I was expecting some sort of tantrum, but instead, Poppy looks flabbergasted, and Jasmine looks like a goldfish as she goes to speak and then changes her mind a few times.
‘You’d be welcome to visit us in France once uni is finished,’ says Elias.
For the first time, both of them smile.
‘Seriously?’ says Jasmine.
‘Yes, seriously. We’ve got a lovely place with a pool, two kilometres from the beach. Not far from Nice. Lots of good shops there. I’m sure you’d enjoy it,’ says Elias.
Poppy and Jasmine no longer look miffed but instead seem impressed.
‘We’d love that, actually, wouldn’t we?’ says Poppy.
‘Yeah. We would,’ agrees Jasmine.
‘Right then. It’s a deal. You give me the dates and I’ll arrange the tickets.’
‘It’s not long until we finish term, is it?’ says Poppy.
The thought of having lazy mornings with Elias flashes before me.
‘Well, why don’t you spend some time with Dad over the summer too? Then come out later on. Say, in August?’
‘Are you trying to delay us coming out?’ says Jasmine.
‘No, not at all. I just… well… I mean, you’ll need loads of spending money, and it’s not cheap out there.’
‘Well, we can sell some bits on Vinted,’ says Jasmine.
‘Yes, but a whole summer on the French Riviera isn’t going to be cheap. How many three-pound skirts are you going to have to sell to have a summer like that?’
‘She’s got a point. Imagine if we have to stay in the villa all day because we can’t afford to go anywhere,’ says Poppy.
‘Yeah, alright, two weeks then. I’ll have to buy new clothes now,’ says Jasmine.
‘Yeah, and me,’ says Poppy.
‘What happened to selling clothes instead?’ I laugh at the two of them as they already mentally spend anything they might make on Vinted and the rest.
As Elias touches my knee under the table, satisfied that he has won their seal of approval, Poppy and Jasmine excitedly chat about what else they want to buy. Bikinis are first on the shopping list.
Over their honey and feta parcels, they ask Elias questions about the villa.
‘Does it have Wi-Fi? Is there a TV? How big is the pool?’ asks Poppy.
‘Yes, it does have Wi-Fi, TV… Ooh, I don’t know how many metres, but you can do lengths in it.’
‘Oh wow. We’ve not been swimming since we went to that stupid swim class you wanted to go on because you liked that lifeguard, remember? What was his name now?’ says Poppy to Jasmine.
‘Oh, him. Yeah,do notever mention Jase. He took no notice of me when I pretended to drown. I could’ve died,’ says Jasmine dramatically whilst rolling her eyes.
We laugh, and I am so pleased to see Jasmine and Poppy happy. It is the biggest relief that they have finally come to accept Elias, even though it might have been the persuasion of a free holiday that swung it.
Once we finish our lunch, Elias and I have to rush off, and so we leave the girls to order their desserts and pay the bill before we leave. The girls are polite to Elias as he says how nice it has been to meet them, and I am satisfied that, in the end, it has gone better than I could have ever expected.
In fact, as we go to leave, Poppy stops me and whispers, ‘Maybe Elias isn’t well dodge, Mam.’
From Poppy, that’s the biggest compliment Elias could ever have.
