The Year That Changed Us by Helen Rolfe

Author:Helen Rolfe [Rolfe, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2024-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

17

THEN: 2005

Emma

It was early December in Paris. The temperature had cooled and the colours of autumn had faded as the nights grew darker day by day.

Since Emma first met Gabriel, she’d barely come up for air. Initially, she’d questioned whether the encounter in the supermarket had been too good to be true. Would she get to the street he’d given her directions to and find no café? Would there be no job at all and just a man who wanted to lure a young woman out of her comfort zone? But the first day she’d gone to the café dressed in a simple, plain shirt with jeans and seen him leaning against the wall out front with its red awning above, he’d looked up when she appeared and his expression said it all. He’d been waiting as much for this moment as she had. The café was very real and so was he.

So was the job. She was interviewed officially by his sister Delphine, for which Gabriel apologised, but Emma hadn’t thought it was a bad thing. At least she felt she was earning the position rather than being handed it by a man who’d been attracted to her one night in a supermarket. She’d got straight to work that day; her feet barely touched the ground and she was exhausted by the end of it.

Apart from learning the job and a bit more of the language, nothing much had changed since Emma started at the café apart from it was increasingly difficult not to look at Gabriel and reach out to touch him when he was in such close proximity. But they managed it somehow, giving each other surreptitious glances, careful not to upset Delphine, who was strict with staff. Emma was a tiny bit scared of the sister of this gentle, kind and incredibly attractive man, but she made it to the end of every day and was even beginning to get the odd bit of praise from Delphine at what an asset she was.

‘You can relax now.’ It was an hour after the café closed for the night. Delphine headed off home and Gabriel said he’d walk Emma back to her place. ‘My working day is much better with you there,’ he told her and then repeated the phrase in French, whispering it in her ear. The melodic tone had her wondering whether her tired legs would give way at any moment.

She slipped her fingers between his, bringing their bodies even closer. ‘Your sister is tough to impress.’

‘Delphine is strict but as long as you work hard, she won’t complain.’

Gabriel was younger than Delphine by ten years and with their parents having nothing to do with the business – they lived some distance away – Emma supposed Delphine saw herself as in charge.

She smiled up at him, his face illuminated in the streetlamp that cast its glow across the cobbles. It wasn’t far to the new apartment she and Lise had rented but they walked slowly, Paris as much awake in the late evening as it was in the day.

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