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George:Have you gone abroad? I know you’re upset but I need to speak to you about the house. Call me.
Should I call him? Should I? Why should I? No.
I’d miraculously managed to find a home for my clothes, shoes and miscellaneous things in the tiny spaces Liv had left me. The selection of fleeces Mum had bought from F&F were now neatly folded up in the drawer under my bed. My lucky dresses were hanging in the wardrobe and my spiky boots were polished and waiting for action on the shoe rack. Ready to get out into Verbier and see what it was all about.
I found Xavier sitting at the kitchen table, scribbling hard with a stubby pencil.
‘You’re awake,’ he said, looking up.
‘Yes, I must have dropped off for a few hours. It was quite a journey,’ I said, looking around. The kitchen was immaculate. Dark-blue cupboards with old, gold handles and mahogany worktops. It was a traditional, family-type kitchen. The oven was a standard size with an island in the centre of the room for prepping the food. It was somewhere between my cubby-hole kitchen in London and Margot’s more professional operation at the bistro. I’d need a few days of nosying around to work out what went where, but I felt immediately at home.
‘I’m just working on the menu,’ he said. ‘This is the first official weekend of the season and I want it to be special.’
‘What’s the story with them? Brother and sister but they own this place together? Sounds a bit romantic?’ I said, sitting next to him.
‘They are the rich kids who got lucky in the divorce.’
‘Oh wow, that’s more than lucky! I wouldn’t get a box of teabags if my parents got divorced.’ I said, thinking of Mum and Dad back at home, harmoniously married. ‘Must be a weird vibe sitting down for fine dining every night with your brother?’ I said, trying to imagine it.
‘It’s rarely just the two of them,’ Xavier said as he carried on scribbling. ‘They usually have guests or friends here from Paris, so I always cater for six.’ I noticed he was wearing a wedding ring and self-consciously rubbed the dent on my engagement finger to encourage the puffing out process. I’d been so looking forward to my wedding ring being a permanent feature and had zoomed in on thousands of bands before finding ‘the one’. When it finally arrived, I used to try it on for an hour each day to see how I looked in the mirror as a waving wife and how I looked sending an email as a typing wife and how I looked popping out to the shops as a driving wife. I’d gotten kind of used to it. Xavier’s wedding ring was too shiny to have been around for very long. Just my luck to be paired with a loved-up newlywed when I was wallowing in my own love-less misery.
Xavier looked up. ‘Don’t look so worried; it’s just the two of them coming up tomorrow to open the chalet for the season. We won’t be doing six guests for a week or two.’
‘I’m not worried about a table of six. Margot and I do close to forty every day for lunch and dinner. Is there a wine merchant for the wine pairing each week, or do we order it direct from the suppliers?’
‘Ohhhh, of course you won’t know.’
‘Know what?’ I asked.
‘You’re in for a treat. Luca has a legendary wine cellar with every wine you can imagine, so we just need to choose and serve the wine each night,’ Xavier said with a smile.
Wow. So the answers would all be in the cellar, and I could work with Xavier to make sure the food and wine worked together. I’d need to stay super-vigilant with my homework though; I didn’t want to muddle up my bouquet and body in front of the French fashionistas.
‘Sounds amazing, where is it?’ I asked, looking around.
‘At the back of the wooden staircase in the hallway. There’s a door behind the green curtain. Luca will give you the official tour when he arrives; it’s his pride and joy.’
‘Can I go and have a sneaky peek now?’
Xavier looked up and smiled. ‘No chance. That door is well and truly locked. Luca will give you a set of keys once he’s shown you around.’
Xavier did a final flourishing scribble and examined his work.
‘Is it looking good?’ I asked, nervously.
‘It is perfection,’ he nodded, looking pleased with himself, ‘and I’ve added some suggested wine pairings to help the new girl out on her first day,’ he said with a smile. ‘Oh, and Liv said to let you know your uniform is hanging up in the laundry room.’
‘Uniform?’
‘Oui, we’ve all got them. I wear chef’s whites and you and Liv are in navy.’
‘With a plume of red and white feathers?’ I asked. ‘They must have more money than they know what to do with. Why do they care what we wear behind closed doors?’
‘I suppose it’s to impress their guests,’ Xavier said, ‘make it clear that we’re the staff? Are you not into dressing up?’ he asked with an innocent look.
‘Not French national dress, no.’
My phone lit up and started ringing off the table andHubbie-To-Beappeared on the screen. Xavier looked from me to the phone and back again. I couldn’t keep putting it off. I’d have to face him eventually.
