Page 10 of Snowed In with You

‘I don’t know, Sasha said something about bad traffic and an accident.’ He looked wrung out, and Lucy felt a moment of sympathy that he’d clearly been on the receiving end of Sasha losing her shit in fifteen different ways. They’d all been there at one time or another.

‘How come you made it? Do you live nearby?’

Nate nodded. ‘Bedminster. I got the bus.’

‘Same, I’m in Southville.’

Nate checked his watch and nodded vaguely, like he couldn’t be less interested that they lived so close to each other. ‘We should probably go through,’ he said, gesturing towards the escalator. ‘I guess they’ll find us when they get here.’

Lucy nodded and glanced at her phone, hoping for a reassuring message from Jonno. ‘Have you checked in?’ she asked, wondering if he’d had time to do it online. Nate nodded, so they rode the escalator and joined the queue for Security, Lucy standing behind Nate and wondering whether the curls on his neck were thick and wiry, or soft and fluffy, like baby hair. She resisted the entirely insane urge to touch them, instead surreptitiously inspecting the contents of his incredibly organised plastic bag of toiletries. Mostly grey Clinique Men bottles and tubes, and some generic Colgate toothpaste. They said nothing to each other for twenty minutes while they waited in the queue, and by the time Lucy emerged from putting her shoes back on after Security he was at the entrance to Duty Free, already on his phone. He pulled a face as she approached, then turned the handset to face her. It was Sasha on a video call, prompting Lucy to feel a flurry of annoyance that she was calling Nate again, rather than her. Presumably she was seeing him as a Fran substitute, which didn’t bode well for him this weekend. Sasha loved a video call, and the consensus in the office was that she used it to check nobody was working at home in their pyjamas.

‘We’re not going to make the flight,’ she said, stony-faced.

‘What, none of you?’ asked Lucy, glancing at Nate. He was leaning in so close she could smell the woody scent of his shampoo, or maybe it was his aftershave. She forced herself to focus and not get distracted.

‘No,’ said Sasha. ‘Olly and Maya are on the train; there’s some kind of signalling issue and they’re not even in Temple Meads yet. We’re in Jonno’s car, but we’re stuck on a country lane, going nowhere. There’s been an accident. It’s clearly bad, an air ambulance has just flown over.’

‘I’m really sorry,’ said Lucy. Sasha turned the camera towards Jonno, who shook his head. She could see his jaw twitching with stress and frustration.

‘So what’s the plan?’ asked Lucy.

‘We’ll have to get another flight in a couple of hours. Olly’s trying to sort it out now.’

Lucy breathed, wondering if Sasha had unleashed the full extent of her fury on Olly yet, the poor bastard. ‘Do you want us to wait?’

‘Absolutely not,’ said Sasha. ‘Get out there and work your charm on Kristoff; he’s spent a fortune on this trip and we already look like fucking idiots. It’s down to you two to save the day.’

Lucy smiled gamely, although her nerves were already jangling. ‘When are they arriving?’

‘They got there yesterday; I spoke to Kristoff last night. They were planning a team-building day today, something to do with building igloos.’

‘Right. Sounds horrific.’

‘I’m serious, Lucy,’ said Sasha, giving Lucy her best glacier-forming stare. ‘You and Nate both need to step up. Do whatever they want this evening – go skiing by torchlight, drink Jägermeister through a pair of Kristoff’s boxer shorts, whatever it takes to keep him entertained. We’ll be there as soon as we can.’

‘OK, we will.’ She looked up at Nate, who pointed to the departures board and held up six fingers to indicate their gate number. ‘We need to go, our flight’s boarding.’

‘No pressure, mate,’ said Jonno, and Sasha turned the phone in his direction so Lucy could see his pained smile and his white knuckles gripping the steering wheel. ‘But just so you know, the future of the Titan account is currently resting entirely on your shoulders. Try not fuck it up, yeah?’

‘Can you ski?’ asked Lucy, turning to Nate who was now settled into the aisle seat next to her, apparently somewhat reluctantly. Lucy had suggested he take what would have been Jonno’s seat, but she was beginning to wonder why he’d accepted. He’d said almost nothing while they waited at the departure gate, choosing a seat in the furthest corner, before losing himself in whatever was playing through his headphones.

‘Yes, of course,’ he said, in a tone that seemed unnecessarily snippy to Lucy. ‘But I prefer not to.’

Lucy pulled the in-flight magazine out of the pocket and flicked through it aggressively. ‘Sorry I asked.’

‘Can YOU?’

‘No,’ said Lucy. ‘It’s not included in the UK comprehensive school curriculum, and unlike France, Croydon isn’t great for après-ski.’

‘I grew up in Clevedon,’ he said witheringly. ‘That’s not great for après-ski, either. And I’m only half French.’

‘Which half?’ she asked, figuring that they were stuck together for the next few hours, and she might as well make friends, or at least try to find out something about him. God knows today wasn’t shaping up to be much fun otherwise.

‘The French half,’ deadpanned Nate, putting on his headphones. Lucy sighed and went back to ignoring the articles in the easyJet magazine and looking at the ads instead, hoping to spot anything that looked remotely original or interesting. It was all perfume and skincare, which invariably featured the same airbrushed movie stars looking deathly bored in wispy clothing. Apparently there was no need to have any kind of personality as long as you smelled nice.

‘How do you want to manage this evening?’ asked Nate, taking his headphones off again.

Lucy turned to look at him. ‘Manage what?’ He looked fidgety and unsettled, like he’d been over-thinking this question for a while.