‘Where did you find this?’
‘It belonged to my great-aunt,’ she said, looking between the two men. The older one murmured something in French that she had no hope of understanding, before going back to his work, but Joe held her gaze, making her wonder what on earth she was doing, coming all the way to France and expecting to find an answer to the mystery from a stranger.
He passed it back to her, and she found herself talking to fill the silence.
‘I know it’s a lot to ask, but if you could just point me in the right direction, to someone who might?—’
‘It’s such a busy time of night, I have to get back to work.’
Her hope faded. ‘Oh, no, I’m sorry, I…’
He glanced back at her, and she was flooded with warmth when his eyes met hers.
‘But if you can wait until closing, or come back later, I’ll help you,’ he said, already walking backwards away from her to take an order as the bar filled up. ‘Once we’re not so busy.’
Mia just nodded, her mouth so dry that even a sip of chilled white wine did nothing to help. So that was Joe.Well, I’ll be damned.
She smiled to herself and sipped her drink, before deciding to take a table outside to enjoy the balmy evening.I’m in France. Mia stifled a laugh, shaking her head as she watched young people walk down the street in small groups and an old couple saunter past, hand in hand.After so long hiding from the world, I’m actually in France.
She took a deep breath as she sat back in her chair, her wine glass cradled in her hand.
I did this. I’m living again.
And she was determined not to waste a second. Mia wanted to eat all the food, drink good wine and be open to meeting new people, to remember the woman she’d been before her life had been turned upside down.
Mia found herself glancing back into the bar, then quickly turning away when she caught herself watching Joe serving drinks, and facing back to the street. She took out her phone to use Google Translate, deciding she needed to order something from the menu before the wine went straight to her head. It also gave her something to do other than stealing glances back insideand praying she wouldn’t be as tongue-tied the next time they spoke. Her phone buzzed then and she picked it up, trying not to laugh as she read the message from Georgia.
Is bartender Joe fat and balding or French man cute?
Mia took a sip of wine, resisting the urge to look back at him again before she replied.
He’s French man gorgeous.
Georgia sent her back a line of fire emojis, and Mia turned her phone over and left it on the table just as her steak frites arrived, not knowing what to message back.
But when her phone buzzed for a third time, she reached for it, seeing it was Georgia again.
When in Paris…
Mia laughed. It had been a long time since she’d messaged a friend about a man, and even though she doubted she would see Joe again after tonight, it felt liberating to entertain the idea.
I’m fairly sure it’s Rome, but…
Send me a pic of the bartender. I need evidence that he’s as gorgeous as you say he is.
This time Mia put her phone in her pocket, smiling to herself as she ate her dinner and listened to the couple beside her trying to decide whether to visit the Eiffel Tower next or the Louvre. Texting about him was one thing, but she was not going to get caught snapping a pic of him.
But thinking about taking a photo made a familiar warmth pool in her stomach, and she instinctively reached into her bag for her camera. And then she lifted it out and held it up to her eye, her hand shaking a little as she took a shot of the people walking past as she let herself enjoy the feeling.
Mia smiled to herself as her hand steadied, and she didn’t know if it was the wine or being in Paris, or maybe a combination of both, but she took photograph after photograph, and it was like a little piece of herself that had been lost for so long had finally been put back into place.
‘You’re still here.’
Mia looked up, lost in a little world of her own as she nursed her second glass of wine. It had been a long time since she’d been so comfortable in her own company, but tonight she’d found it easy to sit and watch the world go by without wishing she was somewhere else or that things could have been different.
Joe looked just as good as he had last time she’d stolen a glance at him, and she was fairly sure it wasn’t just because she’d been drinking.
‘I was going to leave and come back, but the food looked too good.’
