The Perfect Location (17 page)

Milo, who Rose was wrapping up in a towel and lifting onto a chair, looked cross. ‘No, Daddy, you told me you thought Rose was lubberly when I said I loved her. You said she was the prettiest lady in the world, except for Mummy.’ He grabbed a French fry from in front of him and stuffed it into his mouth. Rose looked embarrassed and pretended not to hear.

‘All right then, Max, do you want to carve, while I serve the extras?’

Max, pleased to have a task, busied himself with the carving knife and fork.

‘Right, boys, a bit of everything?’ asked Rose.

Max answered for them. ‘Dom and Jasp eat everything. Milo eats nothing except chips.’

Rose looked at him. How did he survive, she wondered. ‘Well, Milo, today is your lucky day, because I’ve the best food in Italy. Lucia, who is my friend, made this for me and I will share it with you on one condition.’

Milo looked at her suspiciously. ‘What?’

‘You try a bit of everything and I will let you sit in my special secret spot. Not even the boys will get a turn.’ She looked at the older boys and winked at them. ‘Okay?’

Milo nodded excitedly. Rose cut up the tender lamb into little pieces and popped it into his open mouth. He chewed and chewed and then swallowed. He opened his mouth again. ‘More lamb?’ she asked. He nodded.

Slowly Rose fed him a little of everything, including the zucchini flower, much to Max’s amazement. Rose continued the lunch conversation as though Milo ate at every meal and asked the boys questions about their friends, games and thoughts on Italian television. The boys were delightful company and Max felt himself relaxing around them and laughing with Rose at their funny and insightful answers.

Lucia cleared away the dishes and brought out dessert with much ceremony –
una coppetta
di fragole e crema
for Rose and Max and a trio of
gelati
for the boys.

‘Can I see your secret place now?’ asked Milo.

‘Yes, absolutely, let’s go. You boys stay here and don’t follow.’

Rose took Milo by the hand and Max watched them walk away. There was an ease she had with them all that made him instantly relaxed. Except for the brief encounter they had by the pool. He remembered his erection and became embarrassed again. What a fool I am, he thought. Anyway, why would some big Hollywood star be interested in a small time actor from England? She was married to a big movie star. I’ve got tickets on myself, he thought, as he topped up Rose’s and his own glass with wine.

Rose and Milo walked around the side of the house to a small grotto carved out under the stone. It looked out over the fields and hills and in the space was a day bed, big enough for two people. You could sit up and read or lie down and doze. Rose had placed a light cotton rug on it and filled it with feather pillows. It was the perfect hiding spot and kept cool, even in the midday heat. ‘This is where I sleep sometimes, where I hide away from people,’ she whispered to him.

Milo ran in with delight. ‘Can I lie down?’ he asked, already kicking off his sandals.

‘Of course,’ she said and covered him with the blanket.

‘You can go now,’ he commanded.

‘Okay, I’ll come and check on you in five minutes.’

Rose walked back to Max, chuckling at Milo’s insistence he be left alone. ‘He has asked me to depart, as I’ve done, but I will check on him in five minutes,’ she announced as she sat back down.

‘You’re too good with him, you’re like Bloody Mary Poppins,’ exclaimed Max.

‘Well, it’s not like he’s hard to love, is he?’ asked Rose, then added playfully, ‘Don’t answer that!’

Max laughed. ‘Well, boys, we should pack up. I should get Milo back for his sleep.’

‘That’s a shame, I’ve loved having you here.’

Rose was genuinely disappointed. The time had gone too fast and now she would be alone for the afternoon. Walking back around to Milo, she snuck up to spy on him in his hiding spot. He was asleep. The morning’s activities had knocked the wind out of him and he seemed so deeply asleep, she thought his eyes must have closed as soon as his head hit the cushion.

She crept away back to Max. ‘He’s fast asleep, come and look, he’s so sweet.’

They walked quietly to the side of the house and watched him. ‘It seems a shame to move him,’ whispered Rose.

Max nodded. ‘Well, you might be stuck with us for a little while longer. He normally sleeps for an hour or so.’

Rose playfully punched him on the arm. ‘Oh no, what a drag,’ she said.

He grabbed her round the waist, as if to throw her to the ground. Lifting her up, he was strong and Rose felt butterflies in her stomach. Placing her down on the ground, he looked as though he was about to say something but stopped himself and walked ahead back to the boys.

Rose set Dominic and Jasper up with her Wii machine and she and Max sat in the cool of the lounge, close to sleeping Milo. ‘More of Lucia’s dessert?’ asked Rose as she licked the cream off her fingers as she cleared the plates.

Max watched her mouth and began to have immoral thoughts again, he noticed. He resolved to have sex when he returned to London; there was that woman at the ticket booth at the last theatre he played at who seemed quite keen on him.

‘No, thanks, I’m full. Lucia’s food is amazing.’

They sat in comfortable silence.

‘You don’t come back to London much,’ he said.

‘No, I know. I’m a bad Londoner.’ She laughed.

‘Why don’t you?’ he asked. ‘Are we too provincial for you now?’ he teased.

Rose blushed. In some ways he was right, London seemed so foreign to her now. ‘No, it’s not like that. I work a lot and the British film industry isn’t as big as the US. I don’t get offered much there anyway.’

‘We couldn’t afford you,’ laughed Max.

‘Probably not,’ said Rose truthfully.

‘You could do a play, the theatre scene’s alive and kicking,’ said Max.

‘I haven’t done a play since I was at school, I don’t think I’d be any good.’

‘I doubt that,’ said Max. ‘You just have to be brave enough to step into the light. No cameras to hide behind. It’s a very real experience.’

Rose sat in thought. Theatre intrigued her but travelling back to London didn’t appeal at all.

Lucia placed coffee and chocolates and strawberries in front of them, the final offering, she thought of it.

Max placed a strawberry to his mouth and sucked the end of it, imagining Rose’s nipple in his mouth. It was the most sensual thing Rose had seen a man do in a long time and she shifted in her chair.

‘Rose,’ said Max, uncertain how to say what was on his mind.

‘Yes, Max,’ said Rose. The air was thick with expectation.

‘Do you …’ His words remained unfinished when Dominic and Jasper came into the room fighting over who won the Wii game.

‘Ah, I think the party’s over,’ said Max, the moment broken.

Rose sighed. Did she imagine it or was Max about to make a move? But the real question was, what would she have done, she wondered.

TG stayed overnight at Jack’s villa and returned to Perugia the next morning. He emailed the details of Raphael’s schedule to Sapphira and Jack as promised.

Checking on Calypso, he saw she was asleep, her face peaceful and her hair curling around her face.

TG walked into his room to shower. Coming out of the bathroom, wet with a towel around his waist, he saw Calypso sitting on his bed in a t-shirt and shorts. She looked drawn and worried.

‘Hi,’ he said, wondering when the butterflies would stop.

‘Hi,’ she said softly.

‘How are you?’ he asked concerned.

‘Terrible. Sick,’ she said and started to cry.

TG stood panicked and then rushed into the bathroom and came back with a glass of water and a tablet.

‘What’s this?’ she asked suspiciously.

‘A Valium, I use them when I fly, otherwise I’m a basket case. Takes the edge off,’ he said.

Calypso washed it down with a quick drink and TG took the water from her and turned and stood in front of Calypso in his towel and felt embarrassed and very turned on. Aware she had been through the most horrific experience of her life he turned away from her.

Calypso watched him. His body was tanned and strong, the body of a surfer. He had light blond hairs on his chest.

‘What’s that?’ she asked, seeing the tattoo on his back.

TG stood surprised; he had forgotten about the tattoo. ‘It’s a mermaid,’ he answered quietly.

‘Wow, she’s beautiful,’ answered Calypso. ‘Come closer so I can see.’

Can I kiss you, thought TG but he said nothing, just moved a little so she could see it as she knelt on the bed and ran her finger lightly over the mermaid.

The tattoo was tiny, a little black and green mermaid, swimming with bubbles around her.

‘Why do you have a mermaid?’ asked Calypso as she ran her fingertips over the drawing.

TG shivered at her touch. ‘I have dreams about them, ever since I was a kid. I don’t know why. Maybe the movie
Splash
influenced me.’ He laughed, trying to cover up his reaction to her touch.

‘My name means mermaid or sea nymph, did you know that?’ asked Calypso.

‘No, I didn’t,’ lied TG. Of course he knew, he used to call his tattoo Calypso, till he met the real one.

The dream had occurred on and off since he was ten. Always he was drowning and a mermaid would come and pluck him from the sea floor and swim him to shore. Only his mother and Kelly knew of the dream and what it meant to him. Now he realized he was drowning when he was with Calypso. Only she could save him and he wondered if they would ever get to shore.

Calypso was surprised at her reaction to touching TG. She was attracted to him even in the midst of her trauma, she recognized how kind and sweet he was. When she had touched him, she felt him shiver and it had made her stomach flip. She wasn’t sure if he was caring for her for the film’s sake or because he had feelings for her. Calypso was confused. She had just been through the worst experience of her life, so how could she have feelings for TG? Maybe it was just a little crush. She was projecting onto him what she wanted to feel.

Calypso clambered off the bed.

‘How are you?’ he asked, still not dressed.

‘I’m angry,’ she said.

‘You should be, he’s a fucking asshole,’ said TG passionately.

‘No, I’m angry at myself,’ said Calypso.

‘Why? You didn’t do anything wrong,’ said TG.

‘No, I am angry at myself,’ repeated Calypso sadly. ‘For letting myself be taken in so easily by Marco, by Raphael, by the whole thing. I was an idiot.’

‘I disagree,’ said TG softly, wanting to pull her to him but knowing he couldn’t.

Weeks of tension between them dissipated and Calypso smiled at him.

‘I’m so grateful,’ she started. ‘How can I thank you, Tim?’

He shook his head. ‘No, none of that. We’re friends, okay, and that’s what friends do.’

Calypso nodded, her eyes filling with tears again.

‘Okay, I’m gonna get dressed and then make us something to eat,’ he said cheerfully. ‘I’m not the greatest cook but I can do toast and pancakes. I can also always call the housekeeper if you want something more than that.’

‘No, I’m not hungry.’

‘I know you’re not, but you have to eat. Otherwise you’ll get run down and feel even worse.’

‘Okay,’ she said, overwhelmed by his caring voice.

TG stood still in the towel. ‘Okay, scoot and gimme some privacy,’ he said and Calypso blushed.

Calypso walked from the room, tears filling her eyes. Most of all she felt angry for not seeing that the right one for her was there in front of her all along.

Calypso stood outside the door, her forehead leaning on the wood. The Valium was kicking in and she was feeling calmer and braver.

‘Kelly said you had a crush on me,’ she said through the partition.

Silence greeted her from the bedroom.

What the fuck had Kelly said to her, thought TG.

TG opened the door. ‘Sorry, I didn’t hear you, what did you say?’

‘I said that Kelly thinks you have a crush on me.’ She dared him to be truthful. ‘Is that why you’re helping me?’

‘Kelly thinks I have a crush on anyone single and female that I speak to longer than her,’ said TG laughing.

Calypso waited in silence.

‘I’m helping you because it’s my job to help you, and to keep the film on schedule and because we’re friends. Now come downstairs and I’ll make you something to eat.’

Calypso watched him as he spoke. Perhaps Kelly and Sapphira were wrong. He just wanted her to be well again to finish the film. Disappointment flooded her and she bowed her head.

‘Makes sense. Actually, I’m feeling a bit trippy from the Valium. I might lie down,’ she said and turned and walked into her room and shut herself in.

It was TG’s turn to put his head against the closed door.

Fuck, he thought. Fuck, fuck, fuck, as he banged his head lightly against it.

He had lost his moment and he wondered how a man who could direct action films could be so inept at taking action in his own life.

Sapphira was dressed for seduction: her long legs encased in a pair of Pucci python leather skintight pants, a pair of perilously high Louboutin red suede ankle boots, a white silk racerback singlet and a crab pendant with rubies in its pincers on a long platinum chain swinging between her breasts, bra-less, beneath her singlet. Entering the hotel lobby, she was oblivious to the stares directed her way; she had a job to do and she was going to play her role.

There was no doubt in Sapphira’s mind that Raphael was guilty of raping Calypso. She didn’t need the details from TG to imagine what he had done to the girl. He was guilty of being a misogynistic pig and guilty of preying on women. For her, it was not a matter of being right or wrong, it was a matter of principle – and Sapphira liked principle. Her code of conduct was based on equality and not doing harm to others, where possible. Although she had slept with married men and caused consternation and division among families, this was not Sapphira’s problem as far as she was concerned. If the men got too close she pushed them away and chose to always stand on her own two feet.