With Love, From Italy

“You know, I reckon I could become the modern day David,” Caleb stated as everyone stood admiring the famous statue later that day, causing several people to snort. “What? I could rival those muscles any day.”

“Yeah, but can you rival something else?” Leigh question, trying to hide a grin as she pointed to David’s lower half. The glare that Caleb shot could have killed and she lost her composure, moving away slightly so as not to annoy the other guests.

“Please, I would far outdo him. I don’t even understand why it became so famous, some guy with a small dick posed to have himself recreated in stone. So what? I bet people did it all the time,” the boy grumbled, moving with her and the redhead shrugged.

“Now Caleb, everyone knows it’s not the size that counts, but the motion in the ocean,” Belle quipped, having overheard the conversation and the boy flipped them off, stalking away. The two girls sniggered after him, knowing their teasing had slightly bruised his ego. After the group had admired the Cathedral they had made their way to the Piazza della Signoria, managing to spend a good couple of hours there gazing over all the statues and browsing through a nearby museum. They had then broken for lunch and Leigh had reapplied the patches on her palms, the previous ones falling off in the heat. Their final destination for the day had been the Galleria dell’Accademia, home to some of the most famous statues of the world.

“’Lucky’ girl who gets to soothe his ego tonight,” Leigh mentioned and Belle let out a giggle, urging the redhead along. The group was moving again, this time headed downstairs to the last exhibition in the gallery. The Australian glanced at the sign as they passed it, muttering the name out loud. “Florentine Gothic Paintings.”

Entering into the exhibit Leigh glanced around herself, her eyes catching on the paintings displayed. Most were of religious theme, though that seemed to be a trend throughout the gallery given the era most works came from. She eventually came to a halt in front of the piece Tom was currently studying, an amused looked crossing her face.

“Well Saint Catherine’s certainly looking coy. Those are some serious come hither eyes, what do you reckon she wants you to do with that quill?” she said and the man started beside her. She glanced up at him as if to ask what was wrong and he shook his head.

“Here I was admiring the piece and you had to go and ruin it.”

“I didn’t ruin anything, I merely got to the root of what Bernardo Daddi was actually depicting.”

“She’s a saint Leigh, do you really think she’d seduce him?” Tom questioned lightly and having forgotten her previous shyness she placed a hand on either side of his face, pushing his cheeks together.

“Well we have no clue if Bernardo wanted a bit of saint action you know,” she replied, letting him go. The man reached up to massage his cheeks gently, his brows furrowed at her action. “Maybe this is a painting of his fantasy.”

Flashing him a smile Leigh continued on, Tom hot on her heels as she made her way through several more paintings. Eventually she came to land on another of Daddi’s, pointing to it and looking over at the Englishman. “See, Madonna has the same face. This guy was a complete horn-dog. Even worse, she’s holding a child! God Freud would have a field day with him.”

Tom couldn’t stop himself from laughing, tipping his head back a little with the action and this time Leigh felt a little bit of pride at being able to amuse him. When he managed to calm himself the pair turned to find Belle approaching, her own finger pointed at the painting.

“What the hell is with this guy and painting seductive looks?” she asked and Tom and Leigh burst into another round of laughter, the brunette soon joining. Amongst it all the redhead felt a little bad; she was an adult and actually quite enjoyed admiring history and artwork, but it seemed around others – especially Belle – she was unable to stop herself from causing raucous laughter. In fact she was a little surprised that they hadn’t been asked to leave from anywhere so far.

“If you guys are done laughing at prolific artwork, we should probably be heading back to Levanto,” John’s voice interrupted them and the trio managed to pull themselves together. With a final nod of respect towards the painting Leigh followed the others towards the main doors. Glancing down at her watch as they stepped back out into the Florence heat, she was surprised to find it was late afternoon already, and although the sun was awhile from setting they still needed to return for dinner. The walk back to the vehicles was longer this time around and when they finally came into view Leigh was beginning to feel the effects of a long day.

“Shall I be the one to drive us back?” Belle asked as they approached and Leigh offered a shrug.

“Are you sure you’re not too tired?” Tom quizzed and the brunette shook her head. With a small smile he dug into his pocket and produced the key, handing it over. Belle had barely hit the button to unlock it when Caleb was slithering in the front seat, a fact that was only accepted because the boy was the tallest. “Looks like I’ll be sitting behind Belle if I hope for some leg room.”

As Leigh climbed into the back she let out a short gasp as her knee brushed against the fabric of the seat in front. Managing to sit herself down she found that Caleb had pushed his chair back, leaving her very little room. The fact hadn’t escaped Belle either and as she shut her door she turned on him.

“Caleb is it really necessary to have it back that far?”

“My legs are tired from walking all day, if I can’t stretch them out they’ll cramp up.”

“And what about Leigh? She’s not that short you know, plus she’s injured,” Belle snipped, reaching over to try and grab the lever, only to be batted away.

“Fuck off Belle, she’ll survive.”

“Caleb, you could move it forward a tiny bit at least,” Tom said as he pulled his seatbelt on, only to receive the same words back. “Right, well looks like we won’t get anywhere with your stubborn ass.”

“God you’re a dick, how am I related to you?” Belle growled, slamming her seat belt into place and revving the engine unnecessarily. Leigh had stayed quiet in the argument, partly because she was too tired to raise her voice, and partly because she knew she’d have no chance at succeeding either. She had just about settled into the idea of a cramped, painful ride when Tom patted the seat between them.

“Move into the middle seat and you’ll have more room, I promise I won’t bite,” he urged and with a quick nod she scooted over. She knew that if she glanced up Belle would be giving her a look, so instead she focused on buckling her seatbelt. Tom had been correct in his judgment; while she couldn’t stretch her legs out at least her knees weren’t pressed against Caleb’s chair.

As Belle steered them towards the outskirts of Florence, Leigh leant her head back against the seat. Now that she had stopped she was beginning to feel exhausted and letting her body slump she attempted to get comfortable. She was surprised when Tom’s hand reached around to the opposite side of her head and gently guided it until it rested on his shoulder. This time she couldn’t resist taking a peek at Belle, only to find a smirk plastered across the girl’s face despite the way her hands clenched the steering wheel in lingering anger. Leigh allowed herself to smile back, relaxing her body against the man’s. It wasn’t long until her eyelids began to droop and soon darkness enveloped her as she slipped into slumber.