I stumbled towards the woman, my heart pounding hard as she grabbed me by the shoulders and pressed a kiss on each of my cheeks. Madame Lepage had been a surrogate mother to all of us who’d worked at the perfumerie. She knew everything that was going on, and in that instant I felt horrible that I hadn’t stayed in touch.
“Madame Swift!!!” she grinned again, acknowledging my presence excitedly and grabbing my hand.
“Salut!” I replied awkwardly, “Ca va?”
“Good good!” she said, “Wow look at you, all grown up!”
I blushed as she spun me around, taking in my womanly curves and nattering away in French. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I was not, in fact, Madame Swift, but I didn’t want to kill her dreams since she seemed so excited.
“You’re here for the keys?” she asked, a huge grin on her face.
“Keys?” I stuttered. What the hell was she talking about?
“The villa of course!” she said with an eye roll, as if I’d asked the stupidest question in the world.
“Right,” I smiled with a nod of my head, “Yes.”
I don’t know why I said yes, it probably wasn’t the most honest thing to do, but I did. And soon Madame Lepage was dropping a pair of big brass keys in my hand with a broad smile.
“Merci!” I smiled.
“It’s so nice to have you back,” she said, “It’s been too long! That husband of yours has certainly kept you locked away.”
I flushed red again, the awkwardness washing over me. Why she thought I was married I had no idea, but all of a sudden I had a fancy set of keys in my hand and I knew just where they led.
“When your husband bought the house I made him promise to bring you and he keeps saying he will… but its never happened.”
“I know I’m so sorry,” I said.
“He said you’ve become a brilliant painter. Very busy.”
“He did?” I asked, my brow furrowed. What the hell kind of lie was all of this?
A huge group of tourists came pushing into the shop and I cringed when I realized Madame Lepage had to deal with them all herself. “Come for a glass of wine at my house tonight,” she winked, “We’ll talk.”
“Of course,” I nodded, too scared to turn her down. I had no idea what she thought but I didn’t want to crush her dreams until I knew just what was going on.
“Au revoir,” she said, wandering off to the group of tourists.
I looked down at the keys in my hand, flipping them over a few times. I knew exactly where they led and I couldn’t quite believe that they had been handed to me so easily. Clearly someone was telling a lot of lies, and I was going to get to the bottom of it… but first I needed to see the villa again.
--
Walking up the steep hill for the second time that day, with my increasingly heavier bag trailing behind me, I stopped at the wrought iron gates. Brandishing the keys I stuck the bigger one into the gate, pushing it open and then shutting it behind me.
“What the hell?” I laughed, not quite sure what to think about this whole situation.
The front of the villa was exactly as I remembered it, with flower boxes under the windows and some hedges out front, a few big old shade trees giving the house some privacy. A crisp new coat of paint had been put on the house, and a few of the stones that led up the front walk had been replaced, but otherwise it hadn’t changed at all.
