The Music Game by Stéfanie Clermont

Author:Stéfanie Clermont
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Biblioasis
Published: 2022-01-18T19:10:11+00:00

A PUPPY’S CRY

I thought I heard the cry of a puppy whose tail had just been crushed by the boot of a man, who, walking single-mindedly toward the object of his anger, didn’t see that the puppy was there (and didn’t flinch when he heard it cry).

A NEST, A KNOT

A ridiculous job was what had brought them together. A sandwich shop. Cassandra got hired in April. Raphaël had been working there for six months. They appreciated one another’s twisted humour, tattoos, and music snobbery.

The sandwich shop was called All Dressed. On the restaurant’s sign, a woman was eating a big sandwich with one hand and taking off her shirt with the other. “It’s a pun!” the boss explained.

“I would hate this place no matter what,” Cassandra mutters in Raphaël’s ear while the cheese is melting on a Philly cheesesteak she is making for a customer. “But that sign!”

“It’s obscene,” Raphaël agrees, admiring the pretty curls on Cassandra’s neck.

“At least the music is good!” A Bruno Mars song is playing on the radio.

Raphaël laughs out loud and puts one plastic-gloved finger on the tattoo of a skull, Gothic letters, and bleeding roses that covers part of Cassandra’s shoulder. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“I pay you to make sandwiches, not stand around flirting,” the boss grumbles.

“I’m going to kill him,” Raphaël says.

“I’ll help you,” Cassandra says.

They steal bread, sausages, litres of milk, money. He comes by her place to give her some of the booty.

“See you tomorrow,” he says.

“No, no work tomorrow. I’m going to set fire to All Dressed tonight.”

“Don’t tell me that! But know that if someone was going to set fire to it, they’d have my blessing.”

He looks her in the eyes for a second too long, then offers her his hand for a high-five. She takes his hand and grips it for a second. He laughs, revealing large white teeth, and shakes his head. He throws her a look that means, “What are you doing? What’s happening? Are you feeling what I’m feeling?”

He pulls up the hood of his black hoodie, goes down the spiral staircase, and gets back on his bike, his now half-empty backpack on his shoulder. He disappears.

Cassandra stays rooted to the spot on the balcony and watches him roll away. She feels dizzy. Darsha, her roommate and best friend, comes out.

“Who was that?”

Cassandra jumps. “I didn’t hear you!”

Darsha raises an eyebrow.

“That was Raphaël. He’s just a guy who works at All Dressed.”

Darsha crosses her arms over her chest, which is covered with strings of fake pearls. “Just a guy who works at All Dressed, eh?”

She folds her hands under her chin, lifts her eyes skywards, and sighs amorously. Cassandra gives her a jokey punch and escapes into the apartment.

A few weeks later, spring settles in for good. Cassandra and Raphaël wait for each other at the end of their shifts. They walk around together and tell each other their life stories. They like the same things, they hate the same things. They compliment each other and make confessions.

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