Chapter 26
‘ALICE!’
Alice looked up to see Vanessa coming up the slope, looking exactly the same as she had all those years ago. Notexactlythe same – her hair was darker, her cheekbones more pronounced and her skin sun-blushed and peppered with freckles. She’d grown sleeker and more put-together, but her warm, megawatt smile shone through.
Vanessa’s hair was pulled back and she wore leather snow boots, thick leggings and a bright white snow jacket. With the mountain vista behind her and the backpack on her back, she could have been a picture postcard from their past, and that was . . . brilliant. Vanessa hurried forward, skilfully skipping over the snow like a pro.
She threw her arms around Alice, causing Bear to shuffle excitedly around them both, tangling them in his lead, his tail going wild. ‘Alice, I missed you. Welcome to Switzerland!’
‘I missed you too,’ Alice said into the fur of her jacket, holding tight, not wanting to let go of this connection to her and Jill’s backstory. ‘Welcome home, to you!’
‘You look exactly the same.’ Vanessa pulled back and admired Alice’s face. ‘No wait, not quite – you don’t wear the red lipstick any more?’
‘Good memory!’
‘You always had that lipstick on, even when we were very drunk I could pick you out of a crowd because of that shade,’ she laughed.
Alice smiled. ‘I haven’t worn it for a while.’
Vanessa let it drop and turned to Marco, who was waiting patiently to embrace his old friend. ‘Marc, so happy you are back, you’ve been making Alice feel welcome, right?’
‘I hope so,’ he replied, stealing a look at Alice. ‘How is the new job?’
‘Oh, it’s wonderful, but I will be the size of a chalet by Christmas. Wow, all this cheese!’
They laughed, and Alice appreciated again what a kind touch it was that Swiss people spoke to each other in English in front of her.
‘And this must be the famous Bear, come home to the hills of Switzerland?’ Vanessa crouched down and made Bear’s day by covering him in kisses until he wrapped himself in circles and leaned against her, pushing her into the snow.
Once Alice had managed to extract Bear, and Vanessa, they bid goodbye to Marco and went towards their own chalet. Alice looked over her shoulder and caught his eye as he did the same, in the doorway of his place. She mouthed, ‘Thank you,’ and he smiled.
Inside, Vanessa went straight for the kettle, dumping her things on the floor. After she’d filled it and flicked it, she came back over to Alice and took her hands. ‘How are you?’
‘Better for being here,’ Alice answered honestly. ‘I can’t thank you enough, Vanessa, for being so kind and letting me stay. Please say the minute you want your house back to yourself?’
‘Hush, I am so pleased you are here,’ said Vanessa. ‘But I am so sorry you’re going through this, and I’m so sorry for the loss of Jill.’
Her directness was refreshing, and somehow it opened the door for Alice to talk with the same blunt openness. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I miss her a lot.’
Vanessa poured them both a coffee without asking, handing one to Alice, and leading them to the sofa where she propped her feet under her and slung her arms back on the cushion, right at home.
Alice watched her. It felt so odd having Vanessa here in the chalet, moving around with the ease and knowledge that Alice was still getting used to. She wondered if she’d ever feel that at home in a house that would never be hers.
‘How’s your leg?’ Vanessa asked.
‘Pretty much fine now,’ Alice answered, sipping on the sweet black coffee which wasn’t how she’d usually take it, but she drank it with gratitude. ‘I have a lovely long scar forming that I’ll show you at some point, and it can ache a bit with too much physical exercise, so I haven’t really done a lot apart from dog walking for the last few months, but it’s really nothing. Really, nothing.’
‘Have you been suffering since it happened?’
‘Suffering?’
‘Emotionally,’ Vanessa clarified. ‘The whole thing must have been terrifying, and losing a close friend on top of that. You’ve had therapy, yes?’
‘No, I don’t think I’m bad enough to see a therapist. I didn’t actually see or remember much, it all happened so quickly and I was pretty disorientated. I have these little flashbacks but it’s all just final moments, just really seeing Jill for the last time.’
‘You have flashbacks of the crush you were caught up in, but you don’t think that’s bad enough to warrant visiting a therapist? Alice, I went to see a therapist because I was going through a . . . what’s the word in English when you’re told you can’t come to work any more?’
‘Fired?’
