“Pick a watch, now,” Kate told him, staring him down. Grant looked at his shoes after a moment.
“I’ll take the world-time one, I guess.”
“An excellent choice! I would recommend the one in white gold,” Monsieur Bernard said, beaming.
“Sure, that’s fine. How much is it?” Grant fished in his pocket for his wallet.
“Seventy-thousand francs.”
Grant almost had a heart attack. “For a watch?”
“It’s not that much,” Kate told him. “It’s like midrange for Patek.”
“Do you like it?” his father asked him.
“Not for that price!”
“Buy it, Walter,” Kate said. “He can’t run around in a Walmart watch.”
Grant looked on, dazed, as his father handed over his credit card.
“You’re putting that on a credit card?”
His father looked at him, bemused. “I want the points.”
“Points.” Grant was still in shock as Monsieur Bernard handed him the bag with his boxed-up watch.
“Thank you,” Grant said automatically.
“Come back anytime,” Monsieur Bernard replied. “We will keep you updated as to the status of your watch. We hope that you will be as much of a patron of ours as your father is.”
Grant followed Kate and his father out to the car.
“Your first… well, second, Patek,” his father said, giving him a one-armed hug, and left in his own car back to London, Grant supposed.
“Yeah.” Seventy thousand francs.That was what? Seventy thousand dollars with the exchange rate being equal?Grant thought so. He reflected on when he was a kid, how poor his family had been. Seventy thousand dollars would have gone a long way in his household. Well, his adoptive father probably would have gambled it all away, so maybe it didn’t matter. Grant slumped in the car as he and Kate drove off to the hotel.
Chapter 19
Kate
Kate looked at Grant with worry. He seemed upset in the watch showroom.
She hadn’t looked that deep into his family background, only enough to find where he was so she could make contact with him. She could see how it was a lot of money to spend on a watch, but it was about as much as a nice car. He was adopted, after all, so his family must have been somewhat well off to adopt a child. She wondered maybe if it was his PTSD. He hadn’t gotten enough sleep on the flight, she decided.
“We’ll check in, go for a walk, then rest before dinner,” she told him. “I have reservations at six. It’s a bit early, but with the flight, it will probably be best. It usually takes three hours to sit through the dinner.”
“Three hours?” Grant said. He looked at her, wide-eyed. “Why is it three hours?”
She laughed and said, “It’s part of the experience. You’ll see. It’s fun!”
They arrived in front of the hotel. It was in a beautiful old historic building. The bellhop came out to take their bags.
“Merci beaucoup,” Kate said with a smile.
Grant tagged along after her as she walked through the sumptuous lobby. Kate luxuriated in the interior design. The marble floors, the hand-painted wallpaper in a subtle pattern, and the custom crystal chandeliers all gave the impression of elegance and comfortable luxury. She breathed in the faintly perfumed air and pointed to the grand staircase that led up to a mezzanine.
“The bar is up there, and the restaurant is through that door,” she told Grant. “There’s a second, more casual bar that also serves food on the other side of the lobby, in case you can’t secure a reservation.”
