mornings I wake him up for school.
Meredith and I take turns. If we don’t pound on his door, he won’t show up at all.
The pâtisserie door opens and a chil y wind whips through the shop. The chandelier sways like gelatin. “I feel so helpless,” I say. “I wish there was something I could do.”
Mer shivers and rubs her arms. Her rings are made of fine glass today.They look like spun sugar. “I know. Me too. And I stil can’t believe his dad isn’t letting him visit her for Thanksgiving.”
“He’s not?” I’m shocked. “When did this happen?” And why did Mer know about it and not me?
“Since his dad heard about his dropping grades. Josh told me the head cal ed his father—because she was concerned about him—and instead of
letting him go home, he said St. Clair couldn’t fly out there until he started ‘acting responsibly’ again.”
“But there’s no way he’l be able to focus on anything until he sees her! And she needs him there; she needs his support. They should be together!”
“This is so typical of his dad to use a situation like this against him.”
Gnawing curiosity gets the best of me again. “Have you ever met him? His father?” I know he lives near SOAP, but I’ve never seen him. And St. Clair
certainly doesn’t own a framed portrait.
“Yeah,” she says cautiously. “I have.”
“And?”
“He was . . . nice.”
“NICE? How can he be nice? The man is a monster!”
“I know, I know, but he has these . . . impeccable manners in person. Smiles a lot. Very handsome.” She changes the subject suddenly. “Do you think
Josh is a bad influence on St. Clair?”
“Josh? No. I mean, maybe. I don’t know. No.” I shake my head, and the line inches forward.We’re almost in viewing range of the display case. I see a
hint of golden apple tarte tatins. The edge of a glossy chocolate-and-raspberry gâteau.
At first everything seemed too sophisticated for my tastes, but three months into this, and I understand why the French are famous for their cuisine.
Meals here are savored. Restaurant dinners are measured in hours, not minutes. It’s so different from America. Parisians swing by the markets every day
for the ripest fruit and vegetables, and they frequent specialty shops for cheese, fish, meat, poultry, and wine. And cake.
I like the cake shops the best.
“It just seems like Josh is tell ing him it’s okay to stop caring,” Mer presses. “I feel like I’m always the bad guy. ‘Get up. Go to school. Do your homework.’
You know? While Josh is like, ‘Screw it, man. Just leave.’ ”
“Yeah, but I don’t think he’s tell ing St. Clair not to care. He just knows St. Clair can’t deal with things right now.” But I squirm a bit. I do wish Josh would be supportive in a more encouraging way.
She opens her mouth to argue when I interrupt. “How’s soccer?”
“Footbal ,” she says, and her face lights up. Meredith joined a local girls’ league last month, and she practices most afternoons. She updates me on her
latest adventures in soccer dril s until we reach the front case. It shimmers with neat rows of square-shaped tarte citrons, spongy cakes swel ing with molten chocolate, caramel éclairs like bal et slippers, and red fruity cakes with wild strawberries dusted in powdery sugar.
And more macarons.
Bin after bin of macarons in every flavor and color imaginable. Grass greens and pinky reds and sunshine yel ows. While Mer debates over cakes, I select six.
Rose. Black currant. Orange. Fig. Pistachio. Violet.
And then I notice cinnamon and hazelnut praline, and I just want to die right there. Crawl over the counter and crunch my fingers through their delicate
crusts and lick out the fragrant fil ings until I can no longer breathe. I am so distracted it takes a moment to realize the man behind me is speaking to me.
“Huh?” I turn to see a dignified gentleman with a basset hound. He’s smiling at me and pointing at my striped box. The man looks familiar. I swear I’ve
seen him before. He talks in friendly, rapid French.
“Uhh.” I gesture around feebly and shrug my shoulders. “Je ne parle pas ...”
I don’t speak . . .
He slows down, but I’m stil clueless. “Mer? Help? Mer?”
She comes to the rescue.They chat for a minute, and his eyes are shining until she says something that makes him gasp. “Ce n’est pas possible!” I don’t need to speak the language to recognize an “Oh, no!” when I hear it. He considers me sadly, and then they say goodbye. I add in my own shaky
farewel . Mer and I pay for our treats—she’s selected un millefeuille, a puff pastry with custard—and she steers me from the shop.
“Who was that? What did he want? What were you talking about?”
“You don’t recognize him?” She’s surprised. “It’s the man who runs that theater on rue des Écoles, the little one with the red-and-white lights. He walks Pouce in front of our dorm all the time.”
We pick our way through a flock of pigeons, who don’t care we’re about to step on them. They rumble with coos and beat their wings and jostle the air.
“Pouce?”
“The basset hound.”
A lightbulb goes off. Of course I’ve seen them around. “But what did he want?”
“He was wondering why he hasn’t seen your boyfriend in a while. St. Clair,” she adds, at my confused expression. Her voice is bitter. “I guess you guys