Sophia shook her head. ‘Neither of them are the best timekeepers. I bet they’re gassing away to each other and haven’t realised how late it is.’
‘I’ll give him a call,’ I said, rooting around for my phone.
‘I can do it if you like?’ suggested Sophia, smiling sweetly at me.
I smiled just as sweetly back. ‘It’s fine. Already dialled.’
I held my phone out to show her that I was, indeed, already calling Nick. Aware that all eyes were on me, I metaphorically crossed my fingers that Nick was going to answer and tell me that he was just around the corner and would be with us in less than a minute. He was bound to, he must realise we’d all be waiting for him. Although, saying that, when we were back in London, it was almost impossible to get hold of him at short notice. He always seemed to be inmeetings. I’d taken to calling his PA – Gillian – who was lovely and who knew far more about what Nick was up to on a daily basis than I did
‘It’s gone straight to voicemail,’ I said, hiding my irritation.
He’d better be here. He’d given me his word.
‘Bloody Nick and his terrible timekeeping,’ said Peter.
‘Now, now, darling. They’ll be on their way. He’s probably stopped to buy Daisy a little something for the journey,’ Rosamund soothed.
In truth, I didn’t know why he’d decided to take Daisy out when we had such an early start, and why he’d left it to the last second to come back so that we were all – especially me – standing here anxiously waiting for him.
The revolving door spun hopefully and we all turned, fully expecting to see Nick and Daisy swanning through it, flushed and full of apologies. But instead there was a bald, tanned man wearing Ray Ban-style sunglasses and a pale blue shirt tucked into jeans heading in our direction.
‘You are here for the wine-tasting tour?’ he said to us in a strong, sing-songy Italian accent.
We all nodded obligingly.
‘That’s right,’ said Peter. ‘Just waiting for two more.’
The Italian man looked at his watch and shook his head. ‘We are on a very tight schedule. How long will they be?’
‘Any minute now,’ I said, convincing myself as much as anything.
‘I am Gino, your guide for the day,’ he said, whipping out a clipboard from behind his back. ‘So. Here at the Palazzo Continentale Hotel I have a party of six and a party of one.’
‘We’re the party of six,’ I said.
I was in my comfort zone with this, used to organising trips and keeping to schedules (unlike Nick, clearly). I decided I may as well take the lead while I had the opportunityto and Rosamund and Peter didn’t seem to want to engage with Gino, anyway, probably because he’d already been relegated to minion status, alongside all the hotel employees and anyone who worked in a restaurant.
I checked my phone: nothing from Nick and it was now 8.33. I knew that these tour guides liked to keep to a strict timetable. I’d dealt with them myriad times before, and they didn’t take kindly to people rocking up late, in fact they were liable to just drive off without them. This I did not want. It would be a nightmare.
I tried texting Nick.
where are you? the tour is leaving!
True to form, Gino was already looking stressed and was pacing up and down the foyer, staring at his clipboard.
‘We will get on to the van and the others, if they are not here in five minutes, we go without them. Otherwise we have less time in the wine tasting, which does not matter to me, but after all it is why you are on this trip,si?’
Fuck.
Sophia actually looked quite pleased at the prospect of not having to look after (if you could call it that) a bored, whiny Daisy for an entire day. ‘Oh well, if they don’t make it, it’s their loss,’ she said breezily. ‘Knowing Daisy, she’s wrapped Nick around her little finger and has persuaded him to go shopping for the day instead.’
Surely he wouldn’t do that, knowing how I felt about this trip?
‘Let’s get on this damn van, then,’ said Peter, following Gino out onto the street.
The van was parked right outside, and Gino ushered Rosamund, Peter and Sophia into the three seats at the back. I got in next and there was only one seat left next tome, so either Nick or Daisy would have to take one of the two passenger seats at the front.
‘Let me try him one more time,’ I said.