The Sweet Life (23 page)
Luca cleared his throat. ‘Brandon did not think so. He took her to the Café de Paris. Perhaps he has not taken
you
there?’
Freddy’s eyes were wide with chagrined surprise. ‘He didn’t tell me about that!’ she said, biting her lip angrily. ‘ And he’s been in love with me
forever
. Unreciprocated of course,’ she added, darting a quick look at Luca. ‘He should’ve stuck to the script!’
‘Enough!’ Celia barked. ‘We’re home now, and we ’re going to have it out if it kills us! Every last whinge and gripe and unreasonable demand! It’s time you stopped acting like a spoilt princess. I didn’t ask for this situation! Your father suddenly decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life with a
doormat
and I wasn’t prepared to do that. End of story. Stop pushing it all back on
me
.’
‘Fine by me!’ said Freddy. ‘I don’t get enough attention from either of you anyway, without adding another person to the mix! I’ve got
plenty
to say.’ Mother and daughter glared at each other across the back seat.
Luca stopped the car in front of Celia’s apartment building and opened the car door for Celia and Freddy before helping Janey out of her seat. Touching her arm, he murmured, ‘I may call you?’
Janey, her head still spinning a little from the way things had turned out, nodded shyly. ‘You have my number.’
She waved as she entered the building behind her aunt and Freddy. Luca gave a jaunty return blast on the car horn before roaring off at his usual terrifying speed.
It felt to Janey as if she’d last entered the apartment a lifetime ago. So much had happened since that morning.
‘How did you find me?’ she asked, as Celia shrugged out of her suit jacket in the living room. Freddy attempted to skulk off to her bedroom, but Celia barked, ‘You!
Stay
.’ Freddy crashed onto an ottoman with her back to them, her arms crossed.
‘Just after eight, my inbox pinged,’ Celia said, weariness creeping into her voice. ‘I’ve been so flat out putting the finishing touches to an economic paper on a possible Italian–Australian bilateral free trade agreement that I let a lot of things slip. Including keeping tabs on you and Freddy.’
‘So what’s new?’ Freddy snarled. Celia pointedly ignored her daughter’s outburst and continued to study Janey.
‘Um, okay,’ Janey replied, wondering where Celia was going with all this, but still glad they were
really
talking now.
Celia smiled as she slipped her heavy spectacles off her face, looking instantly younger, less official and very tired. ‘I do have a point. I’d accumulated sixty-plus emails since I’d last checked and right near the top I found an email from a Ness McAdams entitled “Attention Celia Albright”.’
Janey gaped for a second. ‘
My
friend Ness?’
Celia nodded as she gestured at Janey to sit. ‘Though I couldn’t place her at first until I opened her email and saw your name leap out at me from paragraph one. Stupidly, I assumed that it couldn’t be important, that she was probably just trying to update you with gossip from home. So I printed and closed the email, then promptly forgot all about it for the next hour or so.’
Janey shook her head. That would probably have been around the time Paolo – in his freaky golden mask – had started stalking her.
‘Around ten,’ Celia continued, ‘Libby – the woman you met the other day, who was stuck working late too – poked her head into my office and asked for a quick word. Turns out she’d been trying to speak to me all week – ever since that day you stood up the Ambassador and embarrassed me horribly – but I just haven’t made the time to see her. Something more important kept coming up.’ She crinkled her nose apologetically. ‘She said it was about
you
, and I’m sorry to say that I demanded to know what it was that you’d done
this
time.’
Janey winced. ‘Freddy had pretty much assassinated my character in your eyes by then, so I can understand that.’
Freddy made a snorting sound, but it was clear that she was listening intently.
‘Well, Libby didn’t,’ said Celia. ‘She’d figured you for who you really were and said it wasn’t what
you’d
done, but what someone was doing
to
you. Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about because you hadn’t said a word to me! So I ordered her to sit down and spill the beans. She said you’d received a threatening text message while you’d been sitting in the Ambassador’s waiting room. You must’ve been terrified!’
Janey shrugged. ‘I was so jumpy by that stage, I wasn’t thinking straight! As soon as that text arrived, all I could think of was escaping the embassy, you, Luca, everybody.’
‘Your flight reflexes kicked in,’ said Celia.
‘Bet we gave you a workout,’ Freddy muttered.
Janey ignored her. ‘I mean, the most sensible thing would’ve been to sit there and wait for you to get out of your meeting and help me track Fellini down. I mean, it’s an embassy – everyone who goes in and out has to sign. But instead, I just panicked like a dumbbell and
ran
.’
Freddy laughed, making Celia frown.
‘
Bolted
, was the word Libby used. She said she was on the phone and saw you drop your mobile with a shriek and hightail it out of there seconds later.
Why
didn’t you tell me earlier?’ Celia chided Janey. ‘Instead of letting me think what Freddy wanted me to think about you?’
Janey smiled. ‘Freddy had pretended to be so nice to me – she really had me fooled – and you and I had had a few misunderstandings already . . .’
Celia looked embarrassed.
‘. . . so I just decided to stick it out until it was time to head back to Australia. I’m tougher than I look, you know,’ Janey added. ‘I’ve kind of had to be.’
‘You certainly are,’ Celia replied. ‘My first impressions of you were so right. You know, sensible, friendly, even a little naïve . . . until my wretched daughter caused me to doubt my own judgment!’
Janey blushed a little at the description.
‘Definitely not the crazed man-eater you suddenly seemed to become!’ Celia added, shaking her head. ‘Every time I saw you, it was Luca this, and Brandon that, and after what I’ve been through with Freddy chasing Luca all over Rome, having him on speed dial, getting him to drive her and her friends around so much that the Ambassador’s had to have a private word with me on more than one occasion . . .’ Celia shot her daughter a harassed look.
‘You just thought the worst,’ said Janey.
‘You know what Libby said?’ Celia murmured. ‘“It’s Rome – it’s practically spelt the same way as
romance
, for heaven’s sake!” I tend to forget that, Janey, being the jaded old bird I am. Anyway, as soon as Libby told me what had been happening to you, I went into instant panic mode. Rang home, no one picked up, checked my mobile, no messages, rang your phone, no reply . . .’
‘I would’ve been running for my life just then,’ said Janey. ‘So I definitely wasn’t answering—’
‘Right,’ Celia agreed, ‘so then I rang poor Luca – who was out with his usual crowd of sophisticates . . .’
Freddy turned around at her mother’s words, no longer pretending she wasn’t interested in the conversation.
‘. . . and told him I needed his help,’ Celia continued. ‘Had this crazy idea that we’d drive around the whole Castro Pretorio district looking for you, because that was the only clue to your whereabouts that I had to go on. I knew you’d gone to Pompeii and I knew what time your tour was supposed to get back—’
‘We were seriously delayed,’ Janey interrupted wryly.
‘. . . and while I was waiting for him, I remembered that mysterious email from Ness McAdams. Turns out it wasn’t addressed to
you
after all, it was intended for
me
all along. And it contained your friends’ theories about what my sneaky offspring and
her
friends have been up to over the last few days!’ It was Celia’s turn to glare at Freddy, who just ducked her head.
Celia’s expression flickered between disbelief and sheer embarrassment. ‘All I knew was that you were about two hours overdue, because you hadn’t checked in, and we needed to find you. When Luca pulled up at the embassy, he said that where you were, Freddy would probably be too, because he had a hunch that Freddy was somehow involved. And he was
right
. Because when you wouldn’t take his call either . . .’
‘Still running for my life at that point!’ said Janey, laughing. It was easy to laugh about it now. ‘Plus, there was the possibility he was a crazed loony, so I wouldn’t have taken his call either way.’
‘He had the presence of mind to call Freddy.’ said Celia.
‘That rat!’ said Freddy angrily. Celia shot her a silencing look.
‘He convinced her that he wanted to take her out clubbing at last. And you took the bait!’ She looked at Freddy, who looked away. ‘Luca has been resisting Freddy’s invitations for months. She had no idea I was sitting there listening to the whole conversation, which included several other background voices.’
‘Brandon’s,’ Janey muttered in distress.
Celia nodded. ‘We distinctly heard
him
say, “This was a bad idea, Freddy! What are we supposed to do? Just leave her wandering the Città Universitaria on her own, when she’s probably hysterical?”’
‘Huh! Like he
cared
,’ Janey mumbled.
‘And Luca and I just stared at each other in shock because it was literally a kilometre away from where
we
were. We knew the Città Universitaria would be as deserted as a graveyard and if you weren’t hysterical, it would be a miracle!’
‘So what happened next?’ said Janey, interested despite herself.
Freddy glared at the ceiling and crossed her arms.
‘Though Freddy tried to muffle her mobile, we distinctly overheard her giving the others orders to “close the net” at the Piazzale Aldo Moro and give you one last huge heart attack before calling it a night! Freddy then got back on the line and demanded Luca pick her up at the corner of Viale dell’Università and Viale Pretoriano in twenty minutes, and the rest is history. Now Freddy and I are going to have that little talk because it’s way,
way
overdue. I’m really sorry you were drawn into the crossfire, Janey. I never intended your holiday to turn out like this.’
Freddy’s expression indicated she was preparing to go on the attack. But before she could open her mouth, Celia said gently, ‘I know I’ve been too wrapped up in work, darling, and you’ve probably had good reason to act up. You’ve never let me put my side of the story properly and now you are going to listen. To every word. Really
listen
.’
Janey let herself out of the room as Celia and Freddy began to argue.
As Freddy wailed and Celia talked and paced in the living room, Janey jumped onto her MySpace page to update her friends on the whole mind-bending saga.
‘You’ll never believe how it all panned out!’ she began, in her latest and most anticipated blog ever.
