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‘And not just any trousers –my trousers,’ Liv said, holding them over me with two fingers, ‘or as they shall henceforth be known,yourtrousers.’
‘Sorry, sorry, thank you.’
‘No problem. That’s 70 Swiss francs,’ she said.
‘For what?’
‘They’re no use to me now, I’ll have to burn them! God only knows what they’ve caught from Luca’s bedroom floor. And if I might offer a small word of advice from a dabbling-with-Luca perspective… I wouldn’t go any further with it,’ Liv said, sharply.
‘Why not?’
Liv pulled on her thermals and plaited her hair. ‘You’re still getting over one nightmare of a man who screwed you over, and I hate to say it, but Luca will highly likely be another.’ She sat on the edge of my bed. ‘Look we’re not really supposed to talk about it, but he’s got a bit of a reputation for hooking up with the staff. Something happened between him and the last girl that was here, Rose. She was supposed to come back this season but didn’t turn up for work. Xavier and I weren’t sure what was going on. There was some kerfuffle between Genevieve and Luca, and then a week later, you turned up.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ I said, getting back into bed and putting the pillow over my head, ‘but there’s hardly anything going on. Honestly.’ I absolutely did not want to become an accidental notch on Luca’s belt, if this is what he did with all the chalet girls.
‘I’m just saying that it’s all cool and fun while there’s trousers on the floor, but it won’t be his life that changes if things don’t work out.’ Liv leant over and gave me a hug.
‘Thanks for the heads up. I appreciate it.’ I mumbled into her ear.
I sighed into my pillow, roly-poly-ed the duvet around me and went back to sleep.
*
Xavier was sitting at the kitchen table with his menu notebook, brow furrowed and pencil hovering by the time I got up. He half-nodded as he saw me and carried on writing.
‘Heyyy, when did you get back? How was Paris?’
‘Good,’ he said curtly, not meeting my eye.
Liv walked in and grabbed an apple, biting into it and joining Xavier at the table.
‘Welcome back,’ she said, giving him a double kiss.
‘Merci!I missed you,’ he said. ‘What’s been going on?’
‘What hasn’t been going on? There’s been all sorts of chalet excitement since you left,’ Liv crunched gleefully. ‘You’ll never believe it, butour Hollyhad a lovely time yesterday, being treated to a spa day byour… Luca!’ How the hell did she know about the spa?
‘Yeah, I heard about that,’ Xavier replied soberly.
‘I didn’t realise it was public knowledge?’ I said, feeling myself blush.
‘Charlie’s one of the gang, Hols; there’s no secrets in the inner circle,’ Liv said. ‘So, what’s going on? If you start dating, will me and Xavier end up working for you?’ Liv wasn’t going to let it go, but how could I tell them what was going on when I didn’t know myself? Especially when Xavier looked so disappointed in me.
‘It was nice, you know, standard spa stuff, hot and wet. It was just an old voucher of Luca’s that needed using up, so no big deal.’
‘Course it was,’ Liv said, ‘that sounds very much like Luca. Out of date vouchers he needs to use up.’
‘Very unlikely,’ Xavier scoffed.
‘Mixing work and pleasure is a recipe for disaster, Hols, trust me,’ Liv said.
‘Alright, alright, I didn’t realise you were doubling up as the HR department. Is there a policy on workplace relationships that I’ve contravened?’
‘We’re just trying to look out for you,’ Xavier said with a shrug.
‘And I appreciate it, but I’m a big girl. I can work things out for myself.’
Xavier shrugged again and stood up abruptly, making his way over to the fridge.
