Page 108 of Never Too Late
‘Night, Mum. Love you.’
‘Love you too.’
I poured a glass of water in the kitchen, picked up the new book I was looking forward to starting and headed through to my bedroom. Within minutes of getting into bed, I was fast asleep, the book still open on the first page.
40
The city was awash with chestnut blossom and swathes of wisteria as spring put on its finest show in the City of Lights. Love was certainly in the air with Ashok practically living in his new Parisian hotel now that he and Gabby were most definitely an item. It brought me joy to see both of my friends, old and new, so happy. A recent visit home to India had confirmed that this was serious. His mum had loved Gabby from the moment she’d met her and the feeling was mutual.
‘I think Gabby video calls her more than I do now!’ Ashok had laughed, the happiness radiating from him. I couldn’t have been more pleased that he had finally found The One he’d been waiting for and I knew Gabby felt the same.
Sasha and Benoit had also been spending more and more time together, with the apartment being entirely mine much of the time now that she had taken to staying over at his place. I was also pleased to meet some of the true friends she had made in the past month as Simone took her under her wing, not to mention being thrilled to see Vikram, Alaria and Mira last weekend as they finally managed to tie up their busy schedules enough to visit for a few days. Between Simone, Benoit and her apparently new friend, Tomas, Sasha had a very full social diary with pages and pages of notes for new content to create and film.
In the meantime, Tomas and I had taken the opportunity to also spend more time together which meant that I wasn’t exactly upset my daughter had practically moved in with Benoit when the same could be said of Tomas and me.
* * *
‘Was it good?’ Reine had asked the day after Tomas had returned from Bahrain.
‘What’s that?’ I asked as I’d taken a sip of the excellent wine she’d ordered for us. Crisp, not too sweet, a hint of apple-y undertones. The waiter placed her terrine in front of her and I nodded my thanks at him as the Coquilles St Jacques I’d ordered was placed before me.
‘The sex, darling. You look like you’ve been thoroughly… is the expression “rogered”?’
Considering he was currently dripping second-hand wine from his nose, eyebrows and chin, the fact that the waiter continued to look as composed as a Grecian carving was quite astonishing. I, conversely, was now the colour of the fully dressed lobster Thermidor his colleague was serving to the neighbouring table.
‘Oh! I’m so sorry! I mean,je suis très désolée!Très, très, très! Reine, stop laughing and no, that is most definitelynotthe expression! Where on earth did you hear that?’
‘Ah. Shame.’
‘Reine!’
The waiter checked that I didn’t want my starter replaced. I did not. What I actually wanted to do was disappear down a large hole in the ground. Or a small one. I’d make it work. Reine, on the other hand, was unconcerned about the scene I’d caused.
‘So you didn’t have sex?’ she asked. ‘The terrine is excellent, by the way.’
‘Great. And…’ I swallowed before lowering my voice to a whisper. ‘Yes, we did, but I don’t exactly need everyone in the restaurant to know.’
‘Oh, my darling,’ she laughed, placing a bejewelled hand on mine. ‘Everyone knew that the moment you walked in.’
‘What!’
She gave me a mischievous smile, her bright eyes crinkling at the corners.
‘What?’ I asked again, feeling the smallest upwards tilt of my lips. In the face of Reine’s amusement and nonchalance, it was hard to stay quite so mortified.
‘You. You have a, a,’ she waved her one hand as she popped a point of toast slathered with the pate in her mouth, ‘a glow about you.’ She leant in. ‘From the rogering.’
‘Oh my God!’ Laughter snorted out of me. ‘You are incorrigible! And where on earth did you pick up such terms?’
She merely wobbled her head, amusement dancing in her eyes once more.
‘So?’
‘So what?’
‘Was it?’
‘Was it what?’
