‘Wait for it.’ Kendall smiled at me as she stroked Bruce’s dark hair. ‘He’s just thinking about what song to treat us all to.’
I felt my mouth drop open in question when, just as she’d predicted, Trip’s voice came back over the intercom as he started to sing Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles.
We listened, smiling at each other as he sang his way through the entirety of the song without missing a beat, then as he spoke again.
‘Come on, Boss, you workaholic, give me something to work with.’ When nothing came from Nico in the office he carried on, ‘I win then.’
Catching the questioning look in my eyes, Kendall filled me in on what was going on.
‘What would normally happen is Nico would appear and sing something back to Trip, but it would be by Elvis instead,’ she offered me. ‘It’s a game they play, you know boys will be boys.’ I laughed with her as my stomach rolled and my heart beat faster expectantly.
Then I turned my head towards the other compartment that Nico had been holed up in for most of our previous flight and for what looked like maybe all of this one too. But sadly, he nor his voice appeared.
‘Bee, do you mind if I catch some sleep?’ I was pleased that Kendall having heard Pearl use my nickname earlier was also using it, it made me feel like we’d known each other for a much longer time than we had.
‘Of course, I don’t,’ I replied.
‘Now this one’s asleep, I should follow and get some rest as well.’ She tipped her head at her son sleeping curled up next to her.
‘I understand completely.’
I watched as she snuggled further into a blanket and lowered the chair she was sitting in backwards, all the time keeping a hand on her son’s head, while she coiled some of his hair around her index finger.
In no time at all she was asleep and I was left to my own thoughts.
The worries inside my head began to take hold.
I’d hardly seen Nico since our lunch at the IHOP. He’d kissed me, awakening feelings inside of me that I was still struggling to cope with and then he’d abruptly left.
He’d been as good as his word; Pearl and I had been dropped off at one of the most expensive bridal shops Vegas had to offer. Nico had left us there with Raul, while he went back to work. I remembered seeing Raul escort Barzini’s henchman out of Nico’s casino the night Franco had taken me to see Nico. At first, I’d been intimidated by the enormous black man, as he was as wide as he was tall. But, as I’d tried on dress after dress, he’d become important to the whole operation as he’d given a man’s opinion and slowly, I’d seen the guy’s softer side. Without trying to rush us, he’d helped Pearl and I as we’d narrowed down my choices, until I’d finally settled on the one. Nico’s black credit card had been handed over to pay for my dress and the trousseau the wait staff had insisted I also needed. Then, under Nico’s instructions, Raul had taken us both to a nearby shop, where a helpful lady had shown me exactly what I needed to get started on my new hobby of photography.
I’d been beyond happy after the retail therapy, having bought myself nothing at all in a long time and laughing at Pearl’s dry sense of humour as we’d clambered back into Nico’s limo. After I’d packed up what I needed from my sparse home and had given Tiger to Pearl to look after, I’d left the run-down area of Sunrise. The limo, with only me inside it, then swept across Vegas to Nico’s home and my excitement had begun to ramp up. Nico’s home was stunning, set high up in the hills above Summerlin, in the Red Rock Canyon, and I’d pressed my nose against the cool glass feeling a lot like Cinderella. The building, his driver informed me, had apparently been designed by him and was built using local stones from Crete. It incorporated huge picture windows situated to overlook the lights of Vegas in the distance.
As I’d been shown to my room in Nico’s fortress by his housekeeper, I’d realised with a very heavy heart that Nico wasn’t even in the building. I’d wanted to tease him a little about what my wedding dress looked like and I had been looking forward to showing him the camera and accessories he’d paid for.
But mostly, I’d wanted him to kiss me again.
The understanding that those things weren’t going to happen, because what we had between us was a pretence and that this wasn’t a real relationship, hit me hard. In truth, if I could have escaped Nico’s home, gotten past his security and stolen one of his cars, I would have. I had a strong compulsion inside of me to find somewhere that could offer me a roll of the dice or the turn of the cards that I so desperately needed. They were risks I understood, unlike the risk of handing over my life to a total stranger for a year.
So instead, I’d cried myself to sleep.
The next day a red Cartier box had arrived for me. Initially I’d been thrilled as security had handed it over for me to sign for, but as I’d cracked open the box to peer inside a sense of overwhelming sadness had overcome me. I knew it was stupid. I knew what I was living was merely an arrangement to help us both, but as I pushed the platinum band with its solitaire diamond onto my ring finger, tears had once again started to flow. I was certain the ring had cost Nico an absolute fortune and that most women would have given their second kidney to own it, but it wasn’t me and it showed that really, we knew nothing about each other at all.
Nico had stayed at an apartment he had at the casino for most of the past week, and when he’d come home it had been a fleeting visit. I’d told him that I was lonely and he’d apologised saying that he had a lot of work to do, so that he could take the time off for our wedding and the couple of weeks afterwards for a honeymoon. Then he’d explained to me that I could be taken anywhere I wanted to go, all I had to do was to inform Franco and he’d make sure I had a car and the security he insisted I needed. The whole conversation had been polite, formal and held like I assumed he would a business meeting.
I longed for the man I’d seen a glimpse of, who had fallen asleep on my broken recliner. I was unequivocally certain that down deep, behind the brash, uncaring mantle he projected to the world, he really did exist.
The one light, in an otherwise long week, had been the two meetings we’d had with my new therapist, Mrs. Davison. Nico had introduced himself as my future husband and then had sat patiently beside me as she’d listened and probed into my life. As I’d opened up to her about my childhood with my now famous brother, my parents’ separation and divorce and then finally, through my tears of my mom’s death, he’d reached over and taken hold of my hand. Squeezing it softly, encouraging me to talk to her he had once again convinced me that despite his better judgement he cared for me.
I twisted the ring around my finger as I tried to erase the thoughts from my head.
The door to the cockpit opening caught my eye and I looked up from my hand and offered the tall figure of Trip a smile. He smiled back, closed the door behind him and walked towards where I was sitting with his family.
‘Hi,’ he offered, and then seeing Pearl shift in her sleep as his voice disturbed her, he lowered his voice, ‘all okay, Bee?’ I nodded back my answer and offered him a weak smile. Then as he came alongside where we were sitting, he bent down to place a quick kiss on top of his wife and son’s heads.