AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Did you have breakfast already? We can ask for some more of these.’ Sarah pointed at the now empty basket. ‘Or do you want a coffee, at least?’
‘I’m fine, thanks. I had one by the Palazzo Vecchio. Weirdly, it’s not as easy to find coffee here as I thought. Literally nothing opened until about eight o’clock.’
‘What time did you head out?’ asked Lucy. ‘I didn’t even hear you go.’
‘You were dead to the world, Luce.’ Stella sat down and reached for an empty glass, before pouring herself some orange juice.
‘Are you OK?’ Bridget peered at Stella, looking concerned.
Stella fixed a smile on her face. ‘I’m fine, really. Probably just tired, to be honest. So,’ she decided to change the subject as quickly as possible to avoid the tears pricking at her eyes from falling, ‘what’s the plan?’ She picked up her glass and took a gulp, the flavour of freshly squeezed oranges a welcome change to the stale taste she’d had in her mouth since the phone call.
Bridget passed a paper napkin across the table to Stella. ‘Here’s the plan, expertly drawn by Sarah this morning.’
Sarah laughed. ‘Lucy told me what to draw.’
Stella looked at the napkin, showing a scribbled map of places to visit, illustrated with quickly done drawings depicting various sites. It looked like a treasure map.
‘We start by walking across the bridge to here,’ Bridget pointed at a dome, ‘then on to see David.’ Her finger came to rest on a drawing of a penis. She looked at Stella seriously, tapping her finger repeatedly on the illustrated landmark.
Stella looked at her friend. ‘You’re ridiculous.’
‘But funny,’ said Bridget, winking at Stella.
‘He’s got massive hands, I seem to remember.’ Lucy held hers up to emphasise her point.
Stella nodded. ‘OK, great, we go and see David and his massive hands. Then what?’
‘I don’t mind where we go as long as there’s ice cream,’ said Sarah. ‘And no negronis.’ She winced at the thought, remembering how they’d seemed so harmless the night before. What deceptive little drinks they’d turned out to be.
‘Then we must go to Vivoli, which is the oldest gelato shop in Florence apparently,’ said Lucy. ‘I think it’s near Santa Croce.’
‘Isn’t that the church in that film, the one with Tom Hanks?’ asked Sarah. ‘I worked on that film.’
‘In Florence?’ asked Bridget.
‘No, Pinewood Studios. I just remember having to paint stuff to make it look old. Chairs, tables, you name it.’
‘Did you meet him?’ Bridget’s eyes were wide.
‘Again, sadly not. Well, not properly, anyway. I knelt at his feet once, painting a chair leg that needed some work in between scenes. I don’t think he noticed I was there. That’s all part of the job, to be kind of invisible.’
‘How disappointing.’ Bridget’s face fell.
‘So, David, then ice cream, what else?’ Stella peered at the paper map on the table. She pointed at a drawing of a knife and fork.
‘That’s the big Central Market, we thought we could go and get lunch there or pick up a few things to take to the Boboli Gardens, save ourselves for a proper feast when we go out later,’ said Lucy. ‘What do you think?’
‘I think it all sounds absolutely perfect.’ Stella meant it. Anything to take her mind off what she now knew. ‘Right, I’m just going to have a quick shower, I’ll be ten minutes.’ She got up to leave the table. ‘Meet you all downstairs.’
They said of course and carried on chatting until she was out of earshot.
‘OK, something’s happened. Did you see her eyes? She looked as if she’d seen a ghost,’ whispered Bridget to the others once Stella had disappeared from view.
Lucy nodded slowly. ‘I think you’re right. But you know what Stella’s like. Brave face and all that. She’ll tell us when she’s ready.’
Sarah sighed. ‘I hate seeing her like this. It makes me want to find Simon and ask him what the bloody hell he’s doing.’
Bridget reached across the table and put her hand over Sarah’s. ‘I know you know more than us what this feels like. It must be hard seeing her go through it too.’
