The Perfume Garden by Kate Lord Brown

Author:Kate Lord Brown [Brown, Kate Lord]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857896759
Publisher: Corvus

32

VALENCIA, JANUARY 2002

Luca browsed through the shelves of CDs in FNAC. The store was busy, full of weekend crowds and teenagers flirting, listening to music on the headphones at the end of each aisle. Beyond the pulse of the dance tune blasting from the speakers, he heard Emma’s voice.

‘He doesn’t still live with his mother ...’ He heard her laugh. Luca poked his head around the corner, saw Emma rifling through the jazz section, her phone crooked against her shoulder. ‘Anyway, it seems the apron strings are wide-ranging here, more like extension leads ... I think it’s great, having family around.’

Luca smiled. He heard her voice fading away, so he followed at a distance, careful she didn’t spot him. ‘Freya, he is not a mummy’s boy. I know you said every single Spaniard thinks he is a little god from birth.’ He leant against the pillar and folded his arms, an amused smile playing on his lips. Emma picked up a CD and read the back. She was wearing a black swing coat and flat boots, her tan leather bag slung over one shoulder. Her hair was knotted at the nape of her neck, pierced with a red lacquered wooden stick. Luca imagined sliding it out, running his hands through the waves of her glossy dark hair.

‘I know, I know. It’s the last thing I need right now.’ Luca saw her put the CD back. ‘I don’t want a relationship. Anyway, he’s not interested in me. Not in the least. I mean, look at me. Who’d want to get involved with all this? I just ...’He heard her sigh. ‘I like him. He makes me feel ...’ He saw her rub the side of her head. ‘I don’t know. It’s been a long time.’ Emma shifted her bag. ‘There’s still no news about Joe?’ She paused. ‘I still can’t believe there’s no trace of him at all.’ Luca’s face fell at the mention of 9/11. He sensed the rawness of her grief. ‘Keep me posted if you hear anything, anything at all.’

When he was a child, Luca believed absolutely that the world was just an illusion, a magic trick, that it could disappear. This half-digested philosophy settled in him like unripe plums, and even now at times of stress, a part of him would like to believe that if he closed his eyes really tightly for long enough the world and all its troubles would vanish. In bed, alone at night, when the horrors on the late news, the image of Emma’s smiling face or his own loneliness threatened to overwhelm him, he still closed his eyes tightly. He knew how she felt.

Luca strode towards her. Emma was bending down now in the English books section, searching the bottom shelf. He reached out, slapped her backside gently. She wheeled around, her angry expression dissolving.

‘Sorry, couldn’t resist,’ he said.

‘Well, try!’ She smiled in spite of herself as she kissed his cheek. ‘This is unexpected.’

Luca shrugged. ‘I told you, it is a small place.

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