Chapter 42
Alice had gone alone to meet her friends at the train station the following evening, leaving Bear flopping about in the chalet. She didn’t know how her mind and body would react when she saw them, but with every passing minute she waited, the more excited she got. All of a sudden it was as if her heart had suddenly realised it was missing them – not as much as it was missing Jill, but enough to notice the gap of where they should be. And now she waiting, on tiptoes to glimpse them as soon as the train rolled in.
They stepped off the train and she ran to them, and all those things she thought would be painful about seeing them – the similarities, the memories, the mirror images they were of Jill, and each other, in so many ways – were not painful at all. They were perfect.
‘I’ve missed you,’ she said, holding onto Bahira.
‘I’ve missedyou. We all have,’ Bahira said and pulled back. ‘Hi Alice, there you are, we’ve missed you.’
‘You came,’ Alice said to Theresa, who was decked out like a snow bunny with pigtails and bobble hat and rosy cheeks.
‘Of course we did. Like it or not.’ She grinned.
‘Thank you,’ Alice said, moving to Kemi.
‘Anytime.’
‘Come on then, before you all freeze.’ Alice took a couple of their bags and walked them up the slope while they oohed and ahhed at the chocolate-box chalets and the deep, soft snow.
‘This is the prettiest place I’ve ever been to in my whole entire life.’ Theresa was chattering on. ‘Ooh, the Eiger Guesthouse looks cosy, can we go in there at some point? I want fondue!’
‘I can make you a fondue if you like!’ Alice said.
‘So you’ve moved on from junk food?’ teased Kemi, gently.
‘I have. My friend Marco’s mum taught me.’
The three women laughed and Kemi said, ‘Whoa, she mentions his name three minutes in – it must be love!’
‘What?’ said Alice, laughing.
Bahira linked her arm. ‘Your mum told us about Marco.’
‘Did you kiss him yet?’ Theresa asked. ‘Because we said we’d report back to your mum.’
‘Since when have you three been besties with my mum?’
‘Like we said,’ said Bahira. ‘We missed you.’
Theresa prodded Alice’s arm. ‘So did you?’
‘Well, itwasNew Year.’
Theresa shrieked in excitement.
Alice laughed again. ‘Shh,’ she said. ‘This is us coming up, and he lives just there.’
‘We’ll meet him, though, right?’
‘I don’t think I could stop you if I wanted to.’
Alice let them into Vanessa’s home, and they filled it up with their presence immediately, gushing over the furnishings, falling over themselves to pet Bear who was in heaven under their gazes as they exclaimed how huge he’d got, their chatter and laughter tinkling through any emptiness.
Maybe she’d been wrong pushing them away. Looking at them now she wondered why she’d convinced herself she’d lost everything when she’d lost Jill. But it was what she’d needed to do at the time. She’d had a tough year, as Lola had pointed out, and she wasn’t about to beat herself up for the way she’d coped. She was doing okay.
‘Is there anything you guys would like to do for the rest of the evening?’ Alice asked, moving to put the kettle on.
‘Nothing,’ said Bahira, ‘But watch the sun go down over this beautiful view and catch up with each other.’
