Page 83 of The Riviera House Swap

Sal

But some things did work out.

Nina

Like?

Sal

Well, you had a month off work. That’s pretty cool! And you said you made some friends? And played pétanque? It sounds good.

Bess

Plus you sent over a handsome French guy for Sal. You know Jean-Luc’s going to hang around for a bit. He’s going to manage his work remotely to see more of her.

Nina

Wow, that’s amazing!

Sal

What, that someone would find me attractive?

Nina

Haha, you know. That’s not what I meant. I’m seriously happy for you.

Sal

Thank you.

Bess

See, so maybe things have worked out a bit – just not in the way you hoped.

Nina closed her laptop, smiling. After sitting up late into the night with Sabine – who was even more enraged than Nina had imagined she’d be – she felt she’d laid the worst of her hurt to rest. Her trip had ended badly, but at least her journey hadn’t been wasted. She’d made friends, good ones. Plus, the house swap had had an impact on Sal. Nina hadn’t foundherhappiness. But it was happiness, nonetheless.

Was it fate? Or was it chance?

She’d visited a road untravelled and found that after all, she’d taken the right track all those years ago.

She thought again of all the risks she’d avoided in the past. She wondered what would have happened if she’d taken the TV job all those years ago. Would she have begun to rise up the ranks? Would she be some sort of daytime TV show star by now? Or would the contract have fizzled out after six months, leaving her with no option but to apply for something more ordinary and predictable?

She’d never know. Sometimes, she wished she could pick up all the threads – find all the places in which her life had forked and see where the other road could lead. But nobody could do that, she thought. The best you could do was hope that the choices you made would lead you to where you wanted to go.

She took a notebook from her bedside drawer and wrote pros on one side and ‘cons’ on the other.

COMING TO FRANCE

Pros:

Put the ‘ghost’ of Pierre to rest

Meeting Sabine

Meeting Antoine

Got a month’s break!

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