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“We’ve been having our own kind of a rough time.”
“I bet.” News about the Sun-a-do will have gone straight to the resort.
“We’ve both got a lot to catch up on. Have a good soak. Don’t be too long. I wish I was there to rub you dry.”
“Then I wouldn’t be dry.”
“This business with Alessio and his uncle…”
“We’ll talk.”
“But it’s going to be alright, though. Isn’t it?”
Carlo is the youngest. Maybe the most emotionally brittle of the three. But he’s the one who, for some reason, I can never lie to.
“Lucia? Micia?”
“Carlo.”
My heart pounds.
“That means ‘no,’ doesn’t it. ‘No,’ it’s not all going to be alright.”
“I don’t know.”
There’s a pause like a cold drop.
He says, “If you don’t know, then we really are fucked.”
“We’re not fucked. We’re never fucked. We’re not fucked until the fat lady comes.”
“I don’t see a fat lady.”
“See? We’re golden.”
“We’re the F-word.”
We hang up, even though I don’t want to and I know that he doesn’t.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Islip back into the bath, the water has cooled off. The pain of missing Carlo, and Bruno and Alessio is sharper. Deeper. Worse, in almost very way. But something about it is different. Having Carlo’s voice and his words in my ear makes the pang delicious. Having a fresh sight of him, even a momentary flash on the phone screen but live, I’m energized.
I run scalding hot water into the bath and I relish the burn as it flows in and mixes.
Lying back and soaking gives me a few moments to just let go and relax my weary body. Drowsy, pleasant thoughts of Carlo’s body drift into my mind and parts of my body remember him. Maybe I should call him back now anyway.
Absently, my fingers have started to roll and tug on my nipple. My hips roll and my back stretches.
Before can reach out for the phone, an image of Alessio rises to distract me and I’m unsettled, under a shadow, worrying about how I’m ever going to pull our group back together.
The last time we were all in the same place seems so long ago, it makes a lump in my throat. My eyes sting.
That fucking asshole Jerry.
After I finish my bath and towel off. I feel deflated. Slipping on my Japanese embroidered peach silk pajamas, I call faceTime for Carlo.
He picks up and says, “Hey. I have to go out and…” I look down at the screen. He is staring wide and hard eyed at me.
