“I’m sure she would.” Grace stood up. “I work in the mornings, so have a lie-in and I’ll come over at lunchtime and pick you up.”
Mimi reached out and grabbed her hand. “Spend some time with David.”
“I can’t promise to do that.” She couldn’t believe her grandmother seemed to be taking David’s side in this. Did she really think there was hope their relationship could be fixed?
He’d had an affair, for goodness sake. And maybe it was over, but that didn’t change the fact that it had happened. That he’d thrown out what they had like a disposable napkin.
Was she expected to forget that?
What exactly could you forgive in a marriage?
Audrey
Audrey hammered on the door of Grace’s apartment. They had an hour until they had to open up the bookstore. Once they started work Grace insisted on speaking French, and there was no way Audrey could tell Grace everything she wanted to tell her in French. She wasn’t even sure she’d get it right in English. “Hey, Grace? You there? I bought breakfast. Petit dejeuner.”
Grace opened the door, clutching the neck of her robe.
Audrey grinned. “Ça va? Vous allez bien? Look at me. I’m virtually fluent.” She was so excited to show off all the phrases Etienne had taught her the night before it took her a minute to realize that Grace didn’t seem like herself.
Her hair was messy and she looked exhausted.
Audrey froze. She’d once walked in on her mother having sex and the memory hadn’t left her. “Have you got company? I should have thought—”
“I don’t have company.” Grace opened the door wider. “I didn’t have a great night so I’m running late this morning. Make some coffee and I’ll take a quick shower.”
Audrey tried to figure out what was wrong. “I went to the bakery.” She waggled the bag she was carrying. “And not only did I ask for everything in French, I was actually given what I asked for. Result! Not like last week when I asked for bread and ended up with some totally weird cheesy thing. Are you impressed?”
“I’m impressed.” Grace gave a wan smile, and Audrey narrowed her eyes.
“Okay. Enough. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
Audrey put the bag down on the table. “I know that’s not true.”
“I’m fine. Why don’t you get some plates and as soon as I’m out of the shower we can eat? It’s a gorgeous day. We’ll have breakfast on the balcony.”
“Woah, wait a minute.” Audrey caught Grace by the arm. “We don’t do that, do we?”
“We don’t do what?”
“We don’t say ‘I’m fine’ when we’re not fine. Not to each other. We have a proper friendship. The sort where you don’t have to say you’re fine when you’re not. When I arrived in Paris I was so stressed. Sometimes I feel like I’ve been stressed for my whole life, but sharing stuff has made that feeling go away. Now if I feel myself panicking about something I just think I can talk to Grace, and it calms me down. Do you have any idea how that feels? I don’t want that to stop, but it has to work both ways or I’ll just end up being this annoying person who loads you with problems. What’s up, Grace? And don’t say nothing again or you’ll offend me.” She saw Grace’s eyes glisten.
“That’s a lovely thing to say.”
“Well, it’s all true. So tell me.”
Grace sniffed. “It’s complicated.”
“Complicated is my specialist subject.” Audrey propelled Grace onto the balcony. “Sit. The shower can wait, but I know you can’t function without coffee, so I’ll make the coffee and you can tell me what happened.”
“I can’t sit on t
he balcony in my nightdress. Someone might see me.”
“Who cares? Live a little, Grace.”
Grace hesitated and then sat. Audrey had a feeling she was too tired to protest.