Chasing Daisy

not staying with you lot. I’m staying with my nonna in the mountains. So we probably won’t see each other much at all.’
    ‘Oh, that’s a shame.’ She yawns again.
    ‘Still, it’ll be fun, won’t it?’
    ‘Yeah. So how are you coming if Simon didn’t ask you to?’ Holly asks, suddenly curious.
    ‘Will encouraged me to ask Frederick.’
    ‘Will? Hey! How was tonight?’
    ‘It was nice,’ I reply offhandedly.
    ‘What did you talk about?’ she asks.
    ‘Oh, you know, this and that.’
    ‘Do you still fancy him?’ she pries.
    I flop down on the mattress and bury my face in the pillow. ‘Might do,’ I tell her in a muffled voice.
    ‘What did you say? Daisy?’ she persists, when I don’t immediately answer.
    I turn my head on the pillow to face her. ‘Might do,’ I say, trying to stifle a smile and failing.
    ‘What are you going to do about his girlfriend?’ she asks.
    Now my smile drops. ‘What do you mean, what am I going to do about his girlfriend?’ I huff, propping myself up on one elbow. ‘I’m not going to do anything. He’s got a girlfriend! End of story!’
    ‘Oh, good,’ she says.
    ‘I’ve already told you that,’ I continue my rant.
    ‘Yeah, I know,’ she says dismissively. ‘I just wasn’t sure if things had changed.’
    ‘Of course they haven’t changed,’ I answer, still a touch annoyed. ‘I’m not that sort of girl. I just like him as a friend.’
    ‘Sure.’ She rolls her tired eyes at me.
    ‘Well, you know, maybe things aren’t as rosy with Laura as they seem . . .’
    ‘I knew it!’ She slaps the bedcovers.
    ‘What? Oh, va fanculo .’
    She laughs, then her face becomes serious. ‘So you’re not sworn off men anymore, then?’
    I sigh and, for a brief moment, all the pain and hurt I felt back in America threatens to overcome me. I shake my head and try to black out the memories for the second time that night.
    ‘Daisy? Are you alright?’ Holly is suddenly concerned.
    ‘Yes, I’m fine,’ I tell her.
    ‘Just be careful,’ she says.
    ‘I will be. Careful’s my middle name,’ I lie. In fact, I’ve always been a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda girl.
    ‘I just don’t want you to get hurt,’ she adds, sliding back down under the bedsheets.
    And that, for now, is the end of our conversation. I take off my make-up in a daze, trying to remember everything Will and I talked about tonight. I climb into bed and picture him staring at me with his beautiful blue eyes. I remember the stubble on his face, and in my mind I reach over and trace my finger along his jaw. His lips, I remember them, too. I wonder if he’s a good kisser? I bet he is. I imagine him walking me back to the hotel through busy streets full of bars and late-night revelry, and I imagine him pulling me into a dark doorway. My stomach fills with butterflies as I forget all about Laura and Luis and Holly and everyone else I know, and imagine Will kissing me passionately, as though we’re both caught up in a moment of time that we can’t get out of. But in my mind, when he pulls away, his face is blurry. His eyes are no longer clear. I try to remember his mouth again, and can suddenly see it perfectly, but when I attempt to put it with the rest of his face, it doesn’t fit. I’ve lost him. What the hell is wrong with me? Try as I might, I can’t bring the memory of him into focus in my mind. I know it’s no good, I’ve been through this before, so I go back to replaying our conversation instead, and hope that if I don’t try too hard, I might be able to see his face again before I reach Italy in a couple of days.

 
Chapter 11
     
    ‘Nonna!’
    ‘ La mia stellina! Vieni qui amore, che ti vuole abbracciare la Nonna! ’ That means, ‘My little star! Come here my love, Grandma wants to give you a hug!’ She doesn’t speak much English, Nonna, and my Italian is fluent, so we rarely converse in anything else. Don’t worry, I’ll translate from here on in.
    ‘Look at you! So beautiful, but oh, so thin!’ She grabs my cheeks in dismay and attempts to tug some skin between her fingers.
    ‘Ouch, Nonna!’ I bat her away and she engulfs me in a big, cuddly hug. I have to stoop down because she’s only five foot tall and, of course, I’m five foot nine.
    ‘We’ll have to feed you up. The pasta sauce is almost ready!’ She ushers me into her small kitchen, where a pot is bubbling on top of her old-fashioned stove.
    ‘Is that what I can smell? What is