Page 36 of Never Too Late
‘Somehow I doubt the staff have any idea who I am so I’m not concerned.’
‘You’re sneaky.’
‘I prefer to think of it as being thorough in my business.’
‘But surely you’ll be changing things anyway?’
‘Only if they don’t work. If there’s something I particularly like about the style or way of doing things, I’ll be careful to maintain that. But it gives me an insight into what may need to be changed and what won’t. All of which is to say that I’d very much love to have your company there tomorrow.’
‘That would be lovely.’
* * *
‘Oh, Mum, I can’t! Sorry,’ Sash replied when I told her about Ashok’s call. After I’d hung up, I’d got undressed, slipped on my robe and begun running a bath before going back into the living area to get a glass of pre-dinner wine to have in the bath.
‘Oh. OK.’
‘You can still go, though. I mean, you have to!’
‘He’ll be sorry not to see you.’
‘I know and I’d have loved to have seen him too but I’m meeting a couple of other YouTubers who are based in Paris for drinks and dinner tomorrow. Sorry, I was going to tell you but I could hear you were on the phone.’
‘Not to worry. That’s lovely, though. Do you know them at all already?’
‘We all follow each other but I’ve never met them in person, no, but I love what they do and we’re even thinking of doing a couple of collab vids. I’m so excited!’
‘That’s great, darling. I’m so glad you’re making friends already.’
‘Are you going to be OK, though? I mean, I assume he’s sending a car or something because, well, it’s Ashok.’
‘Bingo. And yes, it’s absolutely fine. We always said we would each make our own plans here. The last thing we want to do is get on each other’s nerves.’
Sash had been sitting on the floor but at this, she stood up with the grace of a young antelope. Once upon a time, I’d had a similar grace but these days, it felt like I had at some point unknowingly traded it in for something more bovine in nature.
‘Mum, that’s not going to happen.’ She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tight before pulling back. ‘I can postpone this if you want me to come. I don’t mind.’
‘No, no, no!’ I pushed back the tears that were threatening for reasons I was still unsure of. I was sure I’d be back on a more even keel once I’d got a good night’s sleep. ‘It’s lovely that you’re making friends already. I was worried you might get a bit lonely stuck here with me.’
‘Mum…’
‘I shall pass your regrets on to Ashok. The sale of this hotel is pretty much a done deal, from what he said, and if he’s looking at another here too, maybe we’ll see more of him anyway.’
‘Are you running a bath?’ She craned her head around to look behind me.
‘Oh, God!’ I ran back to the bedroom and launched myself at the taps that were just disappearing under bath foam that had now scented the entire room with French lavender. I’d also bunged in some bath oil I’d been given one Christmas and had forgotten about, only discovering it when we’d begun packing the house up for the sale.
‘All right?’ Sash stuck her head around the door.
‘Yes. Thank goodness. That would be a good start, wouldn’t it? Flooding the place on the first day. Right, I’m going to have a soak and then get ready for dinner.’
After a long, luxurious soak with a new book, I stood up to step out of the bath. From there, everything went rather downhill at quite some speed. My arms windmilled uselessly as my feet did a comedy run on the spot before I plummeted face first towards the water, landing with a large splash back in the tub.
‘Mum!’ Sash came barrelling in just as I finished wrapping a large bath sheet around me with one hand. I was bent over, with the other hand gripping tightly to the side of the bath.
‘I’m fine.’ In truth, my face hurt so much that an entire paragraph of ‘Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks’ wouldn’t make a dent but as far as my daughter needed to know, I was fine.
‘Mum!’ She marched over, unpeeled my hand from the bath and stood there until I acquiesced in allowing her to assist me out of the bath.
