‘Two genepis please,’ Adam says to the waitress as she clears our plates. I know I should be annoyed about Adam ordering for me without even asking, but what I’d usually see as arrogance, right now I see as admirable confidence.

‘What’s genepi?’ I ask.

He turns back to me. ‘It’s a mountain liqueur. You’ll like it, trust me. Don’t let the colour put you off. Anyway, enough about me. What about you and Will? Is he your “the one”?’

I blush. ‘I can’t tell you that. You’re his brother.’

He leans in conspiratorially. ‘I won’t tell, I promise.’

I laugh. ‘You might.’

He leans in further and looks directly into my eyes. ‘Trust me,’ he says. His pupils are large and black. I feel a stab of something I shouldn’t and lean back, feeling guilty. The waitress returns with our drinks and we sip from the elaborately decorated shot glasses in silence. Adam is still looking intently at me.

‘It’s good, huh?’ he asks.

I nod as the alcohol burns my throat. It’s a weird pale green colour, tastes very strong but it’s sugary too. I take another sip, which makes me cough. ‘Yeah. It’s good. I’m definitely not going to be able to ski after all this though.’

‘No matter – take a look out the window,’ he says, pointing behind me. I turn to look and notice for the first time that while we have been having lunch, the weather has totally changed. It’s snowing hard and a big cloud has come down.

‘Wow, that’s quite a difference,’ I say.

‘Yeah,’ he agrees, taking another sip. ‘You wouldn’t want to ski in that. Might as well stay here and get drunk. Or we could go back and use that sauna in the chalet.’

I drink some more of the green liquid which is making my lips tingle pleasantly. ‘OK,’ I say, unsure of exactly what I’m agreeing to but too fuzzy-headed to care.

Adam leans in again. ‘So, you were telling me about Will.’

I smile. ‘No, I wasn’t. You were trying to get me to tell you about Will. It’s not the same thing at all.’ I dangle the small shot glass from my fingertips and let it swing.

‘You seemed pretty cross with him yesterday at dinner.’

I put the glass down. I didn’t think anyone would have noticed. Am I that obvious? Apart from anything else, I didn’t think anyone at the table was paying me any attention. ‘Yeah. Well, I was annoyed about how the skiing had gone; I hadn’t had a good day. But it wasn’t Will’s fault, and today’s been much better. I’m not cross with him at all now.’

‘Shame he couldn’t make it for lunch though,’ Adam says, and leans back again.