Page 71 of The Riviera House Swap
NOW
The phone startled Nina awake.
‘Hello?’ she said sleepily into her phone the next morning, blinking in the soft not yet daylight.
‘Don’t tell me you’re still in bed?’ a voice said.
She sat up instantly. ‘Bess!’ she said, overjoyed to hear her friend’s voice. ‘Is everything alright?’
‘Does something have to be wrong for me to ring you?’
‘It does at…’ she consulted her watch. ‘8.30a.m., especially when I didn’t get to bed until past midnight!’ she joked.
‘Oh, poor Cinderella,’ Bess joked. ‘I hope your carriage didn’t turn into a pumpkin?’
‘Very funny,’ she said, grinning. ‘It’s lovely to hear your voice, actually.’
‘So I’m told,’ Bess joked. ‘Oh, I just thought I’d better see how things are really going. Your WhatsApp messages have dried up a bit and I wanted to see how the date went. How it’s all going, really.’
‘Really, really good, I think,’ she said, pummelling one of her pillows and setting it against the headboard so she could sit up comfortably.
‘Hang on, he’s not there, is he?’
‘No. We’re not quite… in that place yet.’
‘Ooh, yet? So things are getting serious?’
‘Come on Bess, it’s been two dates.’
‘Two dates and a lifetime of longing,’ her friend pointed out.
‘Very true. Well,’ she smiled, remembering how Pierre had kissed her softly last night. He hadn’t tried to come in – which was probably a good thing. She wasn’t sure if she’d have felt comfortable with Sabine sleeping in the next room. He’d been a true gentleman throughout the evening, just as he had on their first date. And he’d already asked her if she could meet him again. ‘You know what, Bess, I really think we’ve got something. I know it’s early days, but you’re right, it’s as if I’ve known him for years. As if I’ve been with him for all the years in between. We’ve picked up where we left off, kind of…’
‘Wow, so you’re planning to elope?’
‘Haha, very funny. No, no wedding plans as yet. But you know what I mean. All the feelings – they’re still there. They must have been dormant for all those years and suddenly it’s like they’d never stopped.’
‘A bit like chickenpox?’
‘What?’
‘Well, you know. It lies dormant and then strikes again – shingles!’
‘Are you comparing my rekindled love to shingles?’ she laughed.
‘Well, not in every respect…’
‘You’re an idiot.’
‘I know. And seriously, that’s really great,’ Bess said.
There was a silence.
‘But?’ Nina said.
‘But nothing.’
Nina had known Bess a long time. She recognised something in her friend’s voice. ‘You can say, you know,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to take offense or anything.’
