chapter 12 #2
“Any word from Ben?” Charlotte asked as they waited. “How’s he getting along without you?”
“He’s at work now. I’m sure he’s fine. He actually sent me a list of good restaurants to try.”
“We’ll get around to them. Tonight we’re letting Lilly choose.”
Lilly’s eyes widened. “It doesn’t have to be my pick,” she protested.
Sloane had heard only that they were going to Positano for dinner. She hadn’t realized this was meant specifically to please
Lilly. “You can choose tonight. We’ll be here an entire month, so we’ll have plenty of time to try everything.” She lifted
her phone, which held the list she’d been referring to. “Some of these—the ones in Praiano—we’ll probably visit more than
once.”
“Kasai is really good,” Lilly told them.
“What do you like there?”
“They have a supergood truffle pasta.”
“You like mushrooms?”
She made a face to show she didn’t. “I don’t think there are any mushrooms in it.”
Truffles were mushrooms, but Sloane didn’t want to spoil her favorite dish by telling her.
“I definitely want to try that while we’re here,” she said and smiled at Charlotte, who grinned back at her as they walked out to meet Julian in the narrow walkway that snaked through the houses crowded onto the cliff.
The restaurant Lilly couldn’t remember the name of—but loved—was a place called Il Tridente Positano. She had more trouble
finding it than Charlotte had expected. She’d sounded so confident before. But finally, as the taxi drove slowly through the
narrow streets, constantly stopping to wait for the tourists crowded all around them to drift slowly to the sides, she recognized
it. When they asked her to explain how she’d discovered the restaurant in the first place, since it didn’t seem like the type
of place a young girl would choose, she said it’d been her mother’s favorite, and her mother and Luca had taken her there
for both her mother’s birthday and her own.
Once they’d been seated and served, Charlotte thought the food was every bit as good as she’d been promised. They shared the
buffalo carpaccio. Then Lilly ordered the potatoes and saffron gnocchi, Julian got the pasta with baby octopus, Sloane raved
over a tubelike pasta with shrimp and other seafood and Charlotte chose something called spaghettoni pasta with black garlic that also had shrimp.
“Ben said we should try the fried artichokes while we’re in Italy,” Sloane said. “Apparently, they’re very popular here.”
There hadn’t been any artichokes on the menu at Il Tridente, but there’d been a risotto with cheese that, according to Sloane,
Ben had also recommended they try while they were in Italy. Sloane had ordered that in addition to her meal so she’d be able
to tell him they’d followed his advice and give him some feedback.
Charlotte liked the risotto almost as much as her main meal but wouldn’t have wanted it as her only entrée. “He was certainly right about the rice, so I’m willing to try the artichokes next time.” She turned to Lilly. “What do you think? Have you ever tasted them?”
“My mom made me try them once,” she replied. “I didn’t like them.”
“She liked them, though?” Charlotte couldn’t help being curious about Sabrina.
“She said they were good, but she likes—” her voice faltered as she realized her mistake and changed tenses “—she liked the ones that aren’t fried.” Her voice grew even softer as she finished with “I don’t think I’ve ever had those.”
Sloane shot Charlotte an apologetic glance for bringing up the artichokes. “How about we get some tiramisu?” she asked, probably
as an attempt to prop up Lilly’s spirits.
Julian set down his now-empty glass. “Another Ben recommendation?”
“We’re in Italy,” Sloane said. “He didn’t have to recommend that to me.”
“I say we walk around a bit and see a little of Positano before it gets too dark,” Charlotte said. “We can get some tiramisu
later.”
“The tiramisu at Kasai is the best,” Lilly said, her voice barely audible.
“Back in Praiano?” Charlotte clarified, obviously attempting to draw her out.
She nodded. “The owner’s mother makes it.”
Lilly hadn’t spoken much at dinner, so Charlotte was surprised she’d volunteer this. “Do you think they’ll be open late?”
“If they’re busy.”
“They don’t have set hours?” Julian asked.
“Not in Italy,” she said. “But most restaurants stay open late now that it’s spring. You’ll see people eating at ten, eleven,
even midnight.”
“Have you been anywhere else—other than the Amalfi Coast—since you arrived here?” Julian asked.
“Rome and Florence.”
“What about Lake Como?” Sloane asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know where that is.”
“Venice?” Julian ventured.
Another shake of her head.
“Maybe we should do some traveling while we’re here,” Charlotte suggested. “I think we can take public transit almost anywhere.”
Lilly said nothing, but Julian and Sloane agreed.
“Did you get some good pictures while Lilly and Charlotte were getting ready?” Sloane asked her brother.
“I didn’t bring my big camera with me today, didn’t want to mess with it. But I got a few nice shots with my iPhone.” He navigated
to his albums to let them look, and Charlotte paused on a photograph he’d taken from a second-story window at the villa before
leaving the house. She could see Lilly and her in the hot tub with the large red tiles of the deck and then the deep blue
of the Mediterranean Sea spreading out beyond them. The white bougainvillea climbing on the house showed in the foreground,
giving the picture depth and perspective.
“You do have an eye,” Charlotte told him. The picture he’d captured made everything look so perfect and serene. No one would be able
to guess the roiling angst she’d been feeling at the time.
He smiled as he reclaimed his phone. “I’m glad we came.”
She could tell he was trying to encourage Lilly, to suggest she should be glad, too. But Lilly was so hard to reach. Charlotte
thought she’d made some progress with her in the hot tub. But since then, her half sister had retreated behind the walls she’d
built to keep the rest of the world at bay, making Charlotte wonder if she’d ever be able to bridge the gap between them.