Page 85 of The Dolce Vita Divas
Ceci laughed. ‘My dear, when would it be right? He has been on his own for five years, maybe for longer than that if my suspicions are true. I am a mother, just as you are, and I knew better than to ask too much. He is going to sell this hotel, and I do understand why. But what, I wonder, will he do next? I like you, Joanna. And I love my son. I have seen you together this last week. The way you look at each other. It’s as though nothing has changed, isn’t it, even after all these years. Yes, don’t look so surprised, I guessed what you were to each other. And I have seen a sort of sadness in you that I recognise. I may laugh about my failed marriages; I may say things to cover up what went wrong. But I know that you, like I have been in the past, have been in mourning for a lost life. Your hopes that were lost, your expectations and dreams of the sort of life that you wanted but did not achieve. I know exactly how that feels. Was it his fault? Was it my fault? Was it the other woman?’
I could feel myself almost tearful at that point. She was right.
Ceci patted my hand. ‘I have told Paulo this. There came a time when I had to let go of the past. To forget the mistakes I made, the wrong choices, all the time lost. And when I did that, I could allow myself to have a future. Now I am telling you to do the same thing. I asked Freddy this morning why he wanted to marry me all those years ago. I had two failed marriages behind me. I was not a good bet at all. And he said, “I had waited long enough to find you.”And I think maybe you and Paulo have waited long enough too. Don’t you? Don’t let that chance, that precious opportunity, slip away from you.’
‘Thank you,’ I said, even closer to tears.
Ceci looked at me, more kindly this time, her head on one side.
‘Being swept off your feet by first love can be delightful, but it can be wonderful with both feet on the ground.’
22
I got home from Capri to find that in just one week, Alex had spread himself out from the confines of the granny flat all over my house. There was a young man asleep in my spare room (‘Mum, it’s only Liam from work, you’ve met him loads of times. I’m sure you said it was okay if he stayed for a few days. He’s just broken up with Emily. He’s no trouble, you’ll hardly know he’s there.’) and evidence of several takeaways and pizza deliveries sticking out of my overloaded kitchen bin, and the recycling wheelie bin was almost filled with empty beer bottles and cans. My washing machine was full of their wet laundry, which had been forgotten about for days and smelled mouldy.
There was a cracked window in the kitchen which had been repaired with duct tape, the fridge was almost empty apart from a particularly lurid curry stain up the sides and it looked like someone had spilled red wine over the sofa cushions and made only feeble attempts to clean up.
‘Look, it was an accident. I could pay for the dry cleaning if you like? And it was Liam’s fault the window got cracked, not mine. I told him not to chuck stuff around.’
* * *
Juliette came round for coffee the day after I got home, bringing with her some millionaire’s shortbread for us to taste.
‘So go on then,’ she said as we waited for the kettle to boil, ‘tell me all about it.’
‘We had a great flight out, and we landed on time. And then we took the ferry?—’
Juliette held up a hand. ‘Not that bit. I’m not in the least bit interested in your travel arrangements. I have to say, you’re looking a lot brighter than when you went away. So, my intuition, which Matthew says is my superpower, tells me something is up. And I want to know what happened with Paulo.’
I spooned some coffee into two mugs and smiled rather sentimentally at them.
‘Aha!’ Juliette said, clapping her hands. ‘I knew it. Was the old magic still there? Did you take one look at each other and fall into bed together?’
I gave her a look. ‘Don’t be naughty! Yes to the first bit and no to the second part. He was just as lovely as I remembered him, and yes, I still fancied him something rotten. But it took a bit of time for us to talk properly because there was so much going on. Other people and his family. All the things he had to do in the hotel. There always seemed to be something that he needed to dash off and sort out. We hardly had any time alone together until after the party. And then we talked and talked, and there was so much to catch up on?—’
Juliette held up her hand again.
‘You’re getting off the point again. What I want to know is did you snog him?’
‘Well, yes, I did actually,’ I said, feeling rather proud of myself.
‘And?’
‘And what?’
‘It’s okay, you don’t need to tell me, I can see from that soppy look on your face. Are you in love?’
I could feel myself blushing. Being in love was not something I had felt for a long time or expected ever again. It always seemed to be something younger people did. Not people my age.
‘Can I be in love at my age?’ I said.
Juliette scoffed. ‘Why on earth not? What would you call it? Being in reallylike? You’ve still got a pulse and so does he. When I met Matthew, it wasn’t like a bolt of lightning. But I was smitten there and then. Even if he was wearing tweed and I was covered in ice cream, but that’s a story for another day. But as we got to know each other, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, and I used to get this most marvellous tingly feeling whenever I thought about him. But we’re getting off the subject again. So what happens now?’
‘The most important thing is he’s selling the hotel. It turns out he never really wanted to spend his whole life running it, but he did because Ellen was so good at it. It’s a glorious place. You should take Matthew there. She did an amazing job; everywhere is so beautiful, the staff are great, the views are astonishing. But then after Ellen died, he finally admitted that he didn’t want to carry on. His son Leo wouldn’t want to take it over; in fact, no one in the family could, and he had to think of the future.’
‘He could give it to me, I’d have a go,’ Juliette said with a chuckle. ‘I mean, I’ve never run a hotel, but I’ve stayed in a lot over the years. And think of all that lovely food and the sunshine.’
‘Yes, if you’re a guest, but I think it’s a very different matter if you are in charge. You wouldn’t get to eat the food very often because you’d be serving it to other people and you probably wouldn’t see much of the sun either.’
