Authors: Tima Maria Lacoba
On the ride back to the hotel, I leant my head against his back. In spite of my earlier words, I was growing tired. My eyes were closed as Philippe steered the motorbike along the quiet streets.
As on the previous two nights, he escorted me to my suite on the fourth floor of the hotel. ‘Tomorrow night?’ he asked.
I didn’t know if I could keep existing on a couple of hours sleep per night. Yet, I couldn’t help myself. The days were too long till I could see him again.
‘Tomorrow night.’
He took my face in his hands and kissed me goodnight. I watched him walk away before closing the door.
* * *
‘Where have you been?’ Beth stood in the lounge, hands on her hips. Her eyes brimmed with tears.
‘We’ve been worried sick, Laura!’ Angie said. ‘Beth rang your aunt—’
‘I didn’t have the courage to let your parents know, so I rang your aunt Judy instead. She gave me her number before we left.’
My stomach sank.
‘I was ready to call the police!’ Beth sank onto the sofa and burst into tears.
I ran over and crouched on the floor in front of her. ‘I’m so sorry, so sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you—’
‘Then why did you do it then?’ Angie cried before joining Beth on the sofa. ‘When we came in from the disco, we saw your bedroom door closed and dark so we thought you were asleep. If not for the fire alarm—’
‘You had a fire?’
‘It was a false alarm, but we had to be evacuated anyway. The staff knocked on everyone’s doors to get them out. I raced to your room and you weren’t there!’ She glared at me. ‘The hotel staff have been running around looking for you!’
I buried my face in my hands at the sickening realization of what I had done to my friends. No amount of apology could atone for this, and a hot blush scalded my cheeks. I couldn’t blame them if they wouldn’t want to continue our trip after this.
‘Where were you, Laura?’ I looked up to see Beth wiping her eyes. The hurt I saw in them broke my heart and I began to cry.
‘I’m so sorry… I… It was stupid of me not to leave a note or something, I know… but he—’
‘He?’ Angie said.
I nodded. ‘Philippe.’
Angie’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. ‘You’ve been with him, all this time?’
I nodded again. She threw her hands in the air and groaned. I told them everything and showed them Philippe’s note with the attached shell. After I finished, Beth rose and rang my aunt. She held the phone out to me. ‘
You
talk to her.’
They sat and watched.
I took a deep breath. Aunt Judy answered. ‘It’s me, Laura. Everything’s okay. I’m so sorry to have worried you.’ Her words were terse but I could tell it stemmed from concern. I could sense the tension on the other end; hear it in her voice and her disappointment. I recounted to her what I’d told the girls. She asked for his name. I told her. There was a few seconds silence on her side before she spoke again. She made me promise not to meet with him again; not without Beth and Angie being present.
I promised.
‘You okay?’ Angie asked. ‘You’ve gone white, Laura.’ I nodded. That’s all I was capable of doing. That, and swiping away my tears. ‘What did she say?’
‘Made me promise not to meet him again unless you two are with me.’ The tears kept coming.
‘You’ve always been the most sensible one,’ Beth exclaimed. ‘This isn’t like you, Laura.’
‘Are you in love with him?’ Angie asked. ‘Because if you are it… kinda makes sense. Love makes you do stupid things. Remember me and Greg?’ She grimaced.
Angie and Greg had started dating in Year Eleven. He’d gotten his driver’s license and was into drag racing. Angie hated the smell of petrol, but she was besotted by him. He took her for a race. The car flipped and she ended up in hospital. She wasn’t allowed to see him unless one of her parents was with them. A few months later they broke up.
‘I don’t know how I feel about him! But I so want to see him again, and I told him I would—tomorrow night, and now I promised Aunt Judy….’ I bit my lip and fingered the locket around my neck.
‘I don’t remember you having a locket like that.’ Angie pointed to it. ‘Nice.’
‘Philippe gave it to me.’
Angie and Beth exchanged glances.
‘Can I have a look?’ Beth held out her hand. I undid the clasp and handed it to her. She opened the locket and examined it from every angle.
‘What are you looking for?’ I asked.
‘Drugs, you idiot,’ Beth replied. ‘Only a few grams can land you in jail in a foreign country.’
A horrible churning started in my stomach. I didn’t want to believe Philippe would do something like that. But what did I know? I’d only met him two nights ago. I knew nothing about him or where he was staying. He didn’t even give me a contact number. Was I really such a naïve idiot?
‘It’s clean.’ Beth handed the locket back. ‘Maybe he is okay.’ She crouched on the floor next to me and gave me a tight hug. ‘Don’t ever do something like that again!’
I hugged her back. ‘What’ll I do, Beth?’
Angie joined us and threw her arms around both of us. ‘Beth and I’ll go—as your body guards!’
‘Just as you agreed with your aunt,’ Beth said.
How on earth will I face him?
I thought. But a promise was a promise.
* * *
We spent the day shopping in Sorrento, and although I tried to keep my mind off Philippe, it wasn’t possible. The closer the time came to our meeting, the more tense I became.
At eleven Beth and Angie accompanied me to the ground floor. They intended to sit inconspicuously in the public lounge and keep an eye on me—or rather, on Philippe. No romantic trips out of the hotel.
My heart beat double time as the elevator slowly descended.
The doors slid open to an empty lobby. On the last two occasions he’d been waiting for me.
‘Laura, we’ll be over there.’ Beth pointed to a set of sofas. Angie waved as they moved off.
My nervousness returned. How was I going to explain the situation to Philippe? Would he understand? I checked my watch. He’d never been late before. I paced the lobby. Half an hour later Philippe still hadn’t appeared.
Where was he? I turned to where the girls sat, and shrugged, then I began to worry. ‘Something’s wrong. He’s never been late before.’
‘Wait a bit longer. Maybe he’s been held up,’ Beth suggested stifling a yawn.
We waited till midnight. Angie had fallen asleep on the sofa. I was panicking. ‘He’s had an accident,’ I said. ‘We should tell the man at reception to ring the hospital and find out.’
‘Laura, are you sure he hasn’t just stood you up?’
‘No!’ I tugged on the locket around my neck. ‘Would he give me this if he wasn’t going to show?’
Beth chewed on her lower lip—a sure sign that she was thinking. ‘Okay, you go to the front desk and I’ll wake Angie.’
I raced to the reception counter and hoped the night clerk understood English. He did. There was only one hospital in Sorrento, the Santa Maria Misericordia—if there had been an accident, Philippe would be taken there. He kindly rang them.
‘Philippe Reynard,’ I told him. ‘He’s French, from Paris.’
The man smiled at me as he waited for the hospital to check their records. ‘Ah, grazie. Buonna Notte.’ He ended the call. ‘I’m sorry, signorina, but no one with that name has been admitted.’
‘And there’ve been no accidents… people taken to another hospital elsewhere?’
‘No, signorina. It’s been a quiet season. I’m sorry. Maybe he will ring you tomorrow.’ He gave me one of those sympathetic looks, reserved for tourist-girls-stood-up-by-local-guys.
‘Thank you.’ I didn’t know what else to say.
Beth placed her arm around my shoulders. ‘No luck?’
I shook my head. It didn’t make sense. Was he suddenly called away, and didn’t have time to leave a note? We were scheduled to leave tomorrow. He knew that. Perhaps he’d contact me in Positano. But I never told him the name of the hotel.
Angie yawned, pushed her curly hair off her face and said, ‘C’mon Laura, let’s go to bed. It’s been a killer night… or morning… whatever.’
‘I don’t understand!’ I cried. ‘He said he’d be here. Why isn’t he? What if he’s lying hurt, somewhere on the street—in a coma?’ I clutched the filigree locket tightly in my palm hoping it would somehow magically summon him to me.
‘Oh sweetie, don’t torture yourself.’ Beth hugged me. ‘Some men… well, they see a gorgeous girl like you, and it’s like a game to them—a challenge.’
I pulled out of her embrace and vehemently shook my head. ‘No, not him!’
It can’t be.
‘Laura, how do you know he isn’t married or something?’ Angie stated.
‘Because he told me he wasn’t! Said no woman had a claim on him.’
Could he have lied?
Acid burned in my throat.
Angie said gently, ‘Men lie. They do it all the time. Remember the guys at school?’
I shook my head again.
No, no, no.
Could it all have been just a joke to him? A deep hollow pit opened up in my stomach. The acid burned deeper.
There wasn’t much left of the night when we returned to our suite. Sleep eluded me, and I tossed and turned from one side of the bed to the other. My mind replayed every moment since we’d met, lingering longest on the romantic interlude in the fisherman’s hut last night. It couldn’t have been a game to him. Could it?
I closed my eyes and once again felt the firmness of his lips on mine, the strength of his arms, saw the deep blue of his eyes as they gazed into mine.
I tucked the note he’d left on my window a couple of nights ago under my pillow, hoping it would bring him to me in my dreams, at least. The silver locket was still around my neck. I vowed never to take it off, and as my fingers traced the outline of its surface, my heart splintered and the tears I’d held back cascaded down my face onto the pillow.
The next day
I left a note for Philippe with the hotel clerk—just in case.
I wasn’t in the mood to talk when we boarded the train for Positano, and even as we pulled out of the station, I hung out of the window hoping his tall figure was among the crowds.
‘Close it, Laura. It’s cold,’ Angie said. Her tone was clipped, and there were dark circles under her eyes.
The sun shone brightly, not a cloud in the sky. It could have been summer, but for the icy wind blowing in from the sea.
Beth linked her arm through mine. ‘Amalfi Coast, Laura. You’ve been looking forward to it.’
I nodded and blindly stared at the passing scenery.
* * *
Four
weeks later…
The crowd on the university campus jostled me and Angie as I tried to find the clubs to join. We had barely returned from our trip to Italy when our enrolment papers arrived. Each of us had managed to get into the courses we’d chosen, but Beth’s was at another university, on the other side of the city.
Angie and I clutched our university ID cards and excitedly checked out the myriad of campus societies who’d set up marquees on the lawn in the main quadrangle. Each had groups of people milling around or standing in a queue to sign up.