Page 53 of Snowed In with You

Shit, thought Lucy, feeling exposed and annoyed with herself. Now everyone would think this was a big romance, which it clearly wasn’t. But then she reminded herself that she was never going to see any of them again, so it hardly mattered. Though actually, she could imagine a boozy weekend in Amsterdam with Willem and Alex, but it was impossible to imagine Nate being there. In Lucy’s head they would go back to being colleagues, with fond memories of this crazy experience, and never mention it to each other or anyone else. That was how it was supposed to be, right? Her brain felt foggy, like things were moving too fast and in several directions at once.

She tried to catch Nate’s eye, but he kept his gaze firmly fixed on Monica as she answered Felix’s irrelevantly detailed questions about the rescue plans. Clearly she and Nate were going to need to have a conversation at some point, set some clear boundaries for when they got back to Bristol. She mentally kicked herself for letting her guard down; it was always easier when you kept things simple and transparent.

‘So there are guests back in the village again?’ asked Andrea.

‘Yes,’ said Gunther. ‘They are already arriving, and the machines will be clearing pistes all day. By this afternoon all the hotels will be full.’

‘This is good news,’ said Felix. ‘Andrea and I have a hotel gig tonight, so maybe that will still go ahead.’

‘You should change your name,’ said Lucy, absently picking at some crumbs on the table. ‘Instead of Night Fever, you can be the Refubeegees.’

Felix paused for a second as he processed what Lucy had said, then roared with laughter. ‘This is fantastic. You are very funny!’ Everyone else joined in, looking at Lucy like she was some kind of comedy genius. Even Nate’s mouth twitched into a smile.

‘Refubeegees!’ exclaimed Gunther. ‘How did you think of that?’

‘Lucy is a writer,’ said Nate. ‘She channels all her emotions into clever words.’

Ouch, thought Lucy, feeling the temperature of the air between them drop by a couple of degrees. If this is how upset Nate got because she wasn’t up for a public display of affection, they definitely needed to have a chat.

‘Alex and I only arrived for our holiday on Friday,’ said Willem. ‘We dropped our bags at the hotel and came up here for lunch before we checked in. So maybe we can ski tomorrow and enjoy the rest of our holiday.’

‘No,’ said Alex firmly. ‘We have to go home.’

‘Why?’ asked Willem, looking even more upset than Nate.

‘Because when I had Wi-Fi earlier I checked my emails. I have many requests for TV interviews about this experience. I need to get back as soon as possible.’

‘Why can’t you do interviews from Zermatt?’ asked Willem. Lucy imagined how good Alex would look on camera, the Matterhorn in the background as he happily embellished their perilous adventure for every Dutch news outlet.

‘Because some of them are requests to be in the studio, or on a talk show. I need to be in Amsterdam.’

‘But this is the holiday I organised for our engagement,’ said Willem. ‘I had the whole thing planned out.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Alex with a shrug, not sounding very sorry at all. ‘But this is my job, and I am literally the only person with any profile who can talk about what we’ve been through.’

‘You say that like it’s been some kind of ordeal.’ Lucy tried not to roll her eyes. ‘We’ve hardly suffered.’

‘You may have had a great time,’ said Alex, giving her and Nate a significant look. ‘But I’m not used to this kind of food and sleeping on a sofa bed and not having electricity or Wi-Fi. It’s, like, medieval.’

Lucy gave him a hard stare back. ‘Can I give you some advice, Alex?’ she said, leaning forward and resting her hands on the table. ‘As someone who works in advertising and spends a lot of time thinking about brand reputation?’

‘No,’ said Alex sulkily.

‘How many people in the Netherlands are homeless?’

He shrugged. ‘I have no idea.’

‘Neither do I, but I suspect it’s tens of thousands. And if you go on TikTok and talk about your ORDEAL being stuck in a Swiss ski hut with food and heat and wine and music and nice people, you’re going to sound like a massive arsehole.’

Alex looked at Willem, then Nate, who shrugged and muttered, ‘She’s right.’

‘And what’s more,’ continued Lucy, ‘I will be all up in your comments, telling people what it was really like.’

‘Me too,’ said Andrea quietly. ‘And I don’t really know what TikTok is.’

‘Right,’ said Alex. ‘So I should be humble and grateful, then.’

‘I think that would be wise.’