Chapter xxii
xxii
THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE YOU MEET AND FOR WHATEVER reason it feels like your bodies vibrate on the same frequency—or maybe it’s your souls. After I freshened up a bit at my hotel, I headed back to Via Roma on foot to sightsee a bit. I stopped to take a photograph of a farmacia to send to my brother, who is still working as a chemist at a pharmaceutical company. Which reminded me I’d never spoken to Jay about Vanessa being away for work. And actually hadn’t told my parents I was away. The distance between me and my family was so huge, sometimes it shocked me. I never would have predicted this was how our relationships would turn out.
I snapped a photograph of the view of the beach and sent it to my parents. Hi Mom and Dad , I wrote, I’m on a small island in Italy. Here for work. It was a last-minute thing, and I took advantage while the kids were away. Be back in a couple of days. Thinking about you!
A message came back from my mom immediately.
Looks like a beautiful place.
Even though that’s all she wrote, I know what she was thinking. I could read the unwritten: I can’t believe you’re on another continent and we didn’t know. It’s what I’d think if one of my kids sent that note.
Then I sent the photo of the farmacia to Jay. I’m in Italy and look what I found! Maybe some of your compounds are here! Talk when I’m back?
He sent a thumbs-up; it was all I got.
I sighed and went to put my phone away, but then it vibrated. I pulled it out again and looked at the screen.
It was Dax Armstrong.
I felt an electric charge when I saw his name there.
Hey Lucy. Just left the library. Looks like I’ll have to work tonight, but I have a few hours free. Any chance you like gelato?
I found myself smiling as I wrote back: “Like gelato” would be putting it mildly.
His reply was instantaneous. Meet me at Gelateria Voscenza in ten minutes then? It’s the best gelato I’ve ever tasted.
I quickly Google Mapped the gelateria and found I could walk there in five. Perfect , I said.
I turned around on Via Roma and took my time walking over but still arrived first, so I stood outside the shop, my face raised to the sun. It felt heavenly in the midst of the frigid New York winter—as did the fizzy feeling of anticipation coursing through my body.
“Hey,” I heard Dax say, and snapped my head toward him. “You look like a flower, soaking in the sun like that.”
“Maybe I’m just vitamin D deficient,” I said.
He laughed. “I can always order a blood workup …”
“I’d prefer a gelato,” I deadpanned.
“Me too,” he said as he opened the door for me, still laughing.
As I walked through the open door in front of him, I thought: Darren would approve of the gentlemanly gesture. Then I shook him from my head and looked around. There were small tables with brightly colored chairs scattered throughout the space, and twelve gelato flavors were set out in a freezer display. We were the only people in the shop, other than the man behind the counter.
“Which is your favorite?” I asked Dax.
“Nocciola,” he said to me. “Hazelnut.”
I looked them over. Some were easy to figure out, like cioccolato and caffè. There was a pink one, too.
“Fragola is?” I asked.
“Strawberry,” he said.
“And bacio?” It was a light brownish color.
His cheeks turned slightly pink. “It means kiss,” he said. “It’s a mix of chocolate and hazelnut. Like those hazelnut truffle candies covered in chocolate. Baci.”
“Wait,” I said. “Are Baci where Mr. Hershey got the name for his chocolate kisses? Or did Hershey’s Kisses come first?”
He smiled at me. “I have absolutely no idea,” he said. “And have literally never thought about that. Let’s find out.” He pulled out his phone and after a few pokes with his thumbs said, “And the winner is: Hershey’s Kisses. Made in 1907. Baci were invented in 1922 by a woman named Luisa Spagnoli. Though no indication if she had ever eaten a Hershey’s Kiss.”
“Huh,” I said and smiled at him. “Well, I guess I’ll try a kiss.” I was surprised by how easily the flirtation fell from my lips.
His eyes twinkled at me as he ordered for us both in his careful Italian, and when he went to pay with his credit card, I stopped him.
“My treat,” I said. “Please.”
He looked at me for a moment, then put his card away. “Well, thank you, as long as I can return the favor by taking you out to dinner tomorrow night. Will you still be here?”
“I will,” I said. “I got a note back from Gabe’s old editor that he wants us to take the photos down and scan them properly, just in case we can’t find the original files. So I’ll be here one more day, and then back to Rome, and from Rome to New York.”
“So, tomorrow night?” Dax asked.
“Tomorrow night,” I said, trading my credit card for a cone of gelato al bacio.
WE SAT OUTSIDE ON A BENCH, MY GAZE LOOKING down the road to the shimmering sea, drinking it in.
“This place is beautiful,” I said, looking at the expansive pink sky, the sun starting to set over the ocean. I wondered if we would see boats of migrants arriving in the distance, like Rachele had said, searching for safe harbor.
“Isn’t it?” he answered. “Just a bizarre juxtaposition— so much beauty, and so much suffering all in one place.” Then he pointed to a spot on the darkened horizon. “There was a ship last week that ran out of fuel right over there. The NGO I work for brought the passengers on board and got them to shore, while I started treating the worst cases of dehydration and hypothermia. It was a lucky group. Sometimes …” His voice drifted off.
He reminded me of you in that moment, Gabe, not able to find the words for what he’d witnessed. But still here, facing it.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Sorry that it happens. Sorry that there are people you can’t help.”
He sighed and I watched his gelato melt a little down the side of his hand.
“The nocciola,” I said, pointing.
He licked it off quickly. “When I think about it too long, the unfairness of the world really bowls me over.”
“I know what you mean,” I said. “How did we get to be the two people sitting here, eating gelato, and not, instead, two people risking our lives to come to this island.”
“Luck of the draw,” he said, looking at me as if he were trying to engrave the moment in his memory.
“Fate,” I answered.
“Maybe,” he said, with a small smile. He licked some more of his cone. “Sorry,” he said, “I get a bit philosophical sometimes.”
“I don’t mind,” I answered, licking my own gelato, reveling in the sensation of the cold sweetness on my tongue, in the heat radiating off his body next to mine. The casual intimacy of the moment, the comfort I felt with him here, so far from home, surprised me.
We were both quiet for a moment, and then at the same time, both started to talk.
We laughed, and he said, “You first.”
“I was just going to ask how long you’ve been working here.”
He smiled. “Well, I was a Doctor Without Borders here way back when. Last year a friend of mine from those days started an NGO that has boats patrolling the waters around Lampedusa and the Greek islands of Crete, Gavdos, and Lesbos, looking for boats so we can get the people to shore quicker and more safely. Each boat has a doctor on it, and I volunteered for a six-month rotation starting in September. I’ll be back in New York in a month.” He said the last part emphatically, his hazel eyes on mine.
“So you’ll have borders again soon?” I asked.
He nodded. “Borders again.”
His cell phone went off and I saw his face tighten. “Gotta get this,” he said, and picked up. “Okay,” he said into the phone. “Okay. Yup. On my way.”
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“That was our ship’s captain. We just got a report that there might be a boat a few miles offshore and they want to leave now. I’ve got to go. But I’ll see you tomorrow night?”
I nodded. “Tomorrow night.”
“Thank you for the gelato,” he said as he got up. “Sitting with you has been the best part of my week.”
I stood up and gave him a hug. He wrapped his arms around me, extending the moment. My head fit into the crook between his broad shoulder and his neck; he smelled like citrus shampoo. I could feel his muscles, strong underneath his T-shirt, and the strength and warmth of him made me shiver.
“See you soon, Lucy in the sky with diamonds,” he said against my ear.
I watched him go, then sat on the bench to finish my gelato. There was something in the air that made me feel like change was coming. And the feeling excited me.