‘Absolutely stunning. Shame about the crowds.’ And it certainly was very, very crowded.
‘It’s not as bad as it looks. It’s a really small town and there are limited hotel places. Most of the tourists wandering round here this Sunday are probably staying in Rome and have just come up for a day trip. I reckon it should be possible to film here without all the people if you make it an early morning shoot, preferably on a weekday, and before the trains and coaches arrive.’
Emma shot off a lot of photos, some for JM, but some for her own sake as a memory of this beautiful place. They walked around the narrow streets of the pedestrians-only central area, coming upon one architectural gem after another until he glanced at his watch.
‘I thought I’d better book us into a restaurant for lunch.’ He pointed across to a restaurant with tables out on the street, sheltered from the sun by an awning. ‘Okay with you?’
‘Very definitely okay with me.’
They both resolved to have a light lunch: they chose bruschetta, topped with chopped fresh tomato and extra virgin olive oil, followed by freshly-grilled sardines accompanied by a mixed salad. Mark insisted she try the local white wine and she found it excellent but not, she assured him, as good as the wine back at the villa.
As they ate she found herself studying him more closely from behind her sunglasses, and there was no doubt about it: even just looking at him really did give her goose pimples. As she had told Ethan last night, she had never, ever, felt this way before. They chatted and laughed together and she got the impression he was enjoying their day out together as much as she was. Whether there was more to it for him was still impossible to read. One thing was for sure, the more she thought about it, the more she realised Ethan had been right: as far as she was concerned, this had to be love, or at least, infatuation. Either way, it was a brand new experience for her.
And if it really was love, so what? As she had just told him in the car, her career was what mattered most to her. Or at least, it had been that way up until now. She counted off the days. Tomorrow they would drive across the Apennines to Bologna, and Tuesday would see them in the historic city of Padua. Then, finally, Wednesday would take them to Venice, and Thursday their little group would split up and they would head off in their different directions. Yes, she hoped she might be able to see him again. Yes, maybe she could take her next vacation in Italy. Maybe he could come over to California to see her as well but, with the best will in the world, there would still be six thousand miles between them for the rest of the year. She sipped her wine and told herself to try to forget him. It was the only way.
Wasn’t it?
Chapter 18
On the way back to the villa Emma got an email from Dexter. It didn’t surprise her that he was working on a Sunday. Somehow she felt pretty sure he never stopped. The contents of the email were interesting.
I’ve just remembered, today is Richard’s twenty-eighth birthday. Thought you might like to know. Hope he’s doing all right and you’ve found some great locations. How’s it going with the big stars and the director? Dexter.
She passed the message on to Mark and he reacted immediately.
‘I’ll tell Claudio. At the very least there should be a cake. Shall we make it a surprise? Maybe Marina could jump out of the cake in her underwear.’
Emma grinned. ‘Somehow I think he’s probably already familiar with her underwear.’
He grinned back. ‘Lucky old Rich.’
‘Lucky both of them.’ And she meant it.
Back at the villa, she found herself the very willing recipient of a cup of tea and a piece of cake on the terrace while Mark went off to fetch his dog. She settled down under the awning and stretched her legs. As she did so, Ethan appeared and, seeing her, came across to her table.
‘Hi, English, mind if I join you?’
‘Do you need to ask? How did the big meeting with Erasmus go?’
‘It went great. He’s bat-crap crazy but he knows what he’s at when it comes to the cinema.’ A waitress appeared and he asked for a coffee and ‘a big piece of that wonderful sponge cake’. As she left, cheeks glowing at having been addressed directly by the one-and-only Ethan Dukes, he resumed his report. ‘I read through the screenplay this morning – all right, in a bit of a hurry – but I saw enough to know that it’s good, very good. I’m getting really excited about it. I’ve got some great lines and the sexual tension just builds and builds.’
‘You and Laney going to be okay with that? Do you think she likes you enough to strip to her underwear and roll around in a hundred-year-old bed with you, with a full camera crew looking on?’
The expression that spread across his face was difficult to define: part satisfaction, part embarrassment, but with a good shot of macho pride. Even before he opened his mouth, Emma realised she knew what had happened. She set down her cup and subjected him to a searching look.
‘You two have slept together, haven’t you?’ His cheeks had the decency to flush a little. ‘So when did that happen? This morning?’
‘Last night.’ He was grinning now. ‘After you and I had our walk and our little talk, I went back to my room. You might be interested to know that I took a cold shower.’ This time it was her turn to blush. ‘Anyway, I’m just coming out of the shower, dripping wet, and there’s a knock at the door. I go across and open up and hey presto, it’s Laney.’
Emma didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. One minute he had been declaring undying love to her and the next he had been prepared to jump into bed with another woman – admittedly the most beautiful woman in the world. The more she thought of it, however, the better it made her feel. She really did like him a lot and she had been worried her refusal might have hurt him irreparably. Such would now appear not to be the case and she was glad for him.
‘And she said…’
‘And she said she reckoned it would be a good idea if we got to know each other a bit better. While I’m still trying to come up with a suitable answer, she reaches over and pulls the towel off me.’ He grinned. ‘After that we didn’t do a lot of talking for a good long time.’
‘And the end result is that you two are now friends?’
‘With benefits.’ He waited until the waitress set down his coffee and about a quarter of a cake and scuttled off to recover her composure, before carrying on. ‘We’re good. We really did talk a good bit… afterwards. She told me about all the trouble she’s had with the tennis player guy and she even apologised to me for being so sniffy when we first met. I’ll be honest, Emma, I find I like her a lot now.’
‘That’s normally a given when you sleep with somebody.’ She grinned back at him to rob her words of offence.
‘Yeh, I know, but I really do.’ He glanced over his shoulder and then lowered his voice. ‘And it was the best sex I’ve had in a real long time.’
‘Ethan, I don’t need to know that.’
‘Well, anyway, we’re all good. Thanks for getting us together.’
For a moment Emma thought about pointing out that she hadn’t expected to get them quite so close together, but then dropped the idea. As he said, it was all good now, and she knew her bosses would be relieved and delighted. She had yet to reply to Dexter so she resolved to pass on the good news to him at the same time.