If someone had called her a glutton for punishment, Nadine would have laughed in their faces. When they asked her why then she was in Rome, she would have told them she was on a summer course. There would be a number of problems with her answer, the first of which would be the name of the course. Fundamental Rights. She sighed and shook her head. Idiocy was not a virtue. Being impulsive was something she did from time to time, but signing up for a summer course in Rome of all places, on the spur of the moment, did not exactly announce her intelligence to the world. Fortunately for her, the course was in English, but that was not the point. She had gone and enrolled on a course she neither understood nor liked – how she was able to get a visa, remained a source of wonder to her.
She hated Rome. She hated the baths, the theatres, the architecture, the traffic and the food. Oh, the food – who knew that pasta could taste so insipid? It didn’t matter where she got it or what form it came in – fettuccine alfredo, bucatini alla matriciana, spaghetti alla carbonara or even rigatoni con la pajata. And she didn’t even want to think about the pizza. She just could not taste what other diners clearly could. She could not taste a thing. It was like her taste buds had taken a leave of absence. What was the matter with her? She was in Rome and all she could think of was Raymond.
They had travelled to Venice when they were both still at university and had enjoyed it. Their next Italian destination would be the capital – Rome. They had planned to spend more time here than they did in Venice. She had been looking forward to it. Raymond even promised that they would learn how to make a proper pizza in Rome – not those things they had back in England. That was just before he broached the subject of meeting the parents. She couldn’t believe her ears. She wondered why he had to spoil their mini-break. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to meet them, she did. It was just that meeting the parents could be awkward. If you met the parents of your boyfriend or girlfriend, it meant you were serious. Yes, she was serious about Raymond, but Nigerian parents tended to hear things a bit differently. If you took someone home to them and said ‘Mummy, Daddy, this is my boyfriend or girlfriend’, they heard ‘Mummy, Daddy, this is the boy or girl I’m planning to marry.’ She loved Raymond, but she did not need that kind of pressure. And talking of pressure, they would ask about her parents, her background and her future plans – why else was she in their house, if not to assess her suitability as a mate for their only son? She loved her parents and did not have any problems talking about them. She also had a good idea what she wanted to do with her life, so that was no problem either. The problem was if they liked her, they would want to know about her parents. Did her parents like Raymond? Given that they didn’t know of Raymond, that would be really difficult to squirm her way out of. And if Raymond’s parents didn’t like her, they wouldn’t hide it. Either way, meeting the parents always had an irreversible effect on any relationship. She was fine with things the way they were and she didn’t want anything to change. A part of her was actually afraid that his parents would hate her, and she didn’t want that to happen. This boy did things to her that she hadn’t imagined possible. Sometimes, the intensity of her love for him stunned her. She didn’t even know it was legal to love someone this much. He made her so deliriously happy. And she was afraid it wouldn’t last if she met his parents. She already knew her parents would not accept him. Maybe part of the reason she was crazy about him was because he was in effect, forbidden fruit. She kissed him and promised him she would think about it.
It turned out there was no reason to worry – regarding his parents, of course. After two weeks of cajoling and bribery, she met them. They did ask questions about her parents, but there was no pressure. They could see that Nadine made their son happy, and she genuinely loved him – parents had a way of knowing these things. She also saw where her boyfriend got some of his traits from. His parents were intelligent, decent, kind people. His father ran his own business – IT consultancies. His mother was a retired administrator. They were also both tall and easy on the eye. He was a carbon copy of father, but had his mother’s complexion. Both parents were ageing well, so it was nice to see what Raymond would possibly look like, if they ended up together. She knew that was a big if but she just had to go there. Circumstances meant she had not made good on her promise to take him to her parents. Things had ended and she was not coping well at all. It wasn’t that her heart was broken – that would indicate that there was something to be broken. She just felt … numb. Like a limb had been amputated and she was still on heavily potent analgesics.
She sighed. That was why she was here in Rome, acting like a bumbling idiot. Although she had heard that everyone is either running towards something or away from something, Nadine had never been one to run away from her problems. There was no point in starting now. She loved Raymond and missed him … in a way that was different to when she was in France. This felt … final. That was why she was hiding away in Rome, doing a course she was not even remotely interested in and eating food she could not taste – a couple of weeks before she began her LPC back in England. No, she was not in the habit of running away from her problems and idiocy was not a virtue – at the rate she was going, she would wind up in Tuscany tending to a vegetable garden, or in a convent on a hill somewhere soon. Enough was enough. That was why summer course or no, she would be taking the first flight she could find back to London.