Honeymoon in Paris: A Novella by Jojo Moyes

Author:Jojo Moyes
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9781405910842
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2012-08-15T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

2012

When he calls, she is on the bridge. She cannot say how long she has sat there. Its wire sides are almost obscured with padlocks on which people have inscribed their initials, and all along it tourists stoop, reading the initials on the little pieces of metal, scrawled in permanent pen or engraved by those with forethought. Some take pictures of each other, pointing to the padlocks they think are particularly beautiful, or have just placed there themselves.

She remembers David telling her about this place before they came here, about how lovers would secure the padlocks and throw the keys into the Seine as a mark of their enduring love, and of how when the padlocks were painstakingly removed by the city authorities they simply reappeared within days, engraved with everlasting love, the initials of lovers who, two years on, might still be together or might by now have moved to different continents rather than breathe the same air. He had told her how the riverbed under the bridge had to be dredged regularly, harvesting the rusting mass of keys.

Now she sits on the bench, trying not to look at them too closely, beyond the simple spectacle of them, their shimmering surfaces. She does not want to think about what they mean.

‘Meet me at the Pont des Arts,’ she had said to him. Nothing more.

Perhaps there was something in her voice.

‘I’ll be twenty minutes,’ he’d said.

She sees him coming from the Musée du Louvre, his blue shirt becoming more vivid as he gets closer. He is wearing khaki-coloured trousers and she thinks, with a pang, how much she loves the sight of him. How familiar his shape is to her, even after such a short time. She looks at his soft, ruffled hair, and the planes of his face, and the way his walk always has a touch of impatience, as if he’s keen to get to the next thing. And then she sees that over his shoulder he has the leather bag in which he carries his plans.

What have I done?

He doesn’t smile as he approaches, even though it’s clear he has seen her. He walks up to her, slowing his pace, then drops his bag and sits down beside her.

They are silent for some minutes, watching the tourist boats glide past.

And finally Liv says, ‘I can’t do this.’

She looks down the route of the Seine, squinting at the people who, even now, are stooping to examine the padlocks.

‘I think we’ve made the most awful mistake. I’ve made a mistake.’

‘A mistake?’

‘I know I’m impulsive. I see now we should have slowed things down. We should have … got to know each other a little better. So I’ve been thinking. It’s not like we had a big wedding, or anything. It’s not like all our friends even know. We can just … . We can just pretend like it didn’t happen. We’re both young.’

‘What are you talking about, Liv?’

She looks at him. ‘David – it all became clear as you walked towards me.

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