I was ready, and had accepted my fate. The grand finale was imminent and we waited impatiently for Aurelie and Sebastien to appear in the lab and give us instructions. Lila was busy sending up prayers and Lex was here for support and sat in the window box, knees folded, reflecting silently as he stared out of the window. I jiggled my knees up and down, and toyed with my bracelets, the ones Clementine found so infuriatingly loud, which was ironic coming from her.
When they finally appeared, we froze.
‘And so then there were two,’ Sebastien said, dazzling us with his shiny white teeth. We assembled in front of him, hands behind backs, ready to begin. ‘As perfumers you rely on your olfactory sense, so what better way to test you than on your “nose”, your gift, and the reason you’re here.’
That didn’t sound too bad? There must be a catch.
‘Soon our staff will bring in a variety of ingredients used in perfumery, from the exotic to the ordinary. It’s up to you which you choose. Whoever names the ingredient wrong first, is eliminated. Sounds easy, non?’
Yes, way too easy! We’d know on sight what most of them were. I held my tongue.
‘To make it a little harder, each ingredient will be hidden under a cloche and you’ll be blindfolded.’
‘Ahh,’ I said. We’d have to rely on smell alone. ‘So, can I clarify, whoever gets the guess wrong is out? Just like that?’ We had no time, nothing to fall back on.
‘Correct. And in keeping things fair, to see who goes first you’ll draw straws. Whoever has the shortest straw will pick the first cloche, and so on.’
Lila and I exchanged so-be-it glances.
‘Ready?’ Sebastien said.
‘Yes,’ we murmured back. My pulse raced, and my palms grew sweaty. It could all be over in minutes!
Aurelie helped us draw straws and I chose the shortest, so I was up first. Risky.
Sebastien blindfolded me and I might have had one teeny tiny moment of pure fantasy about that but it was soon replaced by cold, hard fear.
He led me to the bench. ‘Which number would you like, Del?’
‘Cloche ten,’ I said.
He lifted the cloche and I knew at once what it was. Still, I groped for the ingredient, and picked it up, smelling it, feeling it to make certain. ‘Tiger Lily.’
‘Oui, very good.’
Next was Lila. ‘Lavender.’
‘Oui.’
My turn again. I chose a number and Sebastien lifted the cloche. Easy. ‘Orange.’
‘Oui,’ said Sebastien. ‘Lila’s guess again.’
Lila mumbled to herself nervously as she approached the bench. ‘Oh, my gosh,’ she said. ‘That is horrible. And it’s dimethyl sulfide.’
Dimethyl sulfide was a chemical used in some perfumes, it smelled of sulfur and onions and was noxious in its natural form, not blended.
My turn again, and I knew it at once. ‘Phenols,’ I said, it was overpowering like cleaning liquid.
‘Oui.’
Lila’s turn again. I held my breath, worried for her. It was pot luck what was under the cloches. She took an age to answer, but then said triumphantly, ‘Is it gunpowder?’
Sebastien laughed. ‘It is, and it has been used by big name perfumers before.’
The mind boggled. If consumers knew half the ingredients that went into perfumes their heads would explode. These days most of the ingredients were replicated synthetically, but not so long ago lots of seemingly disgusting ingredients were used to build and balance perfume. Once the perfume was blended those strong substances weren’t detectable any longer, in their odiferous form. The bad balanced the good and made the perfect blend.
It was my turn and I sensed that it was going to get more difficult from here on out.
Sebastien led me to the bench for the last time and lifted the cloche. I paused for a few seconds knowing this would alter the course of my life. It was agarwood.
‘Guaiacwood,’ I said, and waited, hoping to god I’d done the right thing. I had followed my heart and not my head.
The room was silent bar the faint pounding of my heart. Could they hear it?
‘I’m sorry, Del,’ Sebastien said. ‘It’s agarwood.’ His voice was thick with disappointment.
I made a show of being shocked.
‘We have our winner, Lila.’
Lila shrieked and bawled at the same time and Lex grabbed her in a big bear hug and swung her around. When he finally deposited her on the ground I rushed in to give her a squeeze.
‘Congratulations, Lila! You clever girl!’
‘I can’t believe it, Del! This will change my life, the entire course of my life! But I am so sorry!’
‘Don’t be sorry, Lila! You won fair and square.’ I hid a grin, and knew I’d made the right choice.
***
Our bags were assembled in a tiny line of two. Lex was moving into an apartment in the upper Marais, and I was waiting for Jean Marc to drive me to Charles De Gaulle airport. There’d been much celebrating with Lila, Lex and the Lecléres and it was all I could do to keep the tears at bay.
I’d been part of something so extraordinary, so special, that I’d never forget it. A foray into the private world of the reclusive Lecléres and a magical perfumery journey that would see me in good stead going forward.
What it meant for my own perfumery was endless. What I’d experienced in Paris couldn’t be replicated, it would stay with me forever. But there was one last thing I needed to do.
‘Aurelie,’ I said, finding her in the office. ‘Will you call me if Jean Marc arrives? I have to…’
She smiled, the smile of a woman who wanted to love again, and I wondered if Lex had said anything to her yet. If the candy floss joie de vivre I suddenly sensed had anything to do with it, then I’d say he had, and they’d both only held back for the sake of the competition.
‘Of course,’ she said, in her charming French way. ‘Take your time.’
I nodded and went on foot to the place it began.
Point Zero.
The wishing place. I stared down at the innocuous little plaque in the ground and had a quick look around me before I stepped in the center of it. Feeling crazy, but owning it for once, I lifted one foot, laughed and with closed eyes spun around three times, wishing for true love to find me.
Please if it’s real, give me a sign, I offered up silently to the wishing gods.
I opened my eyes, and found only the curious stares of onlookers. Well, really what had I expected? A homing pigeon to fly in with a message? I turned on my heel, ready to escape the gathering crowd and ran, smack bang into a broad chest. ‘Sorry, I’m a little…’
‘What did you wish for?’ he said huskily.
‘You.’ Heat rushed to my cheeks. ‘I mean…’
‘Here I am,’ he said, and dropped his lips on mine. I looped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me, only mildly aware that the crowd had begun to clap.
‘I didn’t think it would work quite so fast,’ I said breathlessly as I stared into his luminous green eyes.
‘Your wish is my command.’ He grinned and took my hand. People jostled nearby, lining up to stand on Point Zero, astounded that it truly had seemed like a miracle at work. Who was I to ruin their fun?
We laughed and moved away, giving them room.
‘I know you forfeited the competition on purpose,’ he said.
‘You knew?’ Hadn’t I been convincing with my downcast face, and glassy-eyed stare?
‘Oui. Why did you do it?’
‘It felt like the right thing to do.’
‘Stay, Del. Stay in Paris.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I want you to.’
I’d told the guy I loved him in three different languages, hadn’t I? Did it mean I was giving up my dreams, or making new ones? ‘I made you this.’ I took a small bottle of perfume from my bag.
He laughed. ‘And I made you this,’ and took a small pink vial from his pocket.
We uncapped our bottles and wafted them under our noses. The perfume he’d created for me was explosive like fireworks, and French kisses, love under the moonlight. The sweet rapture of release. It was his promise that he was ready to step from the shadows of grief and to love.
Sebastien spoke first. ‘It’s a bundle of love letters, a rose before it blooms, still warm linen, the sun as it crests the earth, and an invitation to your heart?’
We were so in tune, it couldn’t be wrong.
And for once in my life I was going to follow my heart, just like Lila desperately needed to do, and now she’d have the money to do so.
‘Will you stay?’ he asked once more.
‘Well, Paris is the perfume capital of the world.’
‘I have something of yours.’ From his pocket he took my scarf, that errant scarf from the very first day, but now it smelled like hopes and dreams.
‘You kept it?’
‘I fell in love you with at that very moment…’
It was always meant to be. It was written in the stars, in the sky, in the shape of a perfume bottle. In the scent I held in my hand.
We fell into each other’s arms and I wished for time to stop so I could stay there forever. True love always finds a way…