one very similar to this.’
Katya touched the chalky-white surface of the burnished orange cameo. It depicted a curly haired woman in profile, with bare shoulders and a strange, sad kind of smile. She remembered stroking her grandmother’s as a child. There weren’t that many memories that she recalled fondly but her grandmother starred in every one.
Looking at the beautiful oval cameo and recalling the wonderful times it evoked was like a soothing balm after the vileness of her mother’s phone call. She remembered being held to the old woman’s ample bosom, the cameo sitting snugly in her grandmother’s cleavage, and she remembered feeling safe there. Feeling loved.
She’d been seven when her grandmother had passed away and she still recalled how devastated she’d been. Almost as devastated as the day Olgah had taken the cameo and pawned it. Katya had begged her mother not to, had clung to Olgah’s leg as she’d tried to get out the door. But it hadn’t stopped her. Katya remembered to this day how bleak and impotent she had felt as her mother had shut the door in her face.
If only she still had the cameo today, she knew what she’d do with it. She would leave it here with Ben, as a parting gift for her child. Something to connect the baby with its mother. And maybe her child could draw comfort from it over the years, as she would have done. Know, hopefully, that Katya loved him or her.
Loved her child enough to give it the best life possible.
Ben could see Katya in profile and watched the flicker of emotions play across her face. His breath caught. He’d never seen her look so vulnerable. He could see fondness and happiness and regret mingling in her slight Mona Lisa smile. She looked wistful and sad and very, very young.
He’d never truly realised how shuttered, how in control she was until he’d seen her like this. She looked vulnerable, uncertain for the first time since he’d known her. Like he was seeing the real Katya, the one beneath the bluster and the barbs.
Not even on that magical night that they’d shared had he seen her like this. What had made her the Katya she was today? The practical, tough, no-nonsense façade she hid behind. What had happened to this Katya, the one bent over the cameo, to make her seem so hard? Had that phone call had something to do with it?
Ben was intrigued as never before. Whatever the reasons, seeing her like this made him want to see more. This soft, female Katya was appealing on levels he’d never known existed. It made him want to make her happy. Put a smile on her face. Not a small sad little smile, but a big beaming one. He wanted to see her glow. And the way she was looking at that cameo, he knew just how to achieve it.
‘We’ll take it, thanks, Giovanna,’ Ben said, striding over to the counter and winking at the shop assistant.
He saw Katya’s back stiffen and she turned around slowly. She gave him a look that left him in doubt he was not welcome in the shop — very different to the warm, flirty welcome Giovanna had given him.
Why the hell did that do more for him than Giovanna’s blatantly sexual smile?
‘No, we won’t,’ Katya said, placing a stilling hand on Giovanna’s, not taking her gaze off Ben.
‘You like it.’ Ben shrugged. ‘Consider it a gift.’
Katya shook her head. How many men had given her mother gifts? Seduced her into neglecting her children? Her mother’s words rang in her ears — if you played your cards right we’d never have to worry about money again. She felt bile rise in her again. She would not stoop to her mother’s level. She’d never taken anything from a man and she wasn’t about to start.
‘I don’t take gifts from men,’ she said emphatically.
Ben blinked. She was angry with him — that was obvious. Her eyes glittered and her mouth flattened into a thin line. Not the usual reaction he got when offering to buy women jewellery. He sensed he needed to tread carefully. ‘It obviously means a lot to you,’ he said softly.
‘It’s eight hundred euros,’ Katya said, her voice blunt, her tone unmoved.
‘Money is not an issue, cara,’ he said, smiling gently, still hopeful of breaking through to her, the girl he’d caught a glimpse of. ‘Can you wrap it for me?’ he asked Giovanna.
‘No. Do not wrap it,’ Katya said, giving