Chapter Forty-Five
Emme had just waved the kids off with Cedric at the ski train and was walking along the high street when she heard Cat call out her name. She stopped in her tracks and smiled to herself before she turned around outside the L?derach shop, where the assistants were putting up their Christmas display.
‘Hey!’ Emme said. Cat was approaching, carrying her snowboard and a huge smile, and hugged her friend in greeting.
‘Mad party Saturday – want to earn some extra cash?’
‘What do you need?’
‘The Kivvi Christingle is this Saturday and I need an extra pair of hands to serve drinks and canapés. Do you fancy it? I could get agency staff but it’s a great way to get you in …’
Emme knew the kids had an extra ski lesson on Saturday morning and Lexy would be getting her hair and nails done, but she didn’t know whether she’d be needed in the afternoon yet.
‘The Harringtons bring their kids …’ Cat said, almost reading Emme’s mind.
Would Tristan be there?
Emme realised she wouldn’t get an invitation any other way, she was just the help.
‘I’d love to, thank you. I’ll need to double check with Lexy, but I’ll text you.’ She pondered that her boss had been in a better mood this past week. Less on edge in the mornings. Less wittery at the dinner table. Hopefully she’d be fine with her taking this work.
‘Great, thanks.’
‘Tiago’s helping too, bless him. He’s taking a night off from the Steinherrhof and getting Camilla to cover his shift just to help me out.’
‘Ahhh, he’s a good guy,’ Emme said.
‘Yeah, sadly not my good guy,’ Cat laughed, referencing Emme’s mix-up when she first arrived in town.
‘Hey, erm, is Anastasia going?’ Emme asked, with sympathetic concern.
Cat didn’t have the courage to tell her they’d already had amazing make-up sex when Cat had gone to end it there and then, that they’d been messaging each other still. ‘She’s been before, with her husband. Not always.’ Cat said it casually, as if she were indifferent. ‘Vivian sometimes comes too.’
Shit.
Emme still hadn’t told Cat about her sex in the cable car with Vivian’s boyfriend. Might Vivian and Tristan be there together? If so, it might be too much. But at least it would give her an insight.
‘Their dad never goes to the Kivvi Christingle of course, but the daughters represent him.’
‘How do you cope, seeing Anastasia there but not being able to talk?’ Emme asked nervously.
‘We only hooked up on New Year’s Eve, at a party at the Steinherrhof. I was helping Tiago out then …’
‘Will you be OK if she’s there this Saturday?’
‘I’ll be better for it if you are,’ Cat replied, pressing her palms together in a plea.
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ Emme promised.