Chapter 10 #2
“I think we all go through cycles in the city, you know?” she said.
“One week, you get a new amazing pho place on your block and you catch a free concert, and you think there is no greater place on earth. The next week, your favorite bodega closes, your packages get stolen, and you feel like the city is falling apart. Then you go, ‘This place is ruined. I’ve got to get out of here.’”
“That’s true,” he said, then caught a glimpse of what he’d been looking for over to the right. It was the last remaining support of the bridge built in the seventeenth century that had fallen into the sea during the big storm in 2021. “Nuova costruzione,” he muttered.
“Sorry?” Lora turned her head.
“Over there, see?” He placed the paddle across his lap and pointed at an ancient brick pillar.
The top edge was jagged, rising out of the water where a small river flowed into the sea.
From this angle, they could clearly see the ends of the bridge on either side, each left to jut out unconnected into the air.
“Is that the bridge? That’s the one that’s four hundred years old?”
“So old the Spanish built it.”
“That’s crazy,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of stuff that old in the US, as you know. How long has it been out?”
“Four years. We can get to this side of town by going all the way around the river to the more modern bridge, but it takes an extra twenty minutes. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you consider that most of the important tourist areas are on the other side of this, any obstacle is going to be a problem. ”
“So, you need to fix the bridge to make it easier for tourists to get to the fun stuff.”
“Exactly. If we keep going this way, you’ll see what I mean.
The most beautiful beach in this whole area is just around the other side of these rocks.
” He pointed to a small collection of boulders.
He picked up his paddle and began to cut through the water again, only taking a few strokes to begin to see the empty beach emerge.
Tucked into another cove, it had a wide swath of sand and a gentle slope into the sea that looked like liquid turquoise.
“I wanted you to see this. Should we pull in and have a look?”
“Yes, definitely!”
They paddled in, jumping out of the boat in the shallow water, and pulled the kayak up onto the sand.
The sun had dropped even lower in the sky, beginning to put on its golden-hour magic show, and Andrea watched as delight cast a glow over Lora’s face as she took it all in.
This was obviously not the first time she’d seen a beach before, but it was probably the first time she’d seen a beach like this.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I think it’s incomprehensible that this whole part of the town is being kept a secret for a lack of funding.
It makes me angry. It’s so beautiful that the word ‘beautiful’ doesn’t make sense,” she said, turning to him.
“I can see why you were upset today. I’m sorry for adding my stuff on top of it all. ”
“It’s OK. You couldn’t have known what I was dealing with. Also, it shouldn’t matter. I should be able to separate those disappointments from my interactions with other people.”
“That’s got to be tough. It seems like you’re only one person running the whole show over there. You don’t have anyone besides Franca?”
“There are other people that I can call on for specific tasks, but she’s the one constant,” he said. “Want to sit for a minute?” She nodded and they settled themselves in the sand.
“And you’ve never done anything like this before, right?”
“No. I was an asset manager with only select clients and a handful of direct staff members before. There was a lot more stress, though. I was responsible for making sure that people continue to grow their fortunes long term, which sounds easy when millions are pouring in. It’s actually quite hard to stop people from spending all of their money, as it turns out. ”
“Is that why you left? The stress?”
“Sort of.”
“Was it a relationship? Sorry. I’m probably overstepping now.”
“No, I don’t mind telling you things,” he said, the words sounding equally strange and true.
“I had a relationship for three years, and yes, we did break up. I don’t think either of us saw it as a ‘forever’ kind of thing.
” While he wouldn’t have admitted it at the time, there was always something missing with Danni.
He’d met her at a silent auction he’d been invited to by his clients the Cortlandt brothers—actually, in the hallway between the restrooms at a silent auction when she came rushing in with a baseball cap shoved down over half her face and a black duffel bag slung over her shoulder.
She’d almost knocked him over before asking if he knew where the Jade Room was.
She’d almost knocked him over again when she emerged thirty minutes later wearing a low-cut gown showing off the premier auction item of the night, a $4 million necklace set with a sugarloaf cabochon Kashmir sapphire.
Then there was that killer smile she’d blasted his way as she took a turn around the room among the bidders.
One of the brothers had practically insisted that he go talk to her.
Why not? he’d thought. Later he’d wonder if he would have tried to meet Danni at all were it not for Lawrence Cortlandt and his very large portfolio of encouragement.
When they were heading out to some chic restaurant or fabulous party, which they always were at first, she was happy.
But when he started to suggest cozy nights at his place or a lazy Sunday with no plans at all, she’d get moody and irritable like she was being punished.
After a while, he couldn’t keep up. He didn’t want to.
And Danni found more and more ways to be busy and booked.
One afternoon, Andrea showed up to one of her photo shoots to surprise her and saw how she came alive in front of the cameras.
It was as if she fed off the admiration, becoming a creature who would be truly suffocated by a quiet evening at home.
She eventually broke up with him to be with a filmmaker who’d won the Founders Award at the Tribeca Film Festival that year.
It made sense, but he still felt like it was another example of how he’d failed to live up to his duty as the NYC cool guy he was supposed to be.
“But that wasn’t ultimately the reason why I left. ”
He was quiet for a moment, aware that he was coming close to revealing more about himself than he had in a long time.
He could easily say something like We should get back and go home and make some toast and have a shower and wake up tomorrow like it was nothing.
He could pretend like the pink sky wasn’t playing tricks with his head, making him see everything as perfect and possible just because Lora sat there watching it all with him.
But where would that get him? Safe? Comfortable? Alone.
“I left because when I came back here to visit, I was overwhelmed with the needs of this place. I was concerned about my family, and as much as Italians love to complain about everything here, and I’m no different, I love this place.
Look at this,” he said, waving his arm at the horizon.
“I could not leave this to die. Maybe that’s dramatic. For me, it felt that serious.”
“It makes sense,” she said. A strand of hair had blown across her lips, and she reached up to pull it away.
He’d almost had the instinct to do it himself, but if he touched her face, there was no way he wouldn’t run his thumb over her cheek and bring her mouth to his.
“You were able to find purpose here, and I’m sure your family is happy that you are back. ”
“Not really,” he said, running his fingers through the sand between them, keeping his hands busy.
“My family loves me, but they want me to go back to America. They think I’m crazy to do this.
I know I made a lot of money and lived in New York and went to the beautiful places and met the beautiful people, but was it better? I don’t know.”
“I guess it depends on what you want. Not everyone needs the same things. It’s OK to admit that,” she said, her eyes settling on his. “Is this what you want?”
He paused, allowing himself to fall into her gaze a moment longer, knowing he could easily get lost there for a long, long time.
“I think so,” he finally said, sure that this was something else he’d never said out loud before.
He’d lost track of how many times he’d asked himself the same thing and refused to acknowledge his own answer.
Every time he had some disappointment, he’d console himself by saying it didn’t matter.
It would be the next mayor’s problem. Still, he kept pushing, kept believing, kept trying.
And he was changing things. He could see it.
But now he couldn’t deny that the town was changing him too.
“I think I chose this a long time ago. I just haven’t quite been clear about my intentions.
So, most people still think I am out of my mind. ”