donned Carnival masks, too early for costumes, but soon it would be impossible to walk the streets without running into someone in disguise.
Carnival would slowly progress to total mayhem. The entire city would join in the masquerade and celebrate the changing seasons with a ball at the Doge”s Palace.
“I have to ask the obvious question. Did the board vote against your plan?”
“Worse. Papa didn’t even have them vote.”
“Ouch,” Leo said. “Well, you know damn well your business is going to succeed with or without mama and papa’s approval.”
“I want to believe that.”
“Let’s monopolize an overpriced table at Cafe Florian. My treat,” I said.
“I can’t,” said Leo. “I have lunch today with Marianne from Medford.”
“Wait, I thought you were wining and dining Valerie from Vermont today?”
“I am. Valerie wants glass for her estate. Marianne just purchased two enormous chandeliers for her vacation home. Keep up.”
“Whatever happened to Terri from Tucson, or Mabel from Manhattan? And how do you find American women with these insane names?”
“What can I say? I attract symmetry and money.” Leo laughed. “Now spill the tea about your midnight mistake. I am dying.”
“Who said it was after midnight?”
“Everything good happens after midnight,” Leo said. “I’m just glad you are finally figuring it the fuck out.”
“Thank you for helping me today, Amore.” I stopped walking and stood on tiptoes to kiss him on his cheek.
“You know you are the only woman I will ever truly love,” Leo said.
“I know.”
I wondered what would have happened if I had called Leo the night before, instead of wandering the streets of Venice. I would have talked to him until I fell asleep, and I would have answered when my father knocked on my bedroom door to tell me the date of the board meeting had changed.
But I hadn’t been in my bed. I’d woken up alone in the Mia Sorella. My decision to walk alone that night may have been the first ball drop in a Rube Goldberg machine that ended with my life in shambles.
I glanced back at the Mia Sorella, my eyes lingering on the ballroom windows. The meeting had ended, but my father stood with his back to the outside. James stepped into view in front of him. He was talking to Papa, but his gaze was fixed over his shoulder. I stopped walking.
“Bella,” Leo said, tugging on my hand.
“Sorry,” I said, turning away from the Mia Sorella, turning away from James. “I got distracted.” I had a delicious thought. If James could see me, maybe he would wonder who I was with. Let him, I thought. Let him wonder.
“So is your big mistake upstairs in the Mia Sorella?” Leo said. We wove through the packs of tourists in Campo Polo, heading toward the narrow and winding street that led to San Marco and the Lido Glass Factory.
“Yes,” I said softly.
“And are you going to see him again, amore?” Leo asked, eyebrows raised. “You seem flustered.”
“I am not flustered.”
“All right.”
“I am not flustered.”
“I believe the lady doth protest too much.”
“Oh, stop,” I said, playfully swatting his arm. “Last night, I went for a walk. I met someone. We had sex in the Lover’s Suite at the Mia Sorella. And that someone just happens to be James Street, who is apparently acquiring my family’s company.”
“Alle-fucking-luia,” Leo said, shouting skyward. “Sorry I overreacted. Not alleluia about the acquisition. I’m happy about the sex part.”
“I know.”
“You will have to unpack the whole boardroom fiasco, but now I want details on the sex. It’s much more interesting. Keep going. You met him. He was beautiful.”
“So beautiful.”
“So beautiful, I love this. And then you fucked.”
“Many, many times.”
“I’m dying.”
“The Lover’s Suite in the Mia Sorella.”
“Stop,” Leo said. “Just stop.”
“And then this morning he was in the conference room talking to my father and sitting next to Roberto.”
“I would have paid money to see this. You know that, right?”
“He pretended not to know me.”
Leo shrugged. “Not a bad thing, maybe.”
“And then he asked me to meet him again tonight.”
We stopped walking and leaned on the rail of small bridge steps away from a shop that specialized in Venetian masks. Rows of gold and silver faces grinned and watched us from the window. A steady flow of tourists walked past us, a bell ringing every time they opened the shop door.
“Well, will you?” said Leo.
“Will I what?”
“Will you see him again?”
“I haven’t decided,” I said, shaking my head.
“Oh, yes, you have. Look at you. You are positively beaming. You have a sex glow.”
We started walking again finding a gap between two tour groups headed to San Marco. We walked quickly to avoid being trampled.
“Leo,” I said, my arm linked with his. “Do you remember the cards, the ones that Auntie Aurora read in secondary school?”
“Yes, and we agreed the cards are useful only when we like what they say,” Leo said. “How is this helpful?”
“She said I would meet a man and fall in love in the moonlight.”
“You should see him again, Bella,” Leo said, as we stepped into San Marco.
“Why?” My breath caught, remembering James in the moonlight in this exact spot.
“Because he fucked you to happiness. You deserve to feel happiness. You know this.”
“I know,” I said. “He was the best I have ever had.”
“I am starting to get jealous,” Leo said. “I love David, but you have that new love spark that is so magical.”
“It’s not love, Leo.”
“Fine. Call it a lust spark. And, apparently, yours is going to last for more than one day. He wants to see you again.”
“You are assuming he wants to have sex.”
“Woman, please,” Leo said, giving me a look. “The man has a penis and I guarantee he wants to put it in you again. It’s what we do. We put the penis in things.”
I laughed and swatted his arm again. “Why are you so crude?”
“I’m not crude. I’m honest,” Leo said. “You met a man. You fucked him. He most definitely wants to fuck you again, and you should do it.”
“Yes?”
“Yes,” Leo said. “And if he wants you again for one night, for two, what does it matter? You want him, take what you want. Venice is for lovers, for one night, for one hour, for a lifetime.”
“I told him that,” I said.
“So proud,” Leo said, clutching his throat for dramatic effect. “The student has become the teacher.” He glanced at the bell tower clock. “I need to run. Text me later. I want to hear all the details.”
“Will do, but remember, he may not want to fuck me. He might want to mine me for information about my father,” I said.
“Or he just wants to mine you,” Leo said. “I am on a roll today, aren’t I? #bumpoutyourfunk #minemehardbaby.”
“I did not say that.”
“Oh, but you thought it.” Leo leaned down to kiss my cheek. “Do something I would do, and for Gods’ sake, fuck like your life depends on it. I know leaving Roberto has been difficult.”
I opened my mouth in protest.
“Stop,” Leo said. “We don’t need to talk about it, but you know it’s been hard. You need to choose happiness, however brief. Choose joy. Choose love. Life is so fucking hard, Bella. Choose yourself, for once.”
Leo gave me a wave and I watched him jog across the square toward the Lido Glass Factory. Choose myself. I liked the sound of that, and hadn’t that been what I did the night before? I had finally pushed aside all the voices in my head that told me to be good, to follow the rules.
I wasn’t in love with James, either, but perhaps Leo was right. I was in lust. Sticky, mind-bending, and intoxicatingly deep and beautiful lust.
For the first time in my life, I understood that I could choose sex because I wanted it, not because I believed that one day I would stand at an altar and say those two magic words.
I needed to go home, rest, shower, and change. If James planned to play me, I would be ready for him.