Chapter 37
LAILA
‘Where are you going?’ Gabriel rubbed his eyes.
‘To order breakfast,’ I replied. Gabriel looked at his watch.
‘Merde! I did not realise it was so late. I wanted to make you breakfast.’
‘No way! You’ve already done enough for me.’
‘It is your birthday.’
‘That was yesterday!’ I protested.
‘Everyone knows that it is important to celebrate your birthday for at least a week! Go back to bed.’ Gabriel pulled me towards the mattress.
‘I will order breakfast. I need to speak to Jasmine about something, so I may take a while, but I will come back as quick as I can, then we will eat on the patio. Bien?’
‘Bien,’ I conceded.
I flopped back on the bed whilst Gabriel got dressed then left.
As I took in the sight of the sea views from our large glass doors, I let out a contented sigh.
I picked up my phone and scrolled through the cheeky photos I took last night of Gabriel fucking me on the car with his mouth and his dick. My cheeks heated and my heart raced. I still couldn’t believe that’d happened.
That saying, living your best life, used to make me roll my eyes, but the truth was that right now, I really was. Even if I received an alert to say the world was ending tomorrow, I’d still go out with a smile on my face. Nothing could ruin my high.
Deciding I didn’t want to waste the day in bed, I got up, showered and did my mini ‘love’ affirmation in the mirror. This time I did it in French. When I looked at myself and said ‘je t’aime’, I instantly felt taller and more confident.
Maybe tomorrow I’d do it in Spanish. I’d just need to look at the photos to find out how to say it. Or do a quick Google search.
I went out to the patio. After making myself comfortable on the daybed, I was about to flick through one of the magazines that I found on the coffee table when my phone rang.
When I saw Ricky’s name on the screen my face lit up.
‘Hi!’ I said excitedly. ‘Thanks for your text yesterday!’
Ricky and Juliette had both messaged to wish me a happy birthday. So did Sammie and Jasmine, which was sweet.
‘No worries,’ he said. ‘I’d ask if you had a good day, but er… I can kinda tell that you did…’
Ricky sounded very cryptic. It was like there was something he wanted to say but for some reason he felt like he couldn’t.
‘Eh?’ My face crumpled with confusion. ‘Why do you say that?’
‘Because I… I saw the photos, Mum…’ He paused again. ‘With you and, er… God, this is so awkward.’
‘Ph-photos?’ I stuttered. ‘What photos?’
‘Your phone’s synced to the Cloud. So basically, all the photos you take go there which means… I saw the photos of you and Gabriel from last night.’
My throat went dry and the phone slid out of my hand onto the table.
Ricky knew that I’d slept with Gabriel.
Worse still, he’d seen the photos I took of Gabriel going down on me.
My own son had seen photos of me having sex.
My blood ran cold.
Shit. Shit. Shit!
This couldn’t be happening.
I didn’t even realise my photos were synced to the bloody Cloud! Ricky set everything up for me. And I barely took any photos because I never went anywhere interesting enough, so it wouldn’t have been an issue before.
I thought I was protecting my privacy by taking photos on my phone instead of Gabriel’s. I promised him the pictures wouldn’t be seen by anyone else and now I’d just discovered that I’d inadvertently shared them with my son.
I wished the ground could swallow me whole.
I wanted to bury my head in a dark hole then not resurface until this embarrassment faded, which would be the year three thousand or basically never.
Reluctantly I picked up the phone and my brain scrambled as I tried to work out what to say.
‘Ricky, I…’
‘When I saw photos of you kissing a man at the Eiffel Tower,’ he jumped in, ‘I meant to message to tell you to turn off the syncing, but I got sidetracked. I thought if you want to embarrass yourself with some French dude, it’s your problem, but I didn’t want to see my mum with her tongue stuck down some guy’s throat.
That’s gross! But when I saw those pictures this morning, especially when I realised who it was, I had to call.
I know I’d said you needed to get a life, but sleeping with Gabriel?
That’s icky, Mum. We were friends and he’s not that much older than me! ’
‘I know. I know it seems… y’know because of the age difference, but we have a connection.’
‘Ugh! Please. Spare me the details.’
‘I’m not just talking about…’ I paused. Knowing Ricky had seen the pictures of me shagging was bad enough.
I wasn’t about to start discussing my newfound sex life with him.
Even though I’d basically crossed every acceptable boundary, I didn’t have to make things worse.
‘The Love Hotel matched me with Gabriel for a reason. We get on well. We have a lot in common. I’m sure you remember that he was always mature for his age and, well, he makes me happy. ’
‘Really?’ he asked. ‘So it’s actually something serious?’
‘I… it could be. I mean it’s early days so we’re just seeing how it goes, but I’d like it to be,’ I said, pleased that Ricky was open to discussing it.
‘I just don’t want to see you getting hurt.
Like I said, he’s much younger than you and now he’s loaded, he’ll probably want to live the playboy lifestyle and sleep around.
You could be like a challenge on his checklist, like: sleep with a model, check, shag an influencer, check, bone a MILF, check.
One of my friends likes MILFs too and he—’
‘Wait,’ I interrupted. ‘You said that Gabriel’s loaded? What do you mean? He’s still trying to launch his business.’ My brows furrowed with confusion.
‘Nah. He sold that for millions, so now he’s minted.’
‘Millions?’ I gasped. ‘He doesn’t…’ I paused as I attempted to make sense of what Ricky had just said.
Gabriel sold his app?
He’s a millionaire?
I wanted to protest and tell Ricky that it wasn’t true. But then I realised I had no idea whether it was or not.
Whenever I’d asked Gabriel about his app, he’d always been evasive.
Despite asking multiple times for the name of it, he’d never given it to me.
And it didn’t even occur to me to look him up online.
That felt kind of creepy. But now I had to.
I needed to know if there was any truth in what Ricky had said.
‘I… hold on,’ I said as I flopped back on the daybed. I put my phone in my hands and opened up my browser then typed in Gabriel Marceau, app, sold, millions into Google, then hit search.
Seconds later, several articles popped up.
Fuck. It’s true.
Gabriel sold his app six months ago for an eye-watering amount of money.
And he didn’t tell me.
Nor did Juliette.
Didn’t she know?
And the app wasn’t just for finding food and stuff when you were abroad. It’d expanded. Looked like it also told you where you could meet people in your area with shared interests, find the best authentic restaurants and loads of other things too. It was huge.
Mind. Blown.
‘I’ve got to go,’ I said to Ricky.
‘Okay, Mum, but be careful, yeah? I know Gabriel’s a good guy and I’m glad he makes you happy, you deserve that, but, y’know the age difference is kinda something you need to think about.
And for God’s sake, if you can’t work out how to do it yourself, ask him to turn off your Cloud syncing!
My eyeballs are gonna be scarred for life after what I saw! ’
‘Will do!’ I winced, wondering how I was going to look him in the eye again.
‘Actually…’ His voice trailed off and I knew from his tone that he wanted something. ‘Maybe you could ask if he’d let me have a spin in his Ferrari? I’m traumatised by those photos, but I reckon cruising around in that sweet ride for a day would make up for it!’ He laughed.
‘Bye, son.’ I shook my head, fighting the smile that was threatening to form on my lips. I didn’t even know if the Ferrari was Gabriel’s or if it was Nico’s. But at least if Ricky was making a joke about borrowing it, that was a good thing.
‘You can’t blame me for asking!’ Ricky chuckled again. ‘Bye, Mum, and stay safe. I’m too old to have a baby brother or sister! Laters!’ He hung up.
I had no intention of becoming a mum again, which I knew could be an issue as given Gabriel’s age, he’d probably want children.
But I couldn’t even think that right now.
I had bigger things to consider.
I needed to speak to Gabriel.
All this time I’d thought he was perfect.
I’d believed that he was the definition of a walking green flag.
I thought he was truthful and honest.
And now I’d just discovered he’d lied to me.
And I needed to know why.