Honeymoon For One (6 page)

Ava noted that while the woman seemed to have eyes
only for Nico,
he
seemed to be more interested in his espresso.

Ava’s heart raced as she realised she couldn’t
avoid going past them unless she turned around and she didn’t want to head back
towards Juliet’s house again.

Wincing with embarrassment, she rubbed her eyes
again, making sure there were no tell-tale tears as she put her head down,
pushed her sunglasses down, forced her shoulders back and darted past the two
of them.

She prayed that Nico wouldn’t see her fleeing the
Casa di Giuletta.

She was so fiercely independent, thought Nico,
watching Ava as she strode up Via Cappello. So much heartache to deal with and
still so defiant and strong. He admired her tenacity.

As he watched her from a distance, he noticed that
she drew looks from people as she walked past. Maybe it was her height, or her
looks. The sunglasses perched on her head seemed to give her a slight movie
star appeal and it was true; she did seem to stand out from the crowd.

He shook his head in resignation. Poor woman. What
a trial this trip must be for her. Such a sad event, to have lost a true love,
under such circumstances.  It was almost too tragic to bear thinking about. And
yet, he marveled at Ava’s strength of character in all this and her ability to
carry on with her sight seeing. Perhaps it was her way of dealing with her
grief.

Nico shrugged his shoulders and carried on walking
down the cobbled street until he found a café. Grabbing a newspaper from a
vendor nearby, he sat down at an outside table, ordered an espresso and
 buried his head in the paper. It gave him the perfect opportunity to look
engrossed so that nobody else would recognize him and bother him. It also made
keeping an eye on Ava a relatively inconspicuous task.

Not that he was stalking her, he wasn’t, but he
would at least know when she came out.

“Nico darling! Whoever are you hiding from?” 
Silvia Azzarone, tall and angular, bent down and whispered into his ear at the
same time as giving him a light peck on his cheek. She had Alessa with her, her
five year old daughter.  Uninvited, Silvia sank into the seat opposite
him, with her back to the footpath.

“Come
Alessa darling, sit down. Where are your manners?” she said, pointing to the
empty chair next to Nico.

“Silvia,”
said Nico coldly, still holding onto his paper. He put it down for a brief moment
and would have carried on reading but he caught sight of the little girl who
was now sitting beside him.

“Good morning Mr. Cazale,” she said. The hard gaze
reserved only for Silvia, now softened as Nico looked at the beautiful little
girl with bright green eyes and a shy expression on her face.

“Hello Alessa, and how are you today? How’s your
bear?” he asked, folding his newspaper and placing it on the table, next to his
espresso. He leaned in and gave the teddy bear a little tug on his paw.

Alessa smiled back, lifting her eyes to Nico’s
face before lowering them shyly and moving back into her seat. Nico smiled at
her, happy to spend time with the little girl and not wanting to waste any more
time with the girl’s mother.

“Darling! So cold?” said Silvia, giving Nico an
icy smile that made him wince. He felt annoyed that she had imposed herself on
him. All he had wanted was to take some quiet time away, and now that his
father was out of town he could take that time. He wanted to wait for Ava and
to enjoy a paper and a coffee in the meantime. But now Silvia had swooped upon
him.

“Out shopping again Silvia?” he asked, looking
into his espresso cup and downing the strong shot of coffee in one gulp. He
called the waiter over and ordered another one. Silvia placed her snakeskin
handbag carefully on her lap and sat back. She was perfectly made up, in full
make up and dressed as if she was going to a fashion show and sitting in the
front row.

Nico’s eyes narrowed as he watched her. “Did you
have anything you needed to see me for? Because I was hoping to have a pleasant
day today, without any interruptions.”

“I was shopping Darling, and then I saw you from
across the square. But tell me, what’s going on? I know something is, Nico? You
never
take a day off.  Of course, now I find myself wondering what
could Nico Cazale possibly be doing sitting outside sipping espresso?” She
crossed her long legs and slid further back into the chair, as her luminous
orange nails tapped lightly on the arm rest.

Alessa was too pre-occupied in her make believe
world with her teddy bear to take any notice of the two adults.

Nico eyed Silvia coldly wondering how to get rid
of her quickly. He was sure Ava would be along soon enough and he didn’t want
the two to meet.

“Nothing that is any of your business, Silvia.” He
turned to the waiter and took a second cup of espresso. His jaw was tight and
his steely grip on the tiny cup handle betrayed the turbulence beneath his
quiet exterior.

“Really?” replied Silvia, she tilted her head
upwards, then leaned forward towards him. “Your father has you working very
hard at the moment, I hear? This is not the Nico that I knew from many years
ago. You were just a playboy when I met you. Properly met you, I mean.”

“I don’t need to prove anything to anyone, Silvia,”
he said coolly. “I know the facts, as do you.” He looked over at Alessa and
smiled. She was a beautiful little girl and it was impossible to resist her
cute little face.

“We’ll see about that Nico. We’ll see.” Silvia
knew she had provoked him and she so enjoyed doing that.

Refusing to rise to the bait, Nico softened his
tone, for Alessa’s sake, “I know we go back a long way Silvia. But enough is
enough. And soon the facts will speak for themselves.” He knew these words
would not sit well with Silvia but he didn’t even hear what she said in reply
because he saw Ava rushing down the street with her head down, just as she
slipped her sunglasses on. But he had already seen her tear stained face and he
knew she had been crying. He looked up to catch her eye, but she was so caught
up in her thoughts, that she didn’t notice him and slipped away.

Silvia glanced at Nico then turned to look at what
had caught his attention all of a sudden. She saw the back of Ava who was disappearing
quickly down the street.

“Business calls, I must go,” he announced,
getting up and trying not to sound as if he was in a hurry. He knelt down
beside the little girl and stroked her teddy bear before lightly stroking the
little girl’s soft, pudgy cheek. “Be good Alessa, although I know you always
are aren’t you?”  The little girl nodded, still shy and still not saying a
word.

Nico slipped a few notes on the table and rushed
after Ava, trying to walk slowly so that Silvia would not realize his actions.
The last thing he needed was her interference.

Ava carried on walking, not knowing where she was
going. She knew only that she needed to put as much distance between herself
and that wedding.

She walked along for what seemed a long time,
unsure of where she was going or what time it was. She needed to calm herself
down. She walked until the ball of anger inside her heart had melted down.

Would anyone ever love her again she wondered?
Would she ever love anyone again? And how would she ever know if the next time
would be different to the last?

Maybe
this was what she had been hiding from ever since New Year’s Eve.

Connor didn’t want her. He didn’t think she was
worth marrying. 

Yet she didn’t want Connor either. Not anymore.
She had put their increasing distance down to wedding stress. She had been
hiding behind her pretty wedding favors and table settings in order to ignore
looking at the fabric of their own relationship. She had made a great job of
dressing up their relationship by wrapping it up in a beautiful wedding. But
the core of it, her and Connor, had stopped being cohesive long before the
table arrangements had been agreed on.

The only thing Connor had had the guts to do was
to call off the wedding.

Ava came to a sudden standstill as she made this
realization and found herself outside a small restaurant where the waiters were
pulling down the canopy and getting the tables ready outside. She took one look
at the pretty pink and white tablecloths gently flapping in the breeze and
admired the small lilies in shiny red vases. A trace of mouth watering hot
garlic butter floated towards her and she decided she would have her lunch
here.

She chose a table where she was shielded from the
sun but where she was still far enough outside to watch people walking past. People
watching was a favorite past-time of hers.

She ordered quickly and while she waited for her
tuna nicoise salad and her glass of white wine to arrive, Ava looked at her
itinerary again then ripped it to pieces. She would set her own itinerary, for
this was, after all, her own holiday. Maybe she would visit the Casa di
Giulietta towards the end of her stay here in Verona. Or maybe she wouldn’t. It
wasn’t as if she had to make compromises anymore. She could do as she pleased.
She was answerable only to herself. And it suddenly felt good again to have
that power, to do as she pleased.

Her colorful and mouthwatering salad soon arrived
and instantly put Ava into a better mood. The pink cotton tablecloth flapped
gently in the breeze as she raised her glass of wine to her lips and sipped,
savoring the taste of it.

All
was good in her world again.

She put down her glass and was about to tuck into
her salad when the tall and imposing figure of Nico appeared in front of her
again. His face etched with concern.

“Ms. Ramirez – are you alright?” he asked, still
standing. His face was flushed and she guessed that he must have followed her
the entire way.

Ava lowered her glass onto the table and stared up
into his face. She noted the frown lines on his forehead.

“Yes, I’m fine. Perfectly fine. Why wouldn’t I
be?” she asked guardedly.

Had he been following her?

“My mistake, I’m sorry. I thought you seemed a
little sad back there.” He shuffled his feet, unsure what to do next.

She hadn’t yet asked him to sit down but merely
acknowledged him with her eyes.

“Why would I be sad?” she asked, pretending to
busy herself with her salad.

“I thought you had been crying.”

He had been following her.

“Have you been following me Nico?” she asked,
putting her fork down again.

“No,” he lied, then double tracked. “Yes,” he
admitted, a little uncomfortably. “I saw you coming out of the Casa di
Giulietta and I’m certain you looked upset. I was worried. I followed you. I’m
sorry.”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t see me,” said Ava,
taking up her glass of wine and almost downing it in one. “You were making eyes
at an elegant blond woman,” she said lightly, trying to make light of the
situation.

“If I didn’t know you any better, I would say you
sound almost annoyed, Ms. Ramirez.”

Ava stopped eating once more and coughed. 
She nearly choked on an olive and reached for her glass of wine. “You flatter
yourself. If I’m annoyed it’s because I want to enjoy my lunch in peace and
you’re not letting me have any. Peace that is.”  She summoned the waiter and
ordered another glass of wine.

“Would you mind if I joined you?” asked Nico
unexpectedly. His hands were clenched into tight balls by his side.

I do mind,
thought Ava slamming her fork down again. But as the mouthful of
salad melted in her mouth, her attention immediately turned to her next
forkful, heedless of the fact that she hadn’t given him an answer.

“It’s wrong of me to impose. I’ll wait for you
back near the car. Enjoy your lunch.”  He lingered a second longer than he
should have before turning to take his leave.

Relenting, Ava said. “Stay Nico. A bit of company
might do me some good.” After all, he was only acting out of concern for her.
Obviously she had not been as successful in walking past him and his lady
friend as she had hoped. But if he had caught up with her here at the
restaurant, it meant he must have followed her the entire way. It meant that
not only had he left his lady friend but that he had followed her for just
under a mile. He had been worried about her, since he obviously knew that she
had been crying. She didn’t have the heart to tell him to go away, as much as
she was starting to enjoy being alone again.

“Stay, Nico. You’re welcome to join me.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” he asked. And when she
nodded, he sat down, his jaw relaxed again and his wide shoulders eased down.

As soon as he sat down a waitress came rushing
over.

“Good afternoon Mr.-“

“Thank you I’ll have the same please and a Coke.”
he said, cutting the eager eyed waitress off immediately. Ava watched him as
she carried on eating.