Someone Else’s Shoes by Moyes Jojo

Author:Moyes, Jojo
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781405943529
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2023-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

21

Nisha has never suffered serious physical violence, but every time she spies Charlotte around the hotel wearing an item of her clothing she feels a sensation that she imagines must be just like being stabbed. Charlotte has worn the Chloé shearling coat in public twice, once the first time in that corridor and again the following Saturday, sashaying through the foyer as if it were hers. Two days later, she wore Nisha’s silver Alexander McQueen dress, with the slash at the side, to an evening event – she and Jasmine had spotted her just as they were finishing their shift, heading out from the side-street as she climbed into the waiting car and it was all Nisha could do not to cry out in pain.

But clearly this was not insult enough. On Tuesday lunchtime, as Nisha heads wearily to the sandwich platter, she glances through the open kitchen doors and sees Charlotte about to take a seat in the restaurant. And she is wearing Nisha’s pristine white Yves Saint Laurent suit.

‘No!’ she says, and stops in her tracks, so that a waiter almost collides with her and curses.

Aleks appears at her shoulder. The lunch sitting is nearly over and he is wiping his hands on a cloth. He follows her gaze. ‘It is the mistress?’

‘She’s going to spill something on it.’ Nisha is finding it hard to breathe. ‘I would never, ever eat in that suit.’

Aleks stares through the door for a moment and sighs. She feels his hand on her shoulder, gently steering her away.

‘No no no,’ she says, pushing it off. ‘You don’t understand. You don’t eat in that suit. It would be like – like eating spaghetti next to the Mona Lisa. It’s white. Yves. Saint. Laurent. 1971. It’s probably the only one left of its kind in the world. I got it from a collector who got it from an exclusive estate sale in Florida. The woman had kept it in a climate-controlled sealed closet and it still had the store tags. The actual tags. It had never been worn! You see? That suit is vintage and it is pristine. Completely pristine. She shouldn’t be touching it, for God’s sake. Not even touching it. But she can’t – she can’t eat in it.’ Her voice is anguished. As the doors close, she glimpses Carl sitting down heavily at the table opposite Charlotte, his phone pressed to his ear.

‘No,’ she says. ‘I can’t let this happen. I can’t –’

‘The bodyguard will be nearby,’ Aleks murmurs into her ear. ‘You cannot go near her. You know this.’ She turns and looks at him. His expression is sympathetic, but it says, also, clearly, that it is time for her to walk away.

‘How is this fair, Aleks?’ she says, as he steers her through to the back of the kitchens. ‘How? How can they even get away with this?’

Afterwards she realizes that Aleks’s arm is around her shoulders as he offers her a cigarette and waits until she stops hyperventilating.

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