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She heard him chuckle. ‘Do I know a good market? What kind of question’s that? Of course I do. It does get pretty crowded at the weekends, though.’
‘I was hoping for one that’s quiet. I’ll be on my own, so I don’t want to lose William.’ Maybe she’d take William to the beach instead and they could eat out.
There was a slight pause at the other end of the line. ‘Well, why don’t you come with me? I’ll show you the best market in Palermo. You’ll love it.’
Just as Matteo seemed to have thought about the question for a moment, Rose had to think about her answer. This wasn’t anything to do with his work, or hers, but it would be fun for William, and still fell roughly within the boundaries she’d set for herself.
‘Well... If it’s no trouble.’
‘Of course not. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.’
* * *
Matteo drove slowly along the street where he’d said he’d meet her, and saw her car. Sliding into an empty parking spot next to it, he saw William and Rose sitting together in the front seats, their two fair heads together, looking intently at her mobile phone.
‘Ah! You found us.’ She jumped when he looked in through the open window of the driver’s door, and got out of the car. William scrambled across the seats to greet Matteo with a bongiorno.
‘Look, what I found.’ Rose was obviously far too involved with whatever it was she had on her phone to bother with preliminaries like Hello, or How are you today? In the bright sunshine of her smile, they seemed entirely dispensable to Matteo as well.
‘What’s that?’ He took the phone, and looked at it. ‘A camera?’
She laughed, reaching into the car for her bag. ‘No. Although if it looks like that to you, I suppose it must be working. It’s an app that simulates colour-blindness. I can see what William sees. I’m not sure if I’ve got it adjusted quite right, though.’
Matteo pointed the phone up at the sky, and its image looked drab and flat. He bent down to William’s level, putting his arms around him so that they could both see the phone. ‘How does that look to you? The same?’
William shook his head.
‘I think you’ve got the blue turned down. How do you adjust it?’
‘There are controls for each colour.’ Rose leaned in, tapping the side of the screen, and a set of three sliders appeared. Matteo adjusted the one that controlled blues, pushing it right up to the top.
‘Better?’ He showed William.
‘It looks the same.’
‘Yeah. Looks the same to me too.’ He repeated the process with a red car, which Rose pointed out to him, and then a green car, adjusting the sliders to change the colour balance until William saw a difference. Then he handed the phone back to Rose.
‘I think that’s about it.’
‘Thank you.’ She pointed the phone straight up at the sky and gave him a bright smile. ‘I’m so glad you both see that the way I do.’
She switched the phone off, keeping it in her hand, as if she might want to consult it later. ‘Which way to the market?’
‘Down here. We’ll follow everyone else.’
It seemed odd to be with both of them again. Matteo had just about managed to reconcile his feelings about Rose, telling himself that she was someone with a fascinating job who just happened to be intoxicatingly attractive. And William was a bright boy, who had much of his mother’s zest for new things. But together they were a family of two, and that was proving to be a challenge.
He solved the problem by ignoring it. Walking next to William, he responded to his chatter, taking his hand when Rose stopped to look at something through the colour filter on her phone. Almost as if she wasn’t there and it was William he’d come to see.
* * *
Matteo was dressed for the weekend, his cream-coloured trousers and shirt making his skin seem even more golden. The breeze tugged at the thin fabric of his shirt, moulding it to the shape of his shoulders, and his relaxed gait made him look even more delicious. He was a study in what a man should look like.
The streets were getting more and more crowded, and Matteo hoisted William up onto his shoulders. William’s shining face, as he clung to Matteo, tugged almost painfully at all the instincts that told her that her child should have a father.
As they approached the marketplace, the streets were full of stalls. Fruit and vegetables, laid out in great splashes of colour, which looked strange and a little unappetising through the filter on her phone.
Matteo’s leisurely pace slowed to a crawl. It seemed that choosing what to buy was a serious business for him, and he passed rows of stal
