Catch me! Catch me not!

Nora Dillon

Prologue

Was it really only yesterday that the tall, dark, Italian man had arrived on her doorstep, with those liquorice eyes and wide open smile, sending shivers down her spine (something, which annoyed Emma as she was convinced such emotions were confined to romantic novels, not real life)….Carlo; well at least the name was pronounceable!

             
                            ****    ****    ****    ****

Emma pinched herself to make sure she was not dreaming, as Fabio and
Chiara introduced their friend,

“Hi, Emma this is Carlo, he has just arrived from Italy and doesn’
t know very many people around…he was convinced English people could not cook, so we decided to prove him wrong and bring him with us tonight, I hope you don’t mind! What have you made for us?!” Chiara smiled as she turned to witness a blush rise from Carlo’s neck upwards

“Hi Carlo, please come in”, Emma held out her hand,  an electric shock ran through her arm, she snatched her hand back, turning to kiss both Fabio and
Chiara on each cheek as was the custom in Italy. “Supper is nearly ready, come on! Oh! And no pasta!!” they laughed, because it was a standing joke that no pasta would be cooked when they came over.

Carlo, watched the three friends interact, they had known each other for a long time, having met in Rome 12 years ago, when Emma’s father was Naval
Attaché in Rome. They had been friends ever since as far as he could make out. Chiara’s father was the Naval Attaché to London now so they all shared a military back ground; something that Carlo had not had, coming from generations of Italian bankers. He silently cursed his friend Fabio, first for not saying how beautiful Emma was, those large pools of sea green eyes, fringed with long black lashes, the nose which turned up slightly, her full mouth and dazzling smile….

“Carlo! Are you listening?”
Chiara hit his arm playfully, “we were arranging to go dancing after supper and wanted to know if you would like to come too!”

Carlo
came back to the present, pulling his mind back to what they were saying, without making an even greater fool of him! What was the matter with him?

“Cosa?" Sorry my mind was miles away…dancing?” Visions of this slender, blond English girl with beautiful sea-green eyes and wide open smile, in his arms on a dance floor passed through his mind. Could that strawberry blond hair be natural? In the evening light it seemed to be hundreds of variations of blond, copper, gold, strands were lighter others were verging towards strawberry blond. He wanted to reach out and run his fingers through the shiny length; it fell just below her shoulders. He just looked at her and wondered if she had a boyfriend. He would have to ask Chiara!

“We were just saying that it would be good for you to get to know the real London, not just Soho and Covent Garden!” Fabio filled him in

“Portobello market and Camden town” added Chiara laughing. “Carlo you are not listening again!”

“Leave him alone, he probably has other things on his mind at the moment!
” Emma intervened on his behalf.

“G
razie, grazie mille” He answered gratefully; Emma was also kind! Too bad he had to go back in three weeks time, he would have liked to spend some time with her, to show her that he actually did like International food, that he was not some country bumpkin, he came from Rome, according to both Fabio and Chiara, she knew his city well. He came from one of Rome’s most influential banking families! He would be able to show her how he was considered in his own world.

They all moved into Emma’s kitchen, she had prepared a feast, making Carlo and Fabio realise how hungry they were.
Chiara moved to put on some music on the stereo; she even had good taste in music!!

“What are these delicious things on my plate?
” he asked

“Mini Arnold Bennett omelette, an English tradition! Tandoori chicken with cucumber and mint yoghurt, Cherry tomatoes with avocado pear, then we will have some French Onion soup, Perch with ginger and lime and salad,
we will finish with some cheesecake. I love cooking!”

“Si
, si, I can see that”, he smiled at her.

They had
chatted and teased each other throughout the delicious supper and then gone off to one of London’s top nightclubs.

Carlo
was dancing with Emma now in his arms, as her hips swung to the music, unchained melody, he would never forget the song as long as he lived! He felt hard as her hips brushed innocently against him, he wanted to get closer but he could not since she was not the kind of girl to hop into bed with him and then never see him again, why hadn’t he met her 6 months ago when he  had arrived in London? He bent his head and breathed in the fresh perfume of her hair, it reminded of an English rose garden, he looked down at her, her eyes were closed; she seemed to be drinking in this moment.  He felt her nipples harden against his chest and knew she was not immune.

“Emma, can I invite you to supper Tomorrow
night?” he murmured, she opened her eyes and smiled at him, her eyes seemed to have  changed colour again, they were blue, deep blue, “Hmm, that sounds lovely, what time? Can I bring anything?”

“Just yourself, I
will pick you up tomorrow evening at seven thirty, we can go for an aperitivo then we can go on to a great place I Know. Do you like seafood”, after she nodded, he smiled,” I think we should go to Scott’s, it proves I am game to try English food!!”

He led her back to their table to where the others were laughing and chatting in Italia
n. They all regretfully decided it was time to go home as work beckoned them in a few hours time.

****    ****    ****    ****    ****    ****    ****    ****    ****    ****    ****

Georgina, one of Emma’s flatmates called her up at home excitedly, telling her of the morning delivery of 24 pink and peach roses with a note to Emma.

“Shall I read you the note? Are you sure you don’t have a clue to who sent you these roses, oh my god it is so romantic!!”

“No, I have no idea who they are from!! Open the note...wow 24 roses for me”

Georgina, opened the envelope, “To the girl I love, Carlo with three kisses”

Emma shrieked, “Are you sure can you read it carefully again...oh my god I’m coming back to London, I can see my parents another time...24 roses, he said I was his English rose.”

“Who the hell is Carlo? Is he a cook or something?”

“No, he is an Italian Banker; we went out a few times whilst you were away in Greece with the others. He can cook really well and he dressed up as an Arab on our first date together!! We went to Scott’s and Bentley’s and he cooked Italian food for me and we have been going to nightclubs, I guess you could call it a whirlwind romance, he has offered to take me home to meet his parents and to Greece for a holiday. He is leaving on Tuesday next week.”

“Then why the hell are you in Hampshire and not with him?”

“He has his mother staying and he wants to know me better before I get swept up into his Italian family.”

“He does have a point there...Oh My God Emma, I will have to look for another flatmate soon, it won’t be the same!”

“Why will you need another flatmate soon?”

“Because you two are serious and may get married.”

“But we have only known each other for 2 weeks”

“Love at first sight then....you do love him don’t you Emma?”

“Yes, I think I do”

“Then, we need to look for another flatmate soon!!”

“Georgina, I’m scared this sort of stuff just happens in Fairy Tales or those romantic novels you read! Not in the real life!”

“Well, he sounds very romantic...to the girl I love is nothing short of almost asking you to spend the rest of your life with him!”

“We will see...but I am so happy, I feel as if I am dancing on clouds!”

“I hope it stays that way forever!”

“I am frightened; I keep thinking that I am too happy. I have heard so many things about Latin Lovers!!”

Emma heard her mother in the
background; she quickly bade her room-mate goodbye.

“Mum, I have to go back to London, I am sorry I said I was going to be here for a few days, but Georgina has just told me that the most beautiful roses have arrived for me from my Italian friend, Carlo.”

“Friend? Darling, I think he sounds a bit more than a friend!”

“Mum, I hope so, it is too early yet and he is going back to Italy on Tuesday.”

“Will I meet him?”

“I don’t know mum, I hope so because he is a very
kind, funny, generous, affectionate, educated man!”

“If he is this paragon, I am sure I will meet him!”

Emma hugged her mother. “To the girl I love, Carlo with three kisses” Georgina had said. I feel light headed when I am with him, I laugh more, I need to touch him, I feel alive with him, she thought.

“Do you love him?” her mother asked

“I don’t know, I do know that I laugh more, I feel light headed and it feels right being with him.”

3 months later

Where was Carlo? Emma looked around nervously. She had lost sight of him at the Family gathering at a small village in the Apennine hills called Amatrice. The women here were not happy to see her. Emma closed her eyes for a moment to focus her thoughts. Calm Emma, calm! Emma consciously relaxed her muscles and breathed calmly, whilst yet another woman came up to her, she was beautiful she had jet black hair down to her waist and slanting blue eyes, the combination  was exotic. The woman was wearing designer clothes; she suspected the dress was Valentino.

This woman glared at Emma as she introduced herself, reluctantly kissing Emma on each cheek, although Emma suspected she would rather have slashed her face or
better still thrust a knife in her back. Now what? Who was this woman? Why was she so hostile?

“I am Antonella. I was Carlo’s girlfriend for three years. His family love me and I am sure they will not like a foreigner. You are only a secretary albeit for a film company but you are a nobody. He cannot love you. He will come back to me!”

“Well, you said the word “was” clearly different from the word “am” I am his girlfriend. I don’t have to be somebody to prove myself...I am a PA for a film company. I run my own catering company at the weekends and I think that if Carlo still loved you he would be with you rather than with me don’t you agree?”

“Who are you? What do you know about his life?
He has never had a blond girlfriend before; he has always appreciated dark, mysterious women!”

Carlo chose that moment to come and interrupt the conversation,
he put his arm around Emma and kissed her forehead gently. “I am so proud of you. I love you so much.”

Emma was fed up with this torturous lunch. She really had tried to be charming and neutral for Carlo’s sake, heaven knew she believed she loved him, but was it enough? His family were not friendly! His ex girlfriends wanted to eliminate her! His mother looked at him as if the sun shone out of his ears
at the same time she managed to send her a look throwing daggers in her direction! No woman would ever be good enough for her son! Oh! It had all been so simple and so straight forward in London...here in this little village surrounded by his family and feeling like an alien, she asked herself whether she was strong enough to cope with the competition for his love and she had no doubt whatsoever there was competition.

“Are you alright
cara?” Carlo asked worried about her closed, shuttered expression

“No, Carlo I am not alright. Antonella here tells me you were her ex boyfriend and you prefer women with money!
Is that right Antonella?” she did not wait for a reply as she battled on “Apparently PA s are not good enough for you. Bodens is not Valentino! If I am to be thrown into the Arena to a pack of hungry animals I would appreciate it if you stood by me. I have been brought up in the highest diplomatic circles, I work with difficult people, but I have never been subjected to such rudeness by so many people for so long! I remember Italians being cultured charming people who can cook well! I remember another race of people” She paused for breath. “Maybe love is not enough Carlo; Antonella was explaining how disappointed your family were that you had chosen to take a mere foreigner to this gathering. I must say the charisma of the woman quite takes my breath away. She claims that you and she are going to get back together and that I am just a passing fancy. “Closing her eyes for a moment “Am I? Am I just a passing moment?”

Carlo shot an angry glare at the smiling Antonella.
She looked like a cat who had just licked a saucer of cream. He counted up to 5 before replying, “Antonella, was my girlfriend for three years, I was travelling for most of them. We finished before I went to London. We argued a lot. My mother liked her a lot.”

Antonella wrapped her arms round Carlo’s neck and kissed him on his rigid lips.

“Amore, you know that your family want me for your wife and that my money will help your career.” She spoke to him rapid Italian not realising that Emma both understood and spoke Italian “She is a common English girl! I bet that colour of hair only comes in a bottle and those nails without nail varnish are her own!! If you took her on a yacht to Sardegna she would be cooked alive by the sun...you so love sailing on our yacht...she probably doesn’t even know what one is!!”

Emma replied in perfect Italian, “Primo, first I speak Italian.
Secondo my hair is my own. Thirdly my father is in the Navy so I believe I do know what yachts are...Carlo take me away now.”

Carlo was open mouthed
, gaping at the scene he had witnessed. Emma had been calm and considering how much she had been insulted very diplomatic. This was his worst nightmare.  He tried to put his arms round her but she shrugged them off. Now was not the time.

“Si amore of course I will take you home. I would never have subjected to this if I had known this might have happened. Can you forgive me? Antonella stay away from us. After this we cannot even be friends. You are a warped sad woman. Come Emma, let’s leave”

Emma remembered her inbred manners, “Should we say goodbye to our hosts?”

“No, I have never been so ashamed of my family and friends. Your family treated me like a son.” He yanked her away from the family gathering, leaving everyone staring at them.

Once they were inside his car he turned round to look at her. Emma closed her eyes trying to come to terms with the differences. He tried to touch her, to reassure her but she shrank from him to hide her hurt. At last she opened her eyes and looked at him, this time her eyes were grey metal silver grey, they were so unlike the sea green and the deep sapphire blue ...they changed according to her mood. This silver grey was new and infinitely dangerous.

Ain’t
no sunshine, blared out of the radio. Carlo felt a strange horrible chill run down his spine. He had brought her out here to propose to her, now it was just not going to happen. They would not be happy in Italy. He would be wise to realise this now.

Emma calmly began to talk to Carlo, “Carlo, I really thought we had a future together, I thought that my knowledge of Italy and Italians was enough to cope with everything. I was wrong. I have just spent the past three hours being interrogated, being insulted and being made to feel unwelcome. I hope I am strong enough to forget this time. I hope we can try again. Now I want to go home and to forget this time in Italy with your family. Take back to your home, I will pack and go home. Leave me alone for a while to get everything in
to prospective. I need my space and I need to forget this time with your family and friends. If I came to you, I would have to give up my work, my flat, my family, my friends, my life and I am not sure I am ready to take on a bunch of people, who are frankly really rude, superficial and biased.” She looked up at him with such sad eyes, they were no longer grey but those beautiful sea green eyes he had first fallen in love with. “The way you look tonight” now blared out mocking the past two months.

“You are leaving me?”

“Yes, until you decide. I cannot live in Italy and be happy with these people around me.”

“Is that final?”

“Yes” she whispered.

“Can I hug you?” he wrenched from somewhere.

“Yes” she whispered.

He covered her lips with his and gave her his heart, they tasted each other, they teased each other, touching only with their lips and tasting only with their tongues,
salty tears rolled down Emma’s cheeks. He tasted her sorrow. They wrapped their arms around each other lost in a form of private grief.

“
I wanted to ask you to be my wife. I had organised a special day for tomorrow. I thought we had a life in front of us.”

“So did I and I would have said yes before today. It is better this happened before rather than after. We would end up hating each other.” She took a deep breath “I would like to go to Rome today.”

“If I got a job abroad would you reconsider?”

“No, because you would be miserable. One day you will thank me.”

“I won’t give you up easily!”

“This is not easy for me either, but the last straw was Antonella, she was a horrid woman, I would go further, but dad told me ladies don’t use those words!”

Carlo felt nausea rise. He tried to take some deep breaths. His vision was blurred. He felt a cold sweat break out. He switched off the engine of the BMW. He reached over and held her burying his head in her thick hair, the smell of English roses flooded the car. He knew there was nothing he could do now, but nothing would stop him from showing her that love like this occurred only once in a life time and one day she would be his.  If there is someone up there listening.. please please let her wait for him to find a solution.

Emma clung to him. He was shivering. Oh God, please give me the strength to go ahead without him. The crisp, clean smell of him filled her and she knew she would now always associate the smell of the subtle aftershave with him.

“What are we going to do Carlo?” she whispered

“I really don’t know yet, but I do know that we will find a way. I am not going to give up. I know we are supposed to be together. I felt it the first day I met you. I will give you space but I will not let you go. You know it is better to
experience the wrong love than never to love at all “Keep
love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead” as Oscar Wilde said. I will not hide myself in some sunless garden, when I HAVE known the colour of your hair in the sunlight. I have seen love light up and change the colour of your eyes. I have seen love in your soul. We will find a way.”

.
“ Or as Mother Theresa said “
I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” Perhaps we do not love enough yet. I promise I will think of a way we can be together. Maybe, if we could show your mother how happy you are then she could be happy for us. We can hardly get married in Las Vegas and present them with fait accompli! Carlo, I need time and I need space. We have been together every day for the past two months. I want to have time to realise whether I can or we can survive the hostile reception I got today. I know you are faithful because we are always together, but I am not sure you will survive the misgivings your family have. I will write to you every day and you will be right here in my heart” she placed her hand on her heart.