An online novel by Gillette Edmunds

“You should be eating more,” Michael continued. “You won’t have such digestion.”

“Thanks for the advice,” she said.

They were silent. The traffic on St. Germain was thinning. The cafes had started to empty.

“Michael?” Barbara asked. “Can I borrow some money? I know that you are paying for the plane tickets already and all that and I really will pay you back but I think I should buy some clothes tomorrow. I mean, just in case my clothes were lost or something on the way to Rome. And, well, I’m pretty tired of orange. We don’t really have anything to do tomorrow anyway. We might as well go shopping.”

“Perhaps I should call Rome to see if your bags made it,” he said.

“No.”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m not going to call. We can still decide not to go or postpone it a few more days. We’re at liberty to change our minds.”

Again, he woke in the fear. At first, he was as detached as before. But it was a familiar detachment. He was grateful Barbara was gone again. He could not show this to anyone until he had a solution for it. He tried to ride through it on his hands and knees but it roared through his body and shook him so hard he had to lie on his back on the floor. He heard Barbara down the hall, crawled to the bathroom, and closed the door. He got the water on just as he heard her enter.