Josh flags down the server. “L’addition, s’il vous plaît.” Check, please.
“We’re leaving?” I can’t hide the disappointment from my voice. A proper French dinner should keep us here for at least another hour.
Josh pauses, mid-reach for his wallet. He looks at me, searching, and I find hope in his eyes. It makes me feel hopeful, too. He smiles. “Something better is about to happen.”
“Hurry, hurry, hurry.” Cricket bounces on the balls of his feet.
“Do you know what’s happening?” Lola asks me.
I shake my head as Meredith looks between Josh and Cricket. “Didn’t you two just meet? How can you already have secrets?”
Josh grins so wide that his dimples appear. My heart flutters at the well-missed sight. He and Cricket toss down some bills from their wallets, and then Josh is yanking out a bulging shoulder bag from behind the table. “Come on.” He’s still smiling at me as he throws on his coat. It’s his going-on-a-date coat, of course.
That coat. It hurts how much I love it.
The five of us race through the snowy white streets towards the River Seine. The sun has gone down, and most of the Latin Quarter appears to be staying inside tonight. Josh glances at my feet. I’m wearing heeled boots, but I’m keeping in stride with everyone else. He shoots me an impressed eyebrow-raise as we burst out of the neighbourhood, directly across from Notre-Dame.
“Where?” Cricket asks Josh.
“In the square, near the main entrance.” Josh points across the bridge. We run across it towards Notre-Dame’s courtyard.
“Oh,” Meredith says, understanding. “Seriously?”
Lola looks at me, and we explode into helpless laughter. Neither of us has any idea what’s happening. We’re panting, out of shape and out of breath.
“Stop!” Josh says.
We tumble to a halt behind him. We’re on the edge of the square facing the massive cathedral. “I assume we didn’t run all the way here to see a structure that hasn’t left this spot in hundreds of years?” Lola readjusts her pink hair, and I realize it’s a wig. “What am I looking at?”
But then I see them.
Several yards away – closer to the cathedral’s legendary carved doorways – Anna and St. Clair are standing on top of Point Zéro. It’s been hand-brushed clear of its dusting of snow. Point Zéro is the bronze marker, a star, which designates the official centre of France. There are at least two superstitions about it. One is that anyone who stands on the star will return to France. The other is that you can use it to make a wish.
“Wait for it,” Josh says.
Lola stands straighter, excited. “No!”
“Yes,” Cricket says.
I’m the last one in the dark, until – suddenly – it happens. St. Clair removes something from his pocket. And then he gets down on one knee.
Anna’s entire body lights with shock and joy and love. She nods a vigorous yes. St. Clair places the ring on her finger. He stands, she throws her arms around him, and they kiss. He spins her in a circle. They kiss again. Deep, hungry, long. And then he turns to us and waves – with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen – clearly aware that we’ve been standing here the whole time.
Chapter thirty-one
I’ve never witnessed a moment like this. I didn’t even know that I was old enough for a moment like this. Friends – are they friends? They feel like they might be friends to have included me here tonight – getting engaged to be married. At nineteen!
Anna shows off her ring. It’s small and simple and lovely. Her eyes suddenly shine, and she wheels around to face St. Clair. “So this is why you got a job.”
He grins. “I wasn’t about to buy you a ring with my father’s money.”
Josh bear-hugs St. Clair. “I’m only sorry you’re off the market.”
“Don’t tell Anna, but I bought one for you, too,” St. Clair says.
Lola throws her arms around Cricket. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this was gonna happen.”
“I wanted to,” he says. “But sometimes you think about things…out loud.”
“I do not!”
“You do,” Anna and St. Clair say together.
Lola grumbles, but she’s smiling.
“Attention, attention,” St. Clair says. “My fiancée and I—”
Everyone laughs at how strange and foreign the word sounds. It’s like discovering a new language or being a part of a new culture. The culture of adults. And we don’t yet know how it works, but it feels good so far.
St. Clair clears his throat. “My fiancée and I are headed out for a celebratory dessert. I’d ask you all to join us, but I don’t want you there.”