Chapter Five #2
‘Dix minutes,’ said the driver. Lucy checked her watch again, calculating what time they’d arrive in Zermatt.
Cars weren’t allowed in the village, so they’d go as far as T?sch, about five kilometres away, then get an electric shuttle bus from there.
She was hungry and needed a drink, but also felt like she’d been travelling for days and definitely wouldn’t say no to an early night.
Hopefully the Titan team would turn out to be as clean-living as she’d heard, and would be in bed by 10 p.m. with some whale music and an eye mask.
‘HEYYYYY,’ shouted Kristoff as Lucy ducked into the bar a few doors down from their hotel.
‘The LUNA advance party are here, get another round in!’ Lucy smiled weakly, already slightly overwhelmed by the textbook Alpine decor of wood panelling, furry throws and various heads of dead animals lined up on the walls.
Under a particularly outraged-looking stag was a table set for ten, which was clearly for the Titan team because each placemat already had a gold pack of condoms on it.
How was Kristoff hoping the evening was going to pan out? The mind boggled.
‘Hi,’ said Lucy. ‘Thanks for waiting, and sorry everyone else is running late.’
‘It’s no problem,’ said Kristoff heartily, reaching out to shake both their hands. ‘You’re Lucy and Nate, right? Sasha gave me an update on all the travel drama.’
Lucy nodded, slightly dazzled by his puppy-like enthusiasm.
Kristoff was aggressively handsome in a Disney villain kind of way – tall and fit with dirty-blond hair, startling blue eyes and perfect teeth, and a sing-song American accent that still held on to the tiniest hint of Swedish, like that made him more interesting.
The whole effect was like somebody had made a Ken doll out of Alexander Skarsg?rd, which wasn’t exactly repellent, but definitely wasn’t Lucy’s type.
Aside from anything else, she wouldn’t ever consider screwing the client – she might not do relationships the way most people did, but she did have some kind of moral compass.
The rest of the team introduced themselves – Thérèse, Nick and Paul.
Thérèse was familiar but the two other men were new to Lucy, so she committed their names and job titles to memory in case she needed to make intelligent conversation later.
If this whole weekend tanked their relationship with Titan, it wouldn’t be her fault.
‘Let’s get you a drink,’ said Kristoff, making a space so Lucy could get to the bar.
She surreptitiously checked out his outfit – designer jeans, white T-shirt, grey blazer and white leather trainers.
There were no overt logos or blingy details – it was a top-to-toe masterclass in wearing a thousand-dollar outfit whilst looking like you’d made no effort whatsoever.
Lucy couldn’t help but admire him for it, and he undeniably smelled incredible.
‘So, Lucy,’ he said with a boylike grin, and she braced herself for an onslaught of over-confident flirting. ‘I just want to say that I’m a huge fan of your writing. We wouldn’t have made it so far without your incredible work.’
‘Oh,’ said Lucy, feeling wildly wrong-footed. His blue eyes were dazzling, but his expression was one of utmost respect and admiration. ‘Thank you.’
‘I’m surprised we’ve never met before.’ He lifted his hand to attract the barman. ‘Jonno has clearly been hiding you away.’
‘It’s my choice,’ said Lucy quickly. Jonno had repeatedly invited her to client workshops or awards events, but she’d always said no.
‘I prefer to keep my head down.’ She blushed, because that sounded a bit like a sex reference, but Kristoff either didn’t get it or didn’t care.
Lucy ordered an Aperol Spritz and smiled helplessly, frantically raking through her library of interesting Kristoff topics and coming up with precisely nothing.
‘Well, we’re really glad to have you here,’ he said.
Lucy had been determined not to like him, having assumed he was a typical rich entrepreneur playboy with an excess of confidence and a dearth of time and respect for the little people, but apparently Kristoff Berg wasn’t like that at all.
She glanced over at Nate, who was standing with the rest of the Titan team looking a little lost, and wondered fleetingly if Kristoff was the only person she’d misjudged today.
‘One Aperol Spritz,’ said Kristoff, taking the giant wine glass from the barman and handing it to Lucy. ‘Welcome to Zermatt.’
‘Thank you,’ said Lucy, taking a sip and wondering why she hadn’t ordered something she actually liked.
It was Leo, of course – she and her brother had discovered Aperol on a family camping holiday to Italy when they were sixteen, long before it had made it to any of Croydon’s sticky cocktail bars.
Their parents had allowed them to join in with a pre-dinner aperitivo, so the two teenagers had both drunk an Aperol Spritz every day and decided it was the only thing they would drink when they were sophisticated adults.
It had tasted like paint stripper then and it tasted like paint stripper now, but she still knocked back one or two in Leo’s honour whenever the occasion presented itself. And in the Alps, it felt like a must.
‘So, how was your journey?’ asked Kristoff, clearly keen to keep their conversation going.
Paul appeared at his shoulder to show him a message he’d just received on his phone, so Lucy took the opportunity to glance over at Nate again, who was now chatting to Thérèse the Marketing Director.
By the nature of Thérèse’s expressive hand gestures and the fact that her lips were moving at a million miles an hour, Lucy assumed the conversation was in French.
There was a momentary break while Thérèse reached over to pass Nate his drink, and he looked up and caught Lucy’s eye, glancing between her and Kristoff.
His expression was . . . what? Confused?
Jealous? Lost? He definitely looked like he wanted to be somewhere else, but Lucy couldn’t tell if that was by her side with her head on his shoulder, or a very long way from this bar.