Chapter 44
From behind her eyelids, Alice was experiencing utter tranquillity. The sun was high in Switzerland’s cloudless sky and it was warming her face and seeping into her skin. From her outside table on the patio of the Alpine Sports Centre’s Hugs & Cups café, the only sounds that broke the quiet were the muted cheers and the thunking and brushing that floated over from the curling game being played on the ice rink.
Alice breathed in deeply, the sweet vanilla and nutmeg spices from her drink filling her nose. She sipped herschintiretto. The hot apple juice swirled with almondy Amaretto was a tonic in the clean, cold air.
It was the day before the four-day Inferno extravaganza hit Mürren, and Alice, Marco and Bear were enjoying the peace and relaxation while they could.
Since her friends had gone home, Alice was feeling more at ease than she had in so long. She looked back at the times over the past six months when she’d doubted she’d ever feel normal again, when she’d had to talk herself out of her own spiralling mindset and remind herself to breathe. And here she was, breathing without even thinking about it most days.
Alice flexed her legs, which were stretched out and resting on Marco’s thighs, and he looked up from his book and smiled at her. She took him in, her sun-kissed man with sandy hair and an open smile, and a backdrop of bright blue sky, rugged mountains and snows of pure white and peppermint, depending on where the shadows hit.
‘What?’ he asked.
From his place lying on the frosty paving slabs Bear looked up and at her too, because of course he was part of the conversation.
She shrugged. ‘Just making a picture.’
Marco’s smile spread into a grin, which he then contorted into a funny face, making her laugh. She laughed and crossed her eyes and gurned back at him, and Bear sighed and lay back in the sunshine.
Alice took another sip of drink, breathed in and out, and settled back to her place of tranquillity behind the warmth of her eyelids.
