‘No. Well, maybe. But actually, I think it’s you. I enjoy spending time with you.’ She looked at him and their eyes locked.
‘Oh,’ she said. The odd thing was that although she hadn’t expected him to say those words, she didn’t feel surprised.
She’d come to value these evenings together, how the conversation flowed. The proximity of him.
It was different from what she’d felt for Henri, she realised. That desperate, needy feeling of lust and wanting to be rescued all at once that had burned bright, but had burned out.
When she was with Brad, things seemed so easy, so natural. He wasn’t her landlord, her mentor. He was her friend. A friend she thought about on and off for most of the day, and looked forward to seeing every evening.
But before she could say anything else, there was a loud banging sound from the hallway. A key turned in the lock and, as they looked through the open kitchen door, Henri stumbled through, looking more than a little worse for wear.
He looked at them together in the kitchen, smiled and staggered through. ‘Bella,’ he said, standing and swaying slightly on his trainered feet. His laces, she noticed, were untied and had almost definitely been soaked in a puddle on the way home. ‘Oh,salut,Brad!’
‘Hey, man. Seems like you’ve had a bit to drink.’
‘I am drowning my sorrows. My broken heart.’ He clutched his chest dramatically.
‘Henri! Seriously?’ Bella said.
‘The heart wants what it wants,’ he lyricized.
‘In his case,’ Brad said quietly in her ear, ‘the heart seems to have wanted a LOT of tequila.’
She tried not to laugh.
‘Come on, dude, let’s get you to bed,’ Brad said, standing up, putting his arm under Henri’s and helping him walk.
As they disappeared from the room, Bella realised that she’d missed her chance to respond, to say that she liked spending time with Brad too; that part of her wished this project would never end.
36
2017, FRANCE
‘I can’t believe it,’ she said to Pete. ‘Our first guests!’
‘Well, don’t stand at the door – it looks a bit desperate.’
Their advert had gone live on Airbnb and they’d had a flurry of bookings almost instantly. They’d only just readied the guest rooms in time and now they were poised, waiting for the first clients to descend.
‘It’s going to work,’ she said. ‘I can feel it.’
He’d kissed her. ‘It’d better, after all this.’
It was true that it had taken more than they’d expected to get the B&B ready for guests. The stone house was charming but solid as it was, had needed more work than they’d planned for. Ancient, creaking plumbing had had to be replaced; loose tiles had had to be refitted. Every job they’d accounted for seemed to have had another, messier job beneath it: plaster had crumbled, removed light fittings had revealed dodgy wiring, the septic tank had had to be drained.
It hadn’t been the romantic image that Bella had been searching for.
Only all that was behind her now.
As she watched, a car signalled then turned into the drive and she shut the door abruptly, almost squealing. ‘They’re here! They’re here!’
Pete looked at her, shaking his head affectionately. ‘Yes, they are. Maybe letting them in would be a good idea.’
And, smiling, she unclicked the latch again, throwing open the door to what she hoped would be a bright future.
37
NOW
