Page 38 of Counting Down To You

“Yeah. You’re not working until this evening, right?”

“Barring any VIP emergencies, yes.”

He does that almost smile again. “Well, I thought maybe we could hang out.”

“Hang out?”

For God’s sake, Ali, stop repeating everything he says.

“Yeah. It feels odd that we don’t know anything about each other. And even if it’s only for a couple of weeks…”

So now he’s catching on to that fact, is he? But still…“Umm…” I’m going to tell him that I really am hungover, and tired, and that the anxiety over what I may or may not have said to Lucie is bound to kick in any second now, and that I really don’t want to spend the day with him looking like I do right now, because I’ll just feel self-conscious the whole time. Or, okay, I’m not about to tell him that exactly, but I’m thinking of how to politely get out of it, when he beats me to it.

“I’m not the same person I was a couple of years ago, you know.”

“Er, okay?”

He hooks his fingers through the belt loops of his jeans, rocks back on his heels. “Lucie, she doesn’t have a very high opinion of me.”

“Well, no.” I’m too tired to be diplomatic. And, besides, it’s not like Lucie is exactly subtle.

“Whatever she said about me—I’m not saying it’s not true, but, well.” He blows out a breath. “I’m not the same person.” It’s said so firmly, I wonder who he’s trying to convince—me, or himself.

I spoon coffee into the cafetière, pour hot water into it. Playing for time. I get down two mugs—given he bought me the coffee, it feels impolite not to offer him one. Only when I’ve filled the mugs and handed him one do I study him, over the rim of my own. “She said you kind of messed her friend around.”

“Yeah. I did.” No denial or trying to justify it. I can’t decide if that is a good character trait or a red flag. I wonder, too, if this is why he’s here this morning. Because he saw me with Lucie last night and, what, wants to make sure Lucie didn’t tarnish my opinion of him? He didn’t look like he was paying that much attention to what I was doing last night, but maybe he was more aware than I realized.

Or he could just be being nice, I imagine Robyn saying.

Leo takes a sip of his coffee, then sets it down on the counter. “So, what do you fancy doing, then?” Said as though I’ve already agreed to spending the day with him, which makes it so much harder to say no.

Or maybe, Robyn pipes up again, you don’t want to say no.

I sip my own coffee, feeling a little more human as I do. “Well, what is there to do around here?”

He smiles. “There’s the obvious? I could show you some of the best places? We’d have to go a bit higher up, but there’s this really cool place where you can ski on powdered snow if you’re up for it, or we could get the lift over to Pré la Joux if you’ve not been yet? The lifts are open now.”

I try not to grimace. “Skiing?”

One eyebrow crooks up a little. “Well, yeah.”

I take another sip of coffee. But this time, I can’t think of a way to evade the subject. “Right. Well, the thing is…I can’t actually ski.”

He stares at me. “You can’t ski?” Said as though it’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard in his life.

I feel my neck growing warm. “No. I’ve never learned.”

“But…” He shakes his head, still looking at me a bit too intensely for my liking, given I can’t be sure the remnants of last night’s mascara are not smudged around my eyes. “Why did you come here if you can’t ski? That’s why everyone comes. To make the most of the mountains when they’re not at work.”

I lift my chin into the air. “I like the mountains.” I can’t help saying it defensively, even though I haven’t ventured out again since my one semi-failed hike attempt. Bloody Burgers, putting me off.

His eyebrows pull together. “Have you actually gone and spent any time out there?” Like he can read my mind.

“I’ve only just got here!”

“You’ve been here nearly a week,” he points out.

“I…” But I falter. Because has it really been that long? I think of the calendar on my bedside table, counting down the days, and have to swallow down the panic. It’s all going too fast. In a little over two weeks, that will be it, calendar done. No more Robyn, telling me what to do next.