Chapter Twelve
Tuesday, 6 th June
T he flat door clicked shut as Stacy left, and Emily slumped over the kitchen table. Lucky Stace, having a job to go to. Theoretically, she could go back to work now, but after all these months on the sick list, it was better to wait until after the summer holidays and start again with a new class. She’d be fitter then, too. She still couldn’t run after the kids if they started playing up. Emily lifted her phone to check her messages. Nothing new.
She tapped into yesterday’s text from Alan. He’d sent something every day so far. On Saturday it was Hope you arrived home okay . She’d replied with a thumbs up and a smiley. On Sunday he’d sent a pic of the lake in glorious sunshine, with Don’t you wish you were here? underneath. Emily had sent a photo of the rain streaming down the living room window, to which he’d replied with a shocked face smiley. Yesterday, she’d found herself waiting for his message, and sure enough it came: A first at the hotel: no overnight guests at all today. Emily thought before replying to that one; a jokey smiley didn’t seem right, somehow. Eventually she tapped out Hope for Rico it picks up soon. Alan replied with a crossed fingers emoji .
Now, she stared at her phone. There were two things here. First of all, was it a good idea to settle into a ‘message every day’ thing with a guy she didn’t want to be anything more than friends with? Not really. But – and this was the second thing – here she was, wondering what he’d send today. Wondering, even, if she should be the one to send something, for a change. But if she wanted them to be friends only, that might not be a good idea, because he’d made it clear he wanted more, hadn’t he?
Her phone buzzed on the table beside her, and she jumped. Was it–? No, it was from her physio, wanting to shift this afternoon’s appointment to this morning. Brilliant, she had something to do. Emily confirmed the new time, and jumped – chance would be a fine thing – into the shower.
***
The hospital was busy as usual. Emily handed Pete, the physio, the little packet of chocolate ladybirds she’d brought him from Switzerland, and they both had one while she was having the ultrasound treatment she always had before the exercise regime. Pete was pretty happy with her progress, and Emily cheered up a lot over the course of the half hour. She came out with a new exercise programme to do at home, and strict instructions to stick to it. All that walking she’d done in Switzerland must have done her knee good, even if it hadn’t always felt like it.
She was on her way out of the physio department when someone called her name from behind.
‘Emily! How’s it going?’
Emily turned round. It was Lara, who’d been in the same secondary school class and then gone on to do occupational therapy, but they hadn’t seen each other for ages. Lara caught up with her, and they stood in the corridor to chat.
‘I heard about your accident. It sounded like a bad one, though you seem to be improving a little now.’ Lara waved at Emily’s knee, her face creased in sympathy.
Emily’s good mood dimmed. Gee, it was being so cheerful that kept this woman going… What was wrong with putting a positive slant on things? Something like, ‘I heard about your accident. You’re looking so much better than I expected’. But then, Lara had been a real doom and gloom merchant at school too, always on the lookout for something to be pessimistic about.
Emily smiled sweetly. ‘Pete’s pleased with me, anyway. I guess you work here?’
‘Started last month. I’m finding it hard to…’
A long story about the problems of settling into a new job followed, then Lara took Emily’s arm and led her to a waiting area with chairs.
‘Have a seat while we’re chatting. You look knackered.’
Emily was still recovering from the knackered remark when Lara dropped another bombshell.
‘I was surprised to see Stacy and David have split up.’
Emily gaped at the other girl. ‘They haven’t. What gave you that idea?’
‘Oh – I thought they had. Jay and I saw David out last Tuesday getting pretty merry with a group of people we didn’t know, but Stacy wasn’t there and we… we sort of assumed they weren’t together any more.’
Emily dredged up another smile. ‘Stacy wasn’t there because she and I were in Switzerland last week, that’s all.’
Lara looked startled. ‘Oh. I thought… Well, I guess I got that wrong, then. But lucky you – what was Switzerland like? Were you there for treatment of some kind? ’
Emily swallowed. How to get out of here ASAP?
Two long minutes about lakes and mountains later, Lara went off to her next patient and Emily was free to go home. She sat in the bus, staring out of the window. Okay, Lara could moan for England and she was more than a bit of a gossip, too. Still, it would be interesting to know what, particularly, had made her think that Stacy and David had split up. Should she mention it to Stacy? Emily pondered for a moment, then her head cleared. But of course – last Tuesday was the time Stacy’s mum and dad had seen David too, and they hadn’t noticed anything to be worried about. Sorted.
Feeling more cheerful – Lara was the kind of person you could smile about, after the initial trauma of talking to her, bless her – Emily arrived back home and got out her laptop. Might as well organise all the Swiss pics she had on her phone into folders.
She flipped her phone open and checked her messages first, but nothing new had come in. Okay, so it was her turn. She would think about sending Alan a message this afternoon. Maybe.
***
The lift doors pinged open, and Rico looked up from his trawl through the box of brochures they had for guests who needed info about nearby tourist attractions. And what the brochures were doing floating around in a box was a mystery. In Mum’s day, they’d been neatly laid out on the coffee table for people to browse through, but that was then. It was another sign that nobody was looking after the hotel now – or not in the way Mum had, anyway.
His father rounded the corner at speed and came to lean on the other side of the desk.
‘Ready to join me on a mini tour of Switzerland, son?’ His face was brighter than Rico had seen it for months. Years, even.
‘Huh?’ Rico pushed the box to one side to deal with later.
Ralph pushed a list across the desk. ‘Look. These are all Grande Hotels and clubs and so on. I’ve been chatting up a few of the people who run them or work there, to see what they think about Grande as an employer and as hotel owners. They were all pretty positive. I think this could be a good way forward for Lakeside, Rico, but before I email Grande about it, I’d like to see a couple of the places for myself.’
‘You want us to go and eat in them?’ Rico pulled the list towards him. There were two hotels near Lucerne and one in Rapperswil, all on lakes. Hm. Grande did seem to have a thing about lakeside locations. Also on the list was a conference centre with restaurant near Zurich – on Lake Zurich – and two nightclubs, in Zurich and Lucerne respectively.
He squinted at Ralph. ‘Want to go clubbing, Dad?’
Ralph guffawed. ‘No! But we can still swing past and see them while we’re in the area. Their other places are mostly in the French-speaking part, but I reckon a visit to this lot will give us a good idea.’ He gazed slowly round the front hall. ‘I don’t want to sell Mum’s hotel to just anyone.’
A lump rose in Rico’s throat. Dad did care about the hotel. ‘We couldn’t do them all in one day.’
Ralph grimaced. ‘No. But the days of being rushed off our feet are gone. We can take a couple of days, staying in a Grande place if possible. Are you in?’
What else did he have to do? Rico stood straighter. ‘I’m in.’
And maybe seeing those hotels would give Dad some inspiration for things he’d want to try out here at Lakeside. Maybe this was a good way to get some enthusiasm about saving Lakeside on the go. Or was he whistling in the dark?
***
His father didn’t muck around when he had an idea in his head. Less than an hour later Rico’s phone pinged. You can pack for 3 nights. We leave after lunch. He abandoned the desk and ran upstairs, where Ralph was wielding the iron.
‘Take a couple of shirts, Rico. We’re doing posh tonight.’
Rico shrugged. Part of him didn’t want to have anything to do with a plan that would make it easier for Ralph to sell the hotel, but another part was curious to see the Grande places, and having Dad to himself for hours on end every day would give him a chance to be persuasive about not selling up here, too.
‘Where are we off to first?’
‘Bottom end of Lake Zurich, near Rapperswil. Five-star hotel and a Michelin star in the restaurant. We have two singles.’
It was an interesting idea, thought Rico, throwing underwear into the bottom of his weekend case. Single rooms were often afterthoughts in hotels, so if these rooms were good, the doubles and suites would be too. This wasn’t going to make for a cheap mini-tour, though. Dad was serious about his idea.
The drive to the Hotel Seeblick took an hour and a half, and Rico realised soon after they started that his plan to talk his father round to his way of thinking was matched pretty equally by Ralph’s plan to get him on board with the selling up idea. It would have been funny, if they hadn’t been talking about something so serious. Every point Rico made in favour of keeping the hotel and employing new management was countered by Ralph’s point against it. It was an interesting discussion, though, and Rico’s respect for his father grew. Dad had let things go at Lakeside, yes, but he was determined now to do the best thing for the hotel. Problem was, what Dad thought was best simply didn’t match Rico’s wish to keep Lakeside in the family, and it wasn’t a situation where they could compromise. Either they remained in charge of Lakeside, possibly with a manager, or they didn’t. And as neither of them wanted to oversee the day-to-day management, well… Rico slumped in his seat as the bottom end of Lake Zurich came into view. It didn’t take a genius to work out what the probable outcome to their mini-tour would be.
The Seeblick was everything a posh hotel should be. The carpets were plush and deep, the staff were polite and helpful, the rooms were comfortable and well equipped. And while Rico wasn’t a huge fan of gourmet grub to the extent that the Seeblick produced it, he had to admit that dinner was a fabulous experience.
Ralph wiped his mouth when he’d finished the spun-sugar topping on his mini fruit tart. ‘Coffee and a walk by the lake?’
‘How about a walk by the lake, then a coffee in the bar?’ Rico pulled at his collar. It was warm in here.
They wandered down through the hotel park to the banks of Lake Zurich, a long, thin lake stretching vaguely northwards up to Zurich city. Pinpricks of light were shining through the darkness on both sides of the water, and the clink of sailing boats moored somewhere nearby tinkled eerily through the night air.
‘What do you think, then?’ Ralph sat down on a bench and stretched his legs out.
Rico flopped down beside him. ‘You couldn’t fault anything, but Lakeside could never match that, you know. No matter what they do to it.’
Ralph sighed. ‘I know. But as an organisation, they seem very on the ball, don’t they?’
On the ball was right. Rico took off his tie and rolled it up. Tomorrow’s hotel was in Lucerne, a four-star this time. Lakeside had four stars, though if they were reassessed next week, they’d lose one before you could blink, nothing was clearer than that. He forced back hot tears before they escaped; thank God it was dark. He couldn’t win here, could he? Because all he really wanted was to get the past back, and that was never going to happen.
***
It was nine in the evening, and she still hadn’t decided whether she should text Alan this time. And he hadn’t sent anything today either. Yet. Emily’s thumbs hovered – what on earth could she write? They’d done the weather. Something about the hotel? Or about teaching? No… she would wait another day. Emily flipped the phone shut. In that very second a message pinged in, and she fumbled to open the case again. Wow – yes, it was Alan, and she didn’t know why she was so pleased about it. She’d spent all week in Switzerland trying not to let him get under her skin, and here she was, miles and miles away, and he was somehow managing to do just that.
‘Okay, why are you scowling at your phone like that?’ Stacy was curled up in the armchair, her laptop balanced precariously on her knees.
‘A message from Alan.’ Emily read it out: 2 guests today. Peter in charge, R&R gone to see some hotels. Not sure why. Hope my job’s safe for the summer. It was followed by a serious-face smiley .
‘Oops.’ Stacy was frowning now too. She put her laptop down and stared at Emily. ‘I wonder what’s going on. Rico seemed unsure about whether they’d keep the hotel.’
‘Perhaps they’re negotiating something? Or gone to see something they could replicate at Lakeside, to bring in more business?’ Emily went back to the message. She’d have to answer this with more than a thumbs up. Hope it all works out for you . Was that enough? Should she ask something? He’d reply if she did, was that what she wanted? But she was being daft, of course she should ask something. Alan was her friend. She compromised: Let me know how things go. And send.
His answer took five seconds. It was a thumbs up and a kiss, and Emily almost dropped her phone. Eek.
Stacy stretched out a foot and gave Emily’s leg a little tap. ‘I’m guessing that wasn’t your first text from Alan, then?’
‘Um, no, it wasn’t. We’re friends, Stace, but that’s all.’ You were allowed to worry about your friends, weren’t you? Emily jutted her chin into the air. Friends were fine. But after what happened with scumbag Sam, it would be a long, long time before she was ready for anything more, and a few messages from Alan weren’t going to change that.