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Dan tilted his head and looked at the man’s face. ‘Are you a famous singer?’
The man laughed, a great booming laugh, and shook his head. ‘No. No, I’m not.’
Dan held out the book. ‘By the way,’ he said, ‘I know a great place for dinner, if you need a recommendation?’
Life Keeps a Balance Sheet
It wasn’t very practical on the insufficient footpaths of rue du Cherche-Midi, with their backpacks bumping together and homebound Parisians clipping past on either side, but Claire and Ronan were walking with their arms wrapped around each other’s hips.
‘We could just keep walking,’ Claire said, ‘like Jesse and Céline inBefore Sunset.’
‘I’m getting peckish. Did Jesse and Céline ever stop to eat?’
‘Life’s hard, Ro. It’s meant to be.’ She leaned her hip into his.
‘Are you quoting Ethan Hawke again?’ She felt his grip tighten possessively.
She laughed. ‘I wouldn’t dare.’
He squeezed her waist. She lifted her chin and gave him a flirting grin.
Across the street, a queue of coiffed ladies stood quietly outside a bakery. Directly opposite, was a small stationery shop,une papeteriewith an irresistibly quaint window display. They split up. By the time Claire had chosen a notebook, a bookmark, and a fridge magnet ofMona Lisawith the face of a cat, Ronan was standing outside the shop window, looking miserable.
‘Let me guess,’ Claire said. ‘They’re all out of almond croissants?’
‘Worse.’
‘What?’
‘I can’t find my wallet.’
‘What?’
‘I think it’s been nicked.’
‘Ah, Ro, you’re kidding.’
‘I wish I was.’
‘Feck. What do we do now?’
They couldn’t see any place to sit down, so they stepped off the footpath into the porch of a closed shop. Claire dropped her backpack to the ground and sat on it, while Ronan reported the theft and cancelled his credit cards.
‘I suppose I was lucky,’ he said, when he finally got off the phone. ‘My card was already used once.’
‘That’s lucky?’
‘It was tapped to buy a cup of coffee and a cake.’
‘That’s all? You must be joking.’
He wasn’t joking at all. He looked thoroughly dejected. ‘Dammit,’ he said.
Despond loomed.
Claire sucked in a breath to bolster her determined positivity. ‘Listen,’ she said, ‘there’s no real harm done.’
His jaw was clenched, lips pressed closed. It wasn’t like him to let something like this upset him so much.
