Sign of the Times (23 page)

“One time down this run.
 
Let me introduce your buddy.
 
Robbie, this is Lucy.
 
Lucy, Robbie.”

Startled, Robbie said, “Hi” and to Jonas, “We’ve met.”

Embarrassed, Lucy shot him a warning glance.
 
Stumbling over his words, Robbie said, “We’re in the same hotel.”
 

Jonas looked at Robbie, then at Lucy, trying to work out what he’d missed.

“OK.
 
Robbie, Lucy.
 
I leave you together and we meet at Mekka for lunch at midday.”

“Fine,” both of them stated.

Giving them a strange look, Jonas dug his poles in, pushed off and was soon out of sight.
 

They stood in awkward silence, which Robbie finally broke by saying, “When I said, I’ll see you on the slopes, I didn’t realise you would take me literally.”

Lucy shrugged.
 
He didn’t seem overly enthusiastic.
 
Maybe she was expecting too much. He was a man. They weren’t very good at showing how they felt.
 
“How’s your skiing?” Robbie broke into her thoughts.

“Good,” Lucy was defensive.
 

“Great.
 
Let’s get going then.
 
Ready for a black run?”

“Sure,” she raised her chin defiantly.
 
She was nowhere near ready.
 
She’d only just done her first red, but she wasn’t ready to admit it.

He led her to the start of a black run and then disappeared, flying through the alpine landscape.
 
Lucy pushed off and holding her poles loosely at her sides, glided effortlessly down the mountain, until someone skied straight across her.

“Aargh,” shrieked Lucy, as she stumbled, frantically trying to get out of the way of the idiot in front of her, who had caused her to pull up so sharply, that she hadn’t been able to keep her balance.
 
Unamused, she got to her feet.
 
She wasn’t hurt, just pissed off.
 
She continued down the slope till she saw Robbie waiting, with a ‘what kept you’, look on his face.

“Some idiot cut me up,” she explained.

“Male skiers,” Robbie recognised, “they’re as bad as women drivers, too much testosterone going around.”

“Women drivers have too much testosterone?” Lucy asked, shaking the snow from her hair.

“No, male skiers. It was just an analogy.”

“Analogy. Big word.”

“Well, I am a student after all.”

“Yes, a student of life, you said,” Lucy was disparaging.

“Well, yes, that and Medicine.”

“Medicine?
 
You’re a med student?”

“Yes,” said Robbie, surprised at her vehemence.

 
“Where are you studying?”

“Glasgow Uni.”

Lucy felt faint. Glasgow Uni. Jesus.

“Why?” asked Robbie.

“I’m a cardiologist.”

“Really!”

“Yes, really.
  
I also lecture at Glasgow University.”

“You’re joking.
 
How come I’ve never seen you?”

“I lecture first and fourth year.”

“I’m in third year.
 
Small world.”

That’s not what Lucy thought. She thought it was damned inconvenient.
 
He might be one of her students next year and she’d slept with him.
 
She’d messed up here and no mistake.
 
Best to make light of it, she thought.
 
The damage was done.
 
Also, the sex
had
been good.
 
The cogs were turning inside her head.
 
Would there be any harm in continuing with it?
 
Just standing looking at him, as he took in the ramifications of her bombshell, she could feel her body tensing.
 

“So, you’re going to be teaching me next year?”

“It’s possible.”

“Well, we’d best get to know each other then, hadn’t we?”

“We already know each other,” retorted Lucy, the double entendre not lost on either of them.
 

“I’ll be looking for some pointers from you,” replied Robbie, with a smile.

“I thought I’d already obliged.”

“You’re not worried, are you?”

“What? That next year, you’re going to be my student?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve been in more comfortable situations,” she admitted.

“Come on, get over it.
 
What’s the problem?” Robbie asked.
 
“Hear that?”

“What?”

“Nothing, absolutely nothing, so there’s no problem, apart from the fact that we’re not yet having fun.
 
C’mon!” and with that, he slid down the slope.
 
Lucy followed him, her mind racing.
 
She decided to let matters take their course and just enjoy herself.

Chapter Thirty Three

By the time they stopped for lunch, they were out of puff.
 
Lucy was fit, but she’d forgotten just how different an exercise skiing was.
 
She’d feel it in the morning.
 
Robbie made it all seem so easy. They found their group and greeted Jonas, who indicated some seats a few spaces away from him. That was good.
 
That way they wouldn’t have to make polite conversation.
 
If things became too stilted, she could talk to the others, but if events panned out OK, she would be alone with Robbie again.
 
They tucked into a hearty rabbit stew and t
he conversation
flowed.
 
Jonas came over and asked if they were coming to the toboggan race.
 
Robbie gave Lucy a challenging look, daring her to refuse.
 
Never one to be outdone, she beamed at Jonas and said, “When does it start?”
 
As Jonas provided her with the details, Robbie stood in the wings.
 
It was only afterwards, when they were alone again, that he said, “So, are you OK with me steering?”

Looking at him oddly, Lucy said, “Thanks, but I can manage my own skis.”

Robbie laughed, “No, not your skis, the toboggan.”

“Sorry?”

“It’s a two person toboggan.
 
Are you OK if I drive?”

She hadn’t understood that.
 
She thought they’d be racing each other.
 
Damn, she didn’t know if she wanted him in such close proximity to her, if she didn’t know how the evening was going to end.
 
He still hadn’t shown if he was interested in a re-enactment of last night.
 
Curbing her indignation, she replied, “That’s fine.”

“Good, should be a good night.
 
Plenty of schnapps.
 
You do realise most people are completely pissed when they do these races?”

She’d thought as much.
 
She was going to be one of them.

The rest of the day was spent up and down red runs, black runs, on T bars, on every ski lift in the vicinity.
 
It seemed natural that they would have dinner together.
 
She still didn’t know if it was as a friend, or lover.
 
They chatted away, the earlier awkwardness long forgotten.

“Are you looking forward to the race?” Robbie asked.

“Should be a laugh.”

“I did it last year.”

“Did you win?”

“The idea is to survive, not win!”
 
She hoped he was joking.

“Anyway, we’d best get going.
 
It starts soon and I don’t have nearly enough schnapps in my system yet.”

“The rules are, there
are
no rules,” boomed the voice of the organiser.
 
“First to finish is the winner. Good luck everyone. Go!”

“Hold on tight,” Robbie urged Lucy, as they ran and jumped onto the sledge.
 
Lucy couldn’t believe how fast they were going.
 
She was glad of her hat.
 
It was freezing and her hair was whipping around her face.
 

“Watch out,” Lucy screamed, as a low hanging branch almost lifted them out of the toboggan.
 
It was pitch dark.
 
She could barely see her hand in front of her face as they hurtled down the mountainside, blind.
 

“Woo-hoo,” another team sailed past.
 
They were going too fast and didn’t make the corner.
 
Lucy and Robbie passed them on the bend, as the others clambered back onto their sledge.
 
This is brilliant, thought Lucy.
 
She wanted to drive, but instead huddled into Robbie’s slim frame and concentrated on not falling off, turning her body when he turned his, providing momentum for steering around the corners.
 
Ahead of them she heard excited screams.
 
It was like a rollercoaster, with all the bumps and loops.
 
At least there was no real danger of falling off a rollercoaster, she thought.
 
Seconds later, she discovered the reason for the screams.
 
They were fast approaching a very steep gradient.
 
No sooner had she realised it, when they went careering down it.
 
What a rush!
 
They overtook a few sledges and then suddenly, they were airborne.
 
They’d hit a tree root and went soaring through the air.

“Oof,” said Lucy, as she landed, with a thwack.

“C’mon,” Robbie yelled at her, “Get on.”

Scrambling back on, she pushed forward.
 
Their speed increased again, faster and faster. They burst through the finish line.
 
Tenth.
 
Not bad.

“When’s the next one?” said Lucy, grinning.

“Oh, that was great, but this is just as good,” Robbie relaxed in the bar.

“Mmm,” Lucy agreed with him.
 
“We deserve a beer.”

“Absolutely,” and they clinked glasses.

They rabbited on, then Robbie said, “Do you want to go back to the hotel?”

“Yes.”

Uncertain what was going to happen once at the hotel, Lucy was relieved when Robbie solved the problem for her.
 

“Fancy a nightcap?”
 

“Why not?” and she headed towards the bar.

“No,” he took her hand gently, “I meant, just the two of us.”

Letting Lucy digest this, he smiled at her and said, “If that’s OK?”

 
“Yes, but it’ll need to be your room. I drank my mini-bar dry last night.”

“I don’t really want a nightcap,” he looked her straight in the eye.

A few hours later, after not only highly satisfying sex, but much cuddling and chatting, Lucy said reluctantly, “I better go.”

Robbie looked puzzled.

“Why?”

“Well, I thought you’d want your space.”

“I do,” the corners of Robbie’s mouth turned up, “This is my space and this,” he indicated the other side of the bed, “is yours.”

She looked at him, not sure what to say.

“If you want, that is,” Robbie clarified.
 
She chose not to see that as a double entendre.

“OK,” she said, “I’ll stay.”

“Till morning?” Robbie checked.

“If that’s what you want.”

“That’s very much what I want.”

The next few days passed in a fog.
 
They skied a lot, ate well and spent the nights under the covers.
 
They hadn’t talked about what would happen when they returned to Scotland, but instinctively Lucy knew they were going to keep seeing each other.
 
Maybe it was just an infatuation.
 
But
she had never felt such a pull before, like an invisible force, attracting them.
 

The last night came around.
 
Robbie was heading home in the morning.
 
Lucy was driving to Tuscany.
 
Holly had been overjoyed when Lucy called to say she was coming.
 
As Lucy and Robbie lay in bed, a hush fell over them and they knew it wasn’t that they’d run out of things to say.
 
After an interminable silence, Robbie said, “So what happens now?”

Lucy decided it was time to be up-front.
 
“Robbie, I’d like to see you again when we get back, but it’s complicated.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have a boyfriend.”

“I guessed that.”

“You did?”

“Yes. Look at you. You’re gorgeous, successful, funny and fun.
 
Why wouldn’t you have a boyfriend?”

Lucy took all of these compliments on-board and was taken aback when Robbie said, “I’d still like to see you.”

She was being offered the best of both worlds, so she said, “OK.”

“Good. Can I have your number then?”
Lucy chuckled, “Don’t you think we’ve done this the wrong way around?”

“Sorry?”

“Aren’t you meant to ask for my phone number, then we sleep with each other?”

Robbie laughed, “I suppose so, but since we got the logistics arse from elbow, can I have it anyway?”

“Of course,” and smiling at him, she wrote down her number.
 

“Great.
 
Do you mind if I sleep here tonight?”

“I’d be gutted if you didn’t.”

“Let’s get some sleep,” Robbie said, as he cuddled her.

As Lucy packed her things into her car, she reflected on the past few days.
 
She was looking forward to seeing her sister.
 
Holly had been in Italy for a few weeks writing her book.
 
Her sister was enjoying herself immensely.
 
Tom hadn’t sounded too good last time Lucy spoke to him on the phone.
 
She wasn’t sure if he was pining for his fiancée or if something else was troubling him.
 

It was going to be
a
long drive.
 
It should take just under seven hours.
 
Thank goodness for air conditioning.
 
She had a quick look at the map, to see if she could spot a place for lunch.
 
She looked at Holly’s address - Bibbiena.
 
Parma or Modena for lunch then.
 
She opted for Parma.
 
Turning on her radio, she hopped in the car, cast a last look at Saas Fee and set off.
 
There was an upside to it being a beautiful sunny day, she thought. You definitely gained a different impression of a place if the weather was horrible.
 
As she drove she sang along
to
Queen
,
Duran Duran
and
The Rolling Stones
.

“Hi Carl. How are you? Sorry I haven’t been in touch. There was no reception in Saas Fee,” Lucy lied.
 
“You’ll never guess where I am.
  
I’m in Parma, munching the best ham Parma has to offer, with olives, sun dried tomatoes and a glass of Chianti.”

“Lucky cow!” said Carl.

“I know.
 
Anyway, tell me what you’ve been up to.”

She listened to Carl for a second, who was moaning that she could have used a pay phone and then cut in, “Carl, you know I don’t
do
phone boxes.”

“So, how are things with you? How’s the restaurant?”
 
She listened half-heartedly to Carl prattle on about minor disputes with suppliers and builders.
 
His grumps and groans out of the way, he moved on to the positives, before turning his attention to Lucy.
 

“Anyway, how was the skiing?”

“Yes, the skiing was great. The weather has been fabulous. The runs were great, the snow was perfect.
 
Yes, the whole thing has been a great break.
 
Just a few days with Holly now and then I’ll fly back from Rome.
 
Are we going out for dinner?”

“Yes, I thought we could go to Sarti’s.”

“Sounds good.
 
You booking it?”

“Makes sense, since you’re away.
 
Some of us have to stay behind and earn a crust. Geddit?
 
Crust?
 
Restaurant?”
  

“Yes, I get it,” Lucy said. “Look I need to go.
 
I told Holly I’d be there for dinner, so I better make tracks.”

“OK.
 
Drive safe and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“Of course,” Lucy said sweetly, thinking thank God he didn’t know the half of it.
 
Finishing her wine, she paid the bill and set off.