Page 40 of The Christmas Holiday
Chapter Ten
‘Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many marigolds as I have in the past few days. It’s incredible!’ Liv exclaimed as we wandered past yet more gorgeously vivid decorations on our way down to the dining room the following evening. The doors to the terrace had been thrown open and guests spilled out onto it and further still into the garden, all in readiness for the Diwalicelebrations, which were culminating tonight in what we had been promised would be a firework display to rival any other we had seen.
Having been lucky enough to squeeze onto a friend’s balcony with about twenty others – which now, when I think back, was probably highly unsafe – in a flat close to the Olympic Park in London, the hotel was making quite a claim. That opening ceremony back in2012 had kicked so much arse that I wasn’t entirely convinced anything I ever saw again would beat it, but I was always ready to be proved wrong. Well, in this case, anyway.
Liv and I chatted easily as we perused the choices for dinner. Hunter and Sandeep fell behind a little as they dropped into conversation with a couple. Liv held her plate with one hand and casually scratched her neck withthe other as she looked back again.
‘I don’t think you’re being as subtle as you think you are,’ I laughed.
Liv dropped her hand, and grinned at me. ‘Really?’
‘Really. You’d make a terrible spy.’
‘Oh. Guess I should cross that one off the future career choice list then.’
‘It might be best. He’s fine anyway.’
‘Oh, I’m not worried about Sandeep. I’m just wondering how thatwoman can so blatantly fawn over Hunter when her husband is standing right there!’
I shrugged and studied the label for the next curry. ‘Mmm! This sounds interesting,’ I said and dished some onto my plate.
Liv glanced at the same sign and followed suit but I could see her looking at me from the corner of my eye.
‘Say whatever it is you want to. I don’t mind.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m sure. Go ahead.’
‘Doesn’t that bother you?’
‘What?’
‘The women falling over themselves for him.’
I shook my head. ‘No. It didn’t bother me when we were together. He never gave me cause to let it. Why would it now?’
‘I don’t know. I just wondered if… you know, maybe?’
‘I’m not entirely sure what you’re saying,’ I smiled, ‘but I think I’m going to go with “no, definitelynot” as the answer anyway.’
‘Really? I mean you do look so good together.’
‘Looks can be incredibly deceiving.’
‘But you’re in the same sort of world.’
I dropped a garlic naan, gleaming with butter, on top of my rice and shook my head.
‘Definitely not. Same but very different, I think.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Hunter’s career has gone interstellar. He mixes in the samecircles you do, meeting movie stars and models and sports types and all that.’
‘So do you!’
‘No. I really don’t. I cover their weddings but I’m not socialising with them.’
