The Hamilton Charm

Chapter 45

(On an Evening in Roma- Dean Martin)

The worst part about being thrown up on was the fact that I had to wait for our luggage to appear on the carousel before I could change. I stood stinking and covered in vomit for 20 bloody minutes while Iver shook with laughter beside me. Not once did he offer his jumper to me so I could remove my top that was starting to stick to my body.

After we finally got our bags and I changed, we headed outside of the terminal and were picked up by one of Iver's chauffeurs. The car was a gorgeous antique silver Jaguar. We hopped inside and headed for Rome's city centre.

"Are we staying in the hotel again?" I asked as I gazed out at the aqueducts that towered over us. Raoul was staring out the window too with his mouth open in awe.

"Oh no I sold that last year and bought a penthouse overlooking the Spanish Steps" Iver said without looking up from his phone. From what I could tell, he was replying to an email. It was always my dream to have an apartment on Via Del Corso let alone looking over the Spanish Steps. I was incredibly jealous.

As we drove through the city Dean Martins 'On an evening in Roma' ran through my head. Raoul kept randomly pointing at different things out the window. He was grinning with pure joy. It was his first time outside France. He hadn't even been to England to meet the family and as ties were cut there.

I hadn't spoken to my father since that night even though my step mother Marie constantly begged me to visit and forgive him. I just told her that if father apologised to Ethan and accepted him then I would try to make amends. That still hasn't happened and I wasn't sure it ever would.

We pulled up outside Iver's apartment. It was a beautiful old styled Italian building with terracotta tiles on the roof. Boxes of colourful flowers lined each window of the building. The entrance was marked by a large brown antique styled door. If I was jealous before, I was even more so jealous now.

The chauffeur grabbed our bags and began to carry them up to the apartment. Raoul ran ahead with his Thor back-pack bouncing up and down on his back as he sprinted. We followed after him. Raoul was nowhere to be seen when we entered the apartment.

The penthouse was very spacious and it had a white theme running throughout. In the centre of the hall was a small fountain with a statue of a cherub as the centre piece. The sound of the water hitting the marble bowl was actually pretty soothing. The hall lead into the kitchen and the sitting room. A large white couch dominated the centre of the living room and a massive flat screen TV was mounted on the wall across from it. Although the apartment was gorgeous it wasn't very childproof. I chuckled to myself as I imagined Iver's face if Raoul ever took his paints to his lovely white couch.

A screech sounded out from one of the rooms down the corridor by the living room. The corridor lead to two doors, both of them were bedrooms. I looked inside one to see Raoul bouncing around on the bed. His curly hair was flopping up and down as he waved his arms around. He was giggling while he jumped around.

"Mama, can papa and I share a room?" He asked breathlessly as he continued to bounce.

"Of course you can" I smiled. Raoul then started to explain to Iver how they were going to have and I quote 'the most amazingly brilliant sleepover'. To say he was excited was an understatement. And to say that Iver was excited was an exaggeration.

Later on we decided to head out and get some Gelato. We found a little shop tucked away in the corner of a street. It was a cute little family business. Raoul walked in before us and shouted "Buongiorno signore" to the old man behind the ice-cream counter. He then continued to rattle off his order in Italian while Iver stood with his arms crossed, watching his son with a proud look on his face. I couldn't help smiling as well. Raoul really was something special.