I wanted to bury my head in a dark hole then not resurface until this embarrassment faded, which would be the year three thousand or basically never.
Reluctantly I picked up the phone and my brain scrambled as I tried to work out what to say.
‘Ricky, I…’
‘When I saw photos of you kissing a man at the Eiffel Tower,’ he jumped in, ‘I meant to message to tell you to turn off the syncing, but I got sidetracked. I thought if you want to embarrass yourself with some French dude, it’s your problem, but I didn’t want to see my mum with her tongue stuck down some guy’s throat. That’s gross! But when I saw those pictures this morning, especially when I realised who it was, I had to call. I know I’d said you needed to get a life, but sleeping with Gabriel? That’s icky, Mum. We were friends and he’s not that much older than me!’
‘I know. I know it seems…y’knowbecause of the age difference, but we have a connection.’
‘Ugh! Please. Spare me the details.’
‘I’m not just talking about…’ I paused. Knowing Ricky had seen the pictures of me shagging was bad enough. I wasn’t about to start discussing my newfound sex life with him. Even though I’d basically crossed every acceptable boundary, I didn’t have to make things worse. ‘The Love Hotel matched me with Gabriel for a reason. We get on well. We have a lot in common. I’m sure you remember that he was always mature for his age and, well, he makes me happy.’
‘Really?’ he asked. ‘So it’s actually something serious?’
‘I… it could be. I mean it’s early days so we’re just seeing how it goes, but I’d like it to be,’ I said, pleased that Ricky was open to discussing it.
‘I just don’t want to see you getting hurt. Like I said, he’s much younger than you and now he’s loaded, he’ll probably want to live the playboy lifestyle and sleep around. You could be like a challenge on his checklist, like:sleep with a model, check, shag an influencer, check, bone a MILF, check. One of my friends likes MILFs too and he?—’
‘Wait,’ I interrupted. ‘You said that Gabriel’sloaded? What do you mean? He’s still trying to launch his business.’ My brows furrowed with confusion.
‘Nah. He sold that for millions, so now he’s minted.’
‘Millions?’ I gasped. ‘He doesn’t…’ I paused as I attempted to make sense of what Ricky had just said.
Gabriel sold his app?
He’s a millionaire?
I wanted to protest and tell Ricky that it wasn’t true. But then I realised I had no idea whether it was or not.
Whenever I’d asked Gabriel about his app, he’d always been evasive. Despite asking multiple times for the name of it, he’d never given it to me. And it didn’t even occur to me to look him up online. That felt kind of creepy. But now I had to. I needed to know if there was any truth in what Ricky had said.
‘I… hold on,’ I said as I flopped back on the daybed. I put my phone in my hands and opened up my browser then typed inGabriel Marceau, app, sold, millionsinto Google, then hitsearch.
Seconds later, several articles popped up.
Fuck. It’s true.
Gabriel sold his app six months ago for an eye-watering amount of money.
And he didn’t tell me.
Nor did Juliette.
Didn’t she know?
And the app wasn’t just for finding food and stuff when you were abroad. It’d expanded. Looked like it also told you where you could meet people in your area with shared interests, find the best authentic restaurants and loads of other things too. It washuge.
Mind. Blown.
‘I’ve got to go,’ I said to Ricky.
‘Okay, Mum, but be careful, yeah? I know Gabriel’s a good guy and I’m glad he makes you happy, you deserve that, but, y’know the age difference is kinda something you need to think about. And for God’s sake, if you can’t work out how to do it yourself, ask him to turn off your Cloud syncing! My eyeballs are gonna be scarred for life after what I saw!’
‘Will do!’ I winced, wondering how I was going to look him in the eye again.
‘Actually…’ His voice trailed off and I knew from his tone that he wanted something. ‘Maybe you could ask if he’d let me have a spin in his Ferrari? I’m traumatised by those photos, but I reckon cruising around in that sweet ride for a day would make up for it!’ He laughed.
