Mack's Progress Ch. 08

"Demain est un autre jour et la vie doit continuer," he said, smiling at me. I still have no idea what it means; then he left the room again.

"Can I come in, Mack?" Codi's voice asked nervously from the doorway.

"You've as much right to be in here as I have," I replied.

"You won't turn violent or anything?"

I turned to look at her; she quite obviously had spent most of the afternoon crying; I could see that by her puffy red eyes.

"Did I raise a hand to you when I was angry earlier?" I asked.

"No, but you made a mess of...."

"Don't say his name!" I cut her off.

"I'm sorry, Mack, I have no idea what came over me."

"You don't! Well, I do! I knew what was going to happen the first evening he was here. I watched the way you drooled over his every word; he had you running around like a tit with your knickers on fire. You were so overawed that a so-called celebrity was paying you compliments that you could hardly contain yourself. He knew he'd get you, I knew he'd get you. Fucking hell, even that tart he's married to knew he had every intention of shagging you."

"I warned you what the prick was after, and you swore blind to me that he wouldn't succeed. But that was a lie, wasn't it, Codi; you had every intention of submitting to him. You couldn't pass up the chance to shag a fucking film star, could you? And you thought that I'd be none the wiser. You told him I'd be gone for most of the morning. Didn't you think that I'd get suspicious when you decided that airing the rooms was more important than coming to the airport with me."

"I'm sorry, Mack. Is there any chance that you'll forgive me?"

"Yeah, Codi, I'll forgive you. But it's of no consequence; I no longer have any intention of marrying you. I couldn't go through life wondering when the next film or pop star was going to catch your eye."

Codi began to cry again then turned and left the room. I poured myself another glass of that crap plonk and knocked it back.

Shortly Javier returned again, looked at the almost empty bottle and recovered yet another from the wine cupboard.

"Jesus, Javier, are you still here? Haven't you got a home to go to?"

"I cannot leave my friends at this sad time!" he replied in the plainest English that I'd ever heard him use.

"Thanks, Javier," I said.

Then he went on to tell me that Codi had asked him to drive her to the station in the morning. She was catching a train to Paris and a plane from there back to the States. He waited but I made no comment.

Shortly our two friends came in and after some discussion they agreed to run Codi and my chalet until it closed for the year. Then I went up to our room and packed my bag. I noticed that all Codi's stuff was gone; I assumed that she had moved it into another room and was sleeping in there.

Throwing my rucksack on my shoulder, I went down and asked Javier if he'd mind driving me into Lyon. He just shrugged and got to his feet. I said good-bye to my two friends, handed them the keys to the chalet; then Javier and I left the chalet for good.

It was many years before I laid eyes on Codi again.

End of chapter eight.