Page 92 of For Love or Money
‘No! You have to come,’ Lesley said. ‘Please! You can’t leave me alone with the guys.’
‘I don’t know ...’ She bit her lip. She’d feel bad about ditching Lesley, and she had been looking forward to the hike.
‘Don’t worry about Rafe, if that’s what it is. Like Scott said, it’s just the way he is. He can’t help himself.’
‘You’re right,’ Stella nodded. ‘I’m being silly.’
‘Anyway, we’re meeting up with friends of theirs, so there’ll be plenty of other women around for him to practise his charm on.’
‘True,’ Stella said. But somehow she didn’t feel as reassured as she should at the thought of Rafe flirting with other women. And that just made her feel more unnerved than ever.
Lesley satbeside Al in the front, as they wound around the twisty mountainous roads, climbing towards the hilltop village of Eze. The scenery was stunning as they drove along the coast, an endless vista of sun-dappled water and spiky green palm trees.
They found a space in the car park at the base of the village and stood in the sun, waiting for the others to arrive. Before long, a pale-yellow open-top car pulled up alongside them with a flurry of whooping and waving, and four people spilled out, engulfing Al and his cousins with enthusiastic hugs and back-slapping, while Stella and Lesley stood by and watched.
Al introduced them to everyone. Toby was floppy-haired and pretty, with the same sort of posh English accent as Al, and his sister Emma was a pale, long-limbed beauty with a mane of blonde curls, dark glasses perched on top of her head. Their friend Jill was petite, her short dark hair worn in a chic pixie cut that showed off her elfin features, and her boyfriend Luc was a wiry French-Moroccan with a shaved head.
Lesley had been a little insulted when Al had offered her a walking stick from the boot of the car, telling him she wasn’t a geriatric. But when she saw that the very cool Emma was using one, she changed her mind and took it, and she was very glad of it as they walked up a steep incline towards the village. Rafe was in front with Alex and Emma; Scott, Al and Stella a little behind them. She was bringing up the rear with Luc and Jill, and they chatted as they walked. Luc was in IT, and Jill was a graphic designer, and they lived as digital nomads, travelling the world in between bouts of living in France or England.
Jill was originally from London, as were Toby and Emma. Their families all owned properties in the area, and they had been spending summers in Nice since they were children. Jill had told her, ‘We’ve all known each other forever.’
It was a steep walk to the medieval village of Eze, but nothing like as difficult as Lesley had expected. She really didn’t see the need for hiking boots. Eze was impossibly pretty. Perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, it looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.
They came to a little cobbled square, a few tables dotted around on the terrace in front of a tiny café. Toby and Emma were talking to a couple sitting at one of the tables, and as they approached, the woman looked over and waved. Al raised a hand in greeting, and joined them. He bent to kiss the woman’s cheek, then shook hands with the man seated opposite her.
‘Oh,’ Jill said, stopping beside Lesley. ‘Shit! I didn’t know she was going to be here.’
‘Who?’ Lesley asked, squinting at the woman, who looked strangely familiar. She tried to figure out where she might have seen her before. Maybe she just reminded her of someone.
‘Cassie,’ Jill said. ‘Al’s ex?’
‘Fuck!’ Scott breathed, coming to a halt behind her.
‘Oh! I wondered why she looked familiar,’ Lesley said, almost to herself, as they started walking again.
‘Have you met her before?’ Scott asked, surprised.
‘No, but I’ve seen photos on Al’s Facebook.’
‘I wouldn’t worry about it,’ Jill said kindly.
‘Oh, I’m not,’ Lesley said quickly. ‘I just ... wasn’t expecting her to be here, that’s all.’ She wondered if Al had known she’d be here. If he’d been blindsided by it, he was doing a good job of hiding it, she thought, watching him chatting to the couple, his hand resting casually on the back of Cassie’s chair.
‘Yeah, her parents own a house in Cannes, and they come here around this time every year, same as the rest of us. She and Al first met over here. She was an old friend of Jean Claude’s.’ She nodded at the man sitting opposite Cassie.
‘Oh, right.’ Lesley tried to appear unfazed. But she felt very much out of the loop, and she didn’t like it.
Scott grinned at her. ‘Really, you don’t have to worry about Cassie,’ he whispered in her ear as they moved forward. ‘You’re much more Al’s type. Come on, I’ll introduce you.’
‘Cassie!’ Scott pulled Lesley forward as they surrounded her table. ‘This is Al’s girlfriend, Lesley. Lesley, this is Cassie, Al’s ex, and Jean-Claude, the guy she dumped him for.’
‘Hello, Lesley,’ Cassie said. ‘Lovely to meet you.’ She shielded her eyes and looked at Scott in amusement. ‘Scott, I see you’re still as big a shit-stirrer as ever.’
‘Just telling it like it is, darling.’ Scott grinned.
Al put an arm around Lesley’s shoulders and pulled her into his side, and she nestled closer, appreciating the gesture. She felt Cassie sizing her up us as they shook hands, and she did the same, pleased that Cassie wasn’t as intimidatingly stunning as she was in her Facebook photos – clearly a fan of filters, Lesley thought.
‘We didn’t know you were going to be here today,’ Scott said to Cassie. ‘You didn’t reply to the group WhatsApp.’
