Page 64 of Snowed In with You

The room was quiet again, and Lucy sat in silence for a minute, thinking about what had just happened and what it all meant, until her phone buzzed in her pocket. She fished it out to see a message from Marco, asking if she was free later.

Lucy thought about it for a moment, weighing up her options. The tension release would be welcome, but the questions wouldn’t. She still felt mentally and physically exhausted, and even tidying up her bikini line felt like too much effort.

Can I come back to you on that? she replied. Loads of work stuff to catch up on. Will let you know.

It was dismissive, she knew, but Marco wouldn’t take it personally. It was the thing she valued most about their relationship – the lack of effort required to meet each other’s needs. What had Monica called it, back in the Guntherhütte? Sterile. Maybe that was a bit much, but it was certainly clean. And wasn’t clean a good thing, in the end?

‘So,’ said Jonno, dumping their drinks on the table. ‘What happened in Zermatt?’

Lucy took a sip of her cider, unable to meet his gaze. ‘There was this avalanche. I got caught in a mountain hut and it was all quite dramatic.’

‘No,’ said Jonno patiently. ‘I mean between you and French Exit.’

‘Don’t call him that,’ said Lucy quietly.

‘Why not?’

‘Because I found out why he’s uncommunicative and leaves the party early. He has an anxiety disorder.’ It wasn’t the only thing she’d found out about Nate, but Jonno didn’t need those details.

‘Shit, really?’

Lucy nodded.

‘OK, well now I feel like a total prick,’ said Jonno, blowing out his cheeks.

‘Yeah,’ said Lucy. ‘So did I.’

‘But don’t think I haven’t noticed how you’ve changed the subject.’

‘In what respect?’

‘Fine,’ said Jonno, putting down his pint and folding his arms. ‘Let’s do this the hard way. How many years have we known each other?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Lucy. ‘Nine?’

‘It’s well over ten, as you know. And in that time, how many conversations have we had about your sex life?’

‘Christ,’ said Lucy with a hollow laugh. ‘I have no idea. Hundreds, I should think.’ Lucy noted how Jonno called it her sex life and not her love life and pushed that under the mental rug labelled things I can’t deal with right now. If that rug covered much more stuff, it would qualify as a mountain.

‘So we know each other pretty well, right?’

‘Yeah. Course.’ She twitched with discomfort, knowing Jonno was getting closer to the big question. Could she outright lie to him? Probably not.

‘When Sasha told the team Nate wasn’t coming back this morning, you looked like you might puke,’ he continued. ‘And you’ve been mooning around all day. You look, in short, like a woman who’s lost something she actually cared about.’

‘What are you asking, exactly?’ said Lucy, deciding she might as well pull the plaster off sooner rather than later.

‘Did you sleep with him?’

‘No,’ said Lucy emphatically. ‘Absolutely no sleeping was involved.’ She shrugged and half-smiled as Jonno beamed triumphantly.

‘YES,’ he said, punching the air. ‘I KNEW it. I bet Olly one hundred euros that you two had totally banged.’

‘You can’t tell Olly,’ said Lucy quickly. Jonno raised his eyebrows and she batted him away. ‘Look, it wasn’t a big deal. An outlet for the stress of the situation, nothing more.’ The words had a distant echo in Lucy’s head, like she was talking about someone else. But clearly Jonno wasn’t buying it.

‘I don’t believe you,’ he said.

‘On what basis?’