Chapter 17

The next two weeks were a whirlwind of activity for Sasha and for Peggy. They worked sixteen and eighteen hour days every day, at their telephones and laptops at all hours of the night and morning, through the middle of the day to coordinate with their suppliers and shippers in New York, Miami, California and Shanghai, and right through their Saturdays and Sundays, making no distinctions whatsoever between week end and work week.

Much of the reorganisation and reordering proved to be not nearly as difficult as Sasha had feared. Peggy had been meticulous with the list of necessities, and had also taken on the task of communicating with and being the primary point of contact for most of the suppliers. She was methodical and focused with the Chinese suppliers, and precise and indefatigable in dealing with the American firms. Sasha had finally accepted that she ought to source her perfumes and essential oils from India or from Europe and Peggy very quickly discovered that it had to be Europe – Italy to be precise – although it would be a rather more expensive purchase than the Indian. Delivery times from India were just not workable. Peggy reached out, and Lionel made the Italian connection that got them through. After about a week, Sasha began to relax a bit, feeling more and more confident that things were actually working out well.

Out in Los Angeles, Lionel had picked back up his work schedule at the family firm – his holiday officially over now – and was still sticking to the hospital roster for his brother, Mario. Encouragingly, Mario was showing signs of improvement every day. About four days in, his breathing had seemed to stabilise so the doctors had taken him off the breathing machine. A little while after that, they had also begun the slow and careful process of bringing him out of the induced coma, and he was responding very satisfactorily, they informed his family. All in all, the entire family – and Gina – were feeling optimistic and life seemed rather less gloomy than it had a week earlier. Their loved one was not out of the woods, yet. Not by a long shot. The doctors were careful to make sure his family understood that, and that even if he were, there would still be a very long road ahead to full recovery. The family was grateful for every word of assurance.

Lionel was working on his laptop in the hospital, just beginning his daily shift of sitting with his brother when he received the email from Peggy to Sasha, that was copied to him. It was the itinerary for Sasha’s trip to China, coming up in about five days. He smiled to himself, sent a note of acknowledgment back to Peggy and Sasha, informing them both that he would now advise his contacts in Shanghai and Malaysia so they could confirm meetings and appointments and ensure that everything Sasha needed would be organised and ready by the time she arrived in Shanghai.

Then, he forwarded the same email to his assistant.

The entire Menarello family was gathered in the family visiting room at the hospital where their son and brother Mario had been lying in a coma for several days. The doctors had slowly reawakened him, but because his body had suffered such very severe trauma that sleep was continuing to control his body. He was awake for very short periods of time – mere minutes, sometimes. Today, however, the doctors were confident that his condition had improved enough and stabilised enough that they would be able to conduct more complete examinations into the extent of his injuries. Their observations of the last couple of days had given them reason to believe that he would be able to respond sufficiently, and they had informed the family to that effect. Accordingly, Mario’s four siblings and both his parents were present, joined by a few other very close family friends – including Gina, who was still determined to marry Lionel, and her parents – all assembled for what they hoped and prayed would be a joyful occasion.

Two nurses had entered and begun preparing the patient for the doctors’ examination. They had closed the curtains against the glass partition between Mario’s hospital bed and the family visiting room. The family waited silently, anxiously, all eyes darting towards the window at the faintest sound coming from any direction. Lionel’s father was seated on the couch next to his wife. He was holding her hand. From to time, she looked across at his face and then over at her other four children, one by one, observing them as if studying them, searching for something. Lionel smiled and gave her a wink and a nod when her eyes caught his. She smiled a wan, pained smile in response. He looked at his father. He pushed himself off the window sill on which he had been leaning and walked over to sit with his parents. He put his arm around his mother and gave her a squeeze. His father nodded at him.

About ten minutes later, the glass partition slid open and two doctors emerged. Heads swivelled round and eyes flew across the room at the sound, and immediately everyone got to their feet. One nurse opened the curtains and the entire family moved, as one, towards the partition. Mario was still lying in bed, still connected to a number of tubes, but now, his eyes were open and he turned his head and looked in their direction. For a moment, he seemed not to be able to focus or see them, and then, seeming to look straight at his mother, he smiled. His mother made a sound and squeezed her husband’s hand; his father braced himself against the back of the chair nearest him. Lorenzo whooped and jumped around. Gina came over and put her arms around Lionel. Lionel held his sister Francesca’s hand, and Antonella sank back into the chair that was holding her father up.

Then, the room broke out into laughing and crying and hugging and cheering.

“He is not out of the woods, yet,” one of the doctors warned the family. “His condition is still quite serious, so he must be kept calm and quiet. We will still not know for a while yet, the full extent of his brain injury, or the long-term prognosis, but he is doing well – his vitals are good and his responses are good – and we expect that to continue.”

“May I go to him?” Mario’s mother asked.

“Yes, you may go in, but perhaps no more than two at the bedside at a time, and only for a very short time each time – a minute or two, only. He will get tired very quickly. He needs a lot of rest and sleep.”

While his parents went in to see their son, the doctors talked with Lionel and the other siblings about the specifics of their brother’s injuries and the plan for the next few days of his hospitalisation. Just as Lionel was about to take his turn to go to his brother, his phone rang. Focused as he was on the matter at hand, he did not respond except to notice that when he had got up to hear what the doctors had to say, he had left the phone across the room on the coffee table where he had sat beside his parents. With his sister Francesca, he went in to see his brother. He did not see when Gina picked up his phone. Antonella did, but did not know that the phone was Lionel’s.

“Hello,” Gina said into the phone, turning away from the group and speaking softly so that no-one else would hear. “This is Gina. Leo’s not taking calls at the moment. I’m taking his messages for the time being.”

“Oh! Hello, Gina,” Sasha replied, taken aback. “That’s fine. I’ll just call again later, thank you.”

“You’re Sasha, you said?” Gina asked.

“Yes.” Sasha had answered instinctively, before she realised that she had not, in fact, said her name.

“Aah! Ok, Sasha!” Gina stretched Sasha’s name, with intent. “I’ll be sure to let him know you called. I’m Leo’s fiancée, you see. That’s why I’m answering his phone.”

Sasha did not answer. “Ciao, Sasha,” Gina cooed, and hung up.

Sasha was overcome with confusion that soon turned into something that felt very much like rage. Her heart was racing, her face felt flushed, her mouth felt dry. She knew that Lionel was at the hospital waiting for the doctors to speak with the family. She had talked with him less than an hour before. They had agreed that she would be the one to call just in case the news was bad and he was too distraught or distracted to call. Fiancée? What the hell? Who the hell was Gina? And if she wasn’t his fiancée, why was she present at such a private event? And how come she had his phone? And how could she have answered it with everyone there, unless she was allowed? Sasha got up from her makeshift desk, mumbled something to Peggy on the other side of the room and walked quickly down the hotel corridor until she was out in the sunshine.

She had left her sunglasses on her desk, and had to close her eyes against the glare of the bright, tropical sunlight. She was feeling slightly different by the time she felt the sun heating up her skin. What to do? she asked herself. Who was this woman who was answering Lionel’s phone, and why did she say she was his fiancée? Was she? What if she were? Sasha walked across the hotel grounds and found herself at the beach. She’d find out when he returned her call, she figured. But what if this Gina didn’t tell him she had called? He’d surely call if he didn’t hear from her, and in any case, she brightened up, he would see that she had called. She considered calling back and then considered just not calling back and not accepting his call, should he eventually call her back.

Suddenly, she stopped walking. She stood still. Thinking.

“No. No!” she said out loud. “Hell, no. I need to know this and I need to know it now.” She suddenly realised that she had left her cell phone on her desk. “Shit!” she exclaimed. She turned around and started back into the hotel.

When she got there, Peggy was on a call, and she could tell that it was with one of the suppliers – she heard Peggy say, “We’d need to have it here sooner than that, please.” She picked up her phone, raised her hand in a signal to Peggy and went through the door again. She scrolled quickly through and tapped on the little green telephone receiver icon next to Lionel’s name. It rang three times and he answered.

“Who’s Gina?” she asked him, without preamble.

“Gina?” he said. “Who’s Gina?”

“Yes. Who’s Gina?”

It was Lionel’s turn to exclaim. “Oh, shit!” he said. “Hold on, Sasha. Stay on the line. Give me a minute.” He walked over to Gina, held her by the elbow and said, “Come ‘ere! Come with me.” She smiled at him and lowered her eyelids. “Yes, amore,” she said and let him lead her out into the corridor. Antonella noticed and slipped out after them.

“I’m gonna put Gina on the phone, Sash. She is going to tell you who she is.”

“She already told me.”

“What did she tell you?” He put the phone on speaker so Gina could hear. “I have you on speaker. She can hear you.”

“She answered my call and told me she’s your fiancée.”

“Go on, Gina. Tell her the truth.”

Instead of answering, Gina asked him, “So, who is she? What truth do you want me to tell her?”

“Gina, you told her you’re my fiancée.”

“Well, I am, aren’t I?” Gina fluttered her eyelashes at him.

“Gina!” he said, sharply.

“Oh! Ok. Ok.”

Antonella walked up to them just in time to hear the last part of this exchange.

“Gina! What the hell is wrong with you, girl?”

“Oh! Leave me alone, Nella. I’m not talking to you.” Antonella grabbed Gina by the same elbow that her brother previously had, and marched her down the corridor.

“Come with me,” she ordered. “Now!”

“I’m so sorry, Sash,” Lionel said into the phone. “Gina is a friend. We grew up together, pretty much. Our parents have been very close friends all their lives, and Gina is…”

“Your fiancée,” Sasha completed the sentence for him.

“No. No, she isn’t. We’ve never even dated. We’ve never been together.”

“But she thinks otherwise.”

“Something like that. I think our parents had hoped we would get married – bring the families closer together, so to speak – well, our fathers did, at any rate. Only them. Well, them and Gina.”

“Mmhm. I see. Well, anyway, I had called you just in case, as we had agreed. What did the doctors say about your brother? How’s he doing?”

“Very good news, so far. Very good news. It’s still early days yet, but we might be getting out of the woods. We just might be. He is awake and alert. We did get to go in and touch him, but we couldn’t stay for long. They allowed us only about two minutes each, literally. And no more than two people at his bedside at any one time. He didn’t talk much, but he did nod and answer, and he fell asleep when Antonella and Lorenzo were with him. He is going to sleep a lot, they told us. He needs plenty of sleep and quiet to help him heal, they say. His spine is fine, they think. They did an MRI this morning and according to them – in their own words – nothing truly serious is showing up.”

“That is good news, yes. Very good news. I’m happy you got to see him and I hope he continues to improve. I really hope so.”

“Thanks, Sash. It seems like he will. Finally, finally, it seems like he is actually going to get better. I’m not exactly jumping up and dancing just yet, but I kinda am. We kinda all are. You know?”

“Yes. I understand.”

“So, you’re off to China, in a few days?”

“Oh! Don’t remind me.”

“Oh! Go on! It’s not that bad.”

“I know, I know. But it is, though. I told myself that I’m stopping complaining and whining, but seriously, I’m not looking forward to it.”

“Well, you know how things work. You might very well find that you enjoy it thoroughly. You never know.”

“Hmmm! Yeah well, the Universe would have to pull out all the stops for that to happen. She’d have to pull them all the way out. But, we’ll see.”

“You’ll see,” he said. “Don’t be so pessimistic.”

“I am doing my best,” she affirmed.

“That’s my girl! That’s my girl. That’s the woman I’m loving.”

She smiled. Her heart was at rest again. Little did she know that before very long, she and her heart were going to be roused and aroused and excited in ways that, up to now, she had not ever imagined.

Lionel had got over his annoyance with Gina by the time he re-entered the hospital and returned to his brother’s room. Gina was not there, anyway.

“Everything ok,” Antonella wanted to know.

“Yeah,” he reassured her, “everything’s cool. Thanks, Nella. For helping me out back there.”

“Aah! It wasn’t anything. I saw when she picked up the phone, but I had not realised it was yours. I noticed the way she looked over at you when she picked it up, though, so I figured she was up to something. She is still the same Gina. She hasn’t changed.”

“And she is probably not ever going to.”

“No. You’re right. She never will. So, what’s going on?”

“I’m hoping Rio continues to improve. I have to go to China next week.”

“China?”

“Not for long. Only a week. Six days, to be exact.”

“Who’s going to be there?”

He looked ponderingly at his sister before he answered. “Sasha.”

“Oh, ok!” she said. “Cool. Rio will probably be home before you leave, anyway.”

“That would be great.”

“But we’ll take care of him. He’ll be fine. You go take care of your business.” She held onto his arm and laid her head on his shoulder. “We will all be fine.”