Page 76 of Escape to the Swiss Chalet

‘Not bad at all,’ Liv said, giving me a begrudging thumbs up.

‘My onlyprivatelessons have been with the beginner’s ski school, but I have been getting a lot of practice in,’ I admitted, thinking of thehundredsof times I’d forced myself up and down the piste so as not to immediately die when skiing with Luca.

‘You should stick to that rather than getting arrested for crimes against snowboarding,’ Liv said, with a laugh. ‘You’re way more in control.’

‘And less likely to break something,’ Xavier added, as the three of us were scooped up by a rickety old chair lift and launched into the sky, back to the top for another run.

‘I’m going to do a few runs off-piste,’ Liv said, sliding under thedo not entertape and bunny-hopping backwards towards the edge.

‘Whattt?’ I said, alarmed. ‘Careful Liv, you’re not allowed to go…’

She gave us a double salute, flipped her board round and disappeared into obscurity.

‘She’s getting good,’ Xavier laughed, as we shuffled over to the nice, safe blue.

‘We’ll probably never see her again,’ I said, worriedly looking out for a red dot haring through the trees. ‘Sorry Xavier, don’t feel you have to hang out with me, when you could be letting loose with Liv.’

‘Not at all. Liv tries to kill me when we board together,’ he said, positioning his goggles on his nose, ready for action.

‘One extreme to the other,’ I said, taking off gently, every muscle clenched tight as I slowly skied to the right, then slowly skied to the left, tracing an oversized zigzag into the mountain.

Xavier was boarding smoothly alongside me, so relaxed he could have been smoking a cigarette and swirling a late-night brandy. Why did everyone else always look so cool and I still felt completely out of my depth? I looked over, irritated, as he wiggled his board playfully in the snow, jumping and spinning as he went. It was easy to forget this was supposed to be fun, day after day, piste after piste, trying to stay alive. I was hunched over and concentrating hard, but somehow still managed to hit a mogul and shot towards the edge on one ski, throwing myself on the ground and faceplanting. Again.

‘Holly? Are you OK?’ Xavier called, speeding across to pick me up. He rolled me over, my face full of snow. ‘You were doing so great.’

‘I still can’t do it,’ I said, wiping the slush from my eyes and looking up at the sky. ‘No matter how many times I practise, I still end up falling on my face.’

Xavier leant over me, concerned and it was nice to feel like he didn’t totally hate me anymore. It was also quite nice lying down on the snow in the sun. Maybe a little snooze was in order.

‘I know what will help,’ Xavier said, sitting down. He pulled out a flask from his inside pocket and gave it a shake.

‘Coffee?’ I asked, disappointed.

‘Red wine,’ he replied, holding the flask out to me.

‘Red wine in a thermos?’ I said, taking a swig. ‘How uncivilised!’

‘My apologies. We should respect the wine,’ he said, pouring some into the lid and drinking it with his pinkie out. He seemed to be back to his old self again, which was a relief; I didn’t want there to be any awkwardness between us.

Xavier looked so at home on the mountain. Goggles on his forehead, his charcoal pants just the right amount of loose, with the matching jacket to complete the look. We sat on the side of the slope, completely at ease with one another, not needing to say anything. This is what I wanted. Was it too much to hope that one day I might find the companionship I shared with Xavier with a man of my own? Lucky Christina had him all to herself. How could she bear being away from him so much? Why are all the good ones always taken?

Mine and Xavier’s phones pinged in unison, and I unzipped my pocket to pull mine out. It was Liv on the group chat:

Liv:Sorry guys, I took a wrong turn and ended up in Bruson. Don’t wait for me xx

*

The ski lift hurtled to the top of the mountain, rattling as it lurched to an almost-stop, allowing us to get off and glide to the side. Xavier nodded over to the restaurant to signal the end of piste practice and the start of us ordering our bodyweight in cheese. We slid our way over to the front of Le Rouge and Xavier tucked my skis in with his board, wrapping everything up together with his lock.

‘Safety first,’ he winked.

‘Absolutely,’ I replied. ‘You can never be too careful with the rented kit. Shall we try and get a table inside?’

Xavier nodded. ‘Actually Holly, before we go in, I wanted to apologise for the past few weeks. I know I’ve been a bit off with you. I’ve had a lot on my mind with Luca and the restaurant and everything, but I shouldn’t have brought that into work.’

‘Is it anything I can help with?’

‘Not really. And to be honest, it feels weird talking to you about it now that something has happened between you and Luca.’

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