In the second chapter young Alex is moving to the south of France. He only has a vague, childhood memory of Louise, his former neighbor, and is surprised to see that she is not only very pretty, but also quite cool for an adult. One small problem though: why does he have trouble keeping his eyes off her curvy body? 

ALEX

‘He’s a problem case, Marge,’ he heard his father say, just as he was about to roll a joint. ‘He’s too lazy to get out of bed in the morning and he has never done a day’s work in his life. And you want to send him to Louise so that he can work there? He’ll only embarrass us!’

He didn’t hear his mother’s answer, but he could make a good guess. She was probably saying that he might surprise them. New surroundings and new people could do wonders, right? They had had this conversation before, also with him present.

When he was still young, eighteen-year-old Alex was thinking, it would have bothered him what his mom and dad said about him, but now he couldn’t care less. He had really grown up lately. Perhaps not in the sense that parents and teachers wanted you to grow up, but in the real way.

He closed the balcony door, drowning out the voices of his parents down there in the garden. Best put on some music, he thought, but what? The Cure? Talk Talk? Or go further back in time? Pink Floyd? Led Zeppelin? Dylan? Yeah, good old Bob, that would do. Start with Like a Rolling Stone and work his way down the playlist on his Spotify account. With the opening tunes of the song coming out of the speakers he opened the roof window and lit up. Great quality Moroccan hash, the best in the world.

As he inhaled deeply and held his breath he thought of what he had just overheard. Wasn’t it incredible how ignorant people were nowadays? Not just his parents, but almost everybody. In the days of Dylan and Pink Floyd, people were really getting it. They understood that life wasn’t about money, status and fashion. Sure, now there was a yoga movement which also pretended to be above those things, but what did these yoga women really understand? His own mom went to yoga twice a week and as sweet as she was, she honestly didn’t have a clue.

No, for wisdom he had to turn to his friends. Dave, Emily and Michael mostly. The four of them hung out whenever they could. They all lived in this village in Suffolk, where everybody was busy with school, career and relationships, so it was only natural that the ones who searched for deeper meaning stuck together. They spent hours on the internet, sending each other videos of Woodstock and lyrics of their favorite bands. There was so much wisdom to be found in the old days.

He took another drag of the joint, the hash already messing with his head, but in a good way. What had his dad just said? That he was going to embarrass them? In France, he meant. Afraid that this Louise would call them up after a day or two to tell them that she no longer wanted him there. That wouldn’t happen though. He was certain of it. If there was one thing he looked forward to now, it was leaving this house as soon as he could.

His parents were a pain in the butt most of the time, but credit where credit was due, his mom’s idea for him to go stay with his former neighbor on the French Riviera was a lifesaver. Here in England, autumn had come. Today was a nice day, but it had been raining a lot and more was predicted for next week. Besides, what would he do here in this sleepy, bourgeois village? Within a month he had already dropped out of university and the thought of having to spend winter here with his parents was enough to make him feel depressed.

So yeah, when his mom said that she had been on the phone with Louise in France and that he was welcome to stay with her for the rest of the school year, he had not exactly jumped with joy, but he hadn’t dismissed the idea either. He had asked her about Louise, whom he hardly knew. She used to be his neighbor Kevin’s wife, but they got divorced a long time ago and she had moved to France afterwards. His mom told him she got remarried years ago, to a Londoner called Rob. Together they had started up some business which had made them rich. Now they owned a villa in the south of France, near some town that he had forgotten the name of. Near Cannes it was. That, he remembered.

‘So,’ his mom had said, ‘Louise says you can live in the annex by the pool. No need to pay rent, but we agreed you would help out around the house. You’ll even make some money. Doesn’t that sound good?’

‘Help out around the house?’ he had asked. ‘Do what exactly?’

‘Work in the garden, paint, whatever needs to be done. I told her you’re quite good with your hands.’

‘Am I?’ he had asked.

‘You can always learn. It will be good for you.’

And you know what, he had said to his friends later, perhaps his mother was right. Working with his hands, didn’t that sound real? Didn’t that sound so much better than studying to become a banker or attorney? Had Jesus not been a carpenter too? His friends agreed, but Dave, his best and wisest friend, had also asked him about Louise.

‘What is she like? Living in an annex by the pool sounds great, but still, you’ll have to hang out with her too.’

So, yeah, what did he remember about her? He described her as best as he could, but they were high so he ended up saying things like ‘she has dark, brown hair, is kind of tall, a woman, you know’, which had made Emily crack up with laughter and the others had joined in. It was as accurately as he could remember her though. The last time he had seen her was maybe ten years ago. Or no, there was that one time at the funeral of his grandfather. She had been there too, dressed in black, tall in her high heels. Strange how he suddenly remembered that now.

After the divorce, she had moved away and Kevin had stayed and later got married again, but this time to an ugly, old woman; at least that’s how Alex thought of her. The contact between his family and Louise had faded away. As far as he knew, his mom was the only one who was still in touch with her.

Now that he thought about it, what should he even call her when he was there? Neighbor? Or just ‘Louise’? Mrs. Rob perhaps? He chuckled at that. Mrs. Rob, that sounded weird and kind of funny. Well, he would figure it out once he was there, wouldn’t he? After all, he wasn’t born yesterday.

***

Alex arrived in the south of France a week later. His flight to Nice had been most pleasant thanks to his mate Dave, who had surprised him at Luton airport with a farewell joint. Look, that’s what he meant with understanding what life was really about. His parents’ nerves had been shot to pieces before his departure. Do you have your passport? Money? Credit card? Toothbrush? He was happy when he had said goodbye to them and could finally go to the check-in counter.

Right at that moment though he had received a message from Dave that said ‘turn around’. And there he was, his best mate, with a grin on his face and a joint in his hand. They had gone outside and smoked it in the parking lot. Not the prettiest place to get high, but he had enjoyed it immensely. About to embark on a new adventure, it was great to spend his last ten minutes in England smoking up with his buddy. When they said goodbye he promised Dave he would talk to Rob and Louise about the possibility of him coming over for a visit soon.

In the plane, he had listened to music and read a few chapters of the biography of Keith Richards. The man sitting next to him, some old guy with a goatee, had tried to make conversation and told him that that rock star, pointing at Keith, was going to die of an overdose some day. Yeah, Alex had thought, and what would you know? Fortunately, the man had left him alone after that, so he was able to focus on his book and music.

The flight was even shorter than expected though and before he knew it, the sign for ‘seatbelts on’ lit up. Landing at Nice airport in twenty minutes, the pilot had said. The weather on the Côte d’Azur was good, he added. Twenty-three degrees and sunny.

Now he was sitting on a bench outside the terminal, waiting for his former neighbor to pick him up. She had already texted him to say she was running a bit late, but if he waited for her outside she would swing by in a minute. Out of curiosity, he had clicked on her profile photo. It was taken on a beach somewhere. Her hair was wet and her smile quite radiant. Not bad for a woman her age, he concluded.

Five minutes later a silver-colored Mercedes drove by slowly. The side window opened and a woman wearing sunglasses called out to him.

‘Alex? Let’s go.’

As he got up and grabbed the handle of his suitcase, he realized it was all becoming real now. Until this moment he had gone along with his mom’s plan, thinking he had nothing better to do anyway. But now he was really here and the woman in the car was Louise, with whom he was going to stay for a long time. Before he could open the passenger door she told him to quickly put his suitcase on the backseat, because she was not allowed to stop here. He did as he was told and a moment later he was sitting next to her as the car pulled up and drove away from the airport.

‘Hi,’ Louise said, ‘how are you? How was your flight?’

‘It was okay. Quick.’

‘How was the weather in England?’

‘Rainy,’ he said, ‘and cold too.’

‘Good to be here then, right?’

‘Very good.’

They looked at each other then, getting a new first impression of one another. For an adult, she seemed kind of cool, was the first thought that crossed his mind. Cool and pretty too, but again, for an adult. What did she make of him? Feeling a bit self-conscious with her throwing glances at him, clearly observing him, he took a lock of hair between his fingers and began to play with it. She noticed it and said, ‘Your hair is much longer than the last time I saw you. Do you remember when that was?’

‘I wondered about that,’ he said. ‘I think it was at my granddad’s funeral.’

‘That’s what I think too. I remember talking to you afterwards. You were still a child then.’

‘I was thirteen when he died.’

‘And you’re eighteen now, right?’

‘Yes,’ he said. 

‘I’m forty-four. That must seem old to you.’

He shook his head and tried to be cool, but yes, of course that was old. As a matter of fact, had he ever had a real conversation with someone of that age? His parents were even older, but with them, he never talked. Come to think of it, this whole set-up suddenly felt kind of weird to him. He and Louise hardly knew each other of course, so perhaps it was only normal to feel a bit uneasy, but in a different way, too, it felt kind of strange to have a grown-up conversation with her.

Now she was asking him about university, for example. What went wrong there? She asked it in a way that was not judgmental at all, not like an adult who was about to lecture a teenager. She seemed just curious and he found it hard to believe that that was really all it was. He did his best to answer in a similarly casual tone, but found himself stammering some explanation that still sounded defensive even to his own ears. When he was done talking she just nodded and kept her eyes on the road.

‘And you?’ he asked. ‘My mom says you’re a therapist?’

‘Yes, that’s right. Part-time though. I also have an art gallery in Cannes.’

She glanced at him and continued, ‘I assume your parents have told you my husband and I sold our company some years ago?’

‘Yes, mom said you’re rich now.’

‘Well, let’s say we don’t need to work anymore.’

‘So why are you a therapist then?’

‘Because I like it. The same goes for the art gallery.’

‘And your husband?’

‘Rob. You can call him Rob. He works too much. At least that’s what I think. This week he is in London again. He’ll be gone until the weekend, possibly longer.’

They were quiet then. Alex looked out the window, aware that he did feel a thrill of excitement. A new country, new surroundings, beautiful weather and away from his parents. He thought of the piece of hash that he had hidden in his suitcase. As expected, there had been no control at the airport and now he had something to help him get settled. Later on, he was sure, he would find a dealer here on the coast.

***

The villa was bloody incredible. Usually, Alex wasn’t easily impressed by rich people and their capitalistic lifestyles, but when they entered the driveway with dry stone walls and olive trees on the sides and a minute later the house came into view, he gasped. This was just unreal!

Louise parked at the side of the house and as they walked around it she explained to him what he saw.

‘In the distance, we have the Mediterranean. Cannes is down there too, but you can hardly see it from here. On the other side, behind the house, that hill up there, that’s where I run in the morning. Do you run?’

He shook his head while he looked at his surroundings in awe. The pergolas and the garden, the pool, and further away, the tennis court; it was just amazing. The house itself was beautiful, too, with soft yellow walls and a terracotta roof.

‘Follow me,’ Louise said. ‘I’ll give you a tour.’

They entered through the front door into a central hallway with a chandelier and an elegant staircase. She took him through the living room, which had a high ceiling with wooden beams and several corners to sit and relax. A hallway led to the master bedroom with walk-in closets and a luxurious bathroom which even had a sauna. She asked him if he liked saunas and for some reason, the question unsettled him. He mumbled something about never having tried it and when she said that he was welcome to use it, he felt himself even blushing.

Fortunately, they continued the tour then, back to the living room and from there to the kitchen, which was both big and rustic and had its own door to a patio with a wooden bench. Louise said this is where she had breakfast most mornings. The tour went on with the part of the house where she received her patients. The waiting room had nice photos on the walls and a stack of magazines on a table in the corner. The therapy room itself was tastefully furnished and had a peaceful atmosphere.

‘Let me show you the basement before we go upstairs,’ she said. They went into another hallway that had a door to a garage and then down a staircase to a big, open space where Rob had his man cave, as Louise called it. On one side of the room were a sofa and a flatscreen TV; on the other side was a pool table.

‘Do you play?’ she asked and Alex nodded. Playing pool was actually one of the few games he enjoyed nowadays, especially when he was high.

‘I don’t,’ Louise said. ‘You can play with Rob if you like.’

She opened a few more doors in the huge basement, showing him the laundry room and a room that was used for storage. 

‘Let’s go upstairs now,’ she said then. They went back to the central hallway with the chandelier and climbed the staircase to the first floor, which had three bedrooms, all with bathrooms en suite.

‘We don’t use these very often,’ she said. ‘Guests usually stay in the annex like you.’

They went up to the attic too, which was used for the storage of rolled up carpets, chairs, tables and drawers.

‘I was thinking that this could be your first little job here,’ Louise said. ‘I would like all of this to go. Some things can be put in the basement, most of it can be taken to the charity shop or the dump in town. I would love to start painting again and this room could be a great place for that. The lighting here is very good, as you can see.’

Alex didn’t see anything, just a mess and windows that really needed to be cleaned. He nodded though, not wanting to seem ignorant.

So she painted, he thought as he looked at her profile, which actually was not at all unpleasant to look at. What did he make of her, he wondered. Would he be able to spend more than six months in her vicinity? Was she alright or was she as bourgeois as most people her age? It was a difficult question. On the one hand, she had escaped the narrow-minded, little world of Britain. She had become rich and moved abroad to a place where everybody would want to live. On the other hand, however, what had made all of that possible was just money, and that didn’t make the difference between a superficial and a meaningful life.

As he followed her downstairs he decided that the jury was still out. He would have to know her better to decide if she was fake or real. In the meantime, though, he did have to admit that she was nice to him and hadn’t judged him once.

When they were back in the hallway Louise excused herself to make a quick phone call. Listening to her talk in fluent French, he noticed again that her face was quite beautiful, especially for someone her age. She had a nice nose, full lips and long eyelashes. Her hair was dark and thick and came to her shoulders. Her posture was perfect too, with a straight back that made her look confident and even proud. Different from his own posture, he knew, which was quite slumped as people told him every now and then. Did it make her look taller than him? Possibly. He guessed they were the same height though, both around five eight, which was kind of short for a man his age but tall for a woman of her generation. She was probably heavier than he was, with her wide hips and large breasts. Earlier on, when they had gone upstairs, his eyes had also involuntarily fallen on her butt, which seemed big and round in the jeans. Very different from girls his own age. Not that he meant to look at Louise’s body in the same way that he sometimes looked at girls, of course.

No, it was just that he was observant. He noticed things. Details like her Nike trainers and the pattern of little flowers on her blouse. Wow, speaking of them, how many were there? It was a repeating pattern too, like a drawing of Escher and as he looked at it he felt himself almost getting sucked into it.

Then Louise’s voice interrupted his thoughts. She asked him if he was ready to see the annex. He looked up and realized that he was still a bit high and that now she might think he had been staring at her breasts. God, how embarrassing.

‘The flowers,’ he stammered. ‘Like Escher.’

She laughed and called him silly.

‘I wasn’t, you know,’ he said and then stopped himself, because now he was perhaps making a big deal out of nothing.

‘I know, Alex. Let’s go take a look at your apartment.’

Feeling a bit confused still, he followed her to the garden, dragging his suitcase behind him over the path. Seeing the swimming pool up close made him forget about the little incident. How cool was that, he thought, to have a pool like that right next to the place where he was going to live? Later he was going to take some photos and send them to his mates back in England. Louise was pointing out the tennis court now and asked him if he played.

‘It’s been a while,’ he said. ‘When I was a child I took some classes and played a few tournaments too.’

‘I think I remember that,’ she said. ‘Perhaps we can play a game someday. I’m better at tennis than at pool.’

He asked if she played often.

‘Sometimes with friends and sometimes with Rob too, but he’s not very good. I can beat him easily. It’s no fun.’

Alex laughed at that and asked her if it embarrassed her husband.

‘No,’ she said, ‘why would it?’

She was about to open the door to the annex, but she paused and gave him a funny look.

Trying to explain himself he said, ‘Nothing. I just thought with him being a man and all. You know, losing against a woman.’

Wrong answer, because now she folded her arms across the chest. She seemed to look at him calmly, but he realized she wasn’t calm at all. Something he said had pissed her off big time. She was about to respond to him and for a second he feared what was coming, but then she seemed to change her mind and took a deep breath, before opening the door to the annex.

He stepped over the threshold and immediately forgot about the uncomfortable moment. The annex was really a one-bedroom apartment with a spacious bedroom and a more-than-comfortable living room. There were two sofas, a big one and a small one, there was a flatscreen TV and a Playstation Four, which she had apparently bought especially for him. He almost told her that he didn’t like to play games, but he bit his tongue just in time and thanked her for it. The living room of the annex had French doors to a small terrace where two chairs and a table were facing the pool. A perfect place to smoke a joint.

Speaking of which, he would love to roll one now, but for that, he needed to be alone, of course. It was as if she read his mind though because right at that moment she said she would leave him for now and give him time to unpack and get settled. They could have dinner at around seven if that was okay with him.

***

It was good to be by himself for a while. He took some photos of the place and sent them to his mates. He showered and put on some clean clothes before rolling his first joint in France. He smoked it on the terrace, which was out of sight from the villa. A moment to quietly celebrate his new life here.

At seven he went over to the main house. Dinner wasn’t ready yet, so while Louise was busy cooking he sat down at the kitchen table and picked up a fashion magazine. Feeling quite high still, he turned the pages. It was, he noticed, a very superficial magazine. He wondered if that said something about her. Her voice woke him up from his reverie. 

‘Instead of just sitting there,’ she said, ‘you could also help me. The plates are in that cupboard, cutlery you’ll find in this drawer.’

Her words and the way she said them activated him immediately. Even to his own surprise, he found himself setting the table in no time. When he was done he glanced at her, expecting a compliment, but she pointed at the bottle of wine on the counter and said, ‘There is an opener in the drawer over there.’

Alex had never opened a bottle of wine before, but felt too embarrassed to admit it, so he decided to just wing it. After he had managed to pull the cork out he poured two glasses, even though he wasn’t too crazy about wine himself. In the meantime, Louise had put a jar of olives and a bowl on the table.

‘You could open that one too and put the olives in the bowl,’ she said.

He picked up the jar, twisted the lid, but discovered that it was shut too tightly. He tried harder, but again failed to open it. He grunted and swore and was about to try a third time when she took the jar from his hands and said, ‘Let me try.’

He chuckled and said, ‘Good luck’, but then he heard a click and the jar opened. She handed it back to him with a smile. He felt super embarrassed and began to stammer. Perhaps he should have got a better grip or perhaps he hadn’t tried hard enough.

‘Oh, give me a break,’ Louise said, ‘why don’t you do more sports and smoke less pot?’

He felt the blood rush to his cheeks. How did she know about him getting high? Had his mom talked about it with her? But his parents didn’t have a clue, did they? He had always been careful about it. Nevertheless, she confronted him with it on the very first day. But had she really confronted him? She didn’t seem to be angry or upset with him. While he was fretting about it she had turned around and put her focus back on the saucepan.

‘Did you think I wouldn’t notice?’ she asked. ‘I saw you were high before you even got into the car at the airport.’

Alex cleared his throat, not knowing what to say. Should he deny it? The manner in which she mentioned it had caught him off-guard, but now he wondered if he should just go along with her and play it cool.

‘Even if that were true,’ he said, ‘would you mind?’

She laughed and said he should go into politics, but then she added, ‘No, I don’t mind. You’re eighteen and I’m not your mom. I know smoking pot is not as big of a deal as many people make it. I do hope it won’t interfere with your work here.’

She turned around now and looked at him in earnest.

‘Can we agree on that?’

Alex nodded, calm on the surface, but inside astonished that he was having this conversation. Although he had been caught off balance a few times today, this adventure looked more and more promising. Now he could even smoke pot in the evening without having to worry about getting caught. Wait till he could tell his friends about it!

Ten minutes later, while they were having dinner, Louise asked him what he liked about getting high, again in a tone that was not at all accusatory. He tried to explain it as well as he could, but he was clearly not used to having this type of conversation with an adult, so he wasn’t sure if he was making himself clear.

‘Let me get this straight,’ Louise said, ‘smoking hash makes you understand life?’

She looked amused and he blushed as he tried to explain it better.

‘Hmm, certain insights?’ Louise asked. ‘Like what?’

‘You look at things differently, with more awareness. It also makes me laugh a lot.’

‘Well, that sounds kind of good,’ she said. ‘Perhaps I should also give it a try someday.’

They left it at that and talked about other things then. Life in England, life here, the weather, her jobs, his friends and so on.

When he went back to his apartment it was almost midnight. He felt he had gotten to know his former neighbor a lot better in the past few hours. Before going to sleep he texted Dave and told him she was pretty cool. He didn’t tell him he had wondered about her legs, too, every time she had crossed them, about how the tight jeans had hinted at the shape of her long and full thighs. No, that thought he pushed away as far as he could. He was here, she was cool and that was that.

TO BE CONTINUED...