AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Why, what has she been saying?’ he asked, crouching down. ‘You know, the tiles are made from enamelled lava,’ he said, placing his hand on one.
I bent down to touch it, too, my fingertips centimetres from his.
‘She told me you don’t have long-term relationships. It seems like she’s worried about you.’
He whistled through his teeth. ‘She thinks that everybody must be the same. I have many friends. I have my music. There is nothing a relationship would bring to my life that I don’t already have.’
I looked at him quizzically. ‘Do you really think that?’
‘Yes, otherwise why would I say it?’
‘What about companionship? The joy of falling in love? Sex with somebody you have genuine feelings for?’
‘Come on, Hannah. We all know that disappears over time, non? You can honestly tell me you experience these things, still? With your boyfriend? This joy you talk of, the excitement?’
‘You’re afraid of getting hurt, aren’t you? That’s what it is.’
He groaned. ‘This is what Sylvie told you?’
‘She didn’t,’ I said, not wanting to throw her under the bus. ‘It’s obvious, that’s all.’
‘I am fine as I am, Hannah. If people paid more attention to their own love stories, perhaps they would be less concerned with mine.’
I pressed my lips together, taking another series of shots.
‘Don’t your feelings ever just take over, though?’ I asked him. ‘Don’t you ever find yourself falling for someone, even though it’s the last thing you want?’
‘Yes,’ he said, looking sideways at me. ‘Sometimes.’
I stood up and walked the length of the wall, dusting my fingers across the tiles, which were smooth like glass.
‘Look,’ I said, ‘there are symbols, too. There’s a heart, see?’
‘And a peace sign,’ he said, reaching out to touch it.
I put my camera to my eye and took three or four more close-up shots.
‘Have you always been looking for it, Hannah? This idyllic, romantic love, like we see in the movies, or read about in books?’
I shielded my eyes from the sun to look at him. ‘I think I always knew it wasn’t like that.’
‘See, you are just as cynical as I am after all.’
I laughed. ‘Let’s just say my love life didn’t get off to the best start,’ I said.
‘Come,’ said Léo, picking up his bag and beckoning me out of the gate. ‘Let us take a little walk around Abbesses. You can tell me how it was for you when you were a teenager. Were you very cool, all in black? A goth?’ he asked.
‘Ha! Hardly. Have you seen the film Clueless? My friend Ellie and I would try to recreate that preppy, American high-school look using a terrible array of charity shop items.’
‘I am sure you both looked très agréable.’
‘We did not. Rest assured, boys weren’t exactly breaking down the door to ask me out.’
Léo smiled. ‘Hannah. You are too hard on yourself.’
I told him about the moment Gus Davidson from my class had asked me out to the cinema, and about how my first thought had been: who had put him up to this? Was it some kind of cruel joke?
‘I was fifteen. He was the brainiest boy in our year.’
