Release still on track for August

I'm pleased to announce that The Gabardi Baby is still on track for an early August release.

Here's a draft of the very first scene:

THE ruckus taking place at the check-in desk of London’s Sevarg Hotel was enough to cause Angelo Gabardi to glance over.

Although labelling it a ruckus was overstating it. No-one else appeared concerned with the brunette in the black skirt and matching blazer, her hair tied neatly on her head, and a bag clutched tightly under her arm having what appeared to be an argument with the front desk.

Except he did.

He focused back on the phone call and apologised, “Father, I’m sorry, I was momentarily distracted. I just walked into the Sevarg.”

“Of course,” Salvatore boomed down the phone. “I’m not sure where my mind was at, forgetting what day it is. You’re meeting with your brothers?”

“I should think they’re waiting for me in the bar right now,” Angelo murmured.

The woman had now set her bag on the counter and had clasped her hands in front of her. The earnest quality about the movement intrigued him, and when he’d finished the call, he slipped the phone in his jacket pocket and glanced ahead to where Alexi and Alberto were most likely waiting for him.

But he hesitated.

He’d seen the woman before.

He had no idea of her name and he’d never been introduced to her, but she worked for Gabardi Media.

The pair of them had, in fact, been quite intimate, if you called being stuck in the lift of the Gabardi Building, ‘intimate.’  He’d wondered, for that brief minute, if she’d been dealing with a panic attack because while the other occupant had appeared unfazed, she had looked dangerously close to ripping out the door of the lift with her bare hands. Angelo had pressed the emergency button, called the number to outline the problem, informed them help was on its way, and when the lift began to move, just minutes later, she had breathed a heartfelt, “Thank you, God.”

As the lift reached the ground floor, he’d asked her, “Are you okay now?”

“I just need fresh air,” she’d muttered, leaving Angelo with the impression she hadn’t noticed him one bit as she’d exited the building onto the busy London road.

Clearly, though, she had noticed him, because in the months after whenever he’d seen her, she had either blushed, busied herself with her phone, or looked past him as if he wasn’t even there.

Now, as she stood at the Sevarg’s front desk, she suddenly buried her head in her hands for a long moment, then looked up and squared her shoulders. Angelo read anger, frustration, or quite possibly defeat. Most probably a combination of all three, and she looked to be on the losing end of whatever this discussion was about.

Curious, he moved towards her and stopped close enough to hear her voice rise.

“But, surely, surely you can see this is an emergency situation. Everything has changed and I can no longer go ahead with the booking.”

The manager spoke to her, the woman begin to massage a spot on her forehead and then, and only then, did her posture change.

Her shoulders slumped.

She said something that may have been apology, looked at her hands for a long moment, then picked up her bag.

Angelo moved back as she turned and walked away from the desk, stalked through the lobby and out of the hotel.

“Angelo?” he heard, and he looked across to see his older brother, Alexi, walking towards him, a grin on his face.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been loitering in the lobby,” Alexi teased.

Angelo gave one was look towards the entrance, annoyed that, yes, he had in fact been loitering, and he apologised, “Distractions, Alexi. Nothing more than distractions.”

Alexi studied him consideringly. For all that that Alexi was his older, adopted brother, anyone looking at the pair of them, with their dark hair, their admirable height, and facial features that had seen women swoon for as long as Angelo could remember, would immediately assume they were indeed related, and closely.

“Come on,” Alexi ordered, and he gestured for Angelo to walk with him through to the bar. “Alberto is waiting. We’ll order coffee.”

As they walked, Angelo was aware of the occasional assessing gaze, of the curiosity in some along with acknowledgement as to who they were in others.

He absently raised his hand to the scar that ran across his collarbone. A very physical flaw from an accident that had happened over six months ago. The scar was not, however, the life-altering flaw the accident had left him with.

“Angelo?” Alexi said, looking with concern at him. “Is something troubling you?”

Angelo appreciated Alexis’s concern but shook his head. 

It was nothing to do with the scar itself but with everything it represented. Everything that had changed in that moment, in those seconds.

He shook away the thoughts that would only become maudlin if he let them linger. His thoughts could go there another time, and they undoubtedly would. The struggle to keep them at bay had seemed, at times, as much work as throwing himself wholeheartedly into his division of Gabardi Media.

They entered the bar where Alberto was seated at a corner table, and immediately, Angelo felt some of that anxiety vanish.

They liked this hotel, this space. They appreciated the fact they could relax away from the frenzy of the company, and for some reason, seemed to do so productively.

The woman forgotten, Angelo joined his brothers. (END)