The Little Paris Patisserie. Julie Caplin
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what’s Sebastian’s apartment like?’ asked Nina’s mother on her fourth day in Paris.
‘Nice,’ replied Nina, lifting her eyes from the screen where she was Facetiming with her mother, to take a quick look around the flat.
‘Nice. That doesn’t tell me anything,’ complained her mother, with a good-natured frown.
‘OK, very nice. Will that do?’ Nina looked over to the tall French windows with the voile curtains billowing in the slight breeze. Beyond them was a tiny balcony which overlooked the wide boulevard below. Up on the top floor, the corner apartment offered two different panoramas, both with great views including one of the Eiffel Tower. A view she was rather too well acquainted with. Being here on her own was a lot more daunting in reality. It was just as well that she’d needed to spend so much time in the patisserie kitchen getting everything ready. Marcel had flatly refused to help. Every day she told herself she had seven whole weeks to explore the city, and that there was no hurry.
‘I like to be able to imagine where you are, darling.’ Her mother’s plaintive smile made Nina feel guilty. Of course it did. Honed by years of experience and five children, it was her not so-secret weapon. Flipping her phone around, Nina went straight out onto the balcony.
‘What views! And what a lovely sunny day. What are you doing inside?’
‘Talking to my mother,’ said Nina, facing her again.
‘You should be outdoors. It’s a gorgeous day.’
‘I was planning to go and explore a bit later.’ Nina didn’t want to admit that her exploration to date had consisted mainly of prowling around Sebastian’s flat and a char-lady visit to the patisserie, where she’d ended up scrubbing and cleaning the kitchen, and methodically reorganising the utensils and drawers.
‘Well, make sure you’re careful. I’ve heard the pickpockets in Paris are terrible. You should put your bag over your head and across you. Although I have also heard that sometimes they use knives to cut the straps.’
‘Mum, I’ll be fine.’ If this was her mum encouraging her to go out, she wasn’t doing a great job.
‘Well, make sure—’
‘Here, this is the lounge.’ She did a slow motion three-sixty turn.
‘Oh darling, that’s gorgeous. Nice! It’s delicious. You are naughty.’
Nina gave her mum a mischievous smile as she returned the screen to face her. ‘OK, it’s rather sumptuous. I think this sofa is the nicest I’ve ever seen.’ She stroked the pale grey velvet surface and patted the teal wool cushions. ‘I think Sebastian must have got some kind of interior designer in, it’s all very calming, cool colours.’
‘Very summer,’ said her mother, who was a big fan of colour analysis and having your colours done.
‘Kitchen?’
With a sigh, knowing there’d be no satisfaction now until she’d done a tour of every room, Nina walked over to the other side of the room and turned the sharp right angle into the kitchen-diner.
‘Oh my word! Nina, that is lovely.’
Nina had to admit the open plan room, with its view of the Eiffel Tower which at night was all lit up, was rather wonderful. The modern kitchen had shiny glossy cupboards with no handles and had every gadget known to man.
‘Show me that coffee machine. Oh, John, John! Come here and see this.’
Nina could hear her parents cooing over the stainless-steel built-in machine and wondering where they might put one and how much it might cost.
She walked on through, showing her mum the wide hallway with its recessed soft lighting and slate floor and the bathroom with its huge shower and lovely aqua tiles.
‘It all looks so nice, darling. You’re not going to want to come home.’
‘Don’t worry, Mum, Sebastian will want it back as soon as he’s mobile again.’
‘And how is the dear boy? You will send him my love, won’t you? We do miss him. He practically lived here.’ Nina closed her eyes knowing exactly what was about to come. ‘And then … well, I don’t know why he stopped visiting so often. It’s such a shame we don’t see him more often.’
‘Maybe because he went away to university and then onto catering college,’ suggested Nina for what felt the thousandth time over the years.
‘He could have come in the holidays.’
Her jaw tensed and Nina was grateful the phone camera was still trained on the bells-and-whistles, state-of-the-art shower.
‘Well, that’s the guided tour,’ said Nina. ‘So how’s lambing going—’
‘You haven’t shown me the bedroom. Come on.’
‘It’s just a bedroom. It’s got a bed in it—’
‘But it’s so interesting seeing what’s available in other countries, don’t you think?’
Nina paused outside the bedroom door. There was no earthly reason why she shouldn’t show her mother, but even so…
She opened the door, seeing the room for the first time again and feeling that same unsettled sense of voyeurism, of being an intruder into someone else’s life. She felt it more sharply in the bedroom than anywhere else, perhaps because there were so many more personal items in here.
‘Ooh, I like the duvet cover, that’s very nice. Masculine but tasteful. Sebastian always did have good taste. Lovely lamps. And what’s he reading?’
Nina swallowed. The masculinity of the grey, pale blue and black cover was a constant reminder that she was sleeping in Sebastian’s bed and the facedown open David Baldacci, reinforced the unsettling sensation that Sebastian had only popped out and could be back at any moment.
It was always her intention to spend as little time in this room as possible, at least while she was awake. Sebastian’s presence was too much in here.
‘Let’s have a look at his photos,’ said her mother. Wearily, Nina crossed to the wall opposite the bed to the multi-sectioned photo frame with its selection of pictures from over the years. She hadn’t paid too much attention to it before, as there were quite a few that were duplicates of others she’d seen of Sebastian with Nick and her other brothers.
‘Oh, look that’s me!’ exclaimed her mother. ‘I remember that day. He won his first cooking competition. And he came straight over to tell me and show me the trophy. Your dad took that one.’
Nina remembered the lead up to the competition. They’d been his guinea pigs for weeks. Good job the whole family liked pork.
‘Nice one of him and his parents,’ said her mother, the hint of sympathy clear in her tone. Nina, still holding the phone, peered at the picture of Sebastian on graduation day, standing between his parents looking stiff and uncomfortable. He’d stuck out his degree to please his parents despite wanting to go in a different direction. A week after he graduated, he signed up for catering college.
‘Ah, that’s a lovely one of you.’
‘Me!’ Nina’s voice squeaked and bent to take a closer look at the picture in the corner that she’d completely missed. It wasn’t lovely at all. It was a hideous picture. She was grinning like a loon, her teeth and shining eyes white amongst the splashes of mud across her face, as she held up the medal she’d won in the cross-country championship. With a jolt, she stared at the happiness glowing on her face and felt her heart do one of those flutters, almost an echo of the past. Tears shimmered in her eyes for a second. She’d been so happy. Almost bursting with it. Not because she’d come first. Not because she’d beaten her personal best. Not because she’d qualified for the Nationals. She’d been so happy because Sebastian was waiting for her at the finishing line. Because he threw his arms around her. Because he hugged