Still Falling (20 page)

“Um, I think I’ll leave that to you and Serena, thank you.”
 
Said Serena’s mother,
rubbing her back in imaginary pain.

At that point a red faced
Nico,
collapsed and
conceded defeat allowing hugs and kisses all round.

“How was the drive?” asked Jo.

“Beautiful” replied Mama.

“Does your ex own all three chalets?” asked Serena looking at the simple
but elegant decor.

“Um, no actually.
 
I think he did make an offer on the other
two, but lost out.
 
So it’s just this
one.
 
I don’t know who owns the other
two.
 
Whenever I’ve been out here, the
owners of the other two have been away.”

“Cool.
 
Hey it must be nearly lunch
time.
 
I’m starving.”

“Funny thing.”
Said Jo.
 
“But those words still bring me tears of
happiness when I hear them coming from my best friend’s mouth!
 
And it just so happens that we have one of
the Bistro’s famous seafood Risottos cooked up by none other than the master
himself.” She smiled waving both hands at Nico like a sales demonstrator.
 
Nico smiled and bowed graciously before
scurrying off to a small, well equipped kitchen to bring the food to the ready
set table.

Lunch was a din of laughter and conversation and Serena was glad she had
agreed to come on this trip.
 
She felt
warm, relaxed and at ease with herself for a change.
 
So relaxed in fact that after lunch and
unpacking her bags, she retired for an afternoon nap on one of the two ample
beds in the room her and her mother would be sharing for the week.
 
She fell into a deep dreamless sleep, the
first in a long time and woke feeling fresh and rested.
 

Serena went down stairs to find Jo and Tony, quietly talking in the
living room.
 
The conversation looked
serious and Serena wondered if this wasn’t one of Jo’s ‘birds and bees’
lectures to her baby brother.
 
They both
looked up when Serena came down the stairs and Tony excused himself to bring
more firewood in.

“You look ready to face the world.”
Noted Jo,
approvingly.

“I feel it.”
 
Grinned
Serena
 
“
Where’s
everyone?”.

“Nico and your mother have taken Micky into town to get some ice
cream.
 
If you feel up to it we can meet
up with them and maybe check out some of the bars and restaurants?”

Serena considered the plan a moment and nodded enthusiastically.
 
“I’ll get changed.”

They walked through the busy slush filled streets, mingling with the
tourists and locals alike.
 
Americans,
British and a multitude of European tourists flocked to the Italian Alps for
Ski holidays.
 
While the Mountains
offered the same excellent skiing as that on offer in neighbouring Switzerland,
the Italian Alps were far more affordable.

Nico stopped at a street vendor to order a full round of steaming hot
drinks.
 
Micky who had settled down over
the last hour was now balanced on Jo’s hip, yawning and snuggling his little
face into her shoulder.

“Serena, why don’t you and your friends go and enjoy yourselves to night
and I’ll take the little one back to the Chalet and tuck him into bed.”
Suggested Serena’s mother.

“Jo looked at Serena hopefully.”

“But what about you Mama?”

“Serena,” laughed her mother.
 
“I
am too old to keep up with you and your friends.
 
Besides I have a mountain of books I would
love to get my nose into.”

“That would be great if you could take Micky.”
Said
Nico, balancing the hot drinks and passing them out.
 
“It’s been a while since I’ve had an evening
without him.”

“It’s no problem at all.
 
You kids
enjoy yourselves and make sure my daughter behaves.”
 
She took the keys that Jo was dangling from
her fingers and peeled little Mick off of his aunt.

They said their goodbyes and the four went off in search of a bit of fun.

Marco sat at the bar nursing a small bourbon.
 
He didn’t usually drink.
 
At least not much and very
seldom spirits.
 
The smooth liquid
tempered the jagged edges of his frazzled disposition.
 
The music was loud and pounding, drowning out
the conversations of the crowds around him.
 
It was early evening and the tourists were coming out in their
droves.
 
The early
European winter nights driving them off the powdered slopes and to the bars,
restaurants and nightclubs.
  
Marco didn’t usually bother with noisy clubs and bars, preferring the
quiet of a good restaurant or the comfort of his own home.
 
Tonight however, Michelle had insisted they
spend their first night in town, literally on the town.
 
To be honest, perhaps it was better than the
large empty and far too quiet chalet.
 

A young American squeezed up to the bar next to him and issued a piercing
whistle to get the attention of the Bar Man.
 
Marco leaned sideways on the bar to give the young man more room.
 
He surveyed the mill of ski suited bodies in the
packed space.
 
Mostly
young, mostly foreign.
 
Momentarily he caught a glimpse of an Italian face that looked familiar
before it got lost in the crowds only to appear again closer to the bar.
 
He studied the angles of the kids face.
 

The young Italian boy had stopped to talk to a small blonde girl in a
pony tail, roughly the same age as him.
 
Their body language spoke volumes.
 
The young man was probably feeding her charming chat up lines with
practiced ease and the young blonde was shy but amused at his attention.
 

Admiring the kid’s gumption, Marco watched in amusement as the
captivating lad, brought the first physical contact into play.
 
Spurred on by her inability to brush him off,
the boy reached over and pretended to brush something imaginary off her hair
above her ear.
 
He then smoothly used the
action to bring his fingers down the line of her attractive jaw before dropping
his hand to rest on her shoulders.
 
The
whole time he never stopped talking to keep her distracted.

This kid was really, really, good.

Before long the two were on the dance floor.
 
Marco watched silently.
 
He recognised the kid now.
 
Serena’s boyfriend.

Actually he had no idea if the two were still and item, but his amused
male respect for the boy had dissolved completely.
  
Downing his drink he went in search of
Michelle.
 
He needed to get out of here.

Snow had been falling heavily when the four arrived back at the chalet
last night and the skies had cleared in the early morning allowing the
temperatures to plummet.
 
Now as they
finished their breakfast the slopes glittered in the harsh sunlight.
 
Perfect ski conditions!

Bundling into two cars the group headed off to Bormio’s two thousand
meter Gondola.

Serena’s mother hadn’t skied in years and wasn’t keen to start again so
she stayed with Micky on the junior slopes, messing with a sledge.
 
Nico and Jo were seasoned on the slopes and
opted to head over to the three thousand meter Gondola that would take them and
extra thousand metres up the slopes.
 
The same slopes that has played host to the World Cup Ski
Championships a few seasons before.

Laughing as Tony regaled his adventures with a little pigtailed blonde
the night before, Tony and Serena took the Gondola up the intermediate slopes
above the medieval village.
 
The
temperature at that height was well below Serena’s comfort zone.
 
Two things promised warmth at this
point.
 

The exercise that comes with a good downhill race, and
reaching warmer lower altitude as quickly as possible where the promise of a
steaming cup of hot chocolate called to her enticingly.

All in a day’s
work.

“Last one to the bottom stays home and babysits tonight!” she cried,
catching unprepared Tony by surprise.

She took off down the slopes.
 
The
cold wind soon turned her face and hands numb.
 
She
zigzagged
in short smooth sweeps from one
side of the slope to the other.
 
She
didn’t dare look back to see where Tony was.
 
That would be asking for an accident.
 
Instead she relaxed into ride.
 
Easily skirting around a slower skier she was about halfway down and she
was flying.
 
Her skis digging into the
fresh virgin powder nearly two inches.

If it wasn’t so cold I could do
this all the time. Bring it on!

She didn’t see any change to the snow below her but felt the resistance
on her skis immediately.

Oh shit this is going to hurt.

The top half of her body overtook her feet and in seconds she was cart
wheeling through the air.
 
One of her
skis dug deeply into the snow and she dropped in a pile of arms, legs and skis
crisscrossing each other in a tangle. She had lost her hat and her hair had
flown over to cover her face followed by a handful of snow.

She lay still mentally feeling for pain
.
 

Head?
 
Feels fine.
 

Shoulders?
 
Um
okay some snow has gone down my neck.
  
Its
cold.

Arms?
 
Fine.

Back?
 
Getting cold and wet lying
here.

Baby?
 
All
warm and snug.
 
So
jealous.

Backside?
 
Attached to body.
 
Will be stiff tomorrow.

Legs?
 
Will probably be stiff tomorrow along with backside.

Note to self – you are
pregnant.
 
Be more careful.

She’d had a lucky escape. Blowing the hair and snow from her mouth she
freed her wrists from the ski poles and disentangled her arms.
 
She wiped the hair from her face and
attempted to pull her left ski out of the snow to free her leg.
 

Damn it’s gone in too deep.

Reaching out with her fingers she was trying to reach the clip to free
her boot from the ski when the snow crunched just above her and a skier slid to
a halt.
 
The skiers shadow covered
her.
  
She pushed her goggles off her
face and back over her hair.

“Hi.
 
Fine I promise!
 
Just a little tumble.
 
I’ll be okay!”
 
She was a little embarrassed now.
 
Her
would be
rescuer, knelt down and unclasped both her boots from her skis before helping
her sit up.
 
Just at that moment Tony
slid to a stop beside her.

“OMG, Serena. Are you okay?
 
You
were flying!
 
I mean literally
flying!
 
What about the baby?
 
Do you want me to call for help?”

Serena laughed.
 
“Jeez Tony you are
such a mother hen.
 
I’m fine thank
you.”
 
The stranger stood up and gestured
farewell and left Tony and Serena on the slope.
 
He was fuming.
 

Pregnant again!
 
Did neither of them know anything about
anything?

One of these days he was going to have to finish the beating he had
starting giving that kid on the beach.

She did look happy though.

Shit.
 
I can’t deal with this!

Serena was soaked through and cold.
 
The day was still young though and everyone was enjoying
themselves.
 
Leaving Tony and her Mother
to watch Micky until Jo and Nico returned, she climbed into the Land Rover and
drove back to the chalet to change.
 
It
took a while for the Land Rovers heating to come on and when it did it was
heaven.
 
She didn’t realise how much she
had been shivering.
 
Eager to get back to
the chalet as fast as she could she took one of corners of the narrow forest
road a little too fast and slid off the road over a fallen branch and into
thick snow.

Fuck.
Again.
 
Two accidents in one day.
Better not let anyone know about this or I’ll end up with a twenty four hour
body guard.