Page 93 of Never Too Late
My laughter burst out. ‘Gangbusters?’
‘Is that not a relevant term?’
‘It is to me. But ask my daughter or Benoit and I’m afraid you may just receive a puzzled look!’
He tilted his head and gave a huff of recognition. ‘I receive a lot of those although I’ve taken it upon myself to fill in some of the many gaps in my godson’s knowledge of cultural references.’
‘And how’s that going?’
‘Reluctance initially, as of course, his generation already know everything.’
‘This is true.’
We exchanged a grin.
‘But actually, it’s been fun. Watching films, visiting museums of all types, discussing history, it’s been good. Indeed, some of my happiest memories.’
I squeezed his arm in reply.
‘And when you met Christophe?’
‘Also a happy memory!’ He laughed and I was glad to hear it. ‘And an enlightening one. You see, he knew of my financial director from a previous hotel he had worked at. It turned out that all the references were fake. I didn’t know enough to check up on them.’
‘Or perhaps too trusting?’
‘Or perhaps too stupid?’
‘No.’ I tugged at his arm. ‘Don’t say that, Tomas. We all make mistakes and you were doing your best with, apparently, no help.’
Tomas got the gist of my comment.
‘My parents were very much of the sink-or-swim mind. They wanted to retire and so it was my job to take their place.’
‘Even if it meant losing everything, including your confidence and happiness?’ I heard the anger in my tone and clamped my lips closed to resist saying more.
Tomas made no reply but wrapped an arm around my waist and we walked on. He knew. He understood.
‘So what happened, after the conference?’ I asked, my tone back to conversational.
‘My FD was fired.’
‘How did that go down?’
‘Ah.’ He made a ‘pfft’ noise. ‘With many cries of unfair dismissal and threats of court cases.’
‘Oh!’
‘Yes. And then, the perfect denouement…’ He turned, laughter in his eyes. ‘The doors opened and my sister walked in with Christophe. The game was up, as they say.’
‘Ooh! It sounds like a film!’
‘Perhaps it should be,’ he laughed. ‘Gabrielle was brilliant. She took a seat, as calm as can be, and announced that we would be filing for damages due to his misrepresentation and the money we had lost as a result. Also, that she would also be reporting him to the police for fraud.’
‘Wow.’
‘Oui. And then she got up, told him he looked pale and offered him a drink.’
I chuckled, able to see this in my mind so clearly. My best friend, cool, calm and lethal.
