One week before Christmas, a Thursday night, was the first evening in weeks that Emme, Cat and Tiago all had a rare night off together. They met in the bar of Hotel Europa, where none of them worked and none of them had any obligation to anyone, and they raised their Christmas cocktails to their own festivities, which were more sedate than the last time they had all been together, working the Kivvi Christingle.
‘We should call itlos tres mosqueterosChristmas party…’ Cat said, raising a colourful cocktail.
‘Salud!’ Tiago added.
‘Cheers,’ Emme smiled, although her smile belied the knots in her stomach. She had been on the phone to Tristan several times a day, every day, over the past five days– she’d even met Yolanda Du Kok on FaceTime– a powerhouse of a woman with cheekbones to die for.
‘OK, so here’s a funny thing…’ Tiago said, as they savoured their drinks and watched Will, Lydia and Yannick setting up a small acoustic set in the corner of the hotel bar.
‘Dime…’ Cat commanded. Tiago rubbed pink foam from his top lip and cleared his throat.
‘So my roommate Nieves works up at Vitreum, and she swears she saw you up there Emme.’ He turned to her, with molasses-sweet eyes.
Emme flushed red.
‘Oh, you’ve been!’ Cat said in surprise. ‘Isn’t it cool?! I mean… dirty Russian money aside.’
Emme shrugged. She could barely get her words out as she looked at Tiago, knowing that he knew. His eyes got even wider.
‘Merda, so it’s true?’ He put his hand over his mouth in shock.
Cat looked between Emme and Tiago, wondering what the hell they were privy to and she wasn’t.
‘What’s going on?’ She hit Tiago playfully on the chest.
‘I mean… I thought Nieves must have got it wrong but…’
‘But what?!’ demanded Cat.
Tiago looked at Emme and realised maybe she hadn’t wanted anyone to know.
‘Erm, I guess what happens at Vitreum stays at Vitreum…’ Tiago backtracked.
Emme winced.
‘Hijo de puta, what’s going on?!’ Cat banged her fist on the table, laughing in exasperation.
‘Nieves saw right,’ Emme admitted, turning to Cat. ‘I was up there with Tristan.’
‘Tristan? What the fuck?!’
‘One-two one-two,’ Will said into the microphone, with a flourish of a chord on the guitar. It was a well-timed distraction, as the friends all paused to take another sip from their drinks.
‘I know, I know…’ Emme groaned, returning to the elephant in the room. ‘I’m an idiot, and I’m probably heading straight into my own train wreck…’
‘Since when?!’ Cat said with impassioned but affectionate incense. ‘Why didn’t you tell me on movie night?’
Emme thought back to that moment on the gondola almost a month ago.
‘A few weeks.’ She looked shyly at Tiago. She didn’t really want to spill about that in front of him. ‘I’m so sorry! But it’s been incredible… and not what I planned. He broke it off with Vivian before anything really happened…’
Cat raised a doubtful eyebrow.
‘Did the whole Steinherr double dip not put you off?!’
Emme curled up her nose.
Tiago looked a little shocked.
