Page 230 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

‘I have to board.’ Sev was not giving an inch.

‘Her name’s Susie.’

‘I know,’ Sev said. ‘The waitress.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I’m your brother, Dante.’

‘For the first time since the accident there aren’t awful memories on every corner in Lucca,’ Dante said, thinking how when he thought of home now he could see Susie on the walls, or standing under an umbrella. And when he looked at the hills, instead of seeing twisted metal and a graveyard, he thought of her sitting on the couch at the winery. ‘Can you get that?’

‘I wish I could get that,’ Sev said.

‘Can we meet? Can we speak?’

‘Tomorrow,’ Sev said, ‘but I don’t want to drag up the past.’

‘I don’t see how we can move on if we don’t.’

‘I have to go; I really am boarding now...’ Sev told him—and then he swore.

‘What?’

‘It’s delayed. I’m going to try and sort out another flight.’

‘Where are you?’

‘Edinburgh.’

Dante looked at his new, or rather old, gold watch. ‘You’re not going to make it.’

‘You’ll have to go to the ball.’

He was going to hell, Dante knew as he packed his tux, because if Susie found out he was in Lucca and at the ball she would never forgive him.

He called her from the car on the way and got her voicemail.

‘Look, I know it’s too late to ask you to the ball, but I have to attend. So I’m going to be in Lucca tonight. I wondered if...’ He grimaced. It sounded as if he wanted to drop by for a hook-up. ‘Okay, scrap that. I’ll call you as soon as I can.’

Right now, he had a lot to arrange...

‘Oh, Susie...’

Mimi had performed utter magic.

The dress was still gorgeous, the softest grey with a blush of pink, and now she was squeezed into a pair of very beautiful shoes...

She could have looked by far too pale—especially as she was feeling a little peaky—but the make-up had transformed her.

Mimi had always done her own stage make-up, and now Susie stared in the mirror with eyes that were vivid and blue as she blinked her long lashes. Her lips were a very pale pink.

Her heavy curls had been smoothed, and loose curls fell down over one shoulder.

She wished things could be different, but accepted this was how they were.

She’d felt alone all her life.

Maybe it was time to embrace it. To accept it and simply enjoy it.