One Summer in Paris

“I suppose so.”

Audrey glanced at the clock. “I need to go and open up the bookshop.”

Grace gasped and sprang to her feet. “I had no idea it was so late.”

“Take your time. I’ve got this. I’ll get down there now so that Elodie doesn’t try to fire you. I don’t mind saving your butt again—” Audrey winked at her “—but this is your final warning.” She kept it light, but she didn’t like the way Grace looked. Lost and vulnerable. “Why don’t you forget about him for the rest of the day? Come and sort some dusty books, have a cup of tea with Toni and give yourself a day off from thinking.”

“Philippe asked me to dinner tonight. At his apartment.”

“Great. I’ll do your hair and makeup.”

“It feels wrong all of a sudden.”

“It’s not wrong, Grace. David walked away. You picked up the pieces of your life. Are you supposed to just drop them again because he’s changed his mind?”

“Maybe I should go and see Philippe as planned. You don’t think I’m awful?”

“I think you’re brilliant in every way.” She hugged Grace and was hugged back.

“Thank you. You are a wonderful person and a great friend.”

Audrey felt her throat thicken. Grace was so smart, wise and kind. To be loved by someone like her made her feel like she’d got top grades in everything. And Grace was an inspiration. She’d been badly hurt, but she still didn’t hold anything back. “Hey,” she said as she patted Grace on the back, “what’s all this talking in English? That’s not allowed.”

Grace pulled away. “I didn’t even ask you about Etienne! What happened?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Tell me now. You look happy, so I assume you had a good talk.”

“We did. I told him everything. Turns out his family isn’t all perfect, either.” She didn’t say more because that would have been betraying a confidence. “We went for a long walk along the river and bought a baguette and some cheese. It was cool. Then we went back to his place. But I set three alarms so I wasn’t late this morning.”

“You came here to tell me all about it, and all I’ve done is talk about myself.”

“Yeah, well, the friend who gets priority is the one whose crisis is bigger, right? And yours is bigger. Next time my life falls apart, I’m shoving you right to the bottom of the pile. Now I have to go or Elodie will give me her frowning look.”

Audrey kissed Grace on the cheek, picked up her bag and clomped down the stairs to open up the bookshop.

Although she was worried about Grace, Audrey was also relieved that David obviously hadn’t found it easy to throw away twenty-five years of marriage. She didn’t know why she kept linking it to her own situation, but she did. It was all about hope. If you could see something existed for someone else, then you could believe it might exist for you.

There was no sign of Elodie, and Grace joined her thirty minutes later, her hair freshly washed and her makeup immaculate. She was wearing a cool linen dress and her arms were bare.

“You look great.” Audrey handed her a glass of iced water. “Much too good to mess around with dusty books.”

“We’ve made good progress. Let’s go and see what needs to be done today.”

They walked into the back room. The number of boxes piled high was slowly reducing.

Grace picked up a book and gasped. “Oh!”

“What?”

“When I was sorting through the books, I found a

photograph of my grandmother. I intended to show Mimi, but I totally forgot all about it when I was there yesterday. It’s still in my bag.”

“You found a photo of her in a book?”

“Yes.”