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Chapter Ten
Ilaunched WhatsApp. If I didn’t send Bella and Roxy a voice note now, I didn’t know when I’d get to reply to let them know how I was. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone and send a message in our group chat whilst I cleaned the kitchen and hallway floors. I pressed record, then held my phone up in my left hand and the mop in the other.
Hey, ladies! Sorry for being a stranger. It’s all go at the moment… lots on with work and Leo and, you know, stuff. But it’s all good! Lorenzo is amazing and constantly feeding me amazing food. By the time I see you in London, I’m going to be the size of an elephant, I swear! But everything’s great. It’s so pretty here. Like a postcard. I’ll have to send you some new pics. And some more photos of Leo. I’ve taken hundreds. He’s adorable. I can’t wait for you guys to see him again. I miss you both so much. Feels like ages since I’ve seen you. Maybe we should FaceTime soon?
Anyway, how’s everything with you, Bella? Hope Paul and Mike are well. And Roxy, how’s work and your love life? Sorry, what am I saying? You don’t do love. How are the fuckbuddies? Any new ones on the scene? Anyway, better go. Got to do some exercise and studying before Leo wakes up. Did I tell you I’d started taking Italian lessons? It’s going well. Before I came here, I could only count to ten. Now I reckon I can count to at least eleven! Only joking! I’ve made a lot more progress than that. I’ll tell you all about it next time.
Right, I really am going now. Love you guys!
Hopefully I sounded upbeat. Normally I shared everything with them. The ups and downs, highs and lows—but I didn’t want to tell them that I was finding some things hard. Partly because of the distance and not wanting to worry them when they were too far away to help. And, yeah, I admit I didn’t want to hear theI told you sospeech.
Roxy had always been sceptical about me coming here. Although these days she was much warmer towards Lorenzo because she’d seen he was a great partner and father, she still thought I was taking on too much with trying to run a business from over here.
In Roxy’s mind, I would have been better off staying in London. To her, moving to Italy meant having to get to grips with a new country, culture and learning a new language (all true), which added unnecessary stress where it wasn’t needed. She couldn’t see why Lorenzo didn’t just move to London. So if I told her I was struggling with Italian, didn’t really have anybody else to call on for help and was juggling a million balls like she’d predicted, I’d have to admit I was failing.
I’d tell them about the reality at some point, of course, but it’d be better to do it at one of our catch-ups next time I was in London. Hopefully by then I’d have things more under control.
The doorbell rang, snapping me out of my thoughts. Part of me asked,Who could that be?But the other already knew the answer.
Marta.
I sighed. She was the only one who visited unannounced. I was tempted to pretend I wasn’t in (Imayor may not have done that before…), but seeing as the kitchen window was wide open, she’d know we were here. She might have even heard me speaking on the phone. Dammit.
Nowreallywasn’t a good time. As well as the studying and exercise I’d mentioned I had to do in my message, whilst Leo was having his last afternoon nap, I also had to reply to some emails and had a pile of washing to put on. Lorenzo was off today, but he’d gone to do a big shop and run some errands and I didn’t know when he’d be back. Plus the floors were still wet, so now I’d have to walk over the damp tiles just to let her in.
Great.
‘Ciao, Marta,’ I said through gritted teeth as I opened the door and tried my best to be welcoming.
‘Ciao. Sono venuta a vedere Leo.’
Right now?That was all I needed.
Well, at least I understood what she said for a change, which was a major miracle. Think I’d learnt something similar on Duolingo. She’d come to see Leo.
‘Leo dort.’Oops. No. That was theFrenchway to say Leo was sleeping. Pretty sure the Italian was something similar, though…
Being similar isn’t going to help right now, though, is it? Seeing as Marta speaks Italian...
Yes, Reasanna. Thanks for highlighting the obvious.
Marta breezed straight past me, leaving a trail of footprints on the wet floor.
Grrr.
‘Leonardo!’ she cried out excitedly.
Oh no, she didn’t…
I raced into the bedroom to see Marta picking Leo up out of his cot and kissing him.
‘Leo has to sleep!’ I snapped. She didn’t need to understand English to see that he was in his cot for a reason. This was his designated naptime. He was tired. If he stayed awake now, that would mess up his feed and sleep schedule and then he’d probably be up all night. She couldn’t just waltz in here with zero notice because she felt like having a cuddle.
This woman!
She had no respect for routine.
Leo started crying. Didn’t blame him. How would she like it if someone just interrupted her sleep like that?
