Page 21 of Nantucket Reflections
“I just have a feeling,” she said. “I can’t explain it.”
Greta told her a few of the goings-on back in Nantucket, how Henry had gone back to Los Angeles for a few business meetings and taken Madeline with him, how Aurora had come by and shown her a few of her new songs, how Greta had a new idea for a novel that she was refusing to tell anyone about. “I’ll send you the fifth draft or so,” Greta promised Julia with a smile in her voice.
“I’d love to publish it,” Julia said to her mother, “but I know you’re too important to the literary community to have your books published through my house.”
“Don’t be silly, honey,” Greta said.
But neither of them said what they were probably thinking: that there was no telling how long the house would remain open.
After that, Julia finished with her favorite event—talking to Anna about Anna’s baby, Julia’s grandchild. It was a truly monumental thing, becoming a grandparent. Julia didn’t want to miss more than a week or two of her grandbaby’s life. The fact that Anna—whose fiancé and the father of her child had died in a freak accident not long after they had gotten engaged—had found a partner to raise her baby with was something that Julia thanked her lucky stars for every single day. Over the phone, Julia blew a kiss at Anna and the baby and said good night.
It was only then, long past two in the morning, that Julia found the will to sleep.
* * *
As promised, Julia and Charlie spent the following day as tourists in the City of Light, going to the Eiffel Tower, pinching pennies to go to the Musée d’Orsay, walking all the way to the Sacre-Coeur so they could see the city stretched out like a blanket before them. At the Luxembourg Gardens, they watched a twenty-something couple get engaged and applauded till they had tears in their eyes. They discussed how they had originally become engaged to their first partners, with Julia explaining that Jackson had always wanted everything to be a big show.
“It didn’t feel like me,” Julia said, her shoulders slumped. “It was the one time of my life I was young and beautiful and ready to be married, and my engagement felt like it should have happened to somebody else.”
Charlie took her hand and said, “You’re just as beautiful now as you were then. More so, to me.”
Julia’s heart swelled.
Julia knew that Charlie had been incredibly Charlie with his engagement, keeping things lighter and easier. As he described the scene, Julia took his hand, knowing it wasn’t easy for him to talk about. Charlie’s first wife had passed away tragically, and Julia always wanted him to know that he could talk about it if he wanted to. She never wanted him to think that his first marriage wasn’t valid or that he couldn’t continue to love her.
What use was jealousy in a marriage, anyway?
By the end of a full day in Paris, Julia had made up her mind about where they needed to go next: Positano. She showed Charlie a photograph of it and watched his face transform.
“Look at that water!” he said, taking her phone. “What color would you say that is?”
“Turquoise? Sea green?”
Charlie nodded. “How do we get there?”
Julia got online and found two cheap flights from Paris to Naples. Because they’d never been to Naples, they decided to stay in the city for one night before heading to Positano for the detective work to begin. Charlie got online immediately and began to research the best pizza restaurants in the city, with the goal of eating at least one entire pizza by himself before they left.
At Charles de Gaulle Airport the following morning, Julia and Charlie sat waiting for the plane to board, sipping coffees and people watching. It wasn’t long till Julia overheard a few British people talking about CAT and the drama with the publishing house. Julia’s face wasn’t widely known, and her name wasn’t anything these people would recognize, but her publishing house’s name was smeared everywhere, including here in this airport.
“I mean, maybe Lucia is just a con artist? But they needed to do their due diligence, you know?” the girl was saying, flipping her blond hair over her shoulder.
“Remember when CAT did her London mural?” the other said, looking giddy. “I think it’s the best one she's ever done.”
“That was peak CAT,” the first agreed.
“I was really excited for CAT to make her big reveal,” the second continued. “But maybe it’s not what I actually want?”
“It would be weird if Banksy went around, introducing himself as Banksy,” the first affirmed. “I think we need a little mystery in our lives?”
“Maybe that’s what the publishing house didn’t understand,” the second said.
Julia furrowed her brow, considering this. What these girls didn’t understand was the nature of book sales and how frightening it was to make a career in a business that seemed to fail on every end. But what if they had a point? Maybe CAT needed to stay CAT. Maybe, in Julia’s quest to discover if Lucia was or wasn’t CAT, she’d discover something that blew the story of CAT wide open. Was that wrong of her? Or was it okay, since it was going to save her publishing house? Her ears buzzed.
When they reached Naples, they took a cab to a neighborhood not far from the port, where they dropped off their bags in an apartment that was owned, yet again, by one of Alana’s fancy friends from her modeling days. (Julia made a mental note to get Alana a nice gift in thanks, but couldn’t imagine what would be good enough for Alana’s fancy taste.) Alana’s model friend met them there because she was staying down the road at her director boyfriend’s place, the place and the boyfriend being temporary. To Julia, the woman seemed too upper-class for a place like Naples, a place of chaos and grime and so many strange and exhilarating smells and sounds. But the woman explained that she was only in Naples a few weeks out of the year. “I love it, to a point,” she said. “And then I move on to someplace else!”
It was a level of glamour that didn’t necessarily attract Julia, but she and Charlie were grateful to be a part of it, if only briefly.
That night, Charlie got his pizza: a gorgeous Italian sausage with gooey mozzarella cheese that made him cry with happiness. Julia ate a plate of pasta, drank a glass of wine, and watched the sunlight dim over the Mediterranean Sea. Her heart was full, even in its confusion. When they went for a walk after dinner, they kissed near the water and watched the night fully darken. Before they retreated to the apartment, Charlie insisted that they get gelato, which was the creamiest and best that Julia had ever had. Julia got pistachio, while Charlie opted for Nutella and peanuts. They shared, but only briefly. Charlie’s was too sweet.
