Chapter Nine #5
Rosalie sipped water, expression guarded, her rings flashing in the sun. ‘I didn’t say I have no contact. I said I haven’t seen him since I went to uni. I have his phone number.’
Both Erin and Jade gasped as if Rosalie had confessed to having the phone number of a unicorn. Hesitantly, Rosalie added, ‘Sorry if that rankles. But I have a different relationship with him to you two.’
‘Completely different,’ Erin answered blandly, tipping the last of the Franciacorta into her glass and waggling the empty bottle so Hector could note it and nod enthusiastically.
Jade felt odd. Not queasy, but as if her stomach and knees had gone missing. ‘You literally could call him up and say, “Hey, Dad”?’ For her, Joey was a unicorn – spoken of but never seen.
Rosalie returned her glass to the table with a clunk. ‘Yes. Obviously, I check in on him to see he’s OK.’
‘Obviously.’ Jade felt a lick of unreasoning anger. ‘I assume he never checks in on you.’
‘I never said that.’ Rosalie’s eyes shone for an instant, as if she were holding back tears.
‘But does he?’ Erin asked stiffly.
Rosalie snatched up her paper napkin and blotted her eyes. ‘Only occasionally. OK? Does that make you feel better?’
Nobody chatted much after that. Jade’s scalp felt tight with frustration.
With Rosalie? Or with Joey? Or herself because Rosalie was obviously upset?
Then Jade felt exasperated because whenever Gran had asked her to establish contact with Joey, she’d refused.
So why feel wounded? ‘Sorry, Rosalie,’ she muttered.
She glanced at Erin and found her looking back, as if trying to communicate something.
But Erin’s eyes, though similar to Jade’s own, weren’t sufficiently familiar for her to read them.
As agreed, when the time came to pay, Erin and Rosalie shared the bill to make up for leaving Jade to pay at Cavalla, though Erin insisted on covering the lovely, bubbly Franciacorta as Rosalie had drunk mainly water.
They walked together the few steps around the corner to Three Sisters. At the door, Erin asked Jade, ‘Can I use my Uber app here, to get to the airport in the morning? Shall we share transport, Rosalie?’
Though it was a friendly-enough offer, Rosalie might still have been smarting over the Joey conversation, because she snorted. ‘It’s only a ten-minute walk to San Giovanni train station. Then you can get to Milano-Malpensa for under ten euro. It’s only about an hour on the fast train.’
Erin looked surprised. ‘But then you have to change to the airport shuttle.’
Neutrally, Jade said, ‘I can give you the number for a local taxi. Pensione Three Sisters is an independent business, so we’ve always tried to steer work to other independent businesses in Como.’
‘That’s a ridiculous expense and not very green,’ Rosalie said loudly. A couple strolling arm in arm turned to look at her.
‘I’d like a car.’ Erin took out her phone as if ready to book, but her eyes shifted between Rosalie and Jade. ‘And an Uber driver would be as local as your taxi firm.’
‘Or you could take the train.’ Rosalie, clearly not prepared to alter her stance, made for the stairs without saying good night.
‘Is this our first sisterly spat?’ Erin called after her before adding, under her breath, ‘Och, fuck.’
Awkwardly, Jade ushered Erin into Reception and gave her a card for a taxi company, which she could use or otherwise.
Erin hovered. ‘Just wondering . . . do you have a thing with Leo?’
Caught off guard by such an out-of-the-blue question, Jade replied stiffly. ‘No,’
‘I thought . . . He’s sexy AF and there seems to be a connection.’ Erin still didn’t say good night and leave.
Sexy was easy to understand and Jade was pretty sure what ‘AF’ meant. As Erin seemed genuinely interested, she found herself unbending. ‘We were together once. He left. It seems to happen to me a lot.’
Erin’s expression softened. ‘Joey left me too. You live with it all your life, but occasionally – maybe when one of your sisters lets slip that she could phone him – it matters, doesn’t it? Night.’ Without further sharing of her thoughts and feelings, Erin turned to climb the curving stairs.
Jade let herself into the apartment. There, she stood in the kitchen she’d shared with her grandmother for so much of her life, turning over Erin’s words in her mind. It matters, doesn’t it?
Gran’s: I sometimes wish you’d send a wee message to Joey.
And Rosalie’s: I have his phone number.
She took Gran’s laptop from the kitchen drawer, plugged it in and powered it up. She wasn’t actually going to email Joey from Gran’s account. Of course she wasn’t. That would be wrong on several levels.
She wanted to know whether, if she ever wanted to, she could contact him. Like Rosalie.
Except, it turned out, she couldn’t, because Gran had never shared her passcode. She tried Gran’s birthday, Nonno’s and her own. Maybe it was Joey’s. But Jade knew nothing of that but the year.
Angrily, she turned off the laptop and snapped it shut, scolding herself. ‘Idiot. You’ve known them five minutes and are already falling prey to sibling rivalry. So what if Rosalie can speak to him? Good for her.’