Seeing Red

Supermarket

It's been a week since I moved to Nice, let's just say a lot happened over it. Charlotte managed to find me an affordable apartment in an up and coming neighbourhood thanks to her network.

I've been to the bureau three times trying to acquire my residence permit. Most importantly I started working again.

I was so nervous on my first day but it went pretty well, mostly because Charlotte didn't let me speak and introduced me to everyone. I threw myself into work the minute she told me what to do, I did not have the energy to deal with my own feelings. Organising someone's day and scheduling meetings sure did help me feel a little more in control.

It was a sunny day, I admired the sky for a minute before getting back to staring at my screen when I heard Charlotte call my name. I got up to go see what she needed.

"You called for me?" I asked leaning against the office door.

"I need you to come home early with me." She sighed.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Mia refuses to get ready to go back to Monaco."

"She's not the only one!" I laughed, "Let's go, gelato always works."

"Leo tried, she's crying about how much better the beaches are and how all the people she likes are here and they're going to have fun without her." She grabbed her bag.

The drive back to her bungalow was quiet, mostly because she was thinking of ways to get Mia back home before her school started. Pulling into the driveway we could already see Mia running in the garden and Leo trying to negotiate with the child.

"Mama! You're here!" She smiled running towards Charlotte.

"We had to come early and your mama is not very happy about that." I looked at her.

"But I don't want to go back! I want to go to the beach everyday and gelato! I don't want school!" She cried.

"You have to go to school Mia! Don't you miss your friends?" We tried to calm her down.

"No!" She wept.

"Ce sera Noël avant que vous le sachiez et je viendrai tu chercher à nouveau." Charlotte gave her child a kiss trying to stop her from crying.

"Promesse?" She sniffled.

"Oui! Nous mangerons beaucoup de glace aussi." Leo wiped her tears away.

"I didn't comprehend a lot of it but yes! I agree, we'll all have fun with you again very  soon!" I hugged Mia.

She finally agreed to it, we went to her room and packed her suitcase again. She had managed to get a lot of it unpacked in a matter of time. Mia was finally ready to get going, we sat down and planned how she's going to spend everyday until Christmas break.

"Allons Mia!" Charlotte called.

"We're going to win the hide and seek game okay?" She winked at me before leaving.

I was not going to even find a spot in hell for making a little child lie. The guilt was going to consume me inside out, I decided to head to the supermarket and buy some noodles.

I just wanted to make some noodles the way my dad did, watch a movie and then cry about making my problem a hinderance in everyone's life. I texted my dad asking him to send me his recipe as simplified as he could and headed to the supermarket.

I sure did come here looking for noodles, but a little bit of random snacks never hurt anyone. I headed to the isle with noodles, only to realize I needed to jump to reach them on the shelf. The first attempt didn't go too well, nor did the second or the third.

"I'll get that for you." I heard a deep voice behind me.

"Oh, Thanks!" I beamed turning around, to be shocked.

"Tara! What are you doing in Nice?" He smiled.

"Darren!" I smiled, "what a surprise, what are you doing out of your kingdom Singapore?"

"Business meetings, what are you doing here?"

"I'm actually moving here." I smiled.

"You're going to live in a supermarket?" He laughed.

"Back to your old ways, never missing a chance to bully me." I sighed.

"That was in high school! I'm so sorry I put you through that." He smiled apologetically rubbing the back of his neck.

"No harm done, I needed that character development." I grinned.

"The noodles." He handed me a bag from the top of the shelf.

"Thanks."

"See you around." He winked before walking away.

My lingered on him for longer than I wanted them to, it had been years since I last saw him. Clearly, he had changed a lot. 16 year old Darren was my high school bully, I don't even know why. He just found a lot of joy in making me cry.

After school I never had to see him again, but my mum knew everything about him God knows how. All she ever spoke about was how he was now handsome and successful, you know the typical I'm going to get you married to this boy compliments.

Clearly, he was handsome. I texted Harriet about who I ran into and headed back to the house. I started cooking the sauce for the noodles, my phone started ringing. It was my mum.

"Hello?" I answered the phone.

"How is Nice?" She asked.

"I'm adjusting to it, I found a house too I'll get the keys at the end of the week." I smiled.

"Good, very good." I could hear the satisfaction in her voice.

"How are you and dad?"

"Dad is fine, are you still with that boyfriend of yours?"

"We're in a complicated place." I sighed.

"Darren is handsome no?"

"What!?"

"He told his mother, who told aunty Mei and she told me. You saw him at the supermarket." I could hear the excitement in her voice.

"Yes, I did. He's here for business related things he's probably going to leave soon anyway."

"So you like him?"

"Mum! I had one interaction with him."

"If you have more interactions?"

"They won't be happening!"

"They will!"

"What did you do?"

"I gave his mother your number, she will give it to him. I have to go now bye bye!" She ended the call.

I called up Harriet, she was the only one who could help me right now. My heart was beating so fast, I felt like I was going to explode.

"Harry, are you free?"

"For the next hour, yes."

"Mum gave Darren my number!"

"Woah! Slow down! How did this even reach her!"

I narrated the whole tale to Harriet, at the end of all of it she had the audacity to laugh. She told me to calm down, Darren would call or text me only if he was interested. I had no reason to freak out.

Talking to her did put me in a better place until I started analyzing my own feelings. What was I afraid of? The real reason I was worried had to be- What if Darren didn't call me up?

A/n- pardon my French it's horrible(middle school me should have paid attention in French class but oh well😭) if any native French speakers are reading it please feel free to comment what's the right way to write the sentences I've written.