Page 33 of Midnight in Paris

She smiled now. ‘But I had come to Paris with you, that must have given you a clue that I was interested.’

‘Not really. I thought you might just be in it for the art galleries.’

She shoved him playfully, her hand missing its target and making her stumble. She felt her cheeks get hot.

‘I see your aim hasn’t improved,’ he said, laughing.

‘I thought the same,’ she said, more serious, as they left the room and made their way down the beige corridor. ‘I really worried you were just being a nice friend.’

‘It’s not that long ago, really. But I can’t imagine being that…’

‘Thatwhat?’

He shrugged. ‘I just remember it being really difficult, in those days. To say the right thing, to know what I was meant to do or say.’

‘The perils of your twenties.’

‘Yes, probably.’

She pressed the button for the lift and he waited at her side as it made its way to the fourth floor. The doors hissed open to reveal an elderly woman with a suitcase. She looked at both of them and they stood to one side as she wheeled it past.

A man pushed past them and got into the lift, and Tom raised an eyebrow at Sophie as they made their own way in. ‘No, no, after you,’ he said quietly into her ear.

She tried not to giggle as she stood in silence next to the rude man who strode off the minute the doors opened on the ground floor.

‘Weren’t you tempted to say something?’ Tom asked.

She shook her head. ‘It’s not worth it. Men like that.’

They walked across the foyer and emerged into the sunlight.

‘It’s funny,’ she said as they began to walk together, seemingly on the same page, ‘when I think back to that trip. I mean I don’t feel like I’ve changed much over the years. But I can’t imagine why I just didn’t ask you outright.’

‘What, like,Look, are you going to shag me or not, because I’ve been waiting long enough?’

‘Yes,’ she said, mock-earnestly, ‘something subtle like that.’

He laughed. ‘Well, it would have saved me a huge amount of heartache if you had.’

She was silent for a moment. Around them, crowds milled and moved back and forth along the ancient streets – blood in the veins of the city, giving it life.

‘What will you do after?’ she asked him, her face serious.

‘After?’

‘Tom, you know. Youknow.’ She couldn’t find the words to say it out loud.

He shrugged. ‘I literally don’t know,’ he said. ‘I guess I’ll just take one step at a time, see what comes my way. I don’t feel… it’s not really up to me. What happens next.’

‘Oh Tom, I…’

‘No,’ he said, turning to her. ‘Stop it.’

A man with a backpack stumbled behind her as she suddenly halted, turned to look. Huffing and cursing, he pushed past her and continued, glancing over his shoulder at her from time to time. She barely registered it.

‘Stop what?’

‘If this really is our last day, then I don’t want to fill it withsorrys andI wishes and worry for the future,’ he said. ‘Whatever happens next will happen; there’s nothing I or you can do to change that. I just want to spend the day with you. With the real you. The you that you are when you’re not worried about tomorrow. Otherwise, what’s the point?’

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