“What is this shit?”
I stare at my phone, shaking my head at the message I’ve just received.
“What shit?” Yann looks up from his game of Halo.
“Nora,” I say. The message she sent me is the most cryptic fucking thing I’ve ever read in my life.
I’m going back to America. I don’t know when I’ll be back, or if I’ll be back. I wish you the best of luck with Hélène.
“What the fuck?” Yann gets up from the floor and reads the text message to confirm it. “What does she mean, ‘best of luck with Hélène’?”
“I have no idea, man,” I tell him. “Hélène apparently made friends with her last night, but I don’t know why that would be an issue.”
“Maybe Hélène told her something about you?” Yann shrugs. “I don’t know what she’d be able to say, though.”
“I’ve never had anything to do with that crazy bitch, and you know that, Yann.”
“Sam has had more to do with her than you have, and even he actively avoids her,” Yann agrees. “The freak probably made some shit up about you flirting with Julienne or something.”
“But if it was something as stupid as that, wouldn’t Nora have confronted me? Why would she go all the way back to America? It makes no sense.”
“She said she got a call from her family last night, right?”
I nod.
“Maybe there was something to do with that, and she heard something from Hélène, and between the two of those things, she just doesn’t know when she’ll be back in the country,” Yann suggests.
“I need to find her,” I say. “I can’t let her leave the country without at least talking about this.”
I send Nora a quick message.
I have no idea what you’re talking about? Can you please call me and tell me what’s going on?
If I can get her to tell me what happened, maybe I can convince her not to leave. At the very least, I could convince her to come back as soon as possible.
I really don’t want to talk to you, Jacques. I need to get away for a while. I don’t know if I’ll want to see you again.
I show the message to Yann.
“Something definitely happened,” he says. “And it has to do with Hélène. We need to find out what she said, and figure out what it will take to get her to change her mind.”
“Why are you so interested in this?” I can appreciate that Yann is being helpful, but considering that he’s been complaining for the last month about how I stole his chance with an American girl, I can’t believe how eager he is to help me get her back.
“She promised to introduce me to some of her friends,” Yann says with a grin. “If she goes back to America, that’s never going to happen.”
“Seriously, dude?” I shake my head, but I guess it’s as good a reason as any.
I don’t even know if Nora has left for the airport yet, but Yann and I decide to go to Hélène’s place. He walked her home when she got too drunk at one of our shows—once, early on, before we knew she was so goddamn crazy—so he knows where she lives.
When we get there, he decides to take the lead on the situation. He buzzes up to Hélène’s apartment and we both pray that she’s home, and that we can get the truth out of her.
“Yes?”
Yann looks at me when she answers and his eyes widen. “Um, hey, sweetheart, can I come up?” he asks.
“Of course!”
She buzzes us into the building and I follow Yann to the elevator. My heart’s pounding in my chest and I want to shake Hélène as soon as I see her. I want to find out what she said to make Nora run away. I take a deep breath and get into the elevator, closing my eyes to focus on the matter at hand. If I can find out what is going on with Nora, I might be able to keep her from going back to the US.
If my timing is right.
If she hasn’t already left.
But I have to find out what Hélène said to her first.
We get to Hélène’s apartment, and when she answers the door at Yann’s knock, she sees me. “Oh! You’re here too?” she looks so pleased, and in that moment, I feel a vein in my neck throbbing so forcefully, I can almost hear it.
“Nora told me just a little while ago that there was something wrong and she doesn’t want to see me again. Do you know anything about that, Hélène?” I cross my arms over my chest, clenching my jaw as I stare her down.
“I have no idea what you mean,” Hélène says, flashing the fakest smile I’ve ever seen. “Look, she’s an American. They’re known for being flaky.”
“She told me she wished me the best of luck with you,” I tell her flatly. “And that you were suddenly so interested in making friends with her last night.”
“I may have told her a few things she doesn’t know about you, but if I did, then it’s your fault for not being upfront with her in the first place,” Hélène says.
“Hélène, what did you tell her?”
Yann matches my flat, uninterested expression, crossing his arms over his chest as well. Hélène tries to close the door, but Yann puts his foot in the way.
“What did you tell her, Hélène?”
I know we’re going to be wasting precious time—time that I could be using to drive to Paris, to get to the airport and hopefully catch up to Nora, but if I don’t know what Hélène did to sabotage me, then there’s no way for me to fix things with the woman I’ve come to love.
“Let us into the apartment right now,” I tell her. “I promise we won’t harm you, but I there’s no fucking way in hell I’m leaving until you tell me what you did, and I don’t think you want everyone in the building knowing what sort of person you are.”