Page 70 of A Place in the Sun
La Tavola is about so much more than just food on a plate.
I head for the door, then turn back to Giovanni. He looks up at me at the same time.
‘See you tonight for pizza!’ He grins. ‘Hopefully thehouse will be done by the time you get back. You’ll be ready to sell.’
‘Grazie,’ I say, and there’s a pause. I pick up my basket and turn to leave.
‘Thea,’ he says, ‘I should be saying thank you to you. You have saved La Tavola.’
‘For now,’ I say.
‘Yes, for now. And that is all we have. The here and now. And we should grab those chances when they come along.’ I wonder if he’s talking about La Tavola or possibly Sebastian.
I stare at him, as if something has been lost between us.
‘Come on, children,’ I call upstairs. ‘Time to go to the market.’
The market, although quite a drive away along narrow country roads, bumpy and uneven, is everything I hoped it would be. As a group we wander the streets, perusing the stalls in the slightly less punishing heat. It’s bearable, like a warm bath that you want to wallow in. We choose cold meats, mozzarella from a local farmer, who tells us where his farm is and the process for making the cheese, bags of olives and glistening anchovies.
With the shopping for the pizzas in bulging bags, we go our separate ways to look around the clothes stalls and kitchenware. Tablecloths hang and ripple in thelightest of breezes. Handbags, scarves and brightly coloured underwear are piled next to overalls, and a shoe stall is heaped with stilettos and slippers.
‘This has been wonderful,’ says Sebastian, walking next to me as the children hurry off in search ofgelati.
‘It’s certainly seems to be turning out how I wanted it to. I’m glad I could set this up before I leave.’
‘Will that be soon?’ he asks.
I find myself sighing. ‘Not long. The house is ready to go on the market. I needed to get it sorted and ready to sell. And I need to be back for the children to start school again.’
‘I was thinking, Theally … Is there a chance we could meet up when you’re home?’
‘I …’ Part of me is terrified, but another is excited. A future, moving forwards. Suddenly life seems full of possibilities, maybe even love, and a shiver runs up and down my spine. ‘Maybe that would be nice,’ I say, doing exactly what Giovanni told me to do, relaxing and enjoying this time.
‘Just take it gently, do some of the things we used to enjoy doing together? We could go back to that pub on the Thames, near Richmond.’
‘Where we got stranded in the beer garden when the water flooded it?’
‘And we had to wait it out until it receded …’
We laugh.
‘Or fish and chips at the coast.’
‘There’s a water theme here.’
‘Actually, I’m thinking of moving there.’
‘Where?’
‘West Wales, where we spent Christmas in the cottage.’
‘When the heating wouldn’t work and we just had the wood-burner to keep us warm.’
‘Yes, by the sea. I loved it there.’
‘It was beautiful, if cold! But if you’re thinking of moving there, does that mean …?’
He nods. ‘I’m leaving the company. I’ve done my time. I’ve put enough away. I want a new beginning while there’s still time. It was thinking about you that showed me what I wanted, when I read about your idea for the cooking school here. I know that marrying Elizabeth, after you and I finished, was a mistake. But I tried to make it work. Somehow, though, however hard I tried, I was never going to be good enough. You were brave enough to realize what you wanted … and what you didn’t.’ He looks at me with a sad expression, like the young man he was back then. Just thinner hair and lines, as we pass a couple of noisy market-sellers, shouting over each other to catch buyers’ attention.
