He argued with her again about the movie when he dropped her off at home, and offered to take her and she finally gave in. He wasn’t entirely wrong about the Champs élysées, but she didn’t want to monopolize all his time, and she said she didn’t need a babysitter, to which he always responded that she sounded like his mother.
“I’ll go home and change. I’ve been crawling around in dirt all day. And I’ll pick you up at eight. That still gives us time to buy popcorn,” he said, and she grinned, and took a bath and changed into clean jeans herself. He was slowly becoming her best friend in Paris.
When she talked to Claire, her old assistant, in L.A., occasionally, she always asked Olivia if she had a crush on him and she insisted that she didn’t. They were work friends and nothing more and Claire didn’t believe her. She insisted that wasn’t possible with no sexual undercurrent at all.
“Maybe I’m a freak then,” Olivia said. She hadn’t slept with anyone since she’d come to France, and for months before that, since she had dated a photographer briefly in New York. Like most of her relationships, it ended because she had no time to see him and didn’t really care. She had decided she was too old for casual sex and had never liked that anyway. The only men who had invited her out on dates so far in Paris were married, which she liked even less. She gave them a sharp rebuff every time, and they told her she was too American.
Joachim’s mother had asked him the same question, if he was attracted to Olivia, and he said the same thing as Olivia had to Claire. He added that it was out of the question. They were employer and employee, and once in a while in their off hours, they enjoyed a casual friendship, or friendly conversation, with no physical overtones whatsoever. Liese didn’t believe him either.
“One day you’re going to wake up and figure out you’re in love with her,” his mother said matter-of-factly, which annoyed him. She seemed certain of it.
“Never,” he said confidently.
“Men and women can’t be friends in that way,” she said wisely.
“Yes, they can. Everything in life doesn’t have to be about romance, Mama,” he said stubbornly.
“Well, something does, or it’s a damn sorry existence, and a lonely one. Francois and I started out as friends, and I wanted to keep it that way. He wouldn’t have it, and he was patient and persistent, and I’m glad he was. He was my soul mate.” Her first husband, Joachim’s father, had been dashing, handsome, and superficial, and had deserted her the minute the chips were down. Francois would never have done that. He never even gave up on Javier completely, and always hoped he would find his way back, for Liese’s sake. And Joachim knew that about him. Francois had been such a good man and the love of his mother’s life.
“I can’t live a life in service, and go around falling in love with my employers, Mama. Besides, I don’t see her that way, as a sex object. I see her as a person.”
“And the woman you’re in love with can’t be a person? Who dreamed that up? I may be an old woman, but I remember what love is. You’re not a priest, Joachim. You didn’t take holy orders. At least I hope not.” She doubted that she’d ever have grandchildren, but at least she wanted her son to be happy, and not sacrifice his entire life for his employers. He had always put them and all their needs first, and Liese wished he wouldn’t, or he would be a lonely old man one day, if he wasn’t already. Olivia sounded as if she’d been cut of the same cloth, from what he said. Joachim had mentioned that she was badly marked by her mother’s relationship with a married man, so she was careful not to get too deeply involved with any man. It didn’t sound like a fulfilling life to Liese. It sounded like both her son and Olivia were afraid of love. She secretly wished that Joachim would sleep with her. She had said it once, and Joachim was outraged, and said that even saying that was disrespectful. In Liese’s opinion, they were both running from the best part of life.
“She’s not a vestal virgin, for God’s sake, or a fourteen-year-old. She’s a forty-three-year-old woman.”