private and beautiful and we’re going to have sex there.’
Cat’s breathing is fast, she is moving herself against his hand, finding his fingers inside her, his thumb pressing lightly at her clitoris. She is feeling his cock. They are staring hard at each other, dipping faces close to tongue and bite, pulling away to breathe and gasp. Ben takes his hand away when he feels Cat’s sex start to quiver.
‘Don’t go – oh God, Ben!’
He sucks on his fingers as he watches and listens to her coming, her hand between her legs, her body bucking gently.
‘Tonight,’ he tells her, despite the post-orgasmic vision of her all languid and soft making him harder still. ‘Go now. I’ll find you.’
I can’t wait for tonight, Ben decides once Cat has left. Literally, I can’t wait. His erection has hardly subsided. He returns to the bed. Cat’s intoxicating scent lingers on the pillow. Ben breathes deeply and wanks to an explosive, vociferous reward.
‘What a day!’ Josh exclaimed, distributing bottles of Seize in an intimate bar near the Auberge, refreshingly if anomalously devoid of Tour personnel.
‘What a day!’ Rachel echoed, taking a hearty swig, closing her eyes and leaning back in her chair.
‘One fuck of a day!’ Alex said, raising his bottle and drinking most of it down in one.
And it isn’t over yet! Cat thought to herself whilst nodding in agreement with the others. They relived the Time Trials of the key players and asked Rachel how the Zucca boys had reacted. She was discreet and, when Vasily’s ride came under analysis, gave away even less. Cat observed her friend and thought she seemed quiet. She didn’t look tired, but preoccupied, distant – a little down, perhaps. Cat followed when Rachel went to the toilet.
‘Hey, Rachel,’ Cat said when she emerged from the cubicle to find Rachel staring at a streaming tap. Rachel regarded Cat, and then the water, and then the floor and then her friend again.
‘Are you all right?’ Cat prompted gently, busying herself by washing her hands and then drying them meticulously, not wanting to pressurize Rachel.
‘No yes no yes – fuck knows!’ Rachel declared almost miserably.
‘Do you want to talk?’ Cat asked. ‘Anything I can help you with?’
‘No yes – ditto ditto,’ Rachel smiled forlornly, ‘fuck knows.’
The women’s toilet was almost as large as the bar, airy, clean and really quite conducive to female revelations. There was a bentwood chair and a deep window-sill. Rachel chose the former and Cat happily settled herself into the latter.
‘Vasily,’ Rachel said quietly.
‘Well,’ Cat said supportively, ‘for what it’s worth, I think he’ll still do it. Fabian isn’t as strong in the mountains – but he won’t want to let go of the yellow jersey so he might well be spent by the last Time Trial.’
‘No,’ Rachel said, looking up at Cat, ‘I mean, Vasily.’
‘I know,’ said Cat eagerly, missing the point that Rachel wasn’t making very well. Cat slithered down off the window-sill and shuffled alongside Rachel on the chair. Rachel was about to speak when Cat’s mobile phone intruded.
It’s Ben!
‘Hullo?’ she said.
‘Where are you?’ Ben said. ‘You can talk, you can’t talk? Are you near the hotel?’
‘Yes,’ Cat responded, thinking she ought to dampen her elated grin.
‘Are you more or less than a five-minute walk away?’
‘Yes,’ Cat said again.
‘Yes, more?’
‘No.’
‘Ah! Less. Good. Meet me round the back of your hotel in five minutes.’
Ben hung up. Cat turned to Rachel. What had Rachel been saying? Something about Vasily. Poor sod who missed the maillot jaune by so little. He must have dumped the burden of it all on his soigneur, poor girl. Cat tipped her head and smiled at Rachel. She held up her mobile phone.
‘I can’t believe it,’ she said, careful not to lie, ‘I’ve been summoned – in context of this afternoon. I’m going to have to go.’
Rachel nodded, hiding her disappointment well. ‘Sure,’ she said to Cat, ‘you have a job to do.’
And this is one of the perks, Cat did not say out loud.
She observed Rachel still looking somewhat discomfited. ‘Rachel,’ she said, ‘can I shadow you tomorrow?’
Rachel looked at Cat. ‘Sure,’ she said, ‘but there’s no feed as it’s a short Stage – how about the day after?’
‘That would be great,’ Cat enthused. ‘I might pop by in the morning as the start isn’t till one-ish.’
‘Sure,’ said Rachel. ‘You’d better go,’ she continued, suddenly wanting to be alone anyway. Cat went. Rachel remained in the toilet a few minutes more. She stared at her reflection.
Saved by the bell – if Cat hadn’t had that call, I’d be deep into revelation by now.
‘Fuck it,’ she said softly, ‘there’s nothing to discuss really anyway. It probably didn’t mean anything to Vasily – he’s more than likely forgotten it already.’
And for you, Rachel? What did it mean? You’ve thought of little else.
‘The clear light of tomorrow, after a night’s sleep, will render whatever it was insignificant.’
But you’re not speaking for yourself, that’s just your conjecture for Vasily.
‘It was just somewhat disconcerting, that’s all.’
Rachel returned to the bar. Alex and Josh had replenished her Seize and were on to their fourth apiece, aided and abetted by a packet of Gauloises with a fair few missing.
‘Are you all right?’ Josh asked, leaving the chair that had been Rachel’s and taking his place back on a stool.
‘Got the shits?’ Alex asked in his inimitable way.
‘I’m fine,’ Rachel said.
‘Where’s Cat?’ Josh asked.
‘Has she got the shits?’ Alex asked.
‘She got a call through,’ Rachel shrugged, ‘she went directly to work.’
‘Oh,’ said Alex.
‘Oh,’ said Josh. Both men wondered how the novice journaliste could possibly have usurped them in the scoops stakes. It was just somewhat disconcerting,
