One Winter Weekend

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

L ucy stared forlornly out the window of the plane. They were descending into Venice and in the late afternoon sunshine, she could see the city laid out below her, full of promise.

But she didn’t have eyes for the snow on the cobbled rooftops, or the maze of canals in the place of city streets. She was too wrapped up in her thoughts to notice any of those picturesque details.

She exited the plane with the other passengers and collected her luggage mechanically, moving through the airport terminal with a heavy heart. She flagged down a cab that would take her as far as the outskirts of the city, and from there she needed to get a water taxi to take her to the hotel for the night. After the flight from Dublin, she needed a hot bath, a simple meal and a long, deep sleep in a plush bed.

At the Piazzale Roma - the main transport hub of the city — her water taxi driver helped her load up her luggage and steered the little boat quietly along the canals of San Marco, sensing she wasn’t in the mood for small talk.

Reaching the stop-off point to the hotel which was located a couple of blocks away from the Grand Canal, Lucy got out near Rialto bridge and dragged her single suitcase along the cobbled streets to the hotel.

She checked in and accepted her room key with a smile and a nod, trudging quietly up the stairs to her room and dropping the suitcase on the floor.

One year.

It seemed so much longer. Only one year had passed since she and Dominic had enjoyed the weekend of their dreams here in Venice.

Gliding along the canals, drinking too much wine in trattorias, taking in the theatres and the opera of the festive season—it had been a magical time, full of romance.

Then towards the end, they had capped it all by stealing away to a quiet corner of the city — a tiny bridge off a side street, away from the hustle and bustle of central San Marco.

There, on the picturesque wrought-iron bridge and above the inky black canal waters, they had marked their initials on a metal padlock and hung it from the rail of the bridge, sealing in a promise of their love in this most romantic of cities.

What a difference a year makes , Lucy thought forlornly. Maybe the trip had been too romantic, too perfect, because not long after they returned to Dublin everything seemed to start going downhill.

For starters, they’d got into a fight at a friend’s party on New Year’s Eve over a simple understanding made much worse by the copious amounts of drunken champagne. Then Lucy suffered from a cold on and off for the rest of the winter, and feeling rundown only made her more irritable, which led to more fighting.

Spring was supposed to be a breath of fresh air, but a promotion at work meant more hours away from home, which Dominic resented. Once summer came she thought they might get away for a mini-break to make up for all the stress, but then he was busy with family issues. By the time autumn arrived, there was barely a shred left of the relationship they had once had, and one day Dominic announced out of the blue that it was over.

He was moving on, and so should she.

In retrospect Lucy supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. But she was still hurt. How could someone just walk away so easily, without putting up a fight? Surely everyone had a bad year now and then, and it was worth sorting through it all to save your relationship.

In any case, Dominic was gone, and Lucy was back in Venice alone.

She shrugged off her coat and scarf, hanging them over the back of a chair, and slipped her tired feet out of her boots. When she and Dominic had come here last year, she’d packed two suitcases full of clothes—gorgeous dresses, cashmere scarfs, plenty of jewellery, and of course silky negligees to wear underneath. Now she had a single suitcase with a few sweaters and pyjamas in it. What was the point in dressing up, when there was no one special to see it?

Lucy slowly got ready for bed, changing into cosy flannel pyjamas and brushing out the knots in her hair. Once this weekend is over, I’ll feel better, she promised herself.

Eating Ben and Jerry’s in front of the TV and crying on the phone with her friends wasn’t helping her feel better about her break-up, so she was trying a more radical plan.

She would unlock the padlock from the bridge, thereby unsealing their promise of last year. Maybe then she could finally move on with her life and accept that Dominic was gone for good.