“So why did you move out?”
“Because, after about a year, she began going out a lot, and once or twice she didn’t come back until the next morning. That’s when I first suspected she had a boyfriend. I teased her and asked her if she was going to introduce me to him, but she told me that she’d been out with one of her girlfriends. I didn’t really believe her, and I was worried that maybe I was cramping her style, so I began looking for my own apartment.”
“Do you still think she has a boyfriend?”
Justine nodded. “You must have noticed the way she blushes when I tease her about it.”
“I wonder why she doesn’t want to introduce him to you or Carolyn?”
“I think she will, in time. It’s a big thing, introducing a new man to your friends.”
“I suppose,” I said distractedly. “When I move out of Carolyn’s, I want to stay in the area. You, Carolyn, and Lina are like my family now. I feel so lucky to have met you.”
Justine laughed. “We are the privileged ones. You keep us young—and yet you are very wise for someone who is just nineteen. When I was your age, I knew nothing. When I think of you coming to London without knowing anyone, of being alone in the world at sixteen, well, you’re quite amazing, Amelie Lamont.”
“Lina was even younger than me when she was orphaned,” I said, remembering what Lina had told me. “She has no family either.” I paused. “I am an orphan like Lina and half-French like you, and Carolyn is like my big sister. It makes me feel as if I belong, as if I have a family.” I gave a contented smile. “What more could I want?”
“I don’t know—a man, maybe?”
I shook my head. “It would be too much of a distraction. Maybe once I’m a lawyer, but not before.”
We were interrupted by her phone ringing. She peered into her bag. “Ned. Oh God, I hope he’s not going to start phoning me now.”
“Maybe it’s to do with the party? It’s only a few weeks away, isn’t it?”
“Even if it is, it can wait until tomorrow. He might be the boss, but I don’t want him to think that he can contact me out of hours. It’s one of those slippery-slope things.” She stood up, stretched her arms above her head. “How about we go and get pizza?”
“Good idea. As long as we don’t bump into Ned,” I teased, because their offices were just around the corner.
“I can’t imagine him eating pizza, so I think I’m safe on that score. Shall we invite Carolyn and Lina? Have an impromptu ‘family’ dinner?”
“Carolyn is out with Daniel tonight.”
“Then I shall phone Lina.”
But Lina was also going out.
“Although she didn’t say who with,” Justine said, raising her eyebrows comically. She linked her arm through mine. “So, it looks as if it’s just you and me.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
PRESENT
I’ve been dreaming of Papa. I don’t know where I was, in this room, or somewhere else, but he was standing next to me.
Well, Amelie, he asked. Which would you choose?
And I’d shaken my head and told him that I hadn’t decided yet.
I haven’t dreamt of Papa for a while, so I want to believe that the dream means something. And a memory comes flooding back, of me standing by his chair, and him asking me the same question.
“Well, Amelie, which would you choose?”
“Could you repeat it, please?” I asked.
“If I offered you a million pounds today, or I promised to give you a pound now, and double it to two pounds tomorrow and four pounds the next day, and eight pounds the day after, and carry on doubling each day’s total for a month, which would you choose?”
My heart leapt. “Has the money from the hospital come through?”
My father shook his head and my shoulders sagged.
“It’s just a hypothetical question,” he said.
I thought for a minute. “Would it be a month of thirty days or thirty-one days?”
“Would that make a difference to your answer?”
“It might, because if the doubling thing got to over five hundred thousand on day thirty, then it would come to more than a million the next day.”
He smiled. “In that case, let’s make it a month of thirty-one days.”
“Then I choose the doubling thing—as long as you promise not to die before the thirty-one days are up,” I added.
He laughed. “You’re a very clever girl, Amelie,” he said, patting my hand. “You’re going to be fine.”