Chapter 13 – Summer, Sun and Parties

“What are we doing tonight, guys?” Giulio, a friend asked me.

“I have no clue.” Federico shrugged.

“Who’s up for clubbing?” His girlfriend, Serena, asked.

I shook my head. “No. I don’t feel up for clubbing.”

They were my closest friends in Italy. I knew them for years, and now that I was back in Italy, they came down to my house in Forte dei Marmi in Tuscany, to spend some time together.

“We could go to Nice, this week. What do you think?” I asked them.

“We could do that.” Federico smiled, liking the idea. “What do you think?”

“Okay.” Serena nodded.           

“Cool.” Giulio grinned. “Let’s leave tomorrow then.”

“We’re taking the car or the train?”

“Car.” I stated.

“So are you guys coming over?” I was having a video conference with my sister, Laurence and Giselle, Mark and Lalita, Kenzo, Ben and Isobel.

“Yep. Next week, Nice. Are you sure you have enough space for all of us?” Kenzo asked, perplexed.

“Yes. The house has enough rooms for all of us.” I explained to him for the hundredth time.

“Great.” Giselle dismissed that conversation. “Are you okay, Chris? From your posts on twitter we can see that you’re enjoying life. But..are you truly getting better?”

I sighed. I knew she was going to ask me this question. “I’m fine. As fine as I can be. I’m getting there, okay. Of course I still love her but I’m living my life.” I said defensively.

“Chris, calm down. No one wanted to get on your nerves.” Isobel intervened. “I loved the pictures at the club by the way. You’re loosening up, man. I like it.”

“Thanks, babe.” I smirked knowingly and she beamed.

“Aw, Chris is growing up.”

“I’m still socially-awkward, but I loosen up with my friends. And you also have to thank alcohol for that.”

“Are you getting laid?” Ben asked.

“Nope.”

“Do you want to?” Mark asked.

“Guys, stop it. Don’t ask him too many questions. He’ll tell you stuff when he wants to.” Lalita, the psychologist of the group scolded them.

“Thank you, Lalita. You are the only one who gets me.” I put on a overdramatic voice and laughed. “You guys are something else.”

“Are you going to pick us up from the airport?” Laurence inquired.

“Yes. Just remember to rent a SUV, okay? You won’t all fit in mine.”

“You’re so tan, Chris. It suits you.” Giselle gave me a compliment.

“I agree.” Isobel nodded. “You look much hotter. Are you working out?”

“Yes, Mum.” I joked.

“I want to see those muscles as soon as we get there in two days.” She said honestly.

“Please, keep it PG rated.” Laurence covered his ears.

“She misses you.” Giselle whispered.

“That’s her problem.” Laurence argued. His voice suddenly angry. That was strange. Laurence was rarely angry.

They didn’t have to mention her name for me to know who they were talking about.

“Laurence and Allegra aren’t friends anymore. They ‘divorced’.” Kirsten added.

I rolled my eyes, annoyed.“Laurence, how many times do I have to tell you to stay out of it?”

“Listen, no one knows how devastated Chris was when she didn’t even bother to tell him whether she returned his feelings or not, so back off. And Chris don’t tell me to stay out of it.” He looked at me menacingly.

“I agree with Laurence, Chris.” Kenzo said sadly.

Mark and Ben nodded their assent.

“I don’t want you to hate her. She must have had her reasons. I’m not going to judge her and I would appreciate if you refrained from doing so.” I paused.

The guys snorted in response.

I gave them the evil eye and they shut up.

“Good. Now I have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I smiled at them.

“Bye.” They said before I interrupted the conversation by closing my laptop.

I sighed and messed up my hair.

I was in my room in the house at Nice. I put on my elegant attire to go to a lounge bar/club who selected the best dressed to enter. Our names were already on the list as I called them up and told them I was going to be there with my friends.

After my initial time in Nice before going to Italy, I was pretty well known in the nicest clubs of the city. A perk to avoid queues.

I reached the living room and saw my two friends there.

“Serena is still getting ready, right?”

Federico sighed resigned to this awful fate.

“Poor Federico.” Giulio gave him a glance full of pity.

“Caterina is in Nice. And she’s going to the same club we’re going to.” Federico informed me.

“What?” I looked at him incredulously.

“Yes. You know that she and Serena are still friends.”

“I don’t care about her.”

And there I was, in the lounge bar section of the club face to face with my ex-fiancée. A woman I thought I knew. A woman I spent almost ten years of my life with. A woman I’d loved in the past. I knew all about her in the past, and it seemed that some things never changed. She couldn’t look me in the eye as we were sitting in front of each other drinking our drinks.

“Come stai?” she asked, her voice full of shame.

“Bene.”

“How’s your job in NYC?”

“I quit. I’m moving back to Europe next year. What about your job?”

“It’s okay. I still enjoy working as a art director.”

“Good.”

“I’m sorry, Chris. I’m sorry for what I did to you. I seriously didn’t plan for things to go as they did between me and Jake. I had no intention of cheating on you, but I felt ignored, I felt you distant. And it seemed like you didn’t want to marry me anymore and---“

“Please, stop, Cate.” I told her, my voice cold.

“No. Chris, let me finish. My actions are not justified and I’m sorry that I told you that it was your fault. It wasn’t. during this time I realized that what we had was great and I let it go. I just wanted to apologize. Maybe we can be friends?”

“Cate.” I smiled sadly at her. “Maybe we can be friends. Just don’t get strange ideas. Us together is a distant memory. It will never happen again. I appreciate your apology, though.” I took her hand in mine and squeezed it.

“You’re in love, are you?” she inquired smiling. “She is a lucky woman.”

I looked down and blushed. “Am I that obvious?”

She nodded her head. “Yes, you are.” She laughed.

“Well it’s an unrequited love. Un amore non corrisposto.”

“Non sa cosa si perde.”

I smiled sheepishly. “Al cuore non si comanda.”

She raised her cocktail glass at what I just said. “Brindiamo al cuore che non si lasciava governare dalla ragione.”

“Okay.” I laughed and clinked our cocktail glasses.

“Vuoi ballare?” I asked her and she just nodded.

I took her hand in mine and we went to the dance-floor. She danced, laughed, remembered the past times and talked until dawn.

I didn’t feel resentment towards Caterina. We weren’t made for each other. And she was happy now. She had met someone else. Someone who she really loved and she was engaged.

Life had turned out to be different from what I had expected. But it was my life nonetheless, and I was going to live it to its fullest.