Nick tried to open the door, but the keypad kept beepinginsolently, flashing red instead of green. Not that I felt like going into the room with him anyway. I was on the verge of turning around and going out myself. A solo walk along the Arno sounded preferable to being holed up in a hotel room bickering about something that I couldn’t change. Obviously, if I was in that situation again, I wouldn’t let Daisy go, but couldn’t Nick cut me some slack? Daisy had convinced me it would all be fine and she’d admitted that herself at dinner.
‘Jealousy doesn’t suit you, by the way,’ said Nick.
I frowned, genuinely confused. ‘Who am I supposed to be jealous of?’
‘Sophia,’ he replied. ‘You keep looking at her apparently, every time she tries to talk to me. We’re always going to have Daisy in common and we will always need to talk, so I’m sorry if it makes you uncomfortable, but that’s the way it’s going to have to be.’
Nick went into the room and I hung back, using my foot to prop open the door. I didn’t want to go in. Every part of me was telling me to leave, that this person was not the Nick I’d first met, who’d been so chivalrous and easy to be around. If this was what being with his family did to him, I wished it had happened sooner so that I would have known.
‘This has come from Sophia, hasn’t it?’ I said, still hovering in the doorway. It would feel too claustrophobic in the room. ‘She’s putting these ideas in your head.’
I heard the lift ping open and glanced down the corridor. Aidan was walking towards me. He was wearing a pristine white polo shirt and black jeans and his eyes sparkled as he smiled at me, as though he was genuinely happy to see me, something I hadn’t felt from Nick for what seemed like ages. I felt like taking my foot out of the door, letting itclose behind me and walking into Aidan’s arms. I had never forgotten how it felt to be held by him.
And then I took a deep breath and tore my eyes away. I went into our room, dropped my bag on the floor and sat on the end of the bed. Nick was in the bathroom; I heard the shower turn on. I listened hard to the beep of Aidan opening his door and the slam as it shut behind him.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rosamund and Peter’s official anniversary lunch, which had come at a particularly bad time, was taking place in the hotel’s restaurant that afternoon. Nick was still giving me the silent treatment and I couldn’t stop thinking about Aidan. All those misunderstandings. The traumatic stuff he’d been through, how bad it had all felt for me, too, and how I’d thought I’d been going mad to feel that connected to someone after four weeks. But he had felt it, too. I hadn’t imagined it.
I tried to tune into the conversations happening around the table. It was the usual: which wine to order; how Rosamund hadhadto fire her cleaner; how much homework Daisy wasn’t doing when Sophia and Nick were paying a small fortune in school fees.
Suddenly, Peter started banging his glass with his fork, so loudly that I thought it was going to shatter in his hand. I clearly wasn’t the only one who’d noticed (well, you could hardly not): half the restaurant were looking over with interest.
‘Speech!’ guffawed Nick.
‘Go, Peter, whoop, whoop,’ yelled Sophia.
I caught Daisy’s eye and I wasn’t sure who was more mortified by the whole spectacle, me or her. She raised her eyebrows and I winced back.
‘As you know, we are gathered here in the delightful cityof Florence to celebrate the forty-fifth wedding anniversary of myself and my lovely wife, Rosamund. Four and a half decades and two children later and we’re still going strong.’
Everyone cheered. I clapped in that way you do when it looks like you’re clapping wildly but actually your hands aren’t properly connecting and you’re making barely any sound. I didn’t want to add to the din they were making.
‘I’ve bought you a little gift, darling, to say thank you for putting up with me for all these years.’
‘Oh Peter, you shouldn’t have,’ said Rosamund, looking as though he absolutely should have.
Peter scuffled about under his chair producing a beautifully wrapped rectangular box. He placed it on the table in front of Rosamund. Sophia immediately started cooing, stroking the wrapping paper with her long, blood-red fingernails.
‘Did you wrap this, Peter?’
‘God, no,’ he said.
Rosamund began unpicking the paper, enjoying the fact that several pairs of eyes were trained exclusively on her. She really drew it out, pausing to make eye contact with Peter, struggling over a piece of Sellotape. At this rate, the main course would be served before she’d even opened it. Finally she had one end open and was able to pull out a green jewellery box with Cartier emblazoned on it.
‘Blimey,’ I said, not meaning to have spoken aloud.
‘Oh, Rosamund. Open it,’ urged Sophia, whose voice had gone all husky at the sight of the Cartier logo.
Rosamund used her thumb to pop open the box, revealing a beautiful, white leather, diamond-encrusted ladies watch. Even Rosamund seemed lost for words.
‘Well done, Daddy,’ said Nick, looking impressed.
‘Put it on, Rosamund, put it on!’ squawked Sophia. ‘Isn’t it stunning, Daisy?’
A disinterested Daisy gave her grandmother a thumbs-up.
As Rosamund slipped the watch on her wrist, there was no doubt it was beautiful. She tipped it this way and that, letting it sparkle in the light. I was surprised a waiter hadn’t come bustling over thinking she was doing Morse code.