Lily left Julia’s room, while Julia remained on her bed, looking at the door to her room, which was slightly open.
Lily went down the stairs, and Madame Gondo had seen her as she was coming down, so she headed toward her and said sadly: “This is how things are, Lily.
Julia will remain confined to her room.” Lily approached Madame Gondo and said calmly: “I will come tomorrow to take Julia with me to the university.” Gondo’s expression changed from sadness to a little happiness, but she could not believe it.
Her daughter had not gone to university for a long time, and even when she brought some of Julia’s female classmates and colleagues to convince her to return, they all failed.
Gondo said in astonishment: “What?” Lily did not understand the reason for her astonishment, so she asked: “What?” Gondo answered her: “Will Julia really come with you?” Lily said simply: “She will come with me to the university tomorrow.” Madame Gondo could not contain her happiness, so she approached Lily and hugged her.
“Thank you, Lily, really.” Lily felt a strange feeling.
She was happy, because this was the first time someone had hugged her in this way.
Lily’s right hand moved slowly, then her left hand followed it, until she hugged Madame Gondo as well.
At that moment, Lily felt as if Madame Gondo were her mother, even though she had never hugged her real mother even once before.
Madame Gondo’s phone rang.
She moved away from Lily a little and said: “It seems to be a customer who needs an order.” Madame Gondo headed toward the phone, while Lily looked at her phone.
It was five-thirty in the evening, and she realized that she would be late getting home, and might be punished again, as had happened last month.
Lily raised her voice a little and said to Madame Gondo: “I am going to leave now.
I will be late getting home.
I will come tomorrow morning to take Julia with me.” Madame Gondo placed the palm of her hand over the phone’s microphone and said: “Thank you, Lily.
Be careful on your way home.” Lily waved her hand at Madame Gondo, then left the cafeteria.
She stood outside for a few moments, looking at the street stretching out in front of her.
It was Boulevard Saint-Germain, very famous in Paris, known for its quiet cafés and the lovers’ stories that never end.
Lily remembered a story she had read earlier, which talked about two lovers in the twentieth century: Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
Lily looked at the ground for a moment as she remembered what she had read about them.
“Philosophy and writing brought them together.” Lily smiled a little as she remembered Adam.
“Certainly, their relationship was similar to my relationship with Adam.” Lily stopped for a few moments, then raised her head and looked at the cars passing in front of her.
“I have to go back and call Adam quickly and apologize to him.” Suddenly, a strange idea came to Lily’s mind.
“Borbe…
Madame Gondo Borbe…
Borbe means mud…
Madame Gondo, mud.” Lily was a little surprised by the name, as the meaning of the word in French was “mud,” but she quickly pushed the thought out of her head.
“What are these thoughts?
I have to go back and call Adam.” After about thirty minutes of walking, Lily arrived at her home, which was located in the Champs-Élysées district.
She climbed the stairs of the building, and the apartment where she lived was on the fourth and top floor.
Lily stood in front of the door, wishing that she did not have to enter, but there was nowhere else for her to go.
She pressed the doorbell.
After a few seconds, Lily’s mother opened the door, then looked at her daughter’s face with a slightly angry look.
“Do you know what time it is now?
You are very late.
Your father is even close to coming home.” Lily was looking at the ground and said in a low voice: “I am sorry.
I only had some things to do after university.” Lily’s mother left the apartment door open and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.
Lily entered the apartment and closed the door, then hurried toward her room and locked the door from the inside.
She took her phone out of her bag and opened it, then began scrolling through the numbers on it until she stopped at Adam’s name.
She pressed the call button.
Lily remained looking at the phone, waiting for him to answer, while repeating in her mind the words she would say to him to apologize: “I am sorry, please forgive me…
I am sorry…
I will not do this again, please, I beg you.” She was preparing to say these words to Adam so that he would forgive her, but all these thoughts suddenly stopped.
The following appeared on the phone’s screen: “The number you are calling is switched off or unavailable.” “What?” Lily tried to call several times, but the result was the same each time.
“What happened?
Is he okay?
Is it possible that something bad happened to him on his way home?” Lily tried to get these thoughts out of her head, worried about Adam.
“No…
no.
Adam is just still upset.
After he calms down, he will turn on his phone, see my missed calls, and call me and say: “Lily, I cannot live without you.” Then I will say: “Me neither, my love.
Let’s get married.” Yes…
that is what will happen.” These sentences and phrases passed through Lily’s mind several times, before her mother knocked on her bedroom door, breaking the thread of her thoughts.
“Lily, I have prepared the bath for you.
Go and take it quickly.” Lily jumped slightly, because she had been immersed in her thoughts, but she quickly replied while looking at the door: “Okay.”