The Chateau. Karen Aldous

trembling hands into his pockets. ‘Did you get my email?’

       Chapter 6

      Gina’s heart leaped as a man appeared in front of her. It took her a few seconds to register the speaker. She’d been thinking about her father. He couldn’t even pick up his phone and talk to her. She stared at Ollie.

      ‘Sorry, were you saying something?’ she asked him. Her heart pounding faster.

      Ollie repeated himself.

      ‘Hi, yes. I’ve been busy. I had meant to reply. Bit of a family crisis right now. You’ll have to excuse me.’ She continued walking.

      ‘Can I help, Gina?’ he asked, realising he’d seen her father in a bar with a younger woman a few times and quickly figured this could be the crisis.

      Gina gave him a tense smile. ‘I don’t think so. But thank you.’

      ‘You could try me. I’m finished for the day. I’m a good listener,’ he said as they both halted by the opened door to the lake.

      Gina squinted at him pensively for a moment. A flutter shooting through her heart swelled blood through every vein. He looked adorable, her epitome of a man. But he was a persistent shit. His way or the highway. Not really the type of person you could call on when you needed a shoulder to lean on. She glanced at the open door to the lake. Should she share her private troubles with this man, this arrogant loudmouth? Oh, if only his eyes didn’t grab her like this.

      ‘It’s very kind of you to offer but I…’

      ‘In case you’re wondering, I promise, you can trust me,’ he said tilting his head and churning more flurries through her skin. ‘Come on, we’ll have a coffee. You can have my company if nothing else.’

      Gina took in a deep breath. What makes him think I would actually want his company? she asked herself. Was he sincere or just immature? She peered at the open door on the lake again, a strange concept inviting people to step into the lake – to drown themselves maybe? As if echoing her thinking, Ollie stepped towards the structure and ran his fingers down the frame.

      ‘I wonder?’ he said. ‘Is it an open door to opportunity, new beginnings? As one door closes another opens and all that?’

      ‘Mmm, curious,’ she answered running her finger down her nose. ‘An invite, a way in or, for some, a way out; an exit.’ She turned and face him. ‘What would you want it to be?’

      Patting it once more he leant his shoulder against the frame and holding his other palm out lifted his eyes up to hers.

      ‘Definitely an invitation, possibly a new beginning,’ he said.

      Gina’s heart quivered. Those words slipped from his lips so seductively. His dark eyes, so powerfully entrancing. It was hard not to be drawn in. How natural she imagined it would be to dissolve into those strong arms. Her mind drifted.

      Out of nowhere, a sharp icy sensation sliced through her and she sensed they weren’t alone; something or someone was beside her again. Her nose and lip twitched at the putrid odour suddenly apparent. This lake must be haunted, she surmised. She shuddered and raised both hands to rub her arms. Her eyes shifted from his to the richly coloured flowerbed in front of the lake.

      ‘Do you know? I can’t really think.’ She took a deep breath. What was the harm? ‘Let’s have coffee,’ she conceded feeling confused as a rush of blood returned to her arms. Clasping her wrist, she frowned at the peculiar sensations within her. ‘I only have a short time though. I need to get back soon,’ she said finding his gaze again. Her mind unable to comprehend what the sensations meant? Had it been worse so close to the door? Was that significant? Was she meant to exit? Take a way out through the door and into the lake?

      Ollie led her along the promenade and sat down at a table outside The Metropole, a café restaurant close to the steamboat terminal. He ordered a coffee and a beer.

      He broke the silence. ‘So, I’m still curious about your interpretation of the metaphorical door?’

      ‘I suppose, being an optimist and an opportunist, for me, it would have to be an invite, or an open door to something new,’ she said, watching his mouth uncurl into a smile.

      ‘I’m glad you said that. Reading your face down at the lake, for a minute, I was worried it suggested something else.’

      She sipped her mug of coffee. ‘Why should it?’ she said, intrigued. ‘You don’t know me.’

      ‘Well, no, but for us, there are plenty of inviting opportunities. We have much to offer one another.’ His eyes sparkled.

      Gina felt a faint rush of blood in her cheeks. Well, at least he wasn’t being as flippant or glib like he’d been previously. One side of her mouth rose as her mind churned. How was she supposed to interpret his suggestion? Did he mean property or relationship? Why did he emphasise the word ‘inviting’? Or was he just being his cocky, and now, smutty self? Or, was she propagating some kind of wish-fulfilment within herself? She rubbed her ear, he was well aware she was in a relationship with Max and she had told him she was having a crisis right now, so it was unlikely he would be making a pass, so she decided to play safe with property.

      ‘Of course, you did say in your email, to come along and see the villas for yourself.’

      ‘Yes. Come along when you have time. Here’s my card.’

       Chapter 7

      Creeping in to the apartment Gina could just hear a clock ticking in the kitchen. She tiptoed down the hall and peeked her head slowly around the bedroom door. She waited a while and watched her mother’s chest take slow, shallow breaths, then gently closed the door.

      Again, she tapped her father’s avatar on her phone, letting it ring. He didn’t answer. She blew out a deflated sigh. She texted him again. This time her message was less polite. Reaching for the kettle, she realised it was still quite warm. Her mother had, it seemed, been up and gone back to bed.

      She pulled out her phone and the business card Ollie had handed her. Might as well, she thought, keying in his number.

      Five minutes later, as she reached the foyer on the ground floor, she was pleased Ollie was standing outside the main door.

      ‘I’ve probably got an hour or two at most,’ she said, gazing at his untamed hair caught by the breeze. ‘How far are we going?’ she asked as they crossed the road and he led her through wrought-iron gates and down the side of his parents’ large lakeside villa.

      ‘I can take the car if you’d prefer. It takes about fifteen, twenty minutes to walk along the lake.’

      Gina wrapped her hair behind her ear. ‘No, walking will be fine, I love to walk,’ she said and her eyes danced at the site of the house and gardens from the front. ‘Wow, this is impressive. How beautiful.’

      ‘This is my parents’ place.’

      ‘It’s vast. And what a magnificent style, traditional.’ She stopped briefly to take it all in.

      Although it was just across from her parents, Gina had paid little attention to what was behind the well-tended foliage and walled garden. It was a villa of almost mansion proportions, she observed, with at least four floors if you included the attic rooms and possibly five with the cellar. Its pitched roof was elaborated by a majestic gable leading the eye down the centre of the property. Each window had been decorated with its own small Juliet balcony in black delicate ironwork and shuttered in a pale sage-green, adding to the symmetry of the enormous building.

      ‘Yes, I grew up here,’ he said, pointing to the other side of the road next to her parents’ block. ‘My own apartment is over there but I have lots of fond memories from my childhood. Did you grow up in Switzerland?’

      ‘No.