Bella brought another chair to the table for Madame Roux to sink onto. She had a strange feeling that there was a joke that everyone else was in on but her. ‘So, it’s lovely to see you,’ she told the old lady. ‘And you’re going to help Brad… decorate?’
‘Oui. I will not live in squalor. I made that quite clear.’
Bella’s mouth dropped open. ‘You’ll be living here?’
‘Yes. Once you move into your new apartment. Just while they repurpose my room at the hotel. Claudine here feels that if I’m to be a permanent resident, I need a little more luxury,’ Madame Roux said. Coco barked, as if in acquiescence.
‘And perhaps,’ Claudine added, ‘one or two adaptations…’
‘Oh, adaptations!’ Madame Roux flapped a hand. ‘Anyone would think I was an old woman!’
‘Well,’ Bella said, nodding. ‘I think that’s brilliant.’
They raised their glasses again. ‘To new starts?’ suggested Bella.
‘Wait!’ A voice at the door took them all by surprise.
‘Yves!’ Bella exclaimed.
Yves looked very different out of the office. Gone was the smart suit and sharp tailoring. Instead, he was wearing jeans, a black sweater with the picture of a guitarist. ‘Sorry I’m late,’ he said. And Bella was about to tell him not to worry when she realised he wasn’t talking to her.
‘It’s fine,’ Claudine said, giving him her cheek to kiss.
Yves slipped an arm around Claudine’s shoulders and they both turned back to the group.
‘Oh,’ Bella said. ‘You’re… You two are?—’
Claudine gave the slightest incline of her head. ‘Someone once told me that younger men can be a lot of fun,’ she said with a playful shrug.
‘So, we all here now?’ Brad said, looking around as if expecting someone else to turn up.
‘Yes. Get on with it!’ Claudine said.
‘Thank you. So, I also wanted to make a toast.’ He raised his glass. ‘To all of us. To the future. And most of all to overcoming.’
‘Overcoming?’
‘Yeah, you know. Odette and her paintings. Claudine, well, you know, it was hard for her for a bit with the hotel. You, going to see your sister, and working through that stuff,’ he nodded in her direction, and she returned the movement. She didn’t want him going into any more details just yet. ‘And to Henri,’ he said, ‘who’s finally got his father onside.’
‘And you,’ she said.
‘With the business stuff?’
‘Yeah, and the rest,’ she said, winking and thinking of the night before when he’d played the guitar softly to her as she lay on his bed. He flushed and she raised her glass, echoing Brad’s toast. ‘To all of us.’
‘To all of us.’
‘And to teaching an old dog new tricks!’ Brad added.
‘Hey!’ Bella said.
‘Oh damn! No, not you sweetheart. Not your course. You’re a young… dog.’
‘Thanks… I think.’
‘Then you are calling me the dog?’ Madame Roux asked disapprovingly.
‘No! Of course not. Bad expression. I’m talking about me! Claudine’s going to have to get me up to speed on everything hotel-related. I’m the old dog.’
