He folded me into a long hug. “Thank you for coming back.”
—
“Mademoiselle Tosh.”
I turned my head groggily toward Madame Dupuy’s voice. “Mmm?”
“It is time to get up. You are going with me to do shopping in fifteen minutes.”
I felt around for my phone and squinted at it. I’d slept nine hours, but it felt like fifteen minutes. I struggled out of the sheets that had twined themselves around me, cleaned up, and joined her in the hall by the door. She pointed to the rolling caddie she used for groceries, and I took the handle.
“Thank you for everything you did for us last night,” I said as we waited for the elevator.
She made the “pff” sound that meant,It was nothing.
I sighed. “I’ll miss you so much. I’ll miss everything about Paris.” The elevator dinged and opened its doors to reveal Nick and Sophie.
“Tosh!” Sophie exclaimed. I froze. If it had just been Nick and me, I’d have turned around and taken the stairs. But Madame Dupuy put her hand on my back and gently propelled me into the elevator. I bent down to do kiss-kiss-kiss with Sophie and then stole a peek at Nick, but he was staring at the button panel like it held the secrets of the universe. Sophie greeted Madame Dupuy, who returned her greeting and then wished Nick good day. The warm, rich sound of his “Bonjour, Madame Dupuy” was so comforting and at the same time so distant that Sophie had to repeat what she’d just asked me while I blinked back tears. “Where have you been? Have you been sick all this time? Did Nick give you the porte-clés I bought for you with my own money?” He’d left the Astérix keychain outside my door the night before I’d tried to kill someone in front of him. Just a handful of days ago, but it seemed like decades.
“Yes, he did.” I pulled my keys out and showed her the little Astérix figure dangling from the ring. “Thank you so much; it’s just perfect.”
“I kept asking him if you’d gotten it, but he just got sad and wouldn’t talk to me. Did you break up?”
“I—” I looked at Nick, who was not looking at me so hard he was generating a heat aura. “I guess we did. I did something bad, and then I ran away. I hurt Nick a lot.” My voice shook. “Even though I didn’t mean to.”
She put her hands on her hips. “Well, are you sorry that you hurt him?”
“So very sorry.”
“Tell him.” She pointed to her brother, who’d flattened himself against the elevator wall, as far away from me as he could get in the small space. He looked miserable.
I tried to catch his eye, but he wouldn’t look at me, so I apologized to his ear. “Nick, I put you in a terrible position and I regret it so much. I know I really hurt you. I hope you’ll forgive me.” He didn’t say anything.
“Nick,” Sophie said loudly. “She said she’s sorry. Now you have to forgive her.” He remained silent. “Nick—”
“It’s okay,” I interrupted. “He doesn’t have to do it right now.”
“Yes, he does, because if he doesn’t, I’ll never see you again.”
My heart cracked. “Oh, Soph, that would make me so sad. But sometimes when you hurt people really badly, it takes time for them to recover.”
“Are you still friends with me?”
I crouched down and took her hand. “I will always be friends with you. You helped me when I was sad and alone my first day in Paris. In fact, you were my first friend in Paris.” Nick glanced at me for a moment, his face soft, like he was remembering our first meeting, too, when he and Sophie had helped me with the building codes. I smiled at him, but he’d already looked away.
“I will always be your friend, too.” She was silent for a few moments. “Do you want to have a playdate? Just us, without Nick? Like, tomorrow, if my mom says it’s okay?”
Yes, I wanted to say. I wanted to play Barbies or ride scooters or dress up like pirates and princesses with her. But Ishook my head. “I’m so sorry; I can’t. Dad is moving us back to Portland, and I have to start packing.”
“But you just got here.”
“I know, and I really want to stay here. Paris feels like home now. But Dad says we have to go back.”
Sophie threw her arms around me with such force that I knew I’d stay hugged for a long, long time. “You can stay here. You can live with us.”
I held on to her. “Oh, Sophie. I would love that more than anything, but I can’t. My dad would worry too much about me if I stayed.”
“Tell him to stay here.”
