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To Luca, my darling Valentine! I love you so much and can’t wait to be your wife, love always, Fern xxx
A shocked gasp escaped from my mouth. What the fuckety-fuck-fuck-fuck was this? I read it again. And again.Love always, Fern. Valentine? Wife? Who was Fern? My brain flicked back to Genevieve asking Luca why he wasn’t in Paris with Fern. He’d said she was his auntie. Oh God. She wasn’t his auntie. Unless he was MARRYING HIS AUNTIE? He wasn’t marrying his auntie.
Xavier closed the lid silently and opened the other cake box.
‘Ah. Here it is. The lemon sherbet for tomorrow,’ he said, taking it to the other side of the kitchen. I flipped the lid back open on the Fern-cake and tortured myself one more time, pulling out my phone to snap a photo and sending it to the WhatsApp group I shared with Liv and Rachael. How could he be engaged? I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I snapped the lid shut and stuffed one of the cream donuts into my mouth, blinking back tears.
‘Any idea who Fern is?’ I asked.
Xavier shrugged. ‘Luca embraces the French way,non?’
‘I didn’t know he was engaged?’ I said. ‘Is he?’ I felt my cheeks burn with the humiliation of it all.
‘I think it would be best to ask him,’ he said, looking at me sadly.
‘You must know if he’s engaged. Why won’t you tell me?’ I was beside myself.
‘We all have secrets. He doesn’t tell mine and I don’t tell his.’
I swallowed a mouthful of cream donut, nodding at Xavier and jumping down from the kitchen stool. I needed to go for a walk and clear my head.
Twenty-Eight
14th February
I stormed through the town past all the happy vacayers, drinking and kissing and laughing. How was this happening to meagain? Publicly dumped for the second time in six months and this time by cheesecake. FFS. I’d never felt so miserable. I don’t know if it was being made to look like a prize idiot by Luca or the sad look on Xavier’s face as I’d left. I stopped at the boozy hot chocolate stand and ordered their special.
‘With Tia Maria?’ the man asked, his droopy moustache belying his smile.
I nodded, catching my breath as the shock hit me again.
‘Glitter marshmallows? Cream?’
‘Yes, everything,’ I said, handing him 10 francs and waving away the change.
I slurped the creamy froth as I turned round and bumped straight into Genevieve.
‘Oh, sorry…’ I tried to smile and walk past, but my eyes gave me away.
‘Holly?’ she touched my arm kindly. ‘I’ve been looking for you. Are you OK?’
‘Yes, I’m fine,’ I said, mortified. ‘I just needed some air.’
‘Xavier told me what happened with Luca,’ she said, signalling to Droopy for a coffee and steering me to a table by the fire. ‘I know you know about Fern. I’m sorry, Holly. I told him not to play around with you.’
‘He said Fern was your aunt?’ I said, eating a spoonful of glitter marshmallows.
‘Non.Fern is his fiancée in Paris. And I know her through friends,’ Genevieve said, pulling a crisp, white tissue out of her Chanel handbag and waving it at my increasingly blotchy face. I blew my nose as her espresso arrived. ‘I told Luca he had no moral standards and should finish things with you immediately. Fern would be devastated if she found out and it wasn’t fair of him to lead you on.’
‘Is that what you meant by standards? I heard you talking and thought you meant…’
Genevieve paused. She understood. ‘That you weren’t good enough for him?’
I nodded quietly.
‘Not at all, Holly. You are a lovely person. Liv and Xavier have been delighted to have you on the team. I didn’t want another tricky situation with Luca to stop you working with us.’
‘Did that happen before?’ I asked, already knowing the answer.
