The Hen Weekend (The Agency) by Elizabeth Grey

Author:Elizabeth Grey [Grey, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Snowflake Publishing
Published: 2020-05-17T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

It takes almost two hours to get to Saint-Tropez from Nice, the swish coastal train taking us on a wonderful tour of the beautiful seascapes and mountainside villages along the French Riviera. We change trains at Saint-Raphael, where Georgie announces she’d have booked a car for the day if she’d known it would take so long, and we arrive in time for a late lunch.

Max leaves us to shop and heads for the beach. Even though I’m a horrible shopper who’s very talented at using the internet to find clothes to buy, I enjoy the mini tour of France’s foremost design houses given by Madeline and Freja, who spend a much higher percentage of their wages on clothes than me and Georgie. Under their expert advice, I buy a slinky top from a peach-coloured Valentino boutique located on a sun-drenched street at the edge of a huge car park filled with mopeds and Smart cars.

I imagine being here with Ethan. He’d love the shops and the ambience, and he’d be the first to suggest renting a moped and riding up into the gravity-defying villages perched in the hills. I’d be terrified, of course, but he’d persuade me to ride shotgun with my arms wrapped around his chest.

But god, me on a moped on winding hillside roads isn’t a good idea. He’d regret taking me up there after I’d inevitably puked down his back and cried for an hour. I laugh because I can totally see this happening. I don’t like daring and he’ll never learn.

We choose a restaurant along the harbour for dinner, settling ourselves into a booth with great views of the dazzling white yachts no doubt owned by millionaires and movie stars. It’s close to eight o’clock, and the sun is beginning to close its gap with the sea when I start to worry about Max. He texted us an hour ago to say he was on his way.

“Time for a bottle of fizz,” Freja exclaims as she beckons our waiter back to the table and orders an extortionately priced bottle of champagne.

“Wow, thanks, Freja,” I say when I notice the price on the drinks menu. “Have you brought Nate’s credit card with you for the weekend?”

She laughs and shakes her head. “No, I just have a decent job, and so do you.”

She’s not wrong; however, buying a new house, paying for a new kitchen and saving up for my dream wedding has sent my capitalist soul on a massive guilt trip. Plus I’m from Yorkshire. “I guess we northerners have different sensibilities when it comes to spending money, right, Madeline?”

“Don’t invite me into your thrifty gang of misery,” Madeline says with a wink. “I’ve expelled everything about growing up poor from my body, mind and spirit, so bring on the champagne.”

Growing up poor. Wow. Madeline very rarely gives anything away about her past. I know everything there is to know about Georgie’s ridiculously posh upbringing and Freja’s unconventional childhood in Copenhagen, but Madeline never discusses her life prior to being a hotshot advertising account manager.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.