it makes everything else that much harder.
When our food comes and we’ve finished, we leave the restaurant and see Jana waiting on a chair in the lobby. She gets up and comes over to us, heading straight for Claudio.
I step back and watch as they embrace, kiss each other on the cheek.
This is so weird.
It really is. I’ve tried to fit the image of them together in my mind so many times, even after seeing their wedding photos and whatnot, but to see it in the flesh is jarring. They’re both attractive people, but they are soooo different, from their age, to their mannerisms, to their, I don’t know, life essence or something.
But if they seem angry at each other, it doesn’t show. They don’t seem overly affectionate either, it’s just very neutral and pleasant and strange.
Then Jana turns to me. “Grace,” she says, pulling me into a quick, light hug, a few taps on the shoulder. She’s skinny and it feels like I could crush her. “You’re looking well. You’ve got quite the glow.”
I try not to blush and add to that glow, because only Claudio and I know what that glow is really about.
“Okay,” she says. “Before it gets too hot and crowded, let’s go sight-seeing. Did you get to the Duomo yesterday?”
“No,” Vanni says, “and I want to climb to the top and they don’t want to.”
He points accusatorily at us.
“Oh Vanni, no one wants to do that,” she says to him. “They’re spring chickens, but I am far too old. How about we go inside the cathedral for now?”
Jana is obviously exaggerating her age, but I’m not going to argue with her. I’m not going up there.
Vanni at least agrees to that, so we walk back to the Duomo, Jana holding Vanni’s hand the whole way.
The line-up isn’t as long as yesterday, but it’s still an hour’s wait. So the four of us stand in line, and talk about a whole range of stuff, though most of the time it’s Vanni rambling on to his mother about space shit.
A couple of times I take the opportunity to be alone, and volunteer to go get gelatos for everyone. I wish Italy embraced the coffee to-go thing here, but they don’t. So, I have an espresso while standing up at a counter, hoping the coffee will calm my nerves while knowing it’s doing the opposite.
Finally, we finish our gelatos and get inside the cathedral.
It’s absolutely stunning, and I’m taken by the vast gothic interior, feeling spacious even with all the people in it. It’s surprisingly bare, but it adds to the sense of peace and tranquility inside.
We walk slowly toward one of the many circular stained-glass windows, Vanni and Jana ahead of us. They stop and Vanni points up, excitedly telling his mother something about it. It’s probably a portal to another dimension or something.
I glance at Claudio who is standing right next to me, and he gives me a small yet reassuring smile. Briefly, very briefly, his fingers reach out for mine and we grasp the tips of each other’s hand for a moment, before our hands fall away.
Even from that one instance of my skin against his, I feel my body grow heavy and warm and happy. He’s grounded me.
We spend quite a bit of time inside the cathedral because there is a lot to see, and then we head back to where we were last night, a chance to go inside the Santa Croce church where the game was.
Here, Claudio pays his respects to the tomb of Michelangelo, and I feel his reverence for him, while Vanni lingers at the tomb of Galileo. Fittingly, when we leave the church, he wants to go to the Museo Galileo.
I’m tired on my feet though, so we have lunch first.
And this whole time, the topics of conversation have stayed very easy and neutral. A lot of questions on how I’m liking Italy, but Jana doesn’t touch on how it’s been to live with Claudio and vice versa, nor does she ask what I’ve been doing, or how the book is going.
But I know that’s coming. That’s one of the reasons she’s here.
It isn’t until later, when we’re at a nice restaurant for dinner, eating outside in a quaint alleyway, that Jana turns her sights on me for real.
“So, Grace,” she says over a sip of her wine. “Tell me, how is the book coming along?” She catches the expression on my face because she adds, “You knew this