‘Two genepis please,’ Adam says to the waitress as she clears our plates. I know I should be annoyed about Adam ordering for me without even asking, but what I’d usually see as arrogance, right now I see as admirable confidence.
‘What’s genepi?’ I ask.
He turns back to me. ‘It’s a mountain liqueur. You’ll like it, trust me. Don’t let the colour put you off. Anyway, enough about me. What about you and Will? Is he your “the one”?’
I blush. ‘I can’t tell you that. You’re his brother.’
He leans in conspiratorially. ‘I won’t tell, I promise.’
I laugh. ‘You might.’
He leans in further and looks directly into my eyes. ‘Trust me,’ he says. His pupils are large and black. I feel a stab of something I shouldn’t and lean back, feeling guilty. The waitress returns with our drinks and we sip from the elaborately decorated shot glasses in silence. Adam is still looking intently at me.
‘It’s good, huh?’ he asks.
I nod as the alcohol burns my throat. It’s a weird pale green colour, tastes very strong but it’s sugary too. I take another sip, which makes me cough. ‘Yeah. It’s good. I’m definitely not going to be able to ski after all this though.’
‘No matter – take a look out the window,’ he says, pointing behind me. I turn to look and notice for the first time that while we have been having lunch, the weather has totally changed. It’s snowing hard and a big cloud has come down.
‘Wow, that’s quite a difference,’ I say.
‘Yeah,’ he agrees, taking another sip. ‘You wouldn’t want to ski in that. Might as well stay here and get drunk. Or we could go back and use that sauna in the chalet.’
I drink some more of the green liquid which is making my lips tingle pleasantly. ‘OK,’ I say, unsure of exactly what I’m agreeing to but too fuzzy-headed to care.
Adam leans in again. ‘So, you were telling me about Will.’
I smile. ‘No, I wasn’t. You were trying to get me to tell you about Will. It’s not the same thing at all.’ I dangle the small shot glass from my fingertips and let it swing.
‘You seemed pretty cross with him yesterday at dinner.’
I put the glass down. I didn’t think anyone would have noticed. Am I that obvious? Apart from anything else, I didn’t think anyone at the table was paying me any attention. ‘Yeah. Well, I was annoyed about how the skiing had gone; I hadn’t had a good day. But it wasn’t Will’s fault, and today’s been much better. I’m not cross with him at all now.’
‘Shame he couldn’t make it for lunch though,’ Adam says, and leans back again.
What did he mean by that? Was the broken ski an excuse?
I’m not going to let him draw me in like this. He’s probably just trying to put Will down.
‘Yeah. It’s a shame. But it doesn’t matter, I’ll see him later. And he sent you, so …’
That came out wrong. I meant he was thinking of me, not that …
A grin spreads across his face. ‘Yes he did. And it’s been nice getting to know each other a little, hasn’t it? Shall we have another drink?’
I look out the window. It is snowing even harder now. It’s cosy and warm in here with the fire on and I can’t face going out into the cold yet.
‘One more,’ I say. ‘And then I’m going to go back to the chalet to warm up in the sauna.’
In the end, we have three more. And two coffees. It is almost half past three by the time we leave the restaurant. Adam hands me his poles and hoiks my skis onto his shoulder without a word, for which I’m grateful – even though I’ve almost got the hang of carrying the skis now, I’m going to struggle in driving snow, horrendous wind and after all those drinks.
The wind bites at my face as we trudge back along the short road to the chalet and my hands are absolutely freezing in spite of my thick gloves. I think about how much I’m looking forward to the heat of a sauna. Adam puts the skis in the lockers in the boot room and pulls off his hat.
‘Whew! Some kind of weather, hey? Hope Will and Nell are OK and don’t get stuck in the other valley or anything. They might be closing lifts soon if it goes on like this.’
‘They do that?’ I ask.
‘Yeah, sometimes. But don’t worry – you’ll have Will back this evening. Even if they do have to close lifts, they’ll lay on buses. Only time he’d get stuck is if he just misses the last lift because of his own stupid fault. So let’s hope he got his ski sorted.’
‘I’m sure he will. He’s pretty resourceful,’ I say.
Adam gives me a look. ‘If you say so,’ he says dismissively. By now we are at the doors to our rooms, which are opposite each other. I’ve a feeling their room is bigger and smarter than ours, and probably with a better view.
‘Right. I don’t know about you, but I’m absolutely freezing. I’m going to get changed and then maybe I’ll see you in the sauna?’ he says.
I blush. Would Will mind me being in the sauna with Adam? I guess not; it’s no different to being in a swimming pool with someone.
Or is it? I don’t have that much experience of saunas.
‘OK,’ I say. ‘See you down there.’
In our room I strip off my jacket, salopettes, and various layers. Naked, I look at myself in the full-length mirror. My borrowed salopettes are too tight and have left an angry red mark around my waist, and there’s a matching mark under my boobs where my bra strap has rubbed. Perhaps I should have invested in a sports bra like my skiing friend had said, but it just felt like one more thing to spend money on.
There’s a knock at the door. I grab a towel to put around myself and open it. It’s Adam, also wearing a towel which is wrapped round his waist.
‘Louisa, hi. Sorry about this, but I seem to have forgotten my trunks. Do you think Will would mind terribly if I borrowed his? If this was Holland, obviously I’d go naked in the sauna, but that’s not OK in France, as far as I understand.’
I blush and open the door wider. ‘Of course. Come in. I don’t think Will would mind – I’ll have a look through his stuff and see if I can find them.’
Adam sits down on the bed. ‘I remember when we were kids, Will was always really retentive about unpacking whenever we went on holiday, while I’d just shove my suitcase under the bed and take stuff out as and when. Is he still like that?’
I turn my back and open the cupboard. Will has indeed stacked all his clothes in tidy piles. Underneath, my shelves are a heap of messy, tangled clothes.
‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘You can probably see which shelves are his and which are mine.’ I sort through a pile of folded boxers and find Will’s trunks, similarly folded. I turn and wave them at Adam with a flourish.
‘Voila,’ I say, continuing to wave them around, as if I was doing the dance of the seven veils.
Adam smiles and stands. He looks me up and down and suddenly I feel exposed. ‘Here,’ I say, holding the trunks out to him, but he doesn’t take them. Something in his face changes and in that instant, I realize what’s about to happen.
I feel a surge of panic and try to back away against the cupboard as he seizes my wrist. His towel falls away and he crushes his mouth onto mine, pushing me back against the wardrobe door. He grabs at one of my breasts and for a second I am too shocked to do anything. He grinds his hips against mine and I feel my towel fall away.