by Harper Bliss
Nothing like a reality check to kill the mood.
“And… I’ve been thinking,” Dominique continued, gesturing to the sofa. “Shall we sit for a moment?”
“Sure.” Steph’s heart pounded frantically. They walked the few steps to the sofa and sat down.
“You know I’m taking them to my family’s house in Juan-les-Pins in August, right?”
Steph nodded, already dreading the time away from Dominique.
“I think you should come with us.”
Steph’s eyes grew wide. “What? Isn’t that crazy?”
“The first week, it will be just us. My parents only arrive a week later, and Lisa and Didier are children, they go to bed at nine and they have all these beach camp activities during the day. We’ll have lots of time to spend together.”
“But… what will you tell them? Who am I?” Steph’s brain tried to process. She couldn’t see it.
“A good friend.” Dominique sat looking at her, glee glinting in her eyes.
“As your PR advisor I would strongly caution against it.”
“But you’re not just my PR advisor, are you?” Dominique shuffled closer. “And we bring friends to the house all the time. The children are used to it.” She grabbed Steph’s hands and cupped them in hers. “You’d have to officially sleep in a separate bedroom, of course, and leave before my parents arrive, but I’d really, really, really like you to come.” She gazed deep into Steph’s eyes. “Frankly, I’ve missed you so much over the past five days, I can’t imagine being away from you for two entire weeks.”
“I want to go,” Steph said without thinking. “But you must realise that this can have serious repercussions.”
“I don’t care.” Dominique brought their hands to her mouth and kissed Steph’s knuckle. “It won’t always be like this, you know. Not if I can help it.”
Steph feared Dominique had lost her mind. “Really?” She arched up her eyebrows. Someone had to keep a clear mind.
“Society is changing,” Dominique said in between pressing her lips to each and everyone of Steph’s knuckles. Steph couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not; her eyes were already glazing over, nothing but lust portrayed on her face.
“That’s why hundreds of thousands of people demonstrate against gay marriage in the streets of Paris every other Sunday,” Steph tried. “Because society is changing?”
“Change is always scary—”
Steph was getting worked up. “Stop it, just stop it.” She pulled her hands free from Dominique’s. “Only two weeks ago you weren’t even sure you’d vote for gay marriage and now you what? You want to come out of the closet?”
Dominique pinned her eyes on Steph. “I want two things.” She held up two fingers. “I want my children to know that you exist, not that you’re my lover, but that you’re someone important in my life.” She hid one finger. “And I want you to know that this doesn’t have to be the dead-end street we always thought it would be.”
“And you actually believe that?” No matter how hard she tried, skepticism still ruled in Steph’s mind.
“I do. I have to. And I hope you know why.” She slanted her head to the right a bit. “Because I’m in love you.”
Steph put all conflicts of interests aside and reached for Dominique’s hands again. “You’re insane and I’m in love with you too.”
They kissed, as if it was all really that easy, their lips meeting again and again.
“Promise me you’ll think about going on holiday with me,” Dominique said after coming up for air.
Steph would have to tell Claire and Juliette, who would not be pleased with it—and she’d already disappointed them so much. And what was all this talk of love? Were they supposed to be exclusive now? Not that Steph wanted to sleep with other people, last night had made that abundantly clear. Should she tell Dominique about Cassandra?
She didn’t have worries like this before she fell in love. She pushed them all to the back of her brain and let her lips hover over Dominique’s again. “About my other birthday present,” she said, and kissed her while pushing her down into the sofa.
NADIA
Nadia could easily take a drink or two, but the pounding inside her skull hinted at having had more than a few. And she hadn’t even opened her eyes yet. When she did, to her great astonishment, she recognised her and Juliette’s bedroom. Had they?
“You’re awake.” Juliette’s voice was low and soft and sounded very considerate.
They must have… Nadia racked her brain and she vaguely remembered Juliette bringing her here, but after that… nothing. She sat up and faced Juliette who was perched at the end of the bed. How long had she been sitting there?
“I’m sorry, my memory seems to elude me a bit.” Nadia looked down at her body. She had worn a dress last night, which she spotted draped over a chair in the corner of the room when she glanced up again. Her chest was bare. She could feel panties clinging to her hips, though.
“You and Margot got hammered on whiskey, while the rest of us were just slumming it with champagne.” Was that a smile on Juliette’s face? Was this a truce?
“I should never have gone to that party.” Nadia looked around for some water. As if reading her mind, Juliette handed her a bottle.
“You had to go, and so did I. Steph’s our friend.”
Nadia swallowed a few gulps before facing Juliette again. “Look, Jules, I don’t mean to be rude, but, did we, you know…”
“All you were good for last night was falling into bed. With Margot being so wasted as well, I thought it better to bring you here instead of her place.”
“Oh.” Nadia sipped some more water. “Poor Margot, she hardly ever drinks, let alone whiskey.”
“I texted Claire, but she hasn’t texted back. Which I take as a good sign.” Juliette grinned at Nadia, who suddenly realised, still a bit slow in the head, that she was only partially covered by the duvet. She deposited the water bottle on the night stand and pulled the covers up to her chin, feeling out of place in what was still, after all, her flat as well. But Juliette had brought Sybille here and had slept with her in this bed.
Nadia remembered that she’d felt so sorry for Juliette the night before that she had invited herself over for a much-needed conversation, but she was in no fit state to have it.
“What are we going to do, Jules?” Nadia leaned against the headboard of the bed. “I hate this.” She glared at Juliette from under her lashes.
“For now, just try to get some more sleep. We’ll deal with the rest later.”
“Are we even now?” The words just rolled out of Nadia’s mouth. “Now that we’ve both slept with someone else?”
Juliette stood there, looking at her with a perplexed expression on her face. She took a step closer and sat down next to Nadia. “I know you well enough to know you don’t believe that.”
“You may think it’s not that easy, and maybe it isn’t, but what if we make it so? What if we just put it all behind us?” Nadia was grasping at straws. She didn’t want to go back to Margot’s and sleep alone in her guest bedroom. She didn’t want to face tomorrow as a single woman. “When I rang the bell last week, I came here to tell you that I was ready to move back in. That I would fight for you and that I, finally, understood what you’ve been going through and that, in the past year, I failed just as much as you, if not more.” She shook her head. “Barcelona without you was horrible. It opened my eyes, babe. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Even after…” Juliette hesitated, reminding Nadia of what she had walked into earlier that week.
“I’m ready to forgive you.” Nadia was exhausted, not just physically, but also mentally. The endless bracing herself for another fight had taken its toll on her nerves. She was ready to surrender. She had one more question, though. “Have you slept with her ag—”
“God no.” Juliette shook her head fervently. “Never again. It was such a dud. It only made me want you back more.”
Nadia locked her eyes on J
uliette’s and she understood. Between them, it had never been necessary to say it out loud.
“Are you sure? You haven’t really thought about this, though? You just woke up with a massive hangover and suddenly—”
Nadia stopped Juliette mid-sentence, holding up her hand. “I don’t need to think about it anymore. What good is that going to do me? Really? We’ve done enough thinking and look where it got us.” She pushed herself up a bit more. “I’m willing to forgive, are you?”
Nadia’s heartbeat picked up speed. Juliette was so close, all of it felt within grasp again, but one word would be enough for another chasm—or even a complete break-up.
Juliette nodded, with small movements of her chin at first, tears springing from her eyes. The closer she shuffled to Nadia, the more resolute her nods became. “I love you,” she said through the tears. “I only want you.”
Nadia opened her arms wide and wrapped them around Juliette as she brought her head to her chest. Just to feel her near again, just to touch a finger to her hair. Nothing else mattered.
JULIETTE
“Just like that?” Claire sat opposite Juliette in her office. “You’re back together?”
“I understand your skepticism, but you could also just be happy for me.” Not that Juliette wasn’t skeptical herself—it really couldn’t, nor should it, be that easy.
“I am, Jules, truly.” Claire brought a hand to her chest. “Glad to know Steph’s party was good for something.”
“This does raise another issue, though.” Juliette slanted her head towards the door of her office. “Sybille.”
“Has Nadia demanded—”
“Nadia has no demands to make.” Juliette realised blurting out things like that was something she should work at. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea to keep her as my assistant.”
“What do you suggest?” Claire intertwined her fingers and rested her chin on her hands.
“We have two options: ask her to leave or promote her. Both have obvious drawbacks.” From a purely professional point of view, Juliette would be sorry to see Sybille go, but she couldn’t possibly keep on working with her. “I doubt she’ll go away quietly if we terminate her contract, taking into consideration what she knows. But if we promote her so quickly, other employees will be disgruntled.”
Claire looked away and stared out of the window for a few seconds. “You don’t trust her to keep Laroche’s secret?”
Juliette sighed. She could easily predict what Claire was thinking. If only they’d dropped Dominique Laroche as a client. And if only she hadn’t slept with her assistant. “I think she has feelings for me.”
“Merde.”
“I’m sorry, Claire. I know I made a mess of things.”
“No need to dwell. We’d better focus our energy on solving this problem.” She shifted in her seat. “Do we really want an employee who can’t be trusted?”
“I’m not saying she can’t be trusted, just that her feelings for me may make her unpredictable. And Laroche is our most high-profile client, we can’t take any risks with her.”
“She’s taking plenty of risks herself.” Claire uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. “If her affair with Steph comes out, it’s her own damn fault.”
“But it will reflect badly on us.” Juliette sagged into her chair. “And Steph is one of us.”
“Speaking of, maybe we should get her take on this. Like it or not, she’s involved.”
Juliette nodded. “I’ll call her.” She dialled Steph’s direct line and asked her to come over immediately.
While they waited, Juliette couldn’t help herself. “You seemed to get along swimmingly with Margot’s ex at the party.”
“Let’s leave that for another conversation, this one’s already complicated enough.”
A knock on the door announced Steph’s arrival. She sat down and they explained their conundrum.
“Sack her,” Steph said without hesitation. Hardly a surprise to Juliette. “You can’t possibly give her more responsibility. She’s only your assistant now and look at all the trouble she has already caused.”
“That’s hardly all Sybille’s fault,” Juliette said, not hiding the harshness in her voice—and momentarily forgetting her own contribution.
“For once, let’s approach this as the adults we all are,” Claire said. “This is no time to assign blame.” She turned to Steph. “I have to ask this, Steph. What’s going on with you and Dominique? Obviously, you were cut up about something last Saturday.”
Steph squirmed in her seat. “She has asked me to go to her family’s house on the Côte d’Azur in August.”
Juliette couldn’t speak for several moments. “But… what about that girl? What was her name… Cassandra?”
“We were on a break, figuring some things out…” Clearly, this was a conversation nobody in Juliette’s office wanted to have.
“I hope you said no?” Claire looked at Steph expectantly. “To the holiday?”
“I haven’t said anything. I mean, I advised her against it but, she’s a hard woman to say no to…”
“Obviously,” Juliette offered. Or we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
“She wants to introduce me to her children. It’s getting serious.”
Juliette had to step in. She was the one who had convinced Claire to keep Laroche as a client, but this farce had to end. “Why were you on a break?” It wasn’t a fair question, but none of this was fair on anyone.
“W-what?” There was a dull shimmer of hurt in Steph’s eyes.
“Why did you and Laroche decide to go on a break?” Juliette could guess the answer, but she needed Steph to say it out loud, to acknowledge it.
“Because… our relationship has nowhere to go,” she stammered, barely getting the words out.
“Exactly.” Juliette had to be hard and cold in this moment, even though that was her friend sitting across from her. “So what exactly do you expect to change about that in the future?”
“Jules, come on,” Claire said. “That’s not fair.”
“With all due respect, presently, you’re both in some sort of loved-up state and are clearly missing the bigger picture. This has to end. There is only one solution.”
“And you’re such an expert now?” Steph asked. She rose from her chair, visibly shaken. “You have no right whatsoever to ask me that. You slept with your bloody assistant, something, for the record, I had seen coming from miles away. She just twisted you around her little finger and you didn’t even see.”
“Stop.” Claire stood up as well. “This is ludicrous. This is our place of business, for god’s sake, not the set of some soap opera.” She took a deep breath. “We all make mistakes and this is no time to judge. We need to do something about this, but we’ll need to have a more productive meeting before we decide. Juliette, don’t say anything to Sybille about Nadia yet, not until we’ve figured out how to play this. And Steph, you’d better know what you’re doing. We can only protect you and Laroche so much.” She looked at the pair of them with a determined glance that wouldn’t accept any more objections. “Understood?”
Juliette nodded and pushed herself out of her chair. “I’m sorry,” she said to Steph. “I think we could all use a holiday.”
MARGOT
Margot caught herself actually looking forward to seeing Inez at work. She quickly pushed the thought away. She’d have to find a way past it, possibly even confide in someone—despite that never having been her way of dealing with trouble. That extra kickboxing class earlier in the morning hadn’t helped either.
On her way to see Nadia and ask her if she had a moment to spare for her today, they ran into each other in the ER hallway.
“Fully recovered?” Nadia inquired. Her hair didn’t shine as it usually did and her eyes looked rather dull, but it was Monday morning, so it could just be that.
Margot nodded and pulled Nadia aside. “Are you free for lunch?”
“Sure. I wanted to talk t
o you as well. I have some news.” Nadia smiled widely, erasing the remnants of the hangover off her face.
The only news that would cheer Margot up would be the announcement that Inez had decided to leave the hospital. Although Margot wasn’t so sure it would cheer her up that much.
“Can we use your office? I’ll bring food.”
“Sure. I’ll see you then.” Nadia nodded and went on her way. As she slipped out of Margot’s field of vision, someone else cropped up in it. Instantly, her heart beat faster. Margot couldn’t stop the memories from coming back.
“Morning,” Inez said.
Last week, when seeing Inez at the hospital, Margot hadn’t felt this way. Or maybe she hadn’t allowed it. Or buried any inkling of it so deep, until it no longer existed. Today that didn’t seem to work anymore.
“Hey.” Margot steadied herself against the wall, until she tapped into her core strength—those abs that Claire so admired—and stood tall. More bravado than anything else. Did Inez know? Could she tell that she was getting under Margot’s skin already? Had it been her plan all along?
“Are you all right, Go-Go?” Inez lifted her arm and touched her fingers to Margot’s upper arm. “You look a bit pale.”
“Fine,” she mumbled. “I’d better get going?” But Margot didn’t move.
“Are we still doing that?” Inez tilted her head to the left. “It was great meeting Claire and your friends this weekend. She’s quite the catch.” Inez winked at her, a grin plastered on her face.
“Sure.” Margot had to get out of there. “See you around.” She sauntered down the hallway, in a direction she didn’t have to go, but carried on nonetheless, as long as it took her away from Inez and offered some temporary relief.
* * *
“I can’t do it.” Margot’s salad stood untouched on Nadia’s desk. “It’s driving me mad.” Margot was fully aware that Nadia had never seen her in this kind of state. Even when she was still hurting over Inez after their break-up and joined Nadia’s hospital, she had never brought any of her inner turmoil to work.