Twice Upon a Time Read Free Page B

– including Allegra – of hundreds of thousands of dollars. And her last husband, a South African guy who was, admittedly, fun, turned out to be a gay man who was more interested in citizenship than Allegra.
    ‘I told you he was a mo,’ Jonas had said when Cinda had revealed the truth to him.
    ‘I know, I know,’ Cinda had groaned, but Allegra had been smitten with his colourful friends and knowledge of music, theatre and opera.
    Having had enough, Cinda had insisted on setting up an online dating profile for her mother before she left.
    ‘You need a decent guy, Mum. Not some douche who just wants whatever he can get from you.’
    Her mother had argued about it, but when Cinda found her uploading a different profile picture from the one Cinda had chosen, she knew her mum wasn’t as opposed to the whole thing as she made out.
    ‘No-one more than five years younger than you, and they have to be employed,’ Cinda had said sternly, adjusting the settings of her mum’s profile accordingly.
    ‘And no Aries,’ her mum had added. ‘They’re all stronzos .’
    Cinda knew that Allegra was secretly enjoying the attention she was getting from her online profile, even though she found fault with all the virtual suitors.
    ‘This one doesn’t have a chin,’ her mother had said, pointing to a winemaker who looked perfectly pleasant to Cinda.
    ‘Mum, you haven’t had any standards until now, and suddenly you’re an expert on chins?’ Cinda had snarked.
    Cinda’s thoughts of home were interrupted by the sounds of a motorboat and then someone hailing them from a little way out to sea. She looked down to see Ludo in a slick speedboat.
    ‘ Ciao , Cinda,’ he called with a wave and a smile, and she could have died from an overdose of lust and glamour right then and there. Ludo, standing confidently at the helm of the speedboat, was wearing a dark shirt that clung perfectly to his torso, and casual but clearly fabulous jeans. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen a guy looking better. Why don’t all guys look like that in jeans and a shirt? she wondered. She made a mental note to ask Jonas later.
    ‘Well, hello sailor,’ muttered Jonas in Cinda’s ear, and she grabbed his hand.
    ‘Ludo, this is Jonas Cooper,’ she said, trying not to laugh at Jonas’s expression, which was a mix of lust, admiration and disbelief – no doubt a mirror of her own expression.
    ‘ Ciao ,’ said Ludo. He gestured at them. ‘Come on down.’
    ‘I’ll go down on anything he asks,’ Jonas muttered, and Cinda burst out laughing as she climbed down the steps and took Ludo’s outstretched hand and leapt onto the boat.
    Jonas did the same and then turned and shook Ludo’s hand in a very exaggerated macho way, which Cinda knew was his modus operandi when captivated by a guy.
    ‘You ready to party?’ Ludo asked them, flashing the smile that Cinda was beginning to find addictive. He revved the engine.
    ‘Hell yeah,’ said Cinda, laughing, and she felt excited in a way she hadn’t felt before, as though something amazing was out on the horizon and only Ludo knew the way there.
    ‘Which one is yours?’ asked Jonas, looking ahead as Ludo pulled out from the pier.
    ‘The last one on the right,’ called Ludo over the noise of the engine. ‘Where we party till morning.’ He raised one arm above his head and Cinda and Jonas laughed.
    ‘Your Peter Pan is divine, little Wendy,’ whispered Jonas.
    Cinda giggled as the engine roared underneath them and Ludo expertly navigated the water. Soon they were roaring past the other boats, most of which were decorated with fairy lights.
    She had never met anyone quite like Ludo. It wasn’t just the clothes and the accent and the speedboat. It was his elegance, the sort of elegance she’d never encountered before. She had painted a few artists’ models that had a sprinkling of this quality. The way they held themselves, the way they moved about. But Ludo oozed elegance and charm through every