Chicken Skin – Chapter X

Antoine had asked Christine to replace his secretary who was taking her vacation during the month of August.

For his part, he had decided, to the great disillusion of his wife who was spending the month at the second home of her parents with their son, to only join them at the ends of the weeks.

Issues having pilled up, the current business needing him to be present, he had thought it would be wiser to work during his usual month of vacation, not to risk putting the still fragile balance of his firm in danger.

Up to then, he had been obliged to do almost everything by himself. He had planned to hire a salesperson to help him, but  because of the disappointing results of his firm during the last six months, he had had to postpone the project till September. Consequently, he had no other choice than depriving himself of vacation.

Christine accepted the offer of Antoine at once. She had planned to go to her parents’ in Rouen and to follow them to Le Touquet where they rented a house even summer. However the idea of finding herself alone with Antoine for a whole month exerted over her more seduction than the possibility of a tedious family vacation.

Therefore, she didn’t resist the temptation.

Christine, who was a young woman who owned a romantic soul, and above all, who hadn’t been really scalded in her sentimental life before, delighted herself in imagining that Antoine had actually invented that as a stratagem to spend a month with her.

Nothing was more erroneous. Antoine had a very practical point of view. He was just yielding to the circumstances. He simply wanted the make a situation he didn’t wanted nor chose the more pleasant possible.

He always had enjoyed the month that he was invariably spending, each year, with his parents-in-law. He got on well with his father-in-law. Every day they went sailing on the small sailboat Antoine rented for the summer. As Judith and his mother were seasick as soon as they saw a sail, they never were accompanying them. That far Arthur had been too young to come with them during their long trips on the high seas. Antoine had been thrilled to the thought he would, for the first time that year, now that his son was old enough, take him with him on the sailboat.

Therefore, he was disappointed to be obliged to content himself with spending with them only the weekends on the Côte d’Azur.

He didn’t allow it to be seen, making the best of that bad job. To tell the truth, he wouldn’t be that all at sea since Isabelle had accepted to work with him for the whole month during which he would be alone, without his secretary, his wife, nor his son.

Christine was pleasant, efficient and she was likely to become quite a skillful lover.

Little by little, she was making her own place in his life, without saying nothing nor asking anything. With her, he never felt threatened.

As for him, he was receiving things just as they were coming, without really planning the future, without constructing yet real projects of life where Christine would play a genuine part. The thought of establishing her lastingly in his life sometimes crossed his mind, but he preferred to wait a little longer before talking to her.

In fact, one thing he didn’t tell Christine about was still holding him back: the fact that she had a boyfriend. Indeed he distinctly felt when she talked to him about him that she wouldn’t have been torn for long if he had asked her to choose. Precisely, that was what he didn’t want to do. He preferred that she come to desert Benjamin little by little, without him, Antoine, be clearly hold responsible for it.

Moreover he wasn’t very sure of himself yet.

Nevertheless, he had in mind to make of Christine his scheduled mistress. He was tired of the affairs he contented himself with till then to fill in the unsurmountable failure of his wife.

But he didn’t want, nor could he, share his thought with Christine. Therefore, he had neatly tidied up in someplace of his brain while waiting for the idea to mull over.

Antoine wasn’t the type who weighed himself down with useless thoughts, or still unsolved problems.

By the by, that was without thinking to anything in particular that he got into his firm premisses.

Christine was sitting behind his secretary’s desk in such way as to have the phone, the fax and the computer at hand. Moreover, this place had the incontestable advantage to be just opposite the front door: this way, Christine would see Antoine as soon as he arrived every morning.

After having smiled at her and wished her a good morning, Antoine moved forward and kissed Christine on the mouth.