Chapter 141
IN EARLY JUNE, Bruno and Luca’s team got word that the Ministry of Health was going to come through with enough money to extend CNEN’s research program in La Maddalena for at least another year. So on a Friday night, Teo and I met up with them at Il Brigantino to celebrate.
The tender was on another ten-day cruise, which meant that Teo and I had been spending an obscene amount of time together. After some debate, we decided we could pull off this very public dinner so long as we maintained the facade that we were just friends.
“What do you think did it?” I asked Bruno after the four of us had started in on our antipasti. “How’d you get the funding?”
He finished chewing a pickled onion. “It’s the DC. They’re desperate to shore up support ahead of the election.”
Italy’s national elections were less than two weeks away. While the Christian Democrats had defeated the communists in the local elections back in February, it was anybody’s guess as to whether they’d be able to pull out another—much bigger—win.
“What does the DC have to do with the Ministry of Health and whether they allocate enough money to CNEN?”
“The DC wants to stay in power, right?” said Bruno.
“Sure.”
“And they’ve apparently decided they can’t win if they pretend this nuclear pollution business is no problem.”
“Yeah, but I thought they didn’t have the money,” I argued.
Teo laughed. “They’ve got friends with money.”
“Who, us?” I said.
He nodded, then reached for a piece of prosciutto.
“You really think it’s American money they’re using?” I asked.
Teo shrugged. “Probably.”
Bruno agreed. “It can’t come out that it is, or it’ll look like they don’t trust their own radiological surveys. But right now they’ve got to do everything they can to silence—or at least quiet—the PCI, and if that means helping Italy build out a radiological surveillance program, then so be it.”
I thought of all the calls Francesca and Carmela had put in to reporters and editors on the continent. “Do you think all that stuff Francesca’s been doing has helped?”
“It hasn’t hurt,” said Bruno.
Maybe it was all the good news or maybe it was just the wine, but I was feeling bold, so I slid my foot out of my sandal and allowed my toes to graze Teo’s ankle.
He gave me an almost indiscernible wink but otherwise remained engaged in the conversation, which soon turned to the subject of Luca’s budding romance with Matilde.
“When do I get to see her again?” I asked.
“Soon,” he said. “But aren’t you leaving any day?”
“It’s looking like late August now,” I said, careful not to make eye contact with Teo.
Bruno asked about New London and some of the logistics pertaining to the move, and while I answered all of his questions, I didn’t expand upon them.
“I assume it’s bittersweet, moving on,” Bruno said, and the way he glanced between Teo and me made me wonder if he knew more than he was letting on.
After dinner, Teo and I walked back to his apartment.
I shouldn’t have risked it, but I had just spent the last three hours pretending I didn’t care about him, and I couldn’t bear to split up and take two separate routes to the same place.
We turned down a small road, too narrow for cars, near the Istituto San Vincenzo, and as we walked up the hill in the dark, I reached for his hand.
“Someone could see,” he warned me, but he didn’t let go and neither did I.
I was looking for the right place, and when I saw a small garden with a couple of overgrown strawberry trees, I pulled him into a secluded corner.
“What are we doing?” Teo asked, but I was already unbuckling his belt. It was a dumb thing to do, but I was infatuated with him, and I was so scared of what came next that I think part of me almost wanted to get caught.
“Shhh,” I whispered, but I didn’t need to explain how this worked.
He kissed me hard on the mouth and, in one fluid motion, hoisted me onto a little ledge and pushed up my skirt.
Neither of us could see what we were doing, but the bumbling was a turn-on, and once he was inside me, all I could focus on was my own blind need.
I came quickly, and Teo was about to finish when we heard someone with a cane making their way very slowly past the garden wall. The cane made a clicking noise on the cobblestones, and we froze for a moment, terrified that whoever it was would enter the garden and discover us.
It was a near miss, thank God, and as we heard the clicking noise recede, I whispered into Teo’s ear, “Keep going.”
A few seconds later, he collapsed against me, and that’s when we heard an old man say, “Buonasera, signora.”
I must have jumped a mile, but Teo put a finger to my lips. “He’s talking to someone else.”
It was a woman whom the old man must have passed on the street, although we hadn’t heard her coming. We listened as she returned the man’s greeting, then moved along, the click of her heels echoing behind her.
“That was close,” I said, and we both laughed, intoxicated with each other and our own good fortune.