Page 34 of The Vanishing
He opens the book with one hand, then presses his fingers to the center of his forehead with the other. “I have to fly home next weekend. I’m wrapping up a new restaurant contract this week, then I have follow-up meetings scheduled with three of Nino’s clients before I leave. His newest client is having some sort of centennial celebration next Friday night in Osaka, so I think I can squeeze that in before my flight in the morning. What’s happening with the social visits in Okayama? How’s planning going for Tanabata?”
“It’s going well,” Cellina reports, just as the waitress returns and sets their coffees and her cake on the table. “I’m working with the temple to schedule renovations, and managing the food vendors. The Showa Clan handles all the details for the decoration competition, so I’m leaving that in their hands. But they know to reach out if they need me. I’m having fun covering for Haruka. Everyone is so nice. I love planning events and talking to new vampires—my Japanese is getting better, too.”
“That’s good, I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself. If I can get all of Nino’s clients settled, Asao said I may not need to come back. That works, because I have to fly to Paris and Germany while I’m at home, but we’ll play it by ear.”
He looks down to scribble dates in his calendar. Cellina shakes her head. She considers herself a productive, professional person. Having aspirations to manage her own gallery in the future means she’s always studying and working, networking and schmoozing. But this purebred’s schedule is insane. “Giovanni, when do you just breathe?”
He looks up at her, a deep frown etched in his forehead. “Breathe? What does that mean?”
“Take a break. Relax.”
He scoffs. “When I’m asleep.”
She watches him write things into his calendar, erase, then re-write. Everything about him is tense. Uptight and strained. Who is this male sitting in front of her? What happened to the playfully defiant and sweet vampire that she’d once considered her best friend? They had their falling out so long ago, but the ramifications of it are still present between them even now.
What have the years done to Giovanni? It feels like time has ravaged him—worn him down to this gruff, bitter state like a weathered stone in sand.
“Why don’t I go to the centennial celebration on Nino’s behalf next Friday, since it’s the night before your flight home?” Cellina asks. “You can go back to the Kurashiki estate and rest.”
He shakes his head, still writing. “I’ll already be in the area. It doesn’t make sense for you to go all the way there. Don’t worry about it. I’ll just change my flight to leave from Kansai International.”
Cellina takes a sip of her iced coffee, letting the cool, sweet liquid settle her nerves. She takes a deep breath. “Then… do you want me to come with you? I can meet you in Osaka and we can go together? If you don’t mind… Two reps at a social event are always better than one.”
Giovanni freezes, meeting her eyes. “You’re willing to attend a social engagement… with me?Together?”
That shouldbe myline.Nervous, she smooths her hair up to her oversized, curly bun. With all this humidity in Japan, every day is curly-bun day. “Yes… if you’re comfortable with me being there?”
Dropping his pencil, he sits up straight, massaging the back of his neck. “Of course.” An awkward silence hangs listless between them until he says, “It’s always better with you there.”
“Always?” Cellina frowns. “Always since when?”
“Since we were kids. Like when my father would trap me in those boring-ass conversations about agricultural trade and exports, or national annual growth rates. Having you there… Sneaking away with you made it better. It gave me something to look forward to.”
“I… thought about that recently,” Cellina admits. “The summer parties at your family’s estate were the best. The food—and I loved roaming the gardens at night. It was like magic.” She relaxes her shoulders. They haven’t talked like this in forever: calm, casual and without some explicit purpose or underlying hostility. It’s nice… like dipping her toes into a warm bath.
“Yeah.” Giovanni nods. “We spent a lot of time out there. Do you remember how we used to tell Nino and Cosimo that we were going to play hide-and-seek, then they’d run off somewhere and we’d go sit by the fountain and talk?”
Cellina laughs. “We got away with that for a long time before Cosimo figured it out. He was so upset. Nino didn’t even care, did he?”
“Nope.” Giovanni smiles. “He used to go climb that old peach tree near the gazebo—the one by that hedge of rose bushes? The gardener would find shriveled-up peaches and their pits around the bottom of the tree the next day and make a big fuss about them destroying his lawn equipment.”
“I recently told Haruka about that silly habit.” Cellina laughs. “And Nino was always hiding in that area with the rose bushes. God, he was such a little loner… Cosimo tried his damndest to get Nino to open up to him after they came of age.”
“By that time, Cos was so desperate to fuck him and feed from him that it made Nino uncomfortable.”
“He wassointo Nino,” Cellina admits. “He came on waytoo strong.”
Giovanni smirks in a laugh, folding his arms across his broad chest. “Thank God for Haruka.”
“I love Nino like he’s my own little brother—probably more. But yes, thank God for Haruka. Nino was always good though, you know? He never once tested my boundaries and always fed from my hand. He also let me expose him to nineties American R&B and TV shows when I was going through that phase.”
“Hm. Everyone in our estate was exposed to it by proxy.”
“And you’re all very welcome.” Cellina sticks her chin out. Giovanni smiles.
A comfortable pause settles over them as the sunlight shifts behind a cloud. They’re talking to each other. Amicably. Reminiscing about the good times and when their lives were simpler. Cellina can almost smell the summery, smoky but sweet aroma of cypress trees floating through the balmy night air of the garden. She can almost hear the white noise of the marble fountain, its fresh water spouting in the distance.
Her mood dampens, melancholy settling in her heart. She looks up at the vampire sitting across from her, meeting his lovely but unfamiliar eyes. “What happened to us?”
