so short but meaningful to me. When I turn, I see that she’s gone as silent that I didn’t even notice. I start to unwrap the chocolate trying not to break the envelope that I store inside the wallet. I eat it as if I’ve never eaten chocolate in my whole life, tasting slowly the bitterness of cocoa and the sweetness of vanilla that wraps it up in its smoothness. I realise that I’ve closed my eyes totally caught up in its taste and only focused on the sense of taste, just as A wrote in her card that I read again for the fourth time almost looking for something between the lines. Then I store it in the pocket of my jacket where it’s ready to be read other more times, till death. The taste of chocolate is fixed in my mind and from now on I’ll never be able to eat something that has the same taste without thinking about this catching morning made of coffee and vanilla chocolate. With a dumb smile on my face, I say goodbye to the barman who in the meantime had offered me my usual coffee, and I go away a little bothered by the fact that I am not going to see my mysterious woman for the next two days, with the weekend just around the corner.
In the past, Saturday and Sunday have always been a blessing but since I met her they have become the two days to live as fast as possible, craving for the oxygen that her next Monday morning look will bring to me. This will be even longer and heavier, even if this way I’ll have the chance to think longer about my next move. The game has been decided, I must focus on the five senses and decide if I want to follow what she designed to be the second or go on to the next one. I still taste the strong flavour of chocolate in my mouth and I hope it will stay longer to fix it more powerfully in my memory. It immediately comes to my mind Proust’s Magdalene, what he remembered eating that by a distance of years and I start to understand his writings more and more and the strong feelings evoked by a little and simple childhood sweet. I wish I could have a lot more of these chocolates, so that I could eat one of them every time the memory starts to fade or any time I want to keep alive the thought I have about her even when she’s not here. A taste that by now is linked to two deep and piercing eyes, her beauty, and black straight hair on her shoulders. It’s linked to that hardly evident smile framed by pink lips and clear and shining skin. Today she had a forest green dress with black high heel boots glimpsed under the table when I arrived. It’s a pity that I didn’t have the chance to see her going out in order to detect some more details of her perfect body too often hidden under coats and scarfs during this season. But today the sense is taste, so I stop my thought at the chocolate that I’ve found in the envelope. I wonder if she had tasted it too, in order to share the velvet sensation of taste. Going out, I noticed on her table that she took a coffee instead of the usual cappuccino, maybe just to taste the same experience that I had. I almost feel like
I’ve kissed her, tasting the chocolate of her lips, tight in an embrace made of a wise mixture of perfumes and tastes. I take another picture of the card written in her beautiful tidy and full handwriting and I send it to Stefano. His answer is immediate: ‘The game has begun ’
CHAPRER 6
The chocolate of remembrance
Here we are, today Camilla came to pick me up so that we could revise our plan before entering the café. We try to arrive at least ten minutes earlier compared to the usual so that we could set everything before he arrives. Before going out, I wrote a card to explain my gift.
The little chocolate, in addition to the link of the same common thread of the daisy, must carry on our non-affair with the discovery of the senses, our senses, moving from sight to taste. I’ve decided not to sign the card but to put only the initial of my name, so that I would not reveal too much and I would not end too soon this game that is getting more intriguing, different from the usual flirting schemes. I write on the envelope ‘For…?’ since I don’t have a clue about what is name is, I put everything inside and I come down running towards my friend who has already buzzed from a few minutes.
Today I woke up earlier than the usual and it took me half an hour only to decide what to wear. In the end, I opted for a wool soft dress of my favourite colour, dark green, and my high heel boots. While I’m in the street, I can’t wait to arrive and I almost got hit by a car since I’m so head over hills that I didn’t even notice a red traffic light. Arrived safe and sounds at the café we laid the bags at the usual table and we wait at the counter. When it’s almost the time of his arrival, Camilla placed herself in front of the entrance and I made the barman get away towards the kitchen with an excuse. At this point, I placed the envelope in front of the sugar box on the side where he always stands to have a coffee. I know for sure that he’s going to take the sugar box and he’s
going to find the envelope in front of his eyes hoping that, realising that it’s for him, he would open it.
Camilla waves at me when he’s arriving and so we quickly sit pretending that nothing is happening despite a whisper of shortness of breath provoked by emotions and by the brief run towards the table. In order not to express my emotions, when he enters I look at him only for few instants. I am as excited as never before and I hope not to blush too much revealing my fake carelessness with regards to his arrival.
When he finally reaches the counter, we secretly spy on him, hoping that he hurries up and takes that envelope on display just before him.
He turns towards me in a blink and, feeling caught, I immediately look the other way. Today there’s not the usual harmony of our meeting: the last events left us more excited than the usual, he’s not the usual too. In order to break this awkward moment, he accidentally drops the envelope to the ground. When he picks it up, he gets slowly up looking at the mysterious addressee marked on the envelope with a little flower that I sketched while we were already on the road. It was to help him decoding the massage and to make him realise that he was exactly the one who had to open the envelope.
When we notice that he was opening it, we took the opportunity to go away secretly without making any noise, running away in the street.
The only thing that makes me sad is that I’m going to wait two days to see how our game will continue and I already know that it will be a very long weekend. Luckily, it matched a little trip that I had planned a long time before. Therefore, in the late afternoon I’ve already taken the train that will lead me to Venice to meet the baby of one of my five cousins who was born only a few months before. Her husband will be
outside the city in these days, so I grasped the opportunity to help her and to be together after a long time that we haven’t seen each other.
Today I finished work soon, taking advantage of some time off hours that I’ve previously asked in order not to have last minutes pranks. My pretty and little trolley awaits me home, packed with all the necessary things for these two days out of the city. I wear my comfy skinny jeans that I can fit into my boots with my hot and slim blue and brown sweater, unfailing during my winter trips. After a while I wear my coat again, with scarf and hat, ready to face Venice during this time of the year. I have been waiting for this trip for weeks and luckily it seems that the weather is going to help us providing us with two sunny days not even so cold with respect to the season. To avoid being late, a taxi that will take me to the train station is already waiting for me under my front door. As soon as I sit down and I close the door I already feel like I am on holyday. On the way I check a few last things and I prepare tickets and money to pay the ride. In ten minutes we’re already at the entrance of the station right on time for the departure. Arrived at the departures board, I look for my train and I receive the bad news of a delay of half an hour. On one hand, I thank heaven that this is the only delay and I take advantage to have a stroll between the shops renewed in the last years so that they create a real mall under the tracks, in a sort of underworld. There are all the trendiest brands especially for youngest girls and fast foods unfolded between scents and appealing colourful advertising that offer a good lunch at a few euros cost.
At this hour this area of the station is really crowded,
