Honeymoon For One (8 page)

“Neither do I.” said Gina, busying herself with
the staff timetable.

Nico
walked over to her. “Another thing that Alphonso hasn’t taken care of?”

“I’m not expecting him in today. And probably not
even tomorrow. The rota is done. We’re fine. I took care of the deliveries
too.”

“You are the main reason we are so efficiently
run,” said Nico appreciatively.

“Your father also asked for you to check the mail
in his absence and there are a few phone calls that need your immediate
attention. The list is on your father’s desk,” Gina continued, undeterred by
his praises.

“Thank you Gina,” said Nico walking away, lost in
thought again. He slipped into the office at the back, to prepare for the
meeting. He had problems getting his father to see things from his point of
view anyway. No matter how hard he tried, his father always thought Nico was
not capable of running the business. A few years ago that might have been true.
But since the death of his mother from cancer five years ago, Nico had known
that he didn’t want to squander his time away. He wanted to leave a legacy. And
he was lucky enough that his father had a legacy to leave him. There was no
bitterness here. His parents loved him and they had wanted to pass things down
to him. But up until his mother had fallen ill Nico had never been the type of
man to think about the frailty of life. He was too busy enjoying it instead.

Her death forced him to take a step back and to
look at his life and what he had been doing with it. How he wished she had been
witness to the type of man he should have become. Of course he loved his
father, but it was his mother he wanted to show what he was made of. And by the
time she passed away, it was too late.

He
owed it to himself, if not to her, to make up for his fickle past.

His eyes flicked along the list of people who had
called. Many of them would only deal with his father. These men where the big
players, owners of large hotel chains and they had an eye on the Cazale group
of hotels.  Of course, it was to be expected. Ever since his father had
leaked out suggestions that he might be interested in selling parts of his
empire for the right price.

Nico grabbed the letter opener and ripped open the
letters that had arrived for his father. Sorting them out into degrees of
importance and throwing away the junk mail.  He skimmed through the rest
of the letters. Again, there was nothing that he could reply to right now. His
father hadn’t expected him to deal with anything, but only to alert him to any
potential urgent business that needed his immediate attention.

He sunk into his father’s executive chair and
clasped his hands together, resting them on his stomach. He felt useless
because he couldn’t do anything. His father hadn’t given him the reins to make
any business decisions at this level. His father needed evidence first that
Nico wanted to work in the hotel business at all. Just because he was the only
child of Edmondo Cazale, did not automatically give him the keys to the empire.

Nico understood that. He knew he had to prove
himself; he had never expected an easy ticket to everything that his father had
worked so tirelessly to create. But he wished his father would trust him more.
How could he prove himself fully capable if his father didn’t relax his reins a
little? Although the Cazale hotel business was chugging along, there were
bigger chains everywhere. Now that the news was out, the eight hotels that the
Cazale family owned up and down the length of Italy were being furiously sought
after by these bigger groups. It was his choice now to convince his father not
to sell up, but to let him, Nico, take charge and lead the company to better
shores. In a year he had done many things and the results were slow to show,
but nonetheless, the results were looking good.

Yet Nico feared it wasn’t enough for his father.
His father had become a broken man after the death of his wife and felt that
now was the time to sell up and live his twilight years in peace. But things
had changed. Nico had changed; he would prove to his father just how capable he
was of taking the helm. He wouldn’t do it alone. He wouldn’t let his father
just give up and leave everything that he had built to someone else to buy and
then ruin.

No way. He would show his father that it was time
to take the Cazale empire to another level.

But first, he had to show his father that he was
capable of running the business at all.

Ava lay on the bed on her side with her laptop in
front of her as she flicked through the emails quickly responding to them all
in turn. These were things that Kim had forwarded on to her and which required
her attention. Though thankfully, they were only minor things. Kim seemed to be
handling everything pretty well by herself.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said of her
mother. Elsa Ramirez was worried sick about her daughter and had resorted to
emailing her frequently especially when Ava didn’t respond to answering her
phone calls or her messages.

 In her latest email, Elsa had spent the better
part of two pages lamenting over lost loves and telling Ava that Connor had
made a bad mistake, a mistake he would regret for the rest of his life.

“You’ll find someone new to love, someone who is
worthy of you,” was the last email she had received from her mom. Ava read it
and then typed in her reply.

“Don’t worry mom. I’m having the time of my life over here. I’ve met
a tall, dark and spectacularly handsome hotel driver. He is fast helping me to
get over Connor.”

She
grinned to herself wickedly and almost hit the SEND button, before deleting the
last two sentences.

She shut her laptop and lay on her back, feeling
the cool satin comforter against her hands as she spread her arms out on the
bed. She stared at the painted ceilings adorned with beautiful Frescoes. She
could stare at them forever. This hotel and everything about it was becoming
uniquely special.

And then of course there was Nico.

Her heart started beating a little faster at the
thought of his dark, seductive eyes. Was it only yesterday that they had met at
the airport? How rude and arrogant he had been then. Yet today he had been the
opposite; there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her.
Why the sudden
change in character?

She wondered which Nico she would see tomorrow;
the cool, arrogant one or the nice friendly one. Whichever one it was, she
found herself looking forward to seeing him nonetheless.

*         
*          *

The next morning Ava got up, got dressed and was
sitting downstairs having breakfast.

Nico hadn’t told her what time they would be
leaving to go to this place he called Montova. He thought it would be a good
place to go to for sourcing products. If he felt sure she would find products
uniquely Italian to sell in her store at this place called Montova, she was
more than excited about going there.

She couldn’t put her finger on it but she sensed
that he didn’t quite believe her reason for being here. For one thing, he kept
on asking her why she was here, as if there was another motive for her visiting
Verona.

Of course, he had no idea why she was here. Why
would he?

Ava had just finished her morning coffee when Gina
walked up to her, looking slightly awkward and embarrassed at the idea of
interrupting her.

“Excuse me Ms. Ramirez but Nico has asked me to
tell you that he was summoned away on another urgent task this morning and
unfortunately he will not be able to take you to Montova today. He asked me to
give you his sincere apologies as he has already left for the day.”

“That’s a shame,” said Ava, with disappointment
setting in. “I was looking forward to it, but it can wait.” She smiled warmly
at Gina, who stood patiently by. “I think I’ll do some more sightseeing. Is
there anything you would recommend?” she asked, getting out her sunglasses and
pushing them to sit snugly on the top of her head.

“You might like to visit the Giardino Giusti
gardens. They are beautiful and so is the Duomo. And of course there is also
Juliet’s balcony.” Ava winced at the last place of interest. Gina backtracked
immediately, realizing this was one place that a young widow might not want to
visit.

“Though I highly recommend the gardens and the
cathedral. The balcony is a waste of time,” she said quickly.

“Been there done that,” muttered Ava to herself as
she got up, towering over Gina’s tiny frame. She smiled cheerfully at the
friendly hotel receptionist. “I’ll be fine. I’m more than happy to explore on
my own for today anyway.”

“Have a good day, Madam,” Gina said politely
before slipping away discreetly.

So Ava spent a luxuriously indulgent day by
herself, first visiting the beautifully sculpted gardens and its mansion in the
morning, before stopping for lunch at a seafood restaurant. In the afternoon
she whiled away the hours at the striking 12
^th
century Duomo.

When she returned back to the hotel in the early
evening, she was more than pleasantly surprised to see Nico standing over by
the reception desk, looking at something on the computer screen. He looked up
and saw her, then smiled and she could see that he was just as pleasantly
surprised to see her.

Gina had finished her shift and in her place was
another woman, much younger, who was cheerfully registering in a new couple who
had just arrived.

“Good evening, Ms Ramirez.” He nodded his head as
a way of saying hello.

“Good evening, Nico.”  Ava let out a smile
and tried not to make it too obvious that she was pleased he was there.

“You had a good day today?” he asked, cordially
enough. It struck her that he had such a strong presence, as he stood before
her, in his dark suit and white shirt, that he looked out of place driving her
everywhere.

“I certainly did. I went to the gardens and the
cathedral. Magnificent, both of them. And then I had the most wonderful lunch.
Again.”

Nico nodded his head appreciatively. Ava carried
on and he listened with interest.

“It was a seafood restaurant called Gioberti’s.”

“Gioberti’s?” asked Nico and his face hardened and
the twitch in his jaw resurfaced.

“I know the owner, Gioberti,” he said slowly.

“Oh, yes, Gioberti,” said Ava rolling her eyes.
She had found the man to be overly attentive to her, to the point of being
sickeningly so. Yet she thought she saw a flicker of jealousy on Nico’s face
just now.

“The food was spectacular though,” recalled Ava,
her mouth starting to water again as she remembered the gamberoni.

In a lower tone, Nico leant forward, “I’m so sorry
about earlier today.”

“Today?”

“I’m sorry about this morning,” he said quietly,
not wanting the other hotel clerk to hear.

“Gina told me first thing in the morning. It’s
fine. Maybe we could see Montova some other time?” she tried not to sound too
imposing, though for some reason she found herself looking forward to going out
with him for the day.

“Perhaps the day after tomorrow?”

“After tomorrow?” said Ava, trying not to sound
too disappointed at having to wait another day. Then, “After tomorrow, of
course. That’s good. It works for me.”

Nico
nodded again and his eyes acknowledged her.

Ava hesitated again. “But the day after tomorrow I
was thinking of going to Pisa.”

A
look of disgust crossed Nico’s face. “Pisa?” he said incredulously, frowning so
hard that his forehead broke out into lines. “There’s nothing of interest
there. One tower at an angle. Don’t bother with it. Save yourself the time and
effort of going there and it will certainly save you the disappointment that
will definitely await you.” He seemed so serious that Ava burst out laughing at
him. He didn’t think he had said anything remotely funny. He eyed her with
suspicion. “You’re laughing. Why?”

She cupped her hand to her mouth and her long, shiny
nails glinted underneath the light of the chandelier just above.

“It’s just that you,” she burst out laughing
again, “seem to have blown apart a popular tourist attraction with your
cynicism.”

Nico looked askance then shrugged his wide
shoulders. “That’s my opinion of it and I’ve been to see it. You are free to
make up your own mind.”

“Alright then. I’ll give Pisa a miss. On this
occasion.”

“Totally up to you,” replied Nico. “I will leave
it to you to decide whether you go to Pisa or to Montova, though you did say
you were on a working holiday.”

Ava stopped laughing. “Montova then. Let me see
what’s so special about this factory village of yours.”

Nico nodded. “Enjoy your day tomorrow.”

“I will,” said Ava, fumbling around in her bag as soon
as her cell went off. She glanced at it then frowned. It was the sixth call
from her mother today.