Chapter Fourteen #2
‘Me too,’ said Nate. He turned to look at her, his eyes huge from wine and emotion, then reached out to give her hand a squeeze, before quickly letting go. ‘I’m sorry, Lucy.’
A flickering ball of light appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, and it took a moment for Lucy to realise that it was .
. . sparklers. Gunther started to sing ‘Zum Geburtstag viel Glück’, then Andrea struck up the music to the birthday song and everyone sang it in a combination of German and English.
‘Ice cream,’ sang Monica, placing a giant bowl of vanilla ice cream in front of Lucy as the sparklers fizzled out to burned sticks.
‘I emptied the freezer earlier and most of it is buried outside in the snow, but we might as well eat the ice cream.’ Chantal followed with a stack of small bowls and spoons, which she dumped in front of Lucy with a look that screamed I’m going to have to wash these up by hand later, and I’ve decided it’s your fault.
Lucy felt her heart fill with affection for this eclectic collection of people, rubbing her puffy eyes with the heel of her hands and smiling at Nate as he handed her a spoon.
They all piled into the ice cream, an end-of-holiday vibe in the room.
Alex started taking more photos and videos, presumably for a bumper content spree as soon as the Wi-Fi came back.
She grinned for a photo with her fake birthday ice cream cake, feeling infinitely better for drowning her hangover in more wine and food.
Crying out some of the heaviness of the past twenty-four hours had felt good too.
‘Tell me about Alex’s royal connections,’ said Lucy, as Willem slid into the booth next to her, shuffling her closer to Nate.
‘He’s sixteenth in line to the Dutch throne,’ he said mildly, as though he was simply telling Lucy he worked in financial services.
‘So if there was a really big plane crash, technically he could be king.’
‘Technically, yes,’ said Willem, his brow furrowed. ‘But those fifteen people would never get on a plane together. It would need to be several co-ordinated plane crashes.’
‘Who is sixteenth in line to the British throne?’ Lucy asked Nate.
‘You’d have to ask my Dutch grandma,’ he replied with a wry smile. ‘I think she’s got them all written down.’
‘Are you going to sing again?’ asked Willem.
‘No,’ said Nate. ‘That was very much a one-off. We’ve drunk all the wine, eaten all the ice cream, sung all the songs, and now it’s time to go to bed.’
‘Yeah, I think you’re right,’ said Lucy, stretching her arms above her head as she yawned lavishly.
Somehow she felt less weird about sharing the attic with Nate than she had earlier – maybe because they’d both opened up a little this evening, or maybe because she was drunk again.
His situation with Sasha still felt like the senior management elephant in the room, but Nate didn’t seem bothered about how his girlfriend might react to the Guntherhütte sleeping arrangements, so why should Lucy care?
Maybe Nate and Sasha had a casual arrangement, like she had with Anthony and Marco.
‘You should get the cake video from Alex,’ Chantal announced, slithering into the booth across from Lucy. ‘When the power comes back on, you can send it to your two boyfriends, so they know you’re having a good birthday.’
There was a beat of silence as Nate turned to Lucy. ‘Two boyfriends?’
‘It’s really cool,’ Chantal continued animatedly, waving her hands to get Willem’s attention too. ‘Didn’t Lucy tell you? She’s in a relationship with two different guys.’
‘Oh, hello,’ said Alex smoothly, pulling up a chair and resting his chin on his hands, clearly enraptured. ‘This sounds like a conversation I don’t want to miss.’
‘That wasn’t public information,’ said Lucy through gritted teeth, fixing Chantal with her best laser death stare. ‘That was a kitchen secret, between us women.’
‘Don’t let that stop you now,’ chipped in Alex.
‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ said Chantal, not looking sorry at all. ‘I just thought Nate would know.’
‘No,’ said Nate with a forced smile. ‘And on that bombshell, I think it’s probably time for bed.’ He wriggled out of the booth and hurried off, saying goodnight to the rest of the crowd on the way.
‘That was completely out of order,’ hissed Lucy after he’d gone.
‘How could I know you hadn’t told him?’ said Chantal, her face the picture of wide-eyed innocence. ‘You told us in the kitchen, and we’re complete strangers. And you said you weren’t his girlfriend.’ They spoke in strained whispers, so the rest of the group couldn’t hear.
‘I’m not his girlfriend,’ said Lucy. ‘We work together. Which makes my private life none of his business.’ Willem and Alex glanced back and forth between the two of them, like they were watching a very intense tennis match.
‘Oh,’ said Chantal with a look of wide-eyed surprise. ‘I’m sorry.’ She tilted her head to one side, and Lucy realised she had totally underestimated Chantal. ‘Are you angry because you actually like him?’
‘Whoa, girl,’ hissed Alex, recoiling dramatically. ‘Shit got real.’
Lucy gave her a hard look, weighing up how much of her fury was because she was drunk and Chantal was a devious cow, and how much was because Chantal was one hundred per cent correct.
‘Good night, Chantal,’ she said, opting not to spoil what had actually been quite a fun evening.
Alex was hovering with his phone, poised to start videoing their catfight, and some things were probably best left unsaid.
‘Are you asleep?’ whispered Lucy, stepping over Nate and plonking herself down on her airbed.
It was already significantly less inflated than earlier, which didn’t bode well for a good night’s sleep.
She stood her torch on the floor so it reflected off the ceiling, casting a warm glow around the room.
‘Not any more,’ said Nate, turning over and sitting up, being careful not to bash his head on the roof beams. ‘What’s happening downstairs?’ He looked adorably ruffled in a white T-shirt that showed off nice arms. Nothing like Anthony’s, obviously, but Nate was clearly no stranger to the gym.
‘Nothing much,’ said Lucy. ‘I helped Monica, Gunther and Willem clear up. Washing up in a head torch felt like when you go camping as a kid.’
‘Sorry, I should have stayed to help with that.’ He fiddled with the duvet, not able to look her in the eye.
‘It’s fine, although you could have translated the argument Andrea and Felix were having. The only words I understood were “Adele” and “Bee Gees”.’
‘Well, I think we can fill in the gaps for ourselves there,’ yawned Nate, ruffling his hair. ‘Where did Alex and Chantal go?’
‘They both made themselves scarce,’ said Lucy. ‘I think Chantal thought I might punch her, and I don’t think Baron Alexander Jansen does washing-up.’
‘He probably has minions for that kind of thing,’ said Nate with a sleepy smile.
‘Or possibly Willem, who is lovely. He’s already invited us to visit him in Amsterdam, so I think we’ve made a friend for life.’
They were both quiet for a minute, and the silence felt deafening.
‘Why did you lie?’ asked Nate.
‘About what?’ said Lucy, even though she knew.
‘I asked you earlier if you had a boyfriend, and you said no.’
‘I didn’t lie,’ replied Lucy, having prepared her defence on the way up the stairs. ‘I do have a couple of . . . arrangements, but neither of them are my boyfriend.’
‘Why not?’
Lucy shrugged. ‘Because that isn’t the arrangement.’
‘OK, but it’s not “I’m single”, either.’
‘I can see how it might not seem that way, but I definitely still think of myself as single. It’s just quite a big thing to tell somebody you don’t know very well. I didn’t want you to judge.’
Nate gave a barking laugh. ‘You told Monica and Andrea and Chantal. You don’t know them at all.’
‘OK, but I’m never going to see them again, which is totally different from telling somebody I work with.’
‘Mmm,’ said Nate, clearly still not convinced.
‘Look, it was kitchen girl-chat, I was a bit drunk. The regret has now kicked in.’
Nate smiled and shook his head, and Lucy hoped she might be forgiven. It surely couldn’t have escaped him that he wasn’t exactly being transparent about his love life either, so presumably he wasn’t going to push it.
‘These beds are really shit, by the way,’ he said.
‘I know. I tried sleeping earlier. That pile of deckchairs is probably more comfortable.’
‘Hopefully we’re only here for one night, though,’ said Nate, yawning again. ‘With any luck we’ll be with the others in Geneva tomorrow.’ He glanced at his watch and pulled a face. ‘Well, today now.’
‘Mmm,’ said Lucy. Nate would probably be shacked up in Sasha’s hotel room this time tomorrow, and she’d be in bed alone.
She hadn’t messaged Anthony and Marco yet, although presumably neither knew about her Swiss drama and so had no reason to be concerned.
She’d spent years cultivating a life where she was emotionally beholden to no one, but right now the idea that absolutely nobody was worrying about her left her feeling strangely empty.
‘You OK?’ asked Nate, looking at her doubtfully.
‘Yeah.’ Lucy smiled sadly. ‘I need some sleep, I think.’ She turned off the torch and snuggled down under the duvet, rubbing her cold feet on the mattress and hoping the friction of skin against polyester didn’t start a fire.
‘Goodnight, Lucy,’ said Nate quietly.
‘Night,’ said Lucy, wishing for the first time in forever that she could snuggle into the warmth of someone else’s body and just sleep.