Bonjour Cherie Page 8

  When I arrived home, I saw Mum and Dad’s car in the driveway. They must have come home early. My spirits lifted. At last things were going my way.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sunday family barbecues were a tradition in our family. Lauren found she had time after all to come up for the day and even Aunt Jan and her partner, Alan, joined us. It was one of those perfect April days when the sun was shining but it was neither too hot nor too cold.

  Lauren and I helped Mum with the salads while Dad got the barbecue ready and Aunt Jan set the table outside. Alan was drinking a beer, talking to Dad and giving lots of advice on the right way to cook a steak. Lauren and I exchanged looks and she raised her eyebrows. Typical. Alan was great at talking, and not much else. None of us understood, not even Mum, who was her sister, why she was with Alan. But, of course, we said nothing. I guess no family is perfect.

  ‘So dear, how are the French classes going?’ Mum asked as she washed the lettuce.

  ‘Great,’ I said, chopping the onion and wincing at the stinging in my eyes.

  ‘Here,’ Lauren, handing me a tissue and taking the knife from my hands. ‘I’ll finish that. My eyes aren’t as sensitive as yours.’

  I repressed a sigh as my sister took over.

  ‘Why don’t you make one of your special salad dressings, Beth? I can never manage to get mine to have the same flavour as yours,’ Mum said.

  I took the ingredients out of the fridge.

  ‘Did you find out any more about the guy … Zach Mills, was it? You know the one you were asking me about the other night?’ Lauren asked, as she finished chopping the onion and covered it with cling wrap.

  Even though Mum didn’t look up, I could tell her attention was fully directed on me.

  I hesitated. How much did I tell them? ‘He might be related to the Mills family you were talking about. But,’ I hastened to add, ‘I hardly know him.’

  ‘Wow,’ Lauren said, ‘but didn’t you say he lived on the edge of town? I never heard of the Mills family living anywhere around here.’

  ‘He lives in a fairly ordinary brick house on a couple of acres,’ I said, hoping to put an end to Lauren’s curiosity.

  ‘I thought you said you barely knew him and yet you’ve been to his house already?’

  My sister spun around, her blonde hair swinging and her hazel eyes boring into me. Even Mum slowed down in tossing the salad, waiting for my answer.

  There are times when I could cheerfully strangle my sister. I knew it was a mistake ever to mention Zach’s name to Lauren. I put the extra virgin olive oil down on the kitchen bench with a bang, determined to settle this and get her off my back. ‘I went to his house once to help him with some French lessons he missed. His sister was there. Afterwards we had coffee and then I went home. Since then I’ve hardly seen him. There. Satisfied?’ I didn’t mention what happened after that French lesson or that he’d come to our house when I thought we were being broken into or that I’d made a fool of myself sliding on the floor of the Coffee Club in front of him and his date. Those were things I’d never tell my sister, no matter how persistent she was.

  ‘Hmm,’ she said, considering. ‘He’s probably one of the distant relatives then. But he must be interested in you, if he asked you to help him with his French lessons. What’s he like?’

  ‘Okay, very typical Aussie,’ I said noncommittally.

  ‘What does he look like? Is he hot?’

  ‘Lauren, would you please take the onions out to your father and see if Aunt Jan needs a hand,’ Mum said, thrusting the bowl into Lauren’s unwilling hands.

  She left, but not without a backward glance that told me she wasn’t done yet. I hoped she was going back to Brisbane tonight.

  I returned to mixing the ingredients for my salad dressing while Mum tidied up the few things she had taken out for the salad.

  ‘Darling, how were you when we were away? Everything go all right?’ Mum was more for the roundabout approach rather than the full on attack. But I knew where she was heading all the same.

  ‘Fine, Mum, no probs.’ Then I remembered the night of the possums. I knew I’d better tell her about that because the glass lantern and pot plant were broken and the police had come to the house. ‘Well, except for some possums that landed on the roof and jumped on the outside light, breaking it and the pot plant. I meant to tell you yesterday, but I forgot. And, oh yes, I panicked because I thought it was a burglar and called the police. But other than that, no, nothing much happened.’ I said all this in a rush, wanting to get it over and done with as quickly as possible. Thank God Lauren wasn’t in the room to give me the third degree.

  Mum’s reaction was bad enough. ‘The police! You never told us. Are you sure it was just possums? Are you all right? Was anything taken? I knew we should never have left you on your own.’

  ‘Mum. Calm down. I’m fine. It was definitely possums. The police even said so. And as for leaving me on my own, you do realise I’m twenty-one, don’t you?’ Sometimes I wondered.

  It took a couple more assurances to make her realise nothing serious had happened. But at least telling Mum about the possums had taken her mind off of Zach. I finished making the salad dressing and we brought the rest of the stuff out to deck, where everyone had gathered.

  As I tucked into my steak and salad, I listened to Alan tell us all a long, boring story about some fishing expedition, where he had, of course, been the most skilled fisherman and had caught the most fish. Aunt Jan listened to him in rapt attention. I loved my aunt, but I wondered about her taste in men sometimes. Alan had been on the scene for over a year now and I speculated how much longer he would last. By the looks of Aunt Jan, for a while yet.

  Lauren told everyone about her plans for when she finished her medical degree. She hoped to do an internship at one of the local hospitals and eventually do further study in the field of pediatrics. She would too. I just knew it. Lauren was smart and focused and would achieve her goals. I was proud of her.

  Then, inevitably the talk turned to me. ‘So, Beth, how are you going with your plans to visit France?’ Aunt Jan looked at me kindly. Being a new agey kind of person, she was all into visualising and positive thinking.

  ‘Oh, still working away and saving,’ I said vaguely, not wanting to go into details.

  ‘France is a wonderful country,’ Alan said, preparing to launch into another monologue, which I was quite happy, for once, to listen to, ‘but you know, they have a lot of problems with the immigrant situation. As a matter of fact—’

  ‘I was just talking to Beth the other day about how she could go to uni and achieve her dream of travelling to France,’ Lauren interrupted.

  Dad looked interested. ‘Oh yes, go on.’

  ‘We’ve been through this, Lauren,’ I protested.

  ‘No, we haven’t. I just mentioned it, that’s all.’ Lauren continued, ‘She could enroll midyear in June, do a semester’s work and then apply for a travelling scholarship to study overseas as an exchange student in France.’ She sat back in her chair, pleased with herself. She certainly had both my parents interested now.

  ‘That’s a great idea, don’t you think?’ Mum turned to me enthusiastically.

  ‘I… ’

  ‘It certainly is,’ Dad said. ‘You know, Beth, if you did that and needed a little extra help, financially, when you went over there, Mum and I would be happy to help.’

  She nodded enthusiastically.

  ‘You can’t do anything without a degree these days,’ Alan said, weighing in. ‘I would have gotten one myself except—’

  ‘I’ve brought the application forms for the scholarship, just for you to have a look at and we could go online to see what degree you’d be interested in,’ Lauren said. She was just Miss Efficiency, wasn’t she?

  Aunt Jan gave me a sympathetic look. She knew I hated being railroaded into anything. Mum saw it too and said, ‘Why don’t we talk about this later, when Beth has had a chance to think about it. Would anyone like some
cheesecake for dessert?’

  The conversation turned to other topics, for which I was very grateful.

  After Aunt Jan and Alan had gone and I was helping tidy up, Lauren said, ‘Sorry, if I was a bit pushy. You know what I’m like sometimes. I can be a bit single-minded. But it’s only because I care about you, you realise that, don’t you?’ She looked at me. I sighed. Mum must have said something to her. But I knew she was right about one thing, she did care about me.

  ‘Yeah, I know. Just give me time to think about it, okay?’

  ‘Sure,’ she hung up the tea towel. ‘Hey, why don’t we go out tonight? I’m not going back to Brisbane until tomorrow. We could go to Bart’s, have a drink. What do you think?’

  I hesitated, ‘Lauren, you’re not going to give me another lecture, are you?’

  ‘No, sister’s honour or whatever. I promise.’

  ‘Oh, all right. I guess I could go. I don’t start work until eleven tomorrow.’

  ‘Great. We’ll have fun,’ she said enthusiastically.

  I wasn’t sure that she’d be able to stick to her promise to not talk about my future, but perhaps it would be fun to go out. I hadn’t been to Bart’s since that disastrous night when Zach had taken me home. Not that I wanted to remember that.

  Mum drove us there and we decided we would get a taxi home. ‘Don’t get your sister drunk,’ she said to Lauren.

  Lauren rolled her eyes and said, ‘Mum, I’m not totally irresponsible. You do realise I’m twenty-five years old, don’t you?’

  I smiled. They were almost the exact words I’d said to Mum a couple of hours ago. Mum shrugged apologetically. ‘Sorry, honey, can’t seem to turn the mum gene off at times. Have fun.’

  Being Sunday night, Bart’s wasn’t too crowded, which suited me fine. Lauren and I got our drinks and found a secluded table.

  ‘So, how are things with you and Chas?’ Lauren had had an on-again, off-again relationship with her boyfriend for several years.

  ‘Okay, I guess. But, you know, I’m not ready to settle down yet and I think he is. I’ve got years of study ahead of me and he doesn’t really fit into my plans.

  It sounded scarily like what I’d been saying to Zach. My sister and I were more alike than I realised at times.

  ‘But you do love him, don’t you?’

  She hesitated before answering. ‘I don’t really know. We have a comfortable relationship, but I’ve never really felt that zing, like you read about in books or see in movies. Perhaps it’s all a lot of rubbish anyway, this being in love stuff. Being compatible is probably a far better measure of how successful a relationship is going to be rather than falling in love.’

  ‘Can’t you have both?’ I thought about how I felt with Zach. There certainly was that zing factor, but unfortunately we weren’t compatible. As for André, I felt we would be good together; I wanted that zing factor, but it just hadn’t happened yet.

  ‘Perhaps. I just haven’t experienced it.’

  We sipped our drinks in silence for a while. I wondered why life couldn’t be simple. Perhaps, if I was someone like Lisa, who didn’t ask much from life except as she said, a bit of fun and then a nice man to settle down with, I would be happier. But somehow I knew, I could never settle for that.

  I looked across the dance floor where a few couples were dancing—and shook my head to make sure I was seeing correctly. There was Zach, his arms tightly around the girl I’d seen him with at the Coffee Club. She was snuggled into him as if she would never let him go. I had hoped they were only on a casual date the other night. Now, I knew, this was far from casual. From the feeling in the pit of my stomach, I knew something else too. I cared about Zach Mills more than I had ever admitted to anyone, even to myself.

  Chapter Twelve

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Lauren asked, instantly aware that something had upset me.

  ‘Nothing,’ I lied. ‘I just saw someone I know, that’s all.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘See that guy over there with the dark-haired girl, that’s Zach Mills.’ Perhaps now Lauren would realise what I’d been trying to tell her earlier. There was nothing between Zach Mills and me, and there never would be now. I’d missed my chance. Besides which, now I knew who he was, I realised he’d never be interested in someone ordinary like me. I’d just been a passing fling. Someone to practise his flirting skills on. Just my bad luck they seemed to have worked on me.

  ‘He’s a hunk, isn’t he? Shame he’s with that girl. How serious do you think it is?’ She looked at me speculatively.

  ‘Stop scheming sister dear. I should think you’d know by that clinch how serious it is.’

  ‘Oh,’ my sister waved her hands in the air, ‘that’s nothing.’ She looked at them again, ‘Seems to me she’s more interested in him than he is her.’

  ‘And you know that by, what? The ten seconds you’ve seen him?’

  At that precise moment, Zach looked in our direction and saw us. Did I imagine it or did he change colour? He certainly seemed to move away a little from his date. I gave him a cool nod and then turned back to Lauren.

  ‘Did you see that?’ she hissed. ‘He saw you and moved away. I’d say there is a chance for you if you want it. He’s interested all right.’

  ‘For someone so into maths and science, you have an overactive imagination, Lauren.’

  ‘I know the signs, girl. And so should you.’

  ‘Weren’t you just telling me a few minutes ago you didn’t believe in love?’

  ‘Who said anything about love? What’s wrong with a little lust now and then?’

  Lust—something else that had crossed my mind once. It started to worry me how much my sister and I were alike. My words coming out of her mouth made me realise I didn’t actually like the sound of them.

  The song finished and Zach started to lead his date over in our direction. Oh no. This was not what I wanted. That girl had seen me on the floor on my butt, looking like a total idiot. And Lauren was starting to look like an eager mama, wanting to marry her offspring to the rich and eligible bachelor. I knew it was a bad idea to come here. She beamed a smile at Zach when he stopped at our table.

  ‘Beth, how are you?’

  ‘Fine. Good. Never better. And yourself?’

  ‘Not bad. This is Chelsea Bartholomew. Chelsea, this is Beth and …’

  ‘Hi Chelsea. This is my sister, Lauren.’

  Chelsea gave us a bored nod. It was obvious she didn’t want to come over and meet us.

  ‘Beth mentioned you once or twice, Zach, so it’s good to actually meet you in person,’ Lauren said. I glared at her, but she was pretending not to notice.

  Zach looked at me with interest. ‘Oh she did, did she?’

  I decided to take some initiative here. ‘I ran into your sister yesterday. We had coffee together. She told me how busy you two were, managing your company and all.’ There, ball in his court.

  I had the satisfaction of seeing him look very uncomfortable. ‘Oh really? She never mentioned it.’

  ‘It’s a wonder you even had time to go to French classes. I never realised what a busy, jet setting life you lead. You should have said.’

  Zach lowered his eyes, ‘Maybe I didn’t think you’d be interested.’

  Chelsea was getting restless and it was evident she didn’t like the turn the conversation was taking. ‘Zach, honey, I’d really like another drink.’

  ‘What? Yes, okay. It was nice meeting you, Lauren. Beth, I think you and I need to talk soon.’

  ‘I’m sure I’ll see you in French class. Although, since you’ve been to France already, I’m surprised you need any lessons at all.’ I gave him my sweetest smile.

  But Chelsea had had enough and was already dragging him away.

  As they left, Lauren gave me a razor sharp look and said, ‘All right, what aren’t you telling me, little sister?’

  ‘I need another drink first.’ I escaped to the bar where I had a quick shot of tequila, not something I’d usually
do, but at the moment I needed it. When I came back with our drinks, I knew I had to give Lauren something so I told her an edited version of the Zach and Beth story—not that there was much to tell. Lauren gave an exasperated sigh.

  ‘What’s wrong with you? He evidently likes you and, whether you admit it or not, I know you like him. And don’t try to deny it. It’s your sister you’re talking to here.’

  ‘Okay. Maybe I like him a little. But, it’s like you said about compatibility. I never thought Zach and I shared much in common and now that I know more about him, I’m sure of it. I thought I was in love with André.’

  ‘You mean your French teacher? Has he ever shown one-tenth the interest in you that Zach has?’

  ‘Well, no, but we haven’t actually spent much time together. I’m sure when—’

  ‘For God’s sake, when is this obsession with all things French going to end with you? You’re not in love with that French guy; you’re in love with an idea.’

  I have a streak of stubbornness in me. It comes from my father’s Irish side. The more you push me, the more I go in the opposite direction. And Lauren was pushing hard.

  ‘You know what? I’m fine. My “obsession”, as you call it, with French is no worse than your obsession with medicine. It may not be as noble or as well paying, but it’s something I am interested in and you don’t have the right to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do. There comes a time when you should seriously butt out—and this is that time. You either love and accept me as I am or leave me alone.’ I stood up. ‘I’m going to get another drink, do you want one?’

  Lauren’s eyes teared up. ‘I’m sorry; I’ve got a big mouth. You’re right. And I do love you. I won’t say another word.’

  I’d heard that before, but for now it would have to do. ‘Do you want another drink or not?’

  ‘Sure,’ she said, not game to say anything else.

  I went to the bar and had another short. It was that kind of night. Then I ordered the white wines for Lauren and me. While I was waiting, Zach came over next to me, alone.