Page 132 of Summer After Summer

“Yes.” He stands as he pulls his phone from his pocket. “Give me a minute.”

He walks away, and I can’t tell what kind of call he’s having. A bit testy, based on his body language, because despite having spent very few days together, I do know that about Fred—what the set of his shoulders mean, the way he runs his hand through his hair when he’s frustrated or stalling for time.

He ends the call and comes back to the table.

“Everything okay?”

“Yes.”

“Who was it?”

“Oh … just someone from work.”

“Are you playing hooky?”

“What’s that?”

“Forget it.”

“No,” he puts his phone away. “Sorry, I was distracted for a minute. The answer to your question is yes, I am. Which is very unlike me. But that’s good, right? If we’re going to be different?”

“It is.”

“What do you want to do after tea?”

“Shall we go and find Laura Place?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Fred flags down a waiter and asks for a gin and tonic. “If today is our day to go wild, let’s do it.”

I raise my glass. “To going wild.”

And we do. Not crazy for some people, but crazy for us. We find Laura Place—and I recognize it from the movies, a long line of identical white buildings on a curved street. I snap some pictures on my phone, and then we wander the streets, staring into the windows of tourist shops. We linger at one of them, with a bowed, mullioned window. It has pretty local jewelry made of jet and limestone.

“You should get that,” Fred says, pointing to a small charm of the Roman baths.

“It’s lovely.”

“Should we go in?”

I want to, but … “Feels like tempting fate.”

“How so?”

“Every time we’ve added a charm to this bracelet, we break up.”

“You’re saying it’s a curse?”

“It’s silly.”

“No.” He puts his arm around my shoulders and pulls me to him. “I believe in the power of magic. But I also believe in the power of choice.”

“What’s that?”

“We can choose to give something meaning.”

“So if I buy that, it won’t be the charm of doom?”

“Not familiar with that particular charm.” His mouth twists. “I think you should get it anyway.”

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