Page 93 of All Mine
Etienne
There she was, her hair up in a messy bun, laptop under her arm. Etienne waved and realised he was smiling. Not just smiling.Beaming.
‘Look what you did!’ he said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the growing crowd of people there to offer a spare room. The queue was long and wound around the bandstand, where the local school orchestra were setting up to play to entertain the crowd. He watched Isabella’s eyes widen as she saw more people filing in from the high street, clutching coffees and hot chocolates to join the end of the line. He checked his phone and held the screen towards her in amazement.
‘Nearly one hundred thousand likes!’
She grabbed his phone and her mouth fell open.
‘You did that!’ Etienne said, shaking the phone at her. ‘You did that!’ he said again, and swung his arm back to take in everyone waiting to play their part for the community. A ripple of emotion seemed to cross her face, and then a laugh bubbled out of her, starting hesitantly and building until she threw her head back, causing her bun to fall out, her hair to tumble down her back.
Without thinking, he put his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. Her body felt small, soft but strong at the same time. Isabella froze for an instant and then melted against him. Her hair smelled like lemons. Her arms wound around his neck and squeezed back. She fitted perfectly.
‘This is the woman you want, right here,’ someone said and Isabella pulled away. Etienne felt the gap where she’d been all the way down his body.
One of the firefighters was leading a woman with headphones around her neck in their direction, followed by a cameraman.
‘This is Isabella Tucci. She’s the one who started the community campaign.’
‘Michelle Carter,’ the woman in headphones said, introducing herself as she shook Isabella’s hand. ‘Regional television news.’ The cameraman caught up, shielding his eyes to choose a good aspect.
‘Love what you’ve done here,’ Michelle said. ‘We’d like to record a piece for the evening news.’
Isabella flushed and touched her hair. As if she had anything to worry about. She’d look beautiful getting out of bed in the morning. Probably especially getting out of bed in the morning. Wait, why was he thinking about that now?
‘If we film from here,’ the cameraman said, indicating an angle, ‘we can get the queue behind you and then pan round to show what’s happening inside the tent.’
‘Perfect,’ Michelle agreed. ‘Then we’ll do some pieces to camera from the people with spare rooms, and those who need to stay with them.’
Isabella clutched Etienne’s forearm and he saw the panic cross her face.
‘You’ll be fine,’ he said quietly.
She moved a few steps away from the media team who were busy setting up, pulling him with her.
‘We had to do practice interviews at university as part of my business marketing degree, and I. . .’
Her hand on his arm was shaking. Etienne had a weird urge to hug her again.
‘What happened?’
‘I froze when they asked me a question. Not once, but twice. They pointed the microphone at me and I opened my mouth and nothing came out. I was like a goldfish looking for air.’ She closed her eyes at the memory.
‘What was the interview about?’
‘What difference does that make?’ She frowned. ‘It was just awful.’
He waited and after a second, she huffed and answered.
‘It was a scenario, a made-up thing, where we had to defend our business that had been accused of flouting employment laws.’
He took her hand and was surprised at how perfectly it fit into his own, her small delicate one enfolded in his.
‘This is different,’ Etienne said. ‘Totally different. You’re going to tell them how happy you are to be able to help your community. How much you love it here. How great it is to see the residents of Heart of Honeybridge going to family homes until things are sorted out.’
She didn’t say anything. She was still looking at his hand.
‘Plus, you are amazing. You can do anything you set your mind to. You’ve proven that already with Tutto Mio.’ Still nothing. It was as though she were hypnotised.
