The Imperfectionists: A Novel Page 12

  "So funny to see you again," she says. "Kind of like meeting up with an old version of myself." She asks about their old friends and his family. His mother, Ornella, sounds as cold as ever. "Is she still reading the paper?"

  "Hasn't missed a copy in years."

  "That's what I like to hear. And Filippo?" she asks, referring to Dario's younger brother.

  "He has three kids now."

  "Three? How un-Italian," she says. "And you?"

  "Only

  one."

  "That's

  more

  like

  it."

  "A boy, Massimiliano. Just turned six."

  "So, married, obviously."

  "Massi? We're waiting till he turns seven."

  She smiles. "I mean you must be married."

  "Yes, of course. And you?"

  She caricatures her domestic situation, rendering Nigel as a comic subaltern, as is her habit. "He feeds me grapes most evenings," she says. "It's part of his duties."

  "That must suit you."

  "Depends on the quality of the grapes. But hang on," she says. "I still don't have a sense of what's going on with you."

  "I'm well, very well at the moment. I did have a rough patch last year. But that's over. The family weakness." By this, he means depression, which afflicted his father, ultimately ending the man's career in diplomacy. The ambassador's breakdown in 1994

  came the week that Kathleen left Dario. "They were good about it at work," he goes on.

  "Say what you will about Mr. Berlusconi."

  "And how is your father, incidentally?"

  "Well, sadly, he died about a year ago now. On November 17, 2005."

  "I'm so sorry to hear that," she says. "I really liked Cosimo."

  "I know. We all did."

  "But your problem wasn't as serious as his used to be, right?"

  "No, no. Not nearly. And they have much better medicine these days."

  They taste their wine and glance around the garden bar--its potted lemon trees, a discreetly burbling fountain, the leafy escarpment climbing to Villa Borghese Park.

  "I asked to meet up for a particular reason," he says.

  "Ah, the ulterior motive--are you going to fob off some Berlusconi puffery on me now?"

  "No, no, nothing to do with work."

  "But

  I

  do want to hear about Il Cavaliere," she says. "I'm dying to hear what it's like working for such a fine man."

  "He is a good man. You shouldn't write him off."

  "And this is your pure, unadulterated opinion? You do what again? Public relations, is it?"

  "Can't blame me for trying, Kath. But no, I wanted to ask you something else--I need your advice."

  "Shoot."

  "Are you still close with Ruby Zaga?"

  It had slipped Kathleen's mind that Dario and Ruby knew each other, but all three were briefly interns at the paper in 1987. Indeed, Ruby introduced Dario and Kathleen.

  "Copydesk Ruby?" Kathleen says. "I was never close with her. Why do you ask?"

  "Just that I've been having a bit of a problem with her," he says. "I hadn't seen her for ages, then a few months back, not long after my father died, I ran into her on the street. We agreed to meet up for a drink, I gave her my number, and forgot about it. She did phone, though, and we went out. It was a normal night. Nothing special. But since then she keeps calling my cell and hanging up."

  "That's

  weird."

  "It's been going on for weeks. She must have called fifty times. My wife thinks I'm having an affair."

  "And you're not."

  He dips into the bowl of olives. "No."

  "Hmm," she says. "Suspicious."

  He looks up, smiling. "I'm not. Honestly. Anyway, maybe let's shift topics.

  Berlusconi--you wanted to talk about Berlusconi, right?"

  "Well, you're off the hook for now."

  "What do you want to know about him?"

  "First off, how can you work for that guy? The face-lifts, the hair transplants--he's such a buffoon."

  "Not to my mind."

  "Oh, come on."

  "Don't forget, Kath, I'm on the right."

  "So you keep telling me. How did I ever bear you?"

  "Were you on the left?"

  "Of course," she says. "But couldn't you have done better than Berlusconi?"

  "Couldn't you have done better than the paper?"

  "What does that mean?"

  "Nothing. But please, if you don't mind, try not to belittle me. You're too good at it."

  "I don't belittle you." She pauses. "What do you mean I'm good at it? Is that how you remember me?"

  "Not for the most part."

  "Well, if I used to I'm sorry."

  "We do get great gift baskets at Christmas," he says, changing topics. "Berlusconi is unmatched in that area: torrone, champagne, foie gras."

  Yes, this is what she's here for: the inside line on life under Berlusconi, Europe's court jester. At the least, Dario can give her an amusing tale to recount at parties. He might even feed her a story. No one can resist a Berlusconi-is-ludicrous piece. But hang on, hang on--she isn't quite finished talking. "I hope I wasn't awful to you."

  "Don't be crazy."

  "I feel as if maybe I was."

  "You know how deeply I loved you."

  She takes an olive, just holds it. "That's fairly blunt."

  He says, "You were goodness." It sounds like a language mistake, but his English is usually flawless.

  "Now I really feel like a shit." She eats the olive.

  "I didn't say you weren't a shit."

  She laughs. "Beware--I'm probably more of one now than I used to be."

  "I imagine you are. But that's normal, isn't it? One becomes more of a shit as one gets older. I, for example--and you'll find this shocking--had a minor indiscretion involving another woman."

  "Oh,

  really?"

  "And I always hated infidelity."

  "I know. I remember."

  "But I never felt guilty about it. Never told my wife. Just felt irritated--irritated with Ruby. She was the person, the woman."

  "You had an affair with Ruby Zaga?" Kathleen says, grimacing. "Our copydesk nun?"

  "I never slept with her. I kissed her."

  "Does that count as an affair?"

  "I don't know. Anyway, it was ridiculous. It was that time we went for a drink. A boring night, in all honesty. We disagreed about something minor--can't remember what.

  She got all touchy. I paid, went outside, waited for her. She came out, crying. I tried to calm her down and--I don't know why--I found myself kissing her. We did that for a while in this alley in Trastevere, near her place. I remember it stank of garbage." He shifts with embarrassment. "Anyway, nothing happened after that. We had no further contact. Until a few weeks later, when she started calling me. As I told you, she never talks, never says anything. But it's starting to cause problems. She doesn't get the hint."

  "Well, well, well," Kathleen says.

  "Mm," he says.

  "I wouldn't have guessed that one." She utters a dry laugh. "Ruby Zaga!"

  "I'm mortified to confess this. But you're the only person I know who knows her."

  "What can I suggest? Just change your cellphone number."

  "I can't. I gave her my work cell, which is what every journalist has. If I change that, I'm suddenly out of contact. My whole job is being in contact."

  "I've barely spoken ten words to Ruby since I moved back to Rome. I could try to broach it with her, but it'd be deeply weird," she says. "I'm asking myself now whether you did this sort of thing when we were together."

  "Of course not. We didn't lie to each other back then."

  "I lied to you--I never told you I'd applied for the job in Washington. You didn't know I was going to leave."

  "True,

  true."

  "Sorry," she says.

  "Forget it. Far too much time gone by." />
  They sit eating olives.

  She gets a funny look. "Listen," she says, "would you be willing to do something unusual?"

  "I don't know. What?"

  "Well," she says, "would you be willing to tell the entire truth about me, about what you thought of me? From the old days--what you thought of me then. I'll do the same for you."

  "What

  for?"

  "To hear all the bits that you can't say to a person when you're still with them.

  Aren't you curious?"

  "I'd be afraid to hear."

  "I'd like to. I'm curious," she says. "I'd like to understand myself better. Even improve myself, heaven forbid. And I trust you. Your opinion. You're smart."

  "You and intelligence!"

  "What about me and intelligence?"

  "You're very preoccupied with it, with ranking brains. Yours, in terms of everyone else's."

  "That's not true."

  "We can't do an honesty exchange if you get defensive."

  "If I promise not to, will you?"

  "It's silly, don't you think? Dissecting ourselves like that? Are we good in bed, are we bad--that sort of underbelly stuff. Sleazy, no?"

  "This is why you got out of journalism while I never did: I can't tell the difference between interesting and sleazy. Oh, come on! It'll be fun. Be heartless. Say anything."

  He shifts in his seat, then nods. "All right. If you want."

  She smacks her thighs with delight. "I've always wanted an opportunity like this.

  Let me get another drink as I steel myself for your ruthless critique." As she awaits a second glass of Sauvignon, she telephones Menzies to say that she'll be out of contact for fifteen minutes. She switches off her BlackBerry.

  "A quarter of an hour?" Dario says. "That's all the time we need to rip each other apart?"

  "This isn't ripping apart. Just honest commentary. That's what I want. And be heartless: I have a hideous ass or I'm a bad lay or whatever. Really."

  "You want something sexual, then?"

  "Why,

  is there something sexual?"

  "Not

  necessarily."

  "There

  is."

  "Let me think of something." He pauses. "It's not a big deal, really. Just I guess you were kind of aggressive."

  "How?

  Sexually?"

  "Yes. I was slightly intimidated by you."

  "For six years you were intimidated by me?"

  "Pathetic, I know. It's hard to explain. It was sort of like, sort of like being screwed rather than doing the--"

  "Rather than doing the screwing," she says uncomfortably. "Go on."

  "Although, at the same time, you never seemed to have much of a sex drive.

  Making love with you felt like something else. Like, I don't know, an act of a different sort."

  "It didn't seem to revolt you so much back then."

  "See, you're getting defensive."

  "I'm

  not."

  "Do we continue this, Kath? It's turning kind of unpleasant."

  "No, no. I'm interested."

  "I'm just someone who--"

  "Who wanted a more submissive woman."

  "Maybe less aggressive. Is that bad?"

  "You should have gone for Ruby from the start."

  "I know you're kidding, but that's probably what attracted me to her."

  "You're attracted to women who sob when you buy them a drink?"

  He doesn't respond.

  She says, "Sorry. It's funny, though--you hated that I made you submissive. And I hated that you were so passive, that I was always the one initiating it. You know? But God, you make it sound like I was forcing myself on you, slobbering all over."

  "There

  was

  a

  little slobbering," he jokes.

  She

  laughs.

  "There," she says, exhaling. "That wasn't so hard. Any other thoughts about me?"

  "Not really," he says, hesitating. "Well, one tiny thing--not sexual. Just that I always thought you were kind of an instrumentalist with people. Can I say that in English? I mean, you were always looking to gain something. I remember watching you meet people--I could see the cogs turning in your mind. Doing calculations."

  "You make me sound horrendous. I'm the person who you--" She balks at saying loved. "Who you claim to have liked so much."

  "I don't mean this as criticism."

  "No, no, it sounds like a huge compliment," she says sarcastically. "But is it possible that your view is colored by how I left?"

  "I don't care about that now. I'm happy you went. If you'd stayed, I wouldn't have met my wife, I wouldn't have had Massi. I did love you. But the thing about you back then was that you were completely conditional."

  "As opposed to what? To stupid? I hope I was conditional. Everything intelligent is conditional."

  "That's a strange thought."

  "So, to summarize: I'm emasculating, calculating, and unloving. What a nice portrait. If I was any of that stuff, it was inexperience. I was in my twenties. But," she continues, "I have to wonder if you're not being slightly naive here. I mean, are you saying you want nothing from people? You have no motives? Everybody has motives.

  Name the person, the circumstances, I'll name the motive. Even saints have motives--to feel like saints, probably."

  "That's pretty cynical."

  "It's

  realistic."

  "Which is what cynics always say. But honestly, Kath, do you calculate everything? Even in your private life?"

  "Maybe not. Not like I used to. I was a bit bad that way with you, I admit. But still, the point of any relationship is obtaining something from another person."

  "I can't see it that way."

  "So why do you kiss someone?" she asks. "To give pleasure or to take it?"

  At dinner that evening, Nigel irritates her. The paper, he complains, has already published a look-ahead to the World Economic Forum in Davos, though it's weeks away, while there hasn't been a word on the World Social Forum in Nairobi. The mainstream media care only about rich white guys, he says. She notes that the paper has no reporters in Africa and so couldn't cover the World Social Forum. He opens his mouth to contest the point, then closes it.

  "You

  are allowed to disagree," she says.

  "I

  know."

  "That's all you're going to say? How about: 'The fact that you don't bother to hire anyone in Africa only proves what I'm saying'? Or, 'A setup story doesn't need to be written with a Kenya dateline'? Both of which would be pretty good arguments. You could even roll out your thing about the paper's European-to-African ratio. What is it?

  'One dead white man equals twenty dead Africans'? None of that tonight? Just because you're feeling guilty doesn't mean you have to be a pushover, Nigel."

  "Feeling

  guilty?"

  "I'm guessing it's over your girlfriend."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "The English girl. Right?"

  He goes into the bathroom. After a few minutes of silence, the faucet runs. Once it stops, he remains there, in hiding. She takes this as confirmation. When he emerges, a conversation will ensue. He must be sitting on the edge of the bathtub, hunting for a way out of this mess. What will result from the coming confrontation? What if he's seriously entangled with this English girl? Kathleen is annoyed with herself--she's still raw from Dario's critique and has misplayed this exchange.

  Nigel emerges and makes coffee. She watches his rigid movements around the kitchen. He acts as if he's not within his own home but trespassing in hers. He's lazy, Kathleen thinks. He dreads employment more than he dreads humiliation. He'll cling to this marriage.

  "I know," he says. "I know."

  "You know what?"

  He won't look at her.

  Before marrying, they set a policy on adultery that sought to be as grown-up as they considered themselves to be. Statistica
lly, at least one of them was bound to cheat.

  So, they decided, when it happens the guilty party is categorically forbidden to let on.

  "This is exactly what was not supposed to happen," Kathleen says. "I actually feel more hurt by this than I expected. Idiotic."

  "It's not. You're not idiotic."

  Dario's description of her sexuality crosses her mind. She won't degrade herself by demanding details from Nigel. "I want to ask you details," she says.