The Sweet Life (19 page)

They were silent as they rode the lift down together. It was as though the Brandon she’d only just been joking and laughing with had been replaced by a pale imitation. Something was definitely bothering him.

‘Have fun shopping!’ he muttered distractedly after Janey murmured that she might hit the stores on the nearby Via del Corso and pick up some Alessi gadgets for her friends, having noticed how inexpensive they were in Rome. She’d been hoping he would join her, but after they left the hotel he turned and strode back in the direction of the Borghese Gardens.

Janey drifted down the Spanish Steps towards the Piazza di Spagna, wondering what had just happened.

She was surprised to feel so shattered, because she hadn’t expected to get hooked on Brandon’s company so quickly. She had thought that he was genuinely interested in her, but suddenly she wasn’t so sure. Especially if he was running some kind of harem behind her back!

Loaded with quirky giftware for her closest mates, Janey returned to the apartment in the early evening. Surprisingly, Freddy was home, flicking through some back issues of Italian
Vogue
in the apartment’s living room.

‘Hey,’ said Freddy in a friendly tone, looking up as Janey trailed past with her shopping bags.

‘Hey yourself,’ Janey replied, but she kept walking, too puzzled about Brandon’s weird behaviour to want to talk about it with Freddy, should she ask whether he’d caught up with her at the exhibition.

Celia called out gaily from the kitchen, ‘Guess who managed to finish up early tonight just to rustle up dinner for my girls? Perfect timing, Janey! You’ve got that trip to Pompeii tomorrow, right?’ Janey nodded, hovering in the doorway. ‘So I thought I’d make sure you ate a big dinner and got enough rest. It’s meant to be forty-five degrees in the shade tomorrow, Pompeii is
huge
, plus you’ve got an early start.’

Janey smiled at her aunt, placing her shopping bags in her bedroom before swinging onto a bar stool in the kitchen.

‘Been shopping?’ Celia asked as she slid portions of herb-crusted sea bass onto beds of homemade ratatouille. She pushed a plate towards Janey and called out to Freddy to come and eat. Freddy slouched into the kitchen and slid onto the stool beside Janey’s, poking at her dinner.

‘You know I
hate
fish,’ she said, pulling a face.

‘You hate lots of stuff,’ said Celia. ‘Eat up. Your brain could use it. So how was the Raffaello exhibition?’

‘
Bor
-ing,’ Freddy replied, ‘like I thought it would be.’ She shot a pleading sidelong glance at Janey, who looked down at her plate to hide her confusion. Freddy hadn’t been there. She was covering her tracks!

Celia frowned. ‘That’s it?’ she said. ‘In two syllables? Well, what did
you
think, Janey?’

‘The portraits were incredible.’ Janey added mischievously, ‘Didn’t you think so, Freddy?’

Freddy darted another look at Janey. ‘I’ve seen better,’ she mumbled, pushing fish around her plate.

‘Oh, I doubt it!’ said Celia. ‘He’s acknowledged as one of the best portraitists the human race has ever produced. I wrote my honours thesis on Raffaello.’

‘Whatever,’ Freddy muttered. Janey looked down as Celia and Freddy glared at each other.

‘Well, what else did you two get up to?’ Celia asked, popping a forkful of fish into her mouth.

Janey and Freddy raised their eyebrows at each other.

‘We pretty much split up when we got there,’ said Freddy.

‘We sure did,’ Janey agreed. ‘In fact, Freddy’s friend Brandon met me there and we ended up having lunch together at the Hotel Hassler.’

This time Celia’s eyebrows shot up. ‘The Hotel Hassler?’ she cried. ‘At the newly revamped Imàgo restaurant?’

Janey nodded. ‘It was pretty spectacular.’

‘You mean,’ Celia said, putting her fork down, ‘that you left Freddy at the exhibition while you went off with one of
her
friends to have lunch at the Hassler? Only one of the most expensive five-star hotels in the city? Why didn’t you ask her to go too?’

Freddy grinned mischievously this time. ‘Yeah, why
didn’t
you ask me? I could have hung out with you two, instead of catching the rest of the exhibition all on my own. I would have loved to have a stickybeak at the Hassler!’

Janey bit her lip. Correcting Celia’s false impression that Freddy had attended the Raffaello exhibition would make the two of them look bad. Freddy for lying in the first place, and Janey for covering it up! It was a no-win situation. ‘Um, I don’t know,’ she mumbled, deciding the more honourable thing to do was back Freddy up. ‘Sorry, didn’t think.’

‘No you didn’t,’ Celia said in a low voice. ‘I must say that I’d thought better of you, Jane. You’re older than Federica, and you should be looking out for her, instead of dumping her somewhere and making off with one of her best friends.’

‘Who also just happens to be supremely good-looking and
very
loaded,’ Freddy chipped in.

Celia started washing dishes furiously as the girls got up to leave the table. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever encountered someone quite as boy crazy as you are, Janey Gordon. It’s Luca one day, Brandon the next. I can’t keep up with you! I’m not sure what kind of role model you’d be for my daughter . . .’

Freddy quickly hauled Janey out of the kitchen before she could open her mouth to defend herself.

Pompeii

‘Thanks,’ Freddy laughed as she yanked Janey up the hallway towards her bedroom. ‘I owe you one!’

Janey made an outraged gargling sound and Freddy giggled.

‘Mum doesn’t like me hanging out at Luz’s place because she thinks Luz is a spoilt, snobby diva with an attitude problem. And she’s right! But it’s still fun to see how the other half lives! Luz has got what her family grandly calls “retainers” but I’d call personal
slaves
. She’s waited on hand and foot.
Nothing’s
too much trouble. Scrambled eggs and Sevruga caviar at three in the morning? No problem! Her dad’s some kind of duke or something, and her mum’s a Colombian coffee baron’s daughter. They are
off-the-scale
rich.’ She pushed Janey inside her room and shut the door.

‘Because I just protected your backside
again
,’ Janey spluttered, ‘y-your mum thinks I’m some kind of a . . .’ She’d just about had it up to there with saving Freddy from Celia’s wrath when all Freddy seemed to do was dump her in it!

Freddy shrugged nonchalantly. ‘You’ll be gone soon, and she’ll forget about it. Don’t take things so seriously! You wanna hang out tonight? My buds and I are hitting the Duke’s bar in Parioli, then moving on to the Jackie O for some dancing. Brandon will be there,’ Freddy added cheekily. ‘We don’t have any fake ID for you, but I can make you up to look way older than you actually are. So it should be a cinch to get in.’

Remembering Brandon’s suspicious phone call at lunch, Janey replied stiffly, ‘Thanks, but no thanks, I think I’ll pass.’ She didn’t think she could stand losing Freddy and her friends in the crowd again, especially at some venue she’d never been to before, filled with potential sleaze buckets! And if Brandon looked right through her again, like he had today, she wasn’t sure how she’d handle it.

‘Suit yourself.’ Freddy started buzzing around her bedroom, blinging up for her big night. Still seething, Janey let herself out and hit the shower.

Later that night, still a little upset by how her day had turned out, Janey headed down the silent hallway to the study and logged into her MySpace page. While her last posting had been all about Luca, her latest one was all about Brandon and how he’d basically blown her off at the end of their swanky date. She needed help working through it all.

What do
U
think? Reckon he’s got a girlfriend
stashed away somewhere? Thoughts + input
please. Real confused.

It was late enough her time that Em and Gabs had just woken up back home and were online at their respective computers. Janey refreshed her page a few times with a smile on her face and was soon rewarded with Em’s first comment.

Hey babe. Still think u shld give Luca benefit of doubt. Brandon sounds GROSS blowin hot / cold dat way.

The Divine Miss Em

Gabs, who was busy catching up with a bunch of other people, took a little longer to chime in.