Chapter 9 #2
A tendril of excitement curled through Mia’s stomach as she stood back and watched Joe order for them.
To her untrained ears it sounded as if he spoke rapid French, so fast and impossible to catch even one word of, but there was something about listening to a man speak in another language that made it sound so romantic.
When he turned back to her and held out both plates, the decadent crepe covered in chocolate had her stomach growling.
‘I have one chocolate and one sugar,’ he said. ‘You choose.’
‘Chocolate,’ she said, her eyes widening as she forgot all about how full she’d felt only a short time earlier. ‘It looks divine.’
They walked a few steps away from the street vendor, and Mia followed Joe’s lead and folded her crepe, taking a bite and groaning in delight. It was heavenly, and somehow she’d had space in her stomach after all.
‘Good?’ he asked, laughing as she nodded and tried to wipe the chocolate from the side of her mouth.
‘So good,’ she replied. ‘Possibly the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my life.’
He just shook his head, and she marvelled again at how much she’d stepped out of her comfort zone by even being in Paris, let alone sharing crepes with a man she didn’t know.
It was as if she’d arrived in France and become an entirely different person; or maybe she’d just found a way to connect with the old her.
Because that girl had been missing for so long, she’d almost forgotten what she felt like.
‘So who told you to look for me?’ Joe asked, as he wiped his hands clean on a napkin. ‘You never did say how you came to find me.’
Mia finished her mouthful, dabbing at the corners of her mouth and hoping she didn’t have chocolate covering her teeth.
‘It’s a funny story, but I was in a bar in London, and the bartender saw the bottle and randomly told me that you were an absinthe aficionado. He said if anyone could help me, it would be you.’ She laughed. ‘And so here I am.’
She finished her crepe, aware that Joe was watching her. When she braved a glance up at him, she found him smiling.
‘And just like that, you took a trip to Paris? On the word of a bartender you’d never met before?’
Mia shrugged. ‘I know it sounds crazy, but it was the only lead I had.’
Joe studied her for a long moment, his eyes on her, as if he was trying to decide an answer to a question.
‘You’re really determined to find out how your family was linked to that little bottle, aren’t you?’
Mia nodded. ‘It’s as if the questions are burning inside me, and I can’t stop until I’ve at least tried to understand my great-aunt’s past.’
He nodded. ‘I get that. My brother was adopted, and when he found out as a teenager, he said it felt like his body was on fire with all the questions he had. We grew up with parents who loved all their kids fiercely, and gave us everything a child could want, but he still needed to know where he came from. He couldn’t not find out more. ’
Mia let go of the breath she hadn’t realised she was holding. What were the chances that the one man who might be able to help her had such a connection to adoption and searching for family himself?
‘My great-aunt,’ Mia began, feeling for the right words, ‘she ran a house for unmarried mothers, and she found adoptive parents for their babies. She dedicated her entire life to helping women, and I want to understand where she came from.’
He nodded.
‘So does that mean you’ll help me?’ she asked, her voice soft. ‘I know it’s a lot to ask of a stranger, and you have no reason to assist me, but if you’re such an expert on absinthe…’
He gave her a look that she found almost impossible to decipher, before he raised an eyebrow and held out his hand. She stared at him, not sure what he wanted her to do.
‘Come to a party with me tomorrow night, and I’ll help you find out the origins of that bottle,’ he said. ‘There’ll be someone there who might be able to help you even more than I can.’
Her breath hitched, and she immediately panicked that he was asking her out. ‘Ah, I’m not sure.’
‘If I don’t take a date, my sisters and mother will spend the entire night introducing me to women they think I should be interested in, but if I take you…’
She hesitated. Mia’s idea of a good night was a nice dinner and a glass of wine, or an evening at home curled up watching a movie, not being in a room full of strangers.
Ethan had always laughed at her and said she preferred hiding behind her camera, observing life rather than being part of it herself.
Not to mention she wasn’t about to say yes to going on a date with a man she’d just met.
‘It’s just back at the bar,’ Joe said. ‘I promise it’ll be fun.’
‘Your boss is hosting the party?’ she asked.
‘Something like that,’ he said with a shrug. ‘So will you come?’
‘Surely you have your pick of girls to ask without needing a stranger to accompany you?’ Her stomach fluttered and she tried her best to ignore it.
‘There’s no one I want to ask, and with us, it can be a business arrangement. We both get what we want,’ he said, as if it was the most sensible idea in the world, before flashing her a heart-stopping grin. ‘What do you call it in English? A charade?’
She was still hesitant, but she was asking a lot of him, hoping that he’d help. At least this way she might find some answers to her questions. ‘You promise to help me with my search? You’ll really help me to find out where this bottle came from, if I agree?’
Joe inched his hand a little closer to hers. ‘I promise. I’ll also ask around in the morning, find out what I can from some of the older bartenders. There’s every chance I’ll find someone who knows something.’
Mia closed her eyes for a second, but she knew what her answer had to be. She raised her hand and pressed her palm to Joe’s as he lifted an eyebrow.
‘This is just a charade, nothing more,’ she confirmed as she shook his hand.
‘Just a charade,’ he said with a grin. ‘I promise.’
‘Just to warn you, my French is non-existent, so I won’t be much use in a crowd of Parisians.’
Joe just laughed. ‘Even better. You won’t be able to understand my sisters and mother when they try to interrogate you.’
‘Well,’ she said, her breath hitching with nerves, ‘I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night then.’
They faced each other, holding hands until Mia let go and he waved out to a taxi.
‘Until tomorrow night, Mia from London,’ he said, leaning in and kissing her cheek.
She breathed in the citrus scent of his aftershave, her hand against his shoulder for the barest of moments until he stepped away and opened the door for her.
It had been a long time since she’d stood so close to a man, since she’d felt butterflies in her stomach, and even though it wasn’t a real date, she felt another flutter of anticipation as she climbed into the taxi.
A flutter that had nothing to do with finding the answers to her aunt’s mysterious past.