Page 93 of A Season in the Snow
She was just wondering if her eyelashes were frosting over when her stomach gave a deep growl. ‘Shall we go inside and have our brunch?’
‘Good idea,’ said Marco, whose brows definitely had a frozen look about them.
‘I’m just going to nip to the loo,’ Alice said when they entered the Piz Gloria building that housed the restaurant and the Bond World exhibit. She was wondering if a Swiss German man had any idea what ‘nip to the loo’ meant when she realised to her delight that the door to the toilets said ‘Bond girls’. It got better. Inside, the cubicle doors were decorated with Bond silhouettes at various stages of him being shot at. And then the most amazing thing happened when she sat down to pee.
The cubicle went dark and above her head the ceiling panel turned into a multicoloured light show. Then the voice from the movie – the brainwashing voicefrom the movie– boomed out to tell her that her chicken allergy was cured! It was the most surreal experience, and Alice could not stop giggling on her toilet seat. Then just to fully send her over the edge, when she pressed the flush the sound effect of a dramatic shoot out blasted out of the speakers.
Alice emerged from the loos still laughing, and took a while explaining it all to Marco. She mopped at her eyes as they made their way up the steps to the restaurant and said, ‘Who knew that a toilet with showmanship would get me laughing like that again? Wow, look at this!’
‘It’s just like in the movie!’ Marco replied, taking in the revolving, 360-degree panoramic restaurant.
‘Weren’t you asleep by this point?’
‘I woke up sometimes, usually when you were gasping or clapping.’
‘Did I do that during the movie?’
‘Oh yes, you were very in the zone.’
The two of them were led to a table right beside the window, where they could see all the mountain peaks moving very slowly beyond the glass. The restaurant was fairly quiet, which gave a relaxed, date-like feel to the situation. Alice gazed at the surroundings, fully absorbed in memories of the movie the night before, and she kept pointing out details to Marco about what was the same, and what had changed.
‘Look, look,’ she said, pointing to a TV screen that played on loop one of the scenes filmed right where they were sitting. ‘Isn’t this cool?’
‘It is cool,’ Marco agreed. ‘Why have I never been here before?’
‘I want to come here every day. Shall we get some drinks?’
It was an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet and you were allowed to stay for two rotations of the restaurant, so ninety minutes in total. ‘Hey look, free Prosecco!’ Marco said. ‘You want some, Bond girl?’
‘I’m going to make mine a Buck’s Fizz, because it feels more in keeping with the movie,’ Alice answered.
‘What is Buck’s Fizz?’
‘Orange juice and champagne. It’s very nineteen-sixties. You want one?’
‘Okay.’
Back at the table, and loaded up with their fizz, coffee, Ovomaltine, croissants, rosti, sausages, yogurt, cheeses and all sorts of things to give them a tummy ache, Alice looked at Marco.
‘I liked meeting your family the other day.’
Marco sipped his Buck’s Fizz and didn’t seem to enjoy the taste all that much. ‘They really liked meeting you. I’m sorry my mum is quite a big personality!’
‘She was lovely. You and Noah are lovely and very kind, so I wasn’t really expecting any different.’
‘If you make her fondue for anyone she’ll want to see pictures.’
‘Your parents must be pleased that their sons spend so much time together. Have you always been close?’
‘Yes, we are very close. I like him a lot, he’s a funny guy and a good brother. I miss him when he goes to New Zealand over the summer but he always comes back to hang out with me.’ He laughed. ‘You don’t have any brothers or sisters, is that right?’
Alice shook her head. ‘No siblings, just me. I’d known Jill since school so she was, in a way, the closest I had to a sister, I guess.’
‘Are you still friends with anyone else from your school?’
‘I’m still really close with our other friends from university – Bahira, Kemi and Theresa.’ Her gut twisted a little and the claws of guilt tap-tapped at her while she tried to justify to herself why she’d pushed them away over the past few months. ‘Jill and I just always got each other, we always lived not that far from each other, we’d be the first people either of us would call for anything.’
Oh God. It had just occurred to her that Jill wouldn’t ever come to her wedding, that Jill wouldn’t even have a wedding. It was a silly, insignificant thought to have right now, but it sucker punched her. Guilt seized the opportunity to wedge further into her mind the fact that she was pushing her other friends away as well. Alice turned to the view and breathed in and out, in and out, and waited until the worst of the thoughts tired and wandered off.
