A Perfect Paris Christmas - Mandy Baggot Page 0,24
his mouth was starting to sour a little, his enthusiasm waning. Why was this so difficult? He needed the hotel to have something in the works before Devil Durand arrived. At the moment there wasn’t even any of the blue and silver Noel had waxed so lyrical about a few days ago. For someone who had demanded that Christmas needed to start now it felt like an oversight.
‘I have ordered the blue and silver reindeer for the dining room,’ Noel said, allowing his bottom to make actual contact with the seat. ‘The smaller lead reindeer is animatronic. It will turn its face to the open room and engage its mouth to the tune of “Walking In A Winter Wonderland”.’
Was Noel serious? Ethan looked at his assistant’s expression hoping to detect some kind of hint of a joke. It sounded the very worst of tacky.
‘There will be delightful swags for the reception desk including real blue fir and crystals, plus floor to ceiling diamante icicle curtains framing all the doors to the common places – the toilets, the restaurant and bar, the luggage room…’
Noel continued to talk but Ethan was starting to zone out. None of what his assistant was saying felt right to him. And he instinctively knew Ferne would have hated all these ideas. He picked up his coffee mug and filled his mouth with the dark, bitter blackness. He knew he couldn’t wholly rely on what Ferne would have done going forward. He also knew he hadn’t wanted any part in the Christmas decoration at Noel’s meeting last week. But his lunch with Silvie had changed things. Once he had processed – and processing consisted of drowning his insides with fine wine, not so fine wine and calvados – he realised two things. Hell would freeze over before he let Louis Durand ruin the business he and Ferne had worked night and day to make a success. And he was having absolutely nothing to do with this visitor with part of his best friend inside them.
‘… and there will be someone dressed as a decadent swirl of chocolate praline from Maison Paradis du Chocolat handing out small treats I have managed to secure for a good price. Then, as we enter the middle of December there will be…’
‘Noel, stop,’ Ethan begged. ‘I… you… are hurting my ears.’ He wanted back into the bubble containing the comforting sounds of the coffee machine, the jazz playing from the radio and the condensation on the windows.
‘You do not like my advent of activities?’ Noel asked, his voice full of concern. ‘You said you wished me to go ahead and make things happen. You said you did not want to think about the arrangements.’
He had definitely said that, there was no getting away from it. He had also said something very similar in response to every new suggestion Noel had made to try to improve things throughout the year.
‘I know,’ Ethan answered, putting down his coffee mug. ‘I did say that.’
‘And you did not answer any of my calls over the past three days.’
That was true too. In between the calvados and the not fine wine there had been a flat phone battery and a stripper called Celine…
‘I know,’ he repeated. ‘But now I would like to help.’ No, that wasn’t quite right. He didn’t want to help. He wanted to lead. Like the CEO he was. Like the head of a small hotel chain Ferne had tried to teach him how to be. But, from buying him his first business suit, to sending him on a training course he had never fully understood, she had been by his side and now he just felt… incomplete. Ferne had represented the only good thing in his life. Without that connection he was back to being Ethan Bouchard, the orphan again.
Noel folded his arms across his chest and set his expression to ‘quite agitated’. Noel did a good line in degrees of agitated. This one probably hit about medium on the scale.
‘Louis Durand is coming back,’ Ethan said in a rush. It was like the man’s name had the ability to scorch his lips if he hung on to the syllables too long.
Straightaway, Noel’s expression flipped from ‘quite agitated’ to ‘full-on terrified’. ‘What?’
Ethan nodded his head, pushing away his plate of half-finished pancakes for something to keep his fingers busy. He drew in a breath and continued. ‘You did not know.’ Although Ethan had wondered if Louis would take up residence in one of