Bonjour Cherie (10 page)

‘France is a beautiful country, especially once you get outside of Paris,' she said.

‘You've been there?'

‘Yes. A couple of times. Once with friends and once with Zach when we were looking for some new products to put in our stores.'

So Zach had been to France and had never told me. No doubt he laughed himself silly at my pathetic plans to go there one day.

We finished our coffee and Charlotte had to get back. ‘It was really nice bumping into you. We should do this again sometime. I hope nothing I said put you off Zach. He would never forgive me for that.'

‘No worries. It was good seeing you too,' I said. But after we parted, I realised that was just what she had done. Zach was a completely different person to the one I thought he was. My fault, perhaps, for having judged him and put him in a box before I knew anything about him. But he had certainly acted the part and had never tried to correct my false impression. And for that, I blamed him. He made me feel like a fool. I had prattled on about my dreams and ambitions and told him he would not fit in with them, when all along he was a very wealthy guy, who managed a nationwide chain of stores. He had probably been overseas more times than I had been to Brisbane.

I decided to go straight home and give swimming a miss. After Charlotte's revelation about Zach, I felt the only thing I wanted to do was go home, eat chocolate and watch movies until Mum and Dad got home. I needed a total escape.

I was going back to my car when I saw André coming out of a bookshop. If I hurried I could just catch up with him. This was my morning for meeting people, wasn't it? Then, I saw Paul come out of the bookshop too and they started to walk away together. I slowed my pace. I really didn't want to talk to Paul too. What a shame Lisa wasn't here to distract him. At any rate, it looked like Paul had persuaded André to see more of Queensland and was acting as an unofficial guide. It was nice of him, I thought, but I would have been more than happy to take on the position if André had asked me.

I wondered if I would ever succeed in attracting his attention, other than the teacher/student thing. I never usually had to work so hard to get the attention of a guy. What was I doing wrong? I always dressed well, was enthusiastically attentive in class and dropped enough hints to make it totally obvious I was interested in him. Perhaps I should take the initiative, give it one last go. I could ask him out for coffee or something—nothing with too much pressure. Perhaps French guys were used to women being more assertive. I was sure I'd read that somewhere. That decided me; I would ask André LeBlanc out. If nothing happened after that then I would give him up as a lost cause. But I didn't believe that. Once we had some one-on-one time, I was sure we would click. And that would show a certain person, whose name I didn't even want to think about, that there were many other fish in the sea besides him.

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.

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.'