But Audrey acts like she didn’t hear me. “Is your ninety-year-old aunt texting you late at night?”
“Tell us everything,” Lucy adds, hooking her arm over my shoulder.
“I don’t think Fernando likes girls,” I mumble, trying to change the topic.
Lucy will not let me get away with it. “Tell us, Mia! Did you meet a cute French guy?”
“Oh!” Anouk says like she just figured out something important. “Is that why you looked so chic yesterday afternoon?”
“And why you didn’t come home last Sunday?” Audrey adds.
The girls surround me now. There’s no escaping. “Ireallywent to visit my great-great-aunt, and I stayed over—”
“But you didn’t pack a bag,” Lucy cuts in.
“I missed the last train. I told you all that.”
“And no one believed you,” Audrey answers.
The other two just laugh. Clearly, it’s true. I’m starting to wonder if they even bought my excuse yesterday, or if they’ve been suspecting me all along.
“Come on, Mia, what’s his name?” Lucy asks.
This is such an unfair fight, three against one.
“Paul,” Audrey says, her lips pursed and her accent perfect.
“Martin!” Anouk says.
Lucy pouts, giving the question some serious thought. “It’s got to be a classic French name. Mia did not come to Paris to fall for an American. Pierre?”
I shake my head. “You’re all completely wrong.”
“Pierrrrrre,” Anouk says in an exaggerated French accent.
“Paul, je t’aime,”Lucy adds in a raspy voice.
Audrey turns to me, more serious than the other two. “Come on, it’s not fun to keep secrets.”
The boat passes by the Musée d’Orsay, but I’m the only one who looks up at its giant clocks and curved windows. No one will care about the view until I’ve dished.
“I—I…,” I start, but I can’t say anything. The minute I lie about Louis, my cheeks will for sure turn fire-engine red. But if I admit that there is, indeed, averycute French guy, Audrey will give me hell for thinking about anything other than Odile. And if they ever discover who it is…I love Lucy, but I don’t think she can keep this to herself. By lunchtime tomorrow, everyone at school will think that I only got a lead role because of Louis. I can’t let that happen.
“You have that glow,” Lucy says, pointing at my cheeks.
“The glow of luvvvv,” Anouk adds.
Just as I’m racking my brain to change the topic, Audrey raises an eyebrow as she looks behind me.
“Crap!” she says. “Did you know they were going to be here?” she asks Lucy and Anouk.
I turn around to see who she means, and my mouth drops open. Max, Émilie, Sasha—our student teachers—are standing on the other side of the boat.
Louis is with them.
“What if Monsieur Dabrowski finds out about this?” Audrey asks, her voice shaking a little.
For once I agree with her.
