Acquiesce

Chapter 6

Enzo had booked the trip to Venice for the beginning of April. His family were from Potenza, in southern Italy, so we usually went there when we went to Italy, nowhere near Venice so I was really excited.

When we were packing (we'd left it until a few days before we flew) I accidentally got out Liam's lingerie and didn't notice until Enzo picked the bra off our bed.

"What's these?" he asked, holding it up to his own chest.

"The surprise you just ruined." I quickly lied, grabbing them and shoving them in my suitcase, pretending to be annoyed that he'd seen them.

"I'll look forward to it." He grinned at that.

He was never going to see me in them, I was going to have to make sure of that.

I wanted to use the break to focus on my marriage, to forget all about Liam. Enzo was everything to me, Liam was expecting to see me at the end of the month but I was beginning to think it was more trouble than he was worth.

...

We were in the airport newsagent looking for plane reading and snacks, it was a pretty short flight but no flight was too short for trashy magazines and sweets.

"Have you seen these?" Enzo showed me an NME magazine, sounding impressed. They're fucking all over."

Liam and Noel were the issue's cover boys. Their mugs covered multiple magazines, all split between making them seem like best friends or warring brothers.

"Yeah. Everyone's latest fad."

He shook his head. "These look the real thing."

"They look trouble." I said before picking out headline subjects to prove my point. "Drugs, fighting, stealing, swearing."

He put his hand into the rock sign. "Nothing we wouldn't be doing if we were in a band or even still going to gigs."

"Then what's all the fuss about?" I asked, convincing him I couldn't care less about that band.

"Never know, might be good." he said optimistically.

I ended up buying one of the magazines they were in, bringing Liam's face on my holiday, on my get away.

...

Venice was beautiful. It was just as stunning as I thought it would be. We walked around a while before finding our hotel.

He checked in, speaking to them in his native tongue despite insisting Venetian Italian was completely different to what he knew as Italian but it got us to our room far faster than English would.

I was sat reading a magazine on our balcony, probably the only one that didn't have a single mention if that Mancunian band. It was a women's magazine filled with dramatic stories, some puzzles and a problems page.

I wasn't exactly reading it anymore, one of the problem page items had gotten me thinking. Alice, 32 was having problems getting along with her brother in law to be.

"What are you thinking about?" Enzo asked.

"Venice is being wasted on us." I lied. "We should go do something."

At least it would keep my mind off Noel Gallagher and on my husband.

We got changed into bright summer-y clothes, vests, shorts and shades and then went for another walk, trying to find something to do since we hadn't planned this trip at all.

...

We visited the art galleries and churches, it was all stunning and of course we went on a Gondola ride through the canal system.