Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
“ H ow much?” I exclaimed.
We had managed to pull ourselves away from the Pantheon, through the crowds. There was a gelato stand not far from where we were, and I was busy reading the menu board.
“Why is it so expensive?” Sarah whispered.
“I don’t know, but I’m not paying that much for a bottle of water,” I said, not as quietly as Sarah. Hot, hungry me could not be silenced. “It’s bloody mental!”
It was going to cost nearly fifty euros for two bottles of water and a scoop of gelato each. We’d agreed not to skimp on this trip, but I would not paying those kinds of prices, even if I was beginning to feel dehydrated. Prices were often higher in capital cities in the tourism hotspots, but we weren’t expecting this.
“Come on, there must be a little shop or something around here where it is a lot cheaper.”
“Mi scusi, ladies?” a deep voice said from behind us.
We turned to see who was talking to us. If they were even talking to us. There were so many people around us that we could have been mistaken. Then he stepped forward. I don’t know how he was able to cope in his suit with this heat, but there was not an ounce of sweat on him. His long, black hair was swept back, and he had beautiful skin. His hair was beautiful. He was beautiful.
“I’m so sorry, ladies,” he said in very good English. “Please, come.”
He gestured for us to follow him away from the crowd.
“Is it safe?” I asked Sarah, whose lower lip was almost touching the floor.
“If he wants to kidnap me, he can. Come on.”
She grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowd to follow the mysterious Italian man. He did not lead us down an abandoned alley. Instead, he took us away from the hoard of people, into a more open area closer to the Pantheon.
“I’m sorry, I can see you are on holiday so I no bother you for long, but my advice? Don’t buy from ’ere.” He pointed to the gelato stand where we had just been, and to the other vendors scattered around. “You should buy from less busy place. Outside the main part of the city. Is cheaper. These prices? Crazy.”
“Ah, right,” I said. Sarah was in a trance, listening to him speak. “Thank you. It’s so nice of you to tell us. We’ll find somewhere else.”
“How long you been in Rome?” he asked.
“We only arrived this afternoon. We were just going to have a walk before finding somewhere to eat. Where would you recommend?”
“You will find lots of places hidden in the old roads. If there are tourists? Keep walking. If there are Italians? You know is a good place.” He had a great smile. His white teeth stood out against his olive skin.
“Thank you.” Sarah had finally woken up from her man-coma. “Are you from Rome?”
“No, I am from Foggia, a little bit south of ’ere. I now live in Rome, for work.”
“Ah, that sounds wonderful. What a beautiful place to live.”
They were staring deeply into each other’s eyes. A subtle smile, and the odd twinkle, definitely a connection. All thoughts of Max The Wanker and the abandoned wedding had clearly been pushed well out of Sarah’s mind, thanks to our new Italian friend.
“My name is Alessandro.” He held out his hand, to shake ours in turn.
“I’m Sarah, and this is Jenny.”
“It is nice to meet you, ladies. But I must apologise. I must leave. Maybe we will see each other again, yes?”
“Yes. That would be great, yes. Jenny?” Sarah looked at me.
“Absolutely.” This was the first time in a long time that any smile on her face had seemed genuine. Until now, any man who’d dared to speak to her in the past three months had been kindly told to eff off. “We’re here for a few days so, definitely.”
“Good, good.” He fumbled around in his pocket and pulled out a card. “This is my number. We can meet for a drink, or something.” I could almost feel the electricity as his hand touched Sarah’s and she took the card from him. She ran her other hand through her hair, brushing a strand of it behind her ear. She wasn’t even blushing. If that were me, I would be as red as a pepperoni.
“I’ll let you know what we’re doing, and then we can arrange something.”
“That sounds wonderful. Grazie. ” He stepped back, ready to walk away from us, having one final glance at Sarah. “ Ciao, ladies.”
“Yes, ciao. ”
“That accent though. Did you hear how he said his name?” Sarah had been busy swooning over her new Italian friend throughout our entire meal. We followed Alessandro’s advice and found a restaurant near our hotel that was filled with locals. And he was right. The food was perfecto as well as cheapo.
“I did.” I picked up another slice of pizza. I was having a foodgasm, and hardly even listening to what she was saying.
“ Alessandro. Oh, how his tongue rolled when he said it. Alessandrrro. Imagine what else that tongue could do.”
“Well,” I said, with a mouthful of melted cheesy goodness. “We’re here for a little while longer. Plenty of time to find out. My God, this is good pizza.”
“Do you think we should meet up with him? Is that a good idea? No, we can’t. I can’t. Can I? No, no, I can’t.”
“Why not?” I asked, taking another huge bite.
“Because it’s our holiday. A girly holiday. Not a man-meeting holiday.”
“Neither was Zante, and we both know how that turned out.” I cringed at the memory, and about the awkwardness of Sarah’s parents picking us up from the airport just thirty-six hours after they had dropped us off. They had kindly agreed not to call my mother and allowed me to hide at their house for the remainder of the week so she never had to know of my shame.
“That was different! We were twenty-one. Single girls in their twenties can get away with that kind of stuff. I’m thirty-one now. It’s time to be mature. Sensible. One must refrain from climbing on top of sexy Italian men.”
“What are you talking about? You can do whatever you want.”
She leaned back in her chair and swirled her fork in her spaghetti, but not lifting any to her mouth to eat.
I tried to ignore the giant, sparkly pink elephant in the room, but it was difficult not to work out what was on her mind in that moment. Max The Wanker’s girlfriend Ellie was in her twenties. Twenty-three, to be exact.
“Age has nothing to do with it.”
“You say that, but you’ll notice it from now on. Everywhere you go, there’ll be a bunch of twenty-year-old girls having more fun than you. They go around in groups, hunting. You’re okay, you have a man who adores you. I’ve got a battle on my hands now, if I ever want to meet someone.”
“Well, Alessandro didn’t seem to notice any of the twenty-year-olds standing around us in their miniskirts. It was us he pulled from the crowd, and he only had eyes for you. Text him if you want. We can meet him tomorrow evening. I don’t mind.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want you feeling like a gooseberry.”
“I’ll be fine. Just tell him to meet us somewhere near the hotel, so I can sneak back if I want to. It’ll give me an excuse to give Zack a call.” And try out phone sex.
“Okay, but I’ll text him in the morning. I don’t want to seem too eager.”
The sun was setting. It was still humid outside, but this place had air conditioning, so we were nice and cool inside. Sarah took her last mouthful of pasta, and I crunched down on the pizza crust, which was too delicious to leave on the plate. I was full. The antipasti, the salads, the bread, and finally the pizza.
“Your meal is good, si? ” Our waiter, Matteo, returned. He was the only English-speaking waiter at the restaurant. He was funny, although it was sometimes difficult to understand him. Or to get him to understand us.
“ Si, yes, it was perfect, thank you.”
“You like tiramisu?” he asked, full of hope.
“Oh no, thank you. We’re too full.”
“You no like tiramisu?” He pretended to get upset and wiped a fake tear from his eye. “My nonna make it. You make-a me sad.”
I laughed. “We do like tiramisu. We’re just too full.” We both rubbed our bellies for effect. Hoping he would understand.
“You like tiramisu?”
“Yes!” we both said together.
“Okay, okay, you insist then I bring.” He smiled in victory, giving me a wink.
“We will need to do a lot of walking tomorrow to burn all of this off,” I said to Sarah as Matteo removed our collection of empty plates from the table.
“That won’t be a problem, I’m sure!” she pulled out her phone and opened up the Rome app. “Look where we can go!”