Chapter Nineteen
‘We have good news,’ said Monica, beaming around at the group.
Lucy glanced at Chantal, who was glaring at her from behind the bar, no doubt furious that she’d failed to make her look frumpy.
Andrea and Felix were both on their usual stools in the corner, and Willem and Alex were in the booth next to Lucy and Nate.
It occurred to her that this was exactly how things had been at lunchtime on Friday before everything got out of hand.
‘Gunther spoke to the team in the village,’ continued Monica. ‘They have started blasting to be sure of no more avalanches, and then later this morning they will be using a snowplough to clear the piste for the bus. They are coming to collect you all today.’
‘So when will they be here?’ asked Alex excitedly.
‘Sometime this afternoon,’ said Gunther. ‘The road to the village should be opening today, and they are expecting some of the pistes to be open again tomorrow. You will be able to leave Zermatt today if you want to, and things will get back to normal.’
Lucy smiled at Nate, who reached over to take her hand.
She instinctively snatched it away, more forcefully than she had intended, but it was too late.
Nate looked crestfallen, and Chantal and Andrea had obviously noticed.
She glanced over at Alex, who was giving Willem a nudge and a nod in their direction.
Shit, thought Lucy, feeling exposed and annoyed with herself.
Now everyone would think this was a big romance, which it clearly wasn’t.
But then she reminded herself that she was never going to see any of them again, so it hardly mattered.
Though actually, she could imagine a boozy weekend in Amsterdam with Willem and Alex, but it was impossible to imagine Nate being there.
In Lucy’s head they would go back to being colleagues, with fond memories of this crazy experience, and never mention it to each other or anyone else.
That was how it was supposed to be, right?
Her brain felt foggy, like things were moving too fast and in several directions at once.
She tried to catch Nate’s eye, but he kept his gaze firmly fixed on Monica as she answered Felix’s irrelevantly detailed questions about the rescue plans.
Clearly she and Nate were going to need to have a conversation at some point, set some clear boundaries for when they got back to Bristol.
She mentally kicked herself for letting her guard down; it was always easier when you kept things simple and transparent.
‘So there are guests back in the village again?’ asked Andrea.
‘Yes,’ said Gunther. ‘They are already arriving, and the machines will be clearing pistes all day. By this afternoon all the hotels will be full.’
‘This is good news,’ said Felix. ‘Andrea and I have a hotel gig tonight, so maybe that will still go ahead.’
‘You should change your name,’ said Lucy, absently picking at some crumbs on the table. ‘Instead of Night Fever, you can be the Refubeegees.’
Felix paused for a second as he processed what Lucy had said, then roared with laughter. ‘This is fantastic. You are very funny!’ Everyone else joined in, looking at Lucy like she was some kind of comedy genius. Even Nate’s mouth twitched into a smile.
‘Refubeegees!’ exclaimed Gunther. ‘How did you think of that?’
‘Lucy is a writer,’ said Nate. ‘She channels all her emotions into clever words.’
Ouch, thought Lucy, feeling the temperature of the air between them drop by a couple of degrees. If this is how upset Nate got because she wasn’t up for a public display of affection, they definitely needed to have a chat.
‘Alex and I only arrived for our holiday on Friday,’ said Willem. ‘We dropped our bags at the hotel and came up here for lunch before we checked in. So maybe we can ski tomorrow and enjoy the rest of our holiday.’
‘No,’ said Alex firmly. ‘We have to go home.’
‘Why?’ asked Willem, looking even more upset than Nate.
‘Because when I had Wi-Fi earlier I checked my emails. I have many requests for TV interviews about this experience. I need to get back as soon as possible.’
‘Why can’t you do interviews from Zermatt?’ asked Willem. Lucy imagined how good Alex would look on camera, the Matterhorn in the background as he happily embellished their perilous adventure for every Dutch news outlet.
‘Because some of them are requests to be in the studio, or on a talk show. I need to be in Amsterdam.’
‘But this is the holiday I organised for our engagement,’ said Willem. ‘I had the whole thing planned out.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Alex with a shrug, not sounding very sorry at all. ‘But this is my job, and I am literally the only person with any profile who can talk about what we’ve been through.’
‘You say that like it’s been some kind of ordeal.’ Lucy tried not to roll her eyes. ‘We’ve hardly suffered.’
‘You may have had a great time,’ said Alex, giving her and Nate a significant look. ‘But I’m not used to this kind of food and sleeping on a sofa bed and not having electricity or Wi-Fi. It’s, like, medieval.’
Lucy gave him a hard stare back. ‘Can I give you some advice, Alex?’ she said, leaning forward and resting her hands on the table. ‘As someone who works in advertising and spends a lot of time thinking about brand reputation?’
‘No,’ said Alex sulkily.
‘How many people in the Netherlands are homeless?’
He shrugged. ‘I have no idea.’
‘Neither do I, but I suspect it’s tens of thousands. And if you go on TikTok and talk about your ORDEAL being stuck in a Swiss ski hut with food and heat and wine and music and nice people, you’re going to sound like a massive arsehole.’
Alex looked at Willem, then Nate, who shrugged and muttered, ‘She’s right.’
‘And what’s more,’ continued Lucy, ‘I will be all up in your comments, telling people what it was really like.’
‘Me too,’ said Andrea quietly. ‘And I don’t really know what TikTok is.’
‘Right,’ said Alex. ‘So I should be humble and grateful, then.’
‘I think that would be wise.’
‘Good,’ said Willem, clapping his hands to break the tension. ‘I’m glad we’ve got that cleared up. Monica, what can we do today, while we wait for rescue to arrive?’
‘It is nearly eleven, so I will make brunch now,’ said Monica.
‘While I do that, maybe you could all help us clean this place up. Bag up all the spoiled food, bring in more logs, make it our home again. So we are ready for guests tomorrow.’ She turned and glared at Gunther.
‘Ulrich is bringing a new generator, so we will have power again.’
‘We’d be delighted,’ said Lucy, looking at Alex. ‘Wouldn’t we?’
‘I am humble and grateful,’ said Alex, pushing his phone across the table to Willem. ‘Make sure you video me cleaning up.’
Nate cornered Lucy a few hours later, as she was sitting at the bar drawing a flyer for Chantal to hand out to customers with the usual lunch menu.
Words were Lucy’s forte, but she could also draw some nice pictures if required, which Jonno sometimes requested as he realised that Lucy could scamp up some visual ideas in less time than it would take him to brief a designer.
She’d also learned calligraphy as part of her post-Leo art therapy, so she could do fancy lettering.
Proper pens would be nice, but coloured Sharpies would do.
‘What’s this for?’ asked Nate, taking in the headline that said AvaLUNCH special – any pizza and 0.5L beer only €10. Underneath, Lucy had drawn one of the Guntherhütte booths laden with pizzas and tall glasses of beer, with snow-capped mountains and trees visible through the window behind.
‘I’ve convinced Gunther and Monica that they should capitalise on their fifteen minutes of fame,’ said Lucy.
‘Apparently Alex gave the name of the bar on the TikTok post he uploaded this morning, so they’re bound to be famous by now.
Monica has a photocopier out the back, so I only need to do this once. ’
‘Wow,’ said Nate, inspecting Lucy’s artwork. ‘This is really good. Look, can we talk?’
‘Sure,’ said Lucy, putting the cap back on her black pen and trying to quell the butterflies in her stomach. She hated confrontation and avoided big, emotional conversations at all costs. But this one clearly needed to be had.
‘Can we go upstairs? Just for a minute?’
It definitely didn’t sound like much of an invitation, but Lucy nodded and followed Nate through the door and up the stairs to their attic.
The air mattresses and bedding were all gone, and the only sign of their occupation was a dark patch on the wood floor where Lucy had left the pile of wet clothes overnight.
Monica had re-washed them and hung them by the fire earlier, brushing off Lucy’s apologies for damaging the floor.
Monica had pointed out that caring about the floor in the attic would be a whole other level of Swiss.
‘What are your plans?’ said Nate, turning to face her. ‘When we get back?’ He looked pale and nervous, much like he had when they’d met in the airport three days ago. How was it possible that it was only three days? It felt like they’d travelled a lifetime since then.
‘What, to the village?’ replied Lucy. ‘We’ll be too late for our booked flight, so I guess I’ll sort out another one for later tonight. Or tomorrow.’
‘No, I meant when we get back to Bristol. Can we hang out? Grab dinner or something?’
Lucy laughed, trying to buy herself time while she worked out a way to navigate through this conversation. ‘Aren’t you sick of me? Don’t you have family you need to spend time with?’ Like Sasha, for example?
‘No, Lucy,’ said Nate, his expression a little lost, but determined to have his say. ‘I’m not sick of you at all. Last night was . . . I mean, it wasn’t just me who thought that was incredible, right?’
‘No,’ said Lucy with a soft smile. ‘It wasn’t just you.’
‘Right. So . . . what happens now?’
Lucy gave him a penetrating look, wondering exactly what he was asking, but knowing that the answer was simple.