Page 146 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8
Susie had assumed the reason she’d been chosen to deliver to him was because she was new and could most easily be spared. Or possibly they’d been forced to acknowledge that she did have some culinary skills. Susie had been told she must cook the fresh pasta once she was there, serve the meal, grate the truffle and cheese, and suggest a wine from his collection.
‘I’ll be there for ages,’ she’d protested.
‘As long as is needed,’ Pedro had insisted, seemingly prepared to take the shortfall in staff despite it being New Year’s Eve.
And today it was still the case, because now, two weeks on, at around 8:00 p.m., Susie pulled on her trench coat and hastily wrapped a pretty scarf around her neck as Pedro came over with the bags.
‘There’s also a fruit compote and a light yoghurt.’ Pedro dropped his voice. ‘For his breakfast tomorrow...’
Susie’s smile was more natural now as she nodded—she was loving how they were very discreetly taking care of this elderly man who had found himself home alone.
For reasons the staff would never discuss...
‘Do you want to take your break straight after?’ Pedro checked.
‘Yes,’ Susie said. ‘Thank you.’
Susie wasn’t just delivering a meal. No, she would be preparing coffee for the morning, putting blankets on the couches...just a couple of little jobs in an attempt to help the delightful Signor Gio Casadio.
Stepping out into the cool night, she walked along the gorgeous walls that surrounded the medieval town.
All her life she’d been walking on walls, Susie thought, though none as glamorous as these, treelined and wide. There were dogs being walked, cyclists... She walked on the correct side and looked out to the very old town, saw the Friday night lights and heard the music.
She felt as if she’d been born outside an exclusion zone.
Always on the edge of the real action and gazing longingly in.
Born thirteen months after stunning identical twins, Susie was very used to not turning heads and going unnoticed. Only it wasn’t the old ladies beaming at the twins and not at her that had hurt...
Well, it had hurt a bit...
It wasn’t even that she’d always felt like an extra at their joint birthday parties...though it had made her feel a bit invisible at times.
As she’d told Cucou, it was their birthday today, and she felt far away from the little party taking place at home. Far from any friends as she stood at the bottom of the career ladder, in a town where she didn’t belong, and acknowledged the ache inside her.
Lonely.
She’d always felt it.
‘Stop it!’ Susie told herself and picked up her pace, refusing to feel sorry for herself.
She had a lot to be happy about. Once her Italian had improved, she would be off to Florence to do a cooking course. And before that her parents were coming to Lucca to spend some time here. Best of all, their visit would coincide with her own birthday.
As for men... With one relationship to her name—one that hadn’t worked out—she was alone by choice.
Single and loving it—wasn’t that how she was supposed to be feeling?
She came to the huge iron gates of Signor Casadio’s vast property—far too big for an elderly man to manage alone.
At the urging of his housekeeper, Susie had arranged for some of the furniture to be moved, fashioning a kind of bedsit arrangement in the dining room, and she adored their chats as she prepared his meals in the attached butler’s kitchen and served his dinner—even if he was rather maudlin.
Last night he’d wept with shame because his grandson had called and seen him in his robe...
‘I hate this phone,’ he’d sobbed. ‘I hate it that Sev saw me like that.’
‘It’s okay,’ Susie had said. ‘I’m sure he didn’t even notice...’
Now she walked up the path, past the fountains and stone benches and bare winter trees, looking up at the dark building and hoping that Gio had heeded her gentle prompts to shave and get dressed.