Someone to Love (7 page)

I realized that the situation was more complicated than expected, and it took several more attempts before I could get my foot on the ledge and climb up. I congratulated myself.

Behind me rose a chorus of shouts.

“I saw it from the road, officer, someone is trying to sneak into the property, back here,” came a woman's voice from not far away.

“Oh great, a thief is trying to get inside my house and I'm stuck in this position?” I murmured, agitated. “I shouldn't have left Bubu tied up, damn it.”

One more effort, I convinced myself, and I would reach the window. I scrambled with the other leg so I could pull myself up and the movement was accompanied by the sound of tearing cloth. A split right up to my thigh. And that was the position in which Diego found me.

“Mia? Thank God it's you, you frightened the lady,” he exclaimed, pointing a flashlight at me.

The light blinded me and I contorted my face into a strange smirk. Bubu began to bounce on the spot.

“How did you know I was here?” I asked, trying to recover my composure as best I could.

I turned slightly, but enough to see his expression.

“Signora Stella, are you here as well? The place is getting crowded,” I said, in a cold sweat.

“May I ask you what you're doing?” said Diego. “I received a call, we thought it was a thief.”

“Uh no. As you can see, it's me and I would appreciate a hand to get down from here.”

“She seemed like a thief. I went out to empty the rubbish. I'm elderly, I shouldn't go out at certain hours, but I had cooked fish. My husband likes it so much. And well, the whole house would smell unless I threw the rubbish out, and then I saw that black figure. So, I thought I'd call the police,” said Signora Stella. “Thank God it wasn't a criminal! You have to be careful these days, they even use the excuse of wanting to check the meter.”

“That's awful,” said Diego.

“Excuse me …” I hissed.

“I'll take you home myself, madam. So that your husband doesn't worry,” said Diego, encircling Stella's shoulders, as she stood clutched in her shawl.

“And me?” I muttered bleakly.

A few minutes passed and I heard footsteps behind me. “I'll report you. Couldn't you have helped me first and then taken the old woman home?” I snarled at Diego.

“You're really rude. You say ‘elderly' not ‘old'.”

“Don't just stand there giving me etiquette lessons.”

Diego gave me a clear look: you're on your own.

He reached down to pat Bubu and walked away. “So, good luck then! You have a cute heart-shaped birth mark on your butt.”

I counted to three before replying. “Then I might as well answer: cheers! Wait, no. Come back and help me or I could be stuck here for life.”

“I demand an apology.”

“As well?”

“As far as I'm concerned, you can stay up there.”

“Ok, sorry. Excuse me very much, but now I implore you… please get me down.”

Diego came over and studied the situation. “When I get to three, let go.”

“Holy Cow,” I whispered softly. A few seconds that seemed to me like an eternity went by. I wanted to back down, but it was too late.

Diego repeated himself. “Come on, Mia. I'll catch you.” It wasn't very re-assuring. “If you drop me…”

“One, two three…”

I closed my eyes and let go. Diego caught me and I found myself in his arms. I could feel the tension in his muscles through my back and legs. I wasn't initially aware that I was clinging to him like ivy.

“You can put your feet on the ground, now.”

“Oh,” was the only thing I muttered, releasing him. Having remained in the same position for ages, when I got up my legs ached. I met his gaze and saw him smile, enjoying the humour of the moment.

“All right,” I said, with a moment of clarity, “Can you give me a ride to the clinic so I can get my spare keys?” Meanwhile, I tried to re-arrange the ruined dress.

“Sure,” he said simply, moving towards the car. “And you don't need to cover up, I've already admired what there was to see,” he concluded with a grin.

I froze and looked him straight in the eye. “You know what? You're an asshole.”

“Even if I helped you—”

“You acted like a jerk before and now as well.” The words slipped out of my mouth as if I had no control over myself.

Diego tried to calm me down his way. “Do you want me to arrest you for insulting a police officer?”

“Don't touch me and I'll repeat it endlessly. You. Are. An. Asshole. And if it's too difficult for you to comprehend, I can spell it for you!” I snapped, losing my patience.

Diego let go. “I'm really impressed. Keats? Okay, I only just realized I'm facing a poet. Now you're talking like this because you're angry. Rightly so, I would be if anyone had seen me without pants, but to be honest, no one, unlike you, has ever complained. I thought about it, and maybe you're right, I was a bit unfair,” he said innocently.

“Then there is a thread of humanity in you. I would like to see you in my place…”

‘Well, of course. Thinking about it, the problem isn't the torn dress, but your ass peering out. You know, my grandmother wore similar underwear.”

I flared up in embarrassment and covered my face with my hands.

“Oh, so we're blowing the lid off! So you've always been a little pervert.”

“Good heavens, she was my grandmother.” Maybe I had gone a bit too far.

“All right,” I began in a shaky voice. “I admit that was a low blow, but you embarrassed me. Just don't think about it when you see your grandmother.”

I grabbed Bubu and climbed into his car.

He turned right, following a road that runs downhill towards the city centre. For the first few minutes I wasn't interested in anything but the asphalt in front of me. Then I turned round to look at Diego, and watched his stern profile illuminated by the dashboard lights. He sighed, but said nothing to break that unnatural silence. Neither of us knew what to say.

He turned on the music and began to beat the rhythm on the steering wheel with his hand. Without further guidance, he reached the clinic.

I moved a tile to retrieve the spare key. “Want to come in?” I asked, as I opened the door.

He looked around and nodded. “Thank you,” crossing the threshold. “Lovely little place.”

“Would you like a coffee?”

He accepted my offer, walking back and forth with his hands crossed behind his back. He stopped to look at the photos on the wall. “I really like this one”, he said, indicating one in particular, with a white frame. “You look very happy.” His voice betrayed a certain coldness.

I looked at him, puzzled. He was referring to the picture of me with Bubu and my ex-boyfriend, taken during a trip to the stream. Bubu was framed with lolling tongue and Davide was looking at me with dreamy eyes and hugging me. We looked really happy and fulfilled.

“It was a long time ago,” I said, offering him a steaming cup of hot coffee.

“Why, has something changed now?”

“Where do I start? Well, relationships often start well and end badly, but that picture brings back good memories and I like to have it there.”

“The important thing is not to have any regrets because it's not fair to be with someone who doesn't make you happy. Everyone deserves the best in us.”

That sentence puzzled me, and for the first time I felt a note of bitterness in his words. “I agree. And you, how come you moved over here? Was Gallipoli so terrible?” I brought my cup to my lips.

Diego was clearly uncomfortable with the question. “I wanted a change of scenery, I get bored staying too long in the same place,” he replied, without looking away. It seemed like a lie to me, but one told with good intentions.

“Did you come with company… You know, the girl at the bar…” I said, imitating the shape of a woman.

Diego leaned back against the wall, laughing. “Who, Mara? Absolutely not. She's a friend of mine. Perhaps a bed friend, but still just a friend.”

I winced at the tone he had used. “I see. Do you miss your home town?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

“I don't miss it that much.”

“However, it must still be hard to get used to. If I were you, I'd hate the climate here.”

“Yes, you're right. And in Turin the women have the bad habit of dressing up too much.”

“What a romantic man.”

“What is it, kitten, why are you questioning me? It's usually me who asks the questions.” Diego began to approach me.

“You're wrong,” I said immediately. I watched as he filled the gap between us.

“Diego, stop…” I insisted, trying to appear authoritative.

Gently, he took my chin and peered at me, searching for something. I remained silent.

“Are you that scared of me?” he asked smugly.

“Of course not, that's ridiculous! It's just that I don't like you, that's all,” I said in a small voice. My throat was dry. In that moment, I felt like a puppet imprisoned between wires controlled by a puppeteer.

Diego placed his hands around the bar where I was sitting to make an improvised cage.

“I'm not interested in you either. Let's say that I don't dislike you.”

I inhaled and exhaled. Was that a compliment? I stood up and he grasped my wrist firmly. “Where are you going?”

There was an unknown world inside that look, a universe in which I could dive and resurface without having understood the essence. Diego was a riddle to be solved.

“What are you playing at?”

“I don't know, Mia, you tell me…” he whispered, his face so close to mine that our noses touched.

My name, uttered from his lips, had a new sound.

I tried to back away. “Now stop! I want you to leave at once,” I said quickly. “I don't know you and I have no intention of doing so, and I beg you to leave me alone,” I said and continued firmly. “I have work to do.”

“Don't send me away. At least, not yet.”

“I insist. I want to be alone, I'm not enjoying myself any more.” I managed to wriggle out of Diego's grip and stepped back. His face had changed expression. “Sorry, I was wrong. I… I shouldn't have,” he stammered. He retrieved his leather jacket from the chair and walked away, slamming the door behind him.

I stood and looked through the glass door at Diego's car moving away at high speed, disappearing into the night. My eyes were incredulous.

What was happening to me?

After that shitty evening, I was furious. I couldn't forget the way he had treated me and I still wondered why I had allowed him to cross the line separating my private and work life. Besides, I was angry with my mother because she kept irritating me: Mia, you should find yourself a man; Mia, can't you hear your biological clock ticking? Not to mention my expensive dress, which seemed to have become one lousy piece of cloth.

I took off my sneakers and imagined throwing them at Diego. Instead, I threw them across the room. I put on my white coat and sat down on one of the little sofas in the waiting area, which sank gently to acommodate my weight. I stretched and savoured the feeling of freedom within the walls of the clinic.

I stayed there, with thoughts running through my head without interruption, until exhaustion took over.

*

“Mia? Wake up ….”

A voice invaded the warm, dark silence I was immersed in, at first just a whisper, then moments later more intense, before becoming a crescendo that brought me back to reality in a gradual but inevitable manner.

Something touched my shoulder and shook me gently.

“Mmm…” I mumbled, trying to lift eyelids swollen by tiredness.

A female voice, very familiar, replied calmly. “It's us. Me and Antonio.” A pause, to allow me to wake up completely and open my eyes. I had to force myself to remember exactly how I had ended up there. Gradually, I started focussing on things in the room.

“I didn't know you were going to stay over night. I think it's time you went home and rested properly. We'll take care of everything. This morning is rather quiet, we only have appointments in the clinic, but this afternoon you have to be here.”

“I'll take advantage of your proposal, since I had a bad night,” I said, although it seemed that eventually I had fallen into a deep and dreamless sleep.

“Really? Some emergency? If you needed me you only had to call.” Fiamma looked concerned.

I sat up and stretched my legs, I had pins and needles from the awkward position I had been in and the sofa on which I had collapsed had destroyed my back and neck.

I grasped Fiamma by the wrist and pulled her into a corner, so Antonio couldn't hear us.

“What happened? Is everything okay?” she began, raising an eyebrow.

I felt invaded by anger, thinking about Diego's behaviour. Too many emotions to handle all at once. “The evening was a nightmare, but that's nothing new,” I sighed in a whisper, not knowing where to start. “That bad? Tell me. And why are we whispering?” she asked softly.

“Antonio could hear us,” I said. “Remember that on Fridays I have family dinners?”

Fiamma looked at me with a quizzical expression. “Yup, and…?”

“Well, my mother had the brilliant idea of introducing me to a man, who among other things, I already knew.”

At that announcement Fiamma gave a little cry of joy.

“Oh God! Did he leave you his number? Is he sexy? Single?”

“Stop. One question at a time.”

“Well?” she asked excitedly.

Fiamma would demand every detail, even if it meant forcing me to repeat myself endlessly.

“Before you have an orgasm, I'll stop you immediately. I don't know if the name reminds you of anyone: Alberto. You know, from Controvento? Can you imagine? Millions and millions of men in the world, and who does she invite? Alberto! It was all rather embarrassing,” I said, tapping a finger on my knee.