Chapter Six
‘I’m so glad you’re here,’ sighed Lucy as Jonno hugged her tightly, looking tired and harassed. Behind him, Sasha, Maya and Olly immediately fell into the group of clients in a flurry of greetings, handshakes and apologies, but Jonno had ignored everyone else and made a beeline straight for Lucy.
‘Been a tricky evening?’ he asked, swiping the glass of wine from her hand and draining half of it in one go. He waved his arms at the barman and pointed to Lucy’s glass, then held up two fingers.
‘No, it’s been fine,’ said Lucy. ‘Dinner went on forever and I’ve eaten my bodyweight in cheese. The kitchen is still open for you guys, Kristoff is going to get them to bring out some more food.’
‘Thank God, I’m starving,’ said Jonno, glancing over at Kristoff, who was on the phone at the head of the dinner table. ‘What’s he doing?’
‘A conference call with New York,’ said Lucy with a shrug. ‘The wheels of commerce never stop turning.’
‘Condommerce,’ said Jonno, turning to the barman and accepting two glasses of wine. ‘Can you just give us the bottle?’
‘Cheers,’ said Lucy, clinking Jonno’s glass.
‘Cheers,’ replied Jonno. ‘How’s Kristoff been?’
‘He’s actually really good company,’ said Lucy. ‘Not what I expected at all.’
‘He’s a good guy,’ said Jonno. ‘But very much a ladies’ man, by all accounts. I did wonder if he’d take a fancy to you.’
‘It wouldn’t matter to me if he did,’ said Lucy dismissively. ‘But for what it’s worth, he’s been entirely professional. Apart from trying to persuade me to go to some bar up the mountain.’
‘See, that’s how it begins,’ laughed Jonno. ‘Men like Kristoff tempt you up a mountain, and before you know it you’re having sex on a sheepskin rug in front of a roaring log fire. Where’s French Exit?’
‘He sat next to Thérèse for dinner; they’ve been prattling away in French about Titan strategy, so I think she’s in love. Then we got the message you guys had arrived and he disappeared. I thought he’d gone to the bathroom, but he never came back.’
‘Christ, he could give Funsponge Fran a run for her money. Here, have a top-up.’ He slopped another inch of wine into Lucy’s glass, just as Kristoff finished his phone call and stood up. ‘Good, looks like he’s done, so we can get some food. I could eat that dead stag.’
‘Jonno!’ exclaimed Kristoff, sidling over and wedging himself between the two of them so he could wrap his arms around both their shoulders.
‘Hey, K-Dog!’ boomed Jonno. ‘How’s the world of designer cock-jackets?’
‘Always on the up, J-Dog,’ said Kristoff with a grin, as Lucy did a tiny sick in her mouth. K-Dog and J-Dog? She could practically feel her vagina healing over.
‘You need a drink?’ asked Jonno, looking appalled at Kristoff’s lack of beverage.
‘I’m all good right now,’ replied Kristoff. ‘We’ve got a big day planned tomorrow. Maybe you can help me persuade Lucy to come with us to a bar in the mountains. She’s being very non-committal.’
‘Non-committal is Lucy’s middle name,’ said Jonno, chugging down more wine. ‘In fact, she’s—’
‘What’s the bar like?’ interrupted Lucy, before Jonno told Kristoff about her lack of meaningful commitments.
‘It’s great,’ said Kristoff. ‘Run by this guy called Gunther and his family. Very cute, good pizza, live music sometimes, gets a little rowdy once the J?germeister starts flowing. We all went up there last night, had a great time.’
Jonno turned to Lucy, his brow furrowed in fake confusion. ‘Why wouldn’t you want to go to a place like that?’ he asked, his mouth twitching with laughter. ‘You’ve never said no to a bar before.’ She gave him a tight-lipped grin, imagining all the ways she was going to punish him for this.
‘I can’t really ski,’ said Lucy, plastering on her most charming smile. In reality she’d never skied in her life, even on a dry ski slope, but Kristoff didn’t need to know that.
‘It’s fine, there’s a piste bus,’ said Kristoff. ‘It’s got those caterpillar tracks, so it can take non-skiers up the mountain so they don’t miss out on the party. You can meet us there.’
‘Sounds great,’ said Lucy, not very convincingly. Taking a tank up a mountain sounded terrifying.
‘Excellent,’ said Kristoff, flashing his most charming smile.
‘I’m actually thinking about buying the place, I’ve always wanted my own mountain bar.
It’s got a two-bedroom apartment too, so I could work from there during the ski season, get some cool people to run it. Make it the best bar in the Alps.’
‘Is it for sale?’ asked Lucy.
‘Everything is for sale,’ replied Kristoff with a shrug. ‘You just have to name the right price.’
What must it be like to have that much money and confidence?
wondered Lucy. Not that she’d ever been short of money, exactly.
When Leo had died, the company he worked for had paid out an employee life insurance policy of four times his annual salary, and it turned out he’d put Lucy’s name on the beneficiary form on his first day.
Her mother had taken this as some kind of personal attack, but her dad had smoothed things over as usual, then suggested that Lucy put the money towards her two-bed flat in Bedminster.
She’d had various lodgers over the years, allowing her to overpay on her mortgage until it was gone.
For the past two years she’d lived alone, putting her disposable income into savings for some unspecified future adventure that felt too terrifying to think about right now.
But buying a mountain bar, just like that?
Clearly she and Kristoff inhabited very different worlds.
She realised he was still talking, and tuned back in.
‘So on Saturday we work, but tomorrow we ski and drink and party,’ he said.
‘Surely it makes more sense the other way round?’ said Sasha, joining them at the bar and kissing Kristoff on both cheeks. ‘Hello, Kristoff.’
‘Sasha! So good to see you,’ said Kristoff. ‘There’s a crazy amount of snow forecast for tomorrow night; they may close some of the pistes. So we thought we’d have fun first and work later.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Sasha. She nodded at Jonno’s refilled glass of wine, which was halfway to his mouth. ‘Is that mine?’
Jonno sighed and silently handed it over, then turned to the barman and waved his hands for another bottle.
‘Plans for tomorrow, everyone,’ said Kristoff, clapping his hands to get their attention.
The chatter died down, and Olly and Maya moved closer, accompanied by the three other members of the Titan team.
‘Now all our guests have finally joined us.’ Sasha glared at Olly, who looked like a man who’d been systematically disembowelled over many hours.
Lucy glanced around to see if Nate had returned from wherever he disappeared to, but there was no sign of him.
‘Actually, plans for tonight first – more food is on its way, so you guys can eat and relax. Tomorrow, we ski.’
‘What’s the weather forecast?’ asked Thérèse.
‘Some snow forecast tonight, so plenty of fresh powder tomorrow,’ said Kristoff.
‘We can explore all the best runs and make sure everyone has a great day.’ He looked at each of them hopefully, and in that moment Lucy could see why women found him charming and irresistible.
Here was a man who could afford to outsource every minute of this trip to various minions, but instead had decided to personally ensure everyone had a good time.
His eyes settled briefly on Lucy, and she realised that she could probably capture the heart of a man like Kristoff, if she wanted to.
At least for the weekend, anyway. Luckily, she didn’t want to, which made things considerably less complicated.
‘I still can’t ski,’ she laughed.
‘Neither can we,’ said Olly quickly, gesturing to him and Maya.
‘We’re going to the spa, you can come with us.
’ Lucy pretended to nod enthusiastically, even though the thought of it gave her a headache.
Olly and Maya were both fabulous fun individually, but putting them together was like adding a shot of prosecco to a Pornstar Martini.
Overly sweet, unnecessarily extra. Also, if there was one thing she never did on the anniversary of Leo’s death, it was go anywhere near water.
‘Ooh, I would love a spa day,’ said Thérèse. ‘Count me in.’
‘Sasha and I are definitely up for skiing,’ said Jonno, grinning at Lucy like he was some kind of superhero who’d swooped in to save her. Better late than never.
‘Paul, Nick and me too,’ said Kristoff. Nick was Titan’s lead product manager; an expert in innovative condom marketing that Titan had headhunted from the market leader. It was a source of great distress to Jonno that nobody called him Titanick, but maybe it was only the British who loved puns.
‘What about your other guy?’ asked Kristoff. ‘The one with all the hair. Nate. Where’s he gone?’
‘He had to go back to the hotel,’ said Lucy quickly.
‘He had a headache.’ She glanced at Sasha, who raised her eyebrows in question.
Lucy had no idea why she was covering for Nate; it wasn’t like she owed him anything.
But he’d been thrown into this circus at the last minute, and it didn’t seem right that he was in trouble before their first day had even ended, even if leaving without saying goodbye to your hosts was kind of rude.
‘Hope he’s OK,’ said Kristoff dismissively. ‘Can he ski?’
‘Yeah,’ said Lucy, at exactly the same time as Sasha.
Lucy looked at her with interest, wondering how Sasha knew about Nate’s on-piste proficiency.
She’d never seen the two of them have so much as a conversation, although Nate had definitely worked in the agency’s Paris office for a while.
So maybe he and Sasha had been on another client trip together.
‘Are you sure you don’t want to try skiing, Lucy?’ said Kristoff. ‘I’m happy to organise a private instructor.’
‘I’m fine,’ said Lucy cheerfully. ‘I might join these guys at the spa, or just go for a walk or something. Really happy just to be here.’