I studied my reflection in the mirror again, trying to decide if I should leave my wavy, long brown hair down or if I should pull it out of my face. Jake had given me thirty minutes to get dressed and ready for the meal from when we got home and I was scrambling around trying to look at five-star as possible. Too bad this sort of look was the exact opposite of everything I wanted in life. I’d just run across an ocean from it, and here I was right back at it!
“Lauren!!!”
“Coming,” I shouted, wincing as I realized I was out of time to make a decision. Grabbing my handbag (which definitely did not match my dress) I skipped down the stairs with my silver sandals in my hand.
“What are those?” Jake asked, eyeing up the shoes.
“We kind of overlooked the whole shoes and bag thing,” I shrugged, slipping the sandals on, “They’re the best I can do.”
“Jesus Lauren.”
“Look, I didn’t come to Eze to dress up and go to fancy meals. In fact, I came here to get out of a lot of that.”
“Still…” Jake sighed.
“Take it or leave it.”
He let out a loud huff but nodded his head in agreement, stuck in this predicament. Victorious I shot him a sarcastic grin, watching him turn and stalk out of the house.
We walked side by side down the hill the villa was perched on, heading for the Old Town. I was always so enamored by the narrow, cobbled streets and beautiful views the Old Town had on offer, and I couldn’t help but peek down alleys and into windows as we walked.
“Lauren one thing,” Jake said, stopping some hundred meters from the hotel, “Just stay out of the resort stuff yeah?”
“Of course,” I said, “I don’t even know what’s going on anyway.”
“Exactly. We’re in enough of a tangled mess as it is, no need to make it worse.” I nodded my head in agreement, ready to head up to the hotel. “Oh, and also,” Jake added, stopping me in my tracks by grabbing my hand, “We’re married.”
“Right.”
“So act like it,” he said, “Well at least enough to pull this off.”
“Sure,” I told him, twisting his hand so I could link my fingers in his, “Just, don’t get too touchy. I am engaged.”
Jake didn’t respond to my last statement, instead dragging me up to the hotel. We were greeted at the door of the restaurant by a maître d in a crisp black suit and tie, a stereotypically thin mustache adorning his face.
“Bienvenue,” he greeted, escorting us to our table.
Dominique Gerard was already sitting at the table with her husband, sipping glasses of white wine. “Ahhh hello!” she gushed in English, standing up and seizing Jake by the shoulders, wrenching him away from me. I watched her give an airy kiss to each of his cheeks, turning to me after. “Madame Swift,” she said politely, kissing each of my cheeks as well.
“Hi, how are you?” I asked politely, plastering on my best fake smile.
“Meet my husband,” she said, just the hint of a French accent in her tone, “This is Arnaud.”
I watched as Jake greeted him, leaning forward and shaking his hand. When he was done I was left to give the man a kiss on each cheek, nerves starting to build in my stomach. The thing was, this guy was old. Like, really old. Like, he could be my grandfather. Trying not to stare I sat down next to Jake at the table, my fingers shaking a bit in my lap.
“Wine darling?” Jake asked, giving me a wink as he took the bottle and offered me some.
“Yes please,” I said fervently, watching him pour it and then snatching hold of the glass. I waited for him to get some so we could do a customary cheers, and then I glugged down half the glass in one go. I couldn’t help it, I just couldn’t quite believe that this woman who was really only a year or two older than myself was married to someone a good thirty or more years older than her!
I listened to Jake and Dominique chat idly for a bit about the weather and Eze, inserting my opinion every so often. It appeared Arnaud Gerard spoke very little English, and he was clearly more than happy to just sit and sip glass after glass of nice wine.
“So Lauren,” Dominique smiled, a bit more wickedly than I would have liked, “What brought you to Eze so early?”
“I was ready for a holiday,” I shrugged, “Jake didn’t mind and we’ve got the villa so really I can come and go when I want.”
“And you like to spend time at the perfumerie?” I felt Jake step on my foot lightly as a warning after the question was posed, indicating a needed to tread lightly.
“I worked there when I was younger,” I shrugged, “I have fond memories of the place.”
“I see,” she said, looking from Jake to me and then back to Jake.
“Well I’m sure Jake will do what’s right with the property,” she simpered, picking up her wine glass and sipping it carefully, “The town certainly needs a boost. The perfume factory isn’t really cutting it these days.”
“Hmm…” I muttered, thankfully distracted by a waiter putting out the first course.
For a while Dominique tried to engage conversation about the perfumerie and her proposed resort deal, clearly trying to dig around for information as to what exactly Jake was working on. In a way I egged her on, because really I had no idea what he was up to. All I knew was that he was the center of it all, his career on the line.
“Let’s just say that the resort deal is very appealing,” Jake said finally, setting his silverware on his plate, “Now will you excuse me for a minute.”
I watched head towards the restrooms, Dominique’s eyes darkening as they trained on to me.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to,” she said in a low voice, catching me off guard.
“Excuse me?”
“I know that you want to keep the perfumerie around, and you’ve clearly got a lock on Jake. I can see that.”
“He’s my husband.”
“He’s also the agent in charge of selling that property,” she said in an icy tone, “Don’t let work and personal lives get tangled now.”
“Listen,” I said, “In another town a resort would be fantastic, but not here. Not in Eze. The town is far too small to sustain itself with that many tourists traipsing around, and we both know that selling the perfumerie will put all of the locals here out of a job.”
I watched Dominique’s lips curl in a tight smile, “Well it’s too bad you can’t do anything to save the perfumerie,” she said, “Because we both know at the end of the day that money means everything, and Jake will go with my resort proposal. No matter how hard you try to talk him out of it or how much he loves you, the money will win.”
“You don’t know Jake,” I said.
“I think I do…” she smirked.
I rolled my eyes at her, ready to throw her off her pedestal a little bit. “Has he told you about the counter offers then?” I asked.
“My team has been working on it,” Dominique said, “It’s not very competitive.”
“So you haven’t heard about the Harrington offer?” I asked, making things up as I went along.
“The what?” Dominique said, setting her wine glass down and sliding forward in her chair a bit. Obviously she hadn’t heard about it, because I’d just made it up.
“The Harrington’s,” I said, “They see this as an opportunity to invest in a dying industry and revive it. They want to buy the entire perfume manufacturer and completely revamp it, not just buy this property here in Eze. They want the fields in Grasse and the storefront in Nice too.”
“You’re making this up,” she said.
“Am I?” I shrugged, not sure if the lie would stand up to her scrutiny.
I watched Jake come back to the table, looking from me to Dominique. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“You didn’t tell me there was an offer on the perfume company,” she said slowly, watching me out of the corner of her eye.
“Sorry?” Jake asked.
“The Harrington offer,” I said quickly, “You know…”
“Right,” he said, “It’s only come through in the last few days, I wasn’t really supposed to say anything until more of the details were finalized.”
“Sorry babe,” I said, putting a bit of a face on to show that I might have let the cat out of the bag.
“You know Jake, you should be telling me everything,” Dominique said, “I will win this property, and I’ll pay any price. It’s in your best interest that I’m always in the know.”
Jake let out a deep sigh, grabbing his wine and having a sip. I could feel his nails digging into my wrist as he sat next to me, clearly annoyed that I’d just opened up a new set of lies. Whoops!
“Well it’s been a pleasure,” Jake said after our desserts and coffees were whisked away, grabbing for his wallet.
“Dinner’s on us,” Dominique said, a forced smile on her face, “We appreciate all the work you’ve done on the sale so far.”
“It’s my job,” Jake shrugged, his hair flopping a bit.
“I look forward to speaking more about this counter offer at our next meeting,” Dominique replied, standing up to give us kisses on the cheek again. We said our thank yous and then headed out of the restaurant, Jake practically dragging me behind him.
“What the fuck did you say to her?” he asked harshly as we got out of sight of the hotel.
“She was going on about how I can’t let your work and our personal lives get tangled up, especially with this deal. She was accusing me of getting involved in an effort to save the perfumerie! So I sort of let slip that someone else was already looking to do that to get her to stop dogging me!”
“The Harrington’s? Really?” Jake asked, “You know her people are going to start scouring everything they can find for more details. They’re going to figure this all out and then what?”
“There are loads of Harrington’s!” I scoffed, “She doesn’t even know where they’re from!”
“Her people are good though,” he replied, “I can’t believe you said that!”
“It was the only thing I could think of!”
“I just hope she doesn’t start shooting her mouth off to other potential buyers,” Jake said as we neared the villa, “I’d hate for them to pull out, thinking they’re going to lose to this imaginary Harrington offer.”
“But… I thought you wanted to sell to Dominique?” I asked, stopping and watching Jake open the front door. From everything I’d heard from Madame Lepage, and at dinner with Dominique, it had sounded like the resort deal was already done!
“Oh god no, she’d destroy this town and then turnaround and sell the resort for double. She’s like a cancer.”
“But... Why did we just eat dinner with her?” I asked. I was really confused by this fact, because it seemed pretty obvious that Dominique was wining and dining us as a celebration.
“I’ve got to seem impartial,” Jake replied, letting me into the villa, “Buyers don’t like when the agent favors one over another.”
“I don’t get it, we just went to dinner with her exclusively…”
“Because it would have been more rude to say no,” Jake said, “French custom.”
“I guess…”
“I told you not to get involved because I’m trying to maneuver this whole deal around in an effort to save the perfumerie,” Jake said, “I do have potential investors that are interested in keeping the factory afloat, but they can’t offer nearly as much money as Dominique Gerard.”
“Is it her husband’s money?” I asked, a cheeky glint in my eye.
“Lauren…”
“Just asking,” I smirked, “He was old.”
“She’s the quintessential golddigger,” Jake said, “Now forget I said that. And stay out of this!”