Page 4 of Here in My Heart (Here Together #2)

CHAPTER FOUR

“The bubbles are trying to escape.” Ade scraped her shoe against the tiled floor of the laundromat.

“Will you stop staring at the machine and come help me fold this laundry?” Steph fought the tangled mess of T-shirts, pants, and socks which had emerged en masse from the dryer. “How have we worn so many clothes in a week?”

“The heat is making us sweat,” Ade said, “and you said we couldn’t wear clothes that had started to smell.”

Steph closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before reaching inside the drum for another jumbled pile.

“Sorry. Did I state the obvious again?” Ade asked.

Emerging from her heap of clothes, Steph shot her sister a smile. A familiar warmth flowed over Ade, but it wasn’t enough to figure out her understanding of the world.

“A little, honey, but don’t you worry. You’re right. It’s been a hot, dusty week of traveling, but this load should get us back on track.” Steph folded the last of the socks and turned to a second machine, still in mid-cycle. “I need to get all this dry by tomorrow to pack up.”

Dread crept into Ade’s chest. Fending for herself was daunting.

She’d never had to do it before. Both her dads had been ever-present, along with Stephanie.

They sat on the bench seat, and Ade resumed her watch.

The soap suds whirled around the machine, as if they were trying to escape through the window. “When will you be back?”

“I’ve posted my itinerary on your fridge, so you always know where I am. Tomorrow, I’m heading to Perpignan and then onto Barcelona. There’s a cool town I want to hit up along the coast. Everyone’s talking about its gay vibes.”

The bubbles gathered in the fold of the machine door, thickening, concentrating. “Then where are you going?” Ade asked, desperate to soak up as much reassuring detail as possible.

“I’d like to head south while it’s still warm enough. I’ve come all this way, why not soak up some sun? Then I hope to make it to Lisbon before I come back here for Thanksgiving. I’ll keep you posted Ady-baby, and you can call me anytime you need me.”

“Sure.” Ade began to spin the loose ring on her thumb in time with the rotation of the washing machine. Steph held her hand, calming the panic which had risen into her throat.

“It’ll be okay, Ade. You can do this.” Steph smiled. “Just focus on what’s in front of you. Don’t race into the future.”

“Sure,” Ade said. “Because we don’t know what’s going to happen.” Except I’ll be alone.

Steph stood to inspect the display panel. “Five minutes, and we’ll be done here.” She wandered to the messy noticeboard and unpinned a black and white flyer. “Look at this: music in the square tonight. It’s right here around the corner. Do you want to go?”

Ade peered at the advertisement. Classical strings in Place St Anne. Harmless enough. She couldn’t imagine it getting too crowded in that tiny square. She hadn’t seen many people walking past her apartment in the last few days. “Okay. Sounds nice, let’s go.”

“Great.” Steph jogged on the spot. “I love it when I don’t have to convince you.”

Ade basked in the beam of her sister’s contentment for as long as she could.

Sometimes, the fleeting glimpse of Steph’s happiness brought her more joy than anything else in her world.

Once the last machine had finished, Steph packed their pile of fresh clothes, and they headed out.

The violin strings lilted across the square as Ade sidestepped a gathering crowd.

Steph strode on and claimed a table at the church steps.

She tucked her unwieldy laundry bag out of sight.

The sun had begun to set in the late September sky, casting a pink glow across the city’s rooftops and creating a tall silhouette of the church spire.

“Want a beer? We may as well settle in,” Steph whispered.

Ade nodded, not wanting to disturb the grace and tranquility they’d stumbled into in the square.

Her square. She marveled at how, in a few short days, she’d gone from tourist to resident in one of the most charming little areas of the city.

Sure, her fifth-floor apartment was rough around its edges and in need of some serious maintenance.

But sitting here tonight, with a string ensemble blending unknown but undeniable melodies, it was simply beautiful.

As the sun set, people settled on the church steps, with a single familiar figure in the crowd: Professor Sylvie Boucher.

Ade fiddled with her thumb ring, deciding whether to re-introduce herself.

It would be weird. She probably won’t even recognize me.

Too late, she’d stared for too long in the professor’s direction and was now in the grip of a blinking competition with her supervisor.

“What are you doing, Ade? You look super awkward.” Steph turned to meet the subject of Ade’s gaze.

There was a gap in the harmony, and a round of applause scattered across the square. Sylvie rose to approach them. Ade could hardly breathe. She’d had no idea what to say at the beginning of the week in the classroom, never mind here in a social space.

“Hello again.” Sylvie raised a glass of pale wine in her direction.

Her cheeks blushed with the warm evening air, and tonight, her smile reached her eyes. Ade hadn’t noticed the crease of her smile back in the classroom, but now she was transfixed by how the upturn of her lips made her eyes glimmer in the falling light.

“Ade, please introduce us.” Steph extended her hand anyway. “I’m Stephanie Poole, Ade’s twin sister.”

“Delighted to meet you. I’m Sylvie Boucher, one of Adelaide’s colleagues at the university.”

“It’s Ade,” she said, looking to Steph and mirroring her body language. Ade’s neurons popped like corn as she deciphered Sylvie and Steph’s expressions. What were they saying without words? She froze, paralyzed by the frustration of trying to read too many signals at once.

Steph leaned in. “She prefers to be called Ade. Adelaide is a little too old-fashioned for her. Our dads named her after one of our great-grandmothers.”

“And it’s too feminine,” Ade said, desperate for Sylvie to see something beyond her flawed presentation to the world.

“I just prefer Ade. It’s better, somehow.

” She’d left their last encounter with an unsettling suspicion that she hadn’t made the best impression.

It wasn’t something she could pin down, but Sylvie frowned just as she had back in the classroom.

“I see.” Sylvie tapped her toe on the flagstones. “Ade suits you.”

“I don’t really think of myself as fitting in boxes,” said Ade, finally getting a grip of what Sylvie meant.

“I can imagine.” Sylvie tilted her head, her blond bob of hair catching the last rays of the sun. “Do you mind if I join you?”

Ade studied the line of Sylvie’s jaw, entranced by the journey from her earlobe to her chin.

Steph cleared her throat. “Don’t wait for an invitation from my sister. Hospitality isn’t her strong suit.”

“How do you find the music?” Sylvie asked.

“We saw a flyer in the laundromat,” Ade said.

Sylvie tipped her head, and her frown deepened, the silence stretching between them. Ade took a breath, gifting her a couple of seconds to process what was happening.

“It’s wonderful, isn’t it? I had no idea what to expect.” Steph gestured to the waiter for more drinks. “We were just doing our laundry and were on our way back to the apartment.”

“You’re renting locally?” Sylvie raised her eyebrow.

“Up there.” Ade pointed to her building. “We found an apartment on the fifth floor. It’s eighty-four steps.”

Steph leaned in. “I’m heading to Spain tomorrow for a little tour of my own.”

“Really?” Sylvie asked.

“A gap year,” said Steph. “I can’t wait.”

“Are you on your way to professorship, like your sister?”

“I don’t quite have the academic brain that Ade does.

” Steph laughed, nudging Ade’s elbow. “I’m more of a people person.

I graduated in nursing, and I’ve got an internship to get back to when I’m done.

But I always said I’d love to travel before I finally settle into full-time work.

When Ade was heading to Europe, it seemed like a win-win to settle her in and head off from here. ”

“So, you’re leaving your sister to her day job while you enjoy the student life for a little longer. How about you, Ade, you didn’t fancy hosteling through Europe?”

“I like the idea of traveling, but I’m not a fan of unpredictability or lack of routine. Plus, I have a job to do.” Ade rubbed the edge of the table.

Sylvie’s hair bounced as she nodded. “Very conscientious of you.”

“I didn’t have a choice.” Ade folded her arms, resentment bubbling up in her stomach.

“And why’s that?”

“My boss said if I didn’t do it this year, I might not be able to stay in my job back in Monterey.”

Sylvie sat back in her chair. “Well, we have something in common, after all. My boss has handed me a similar ultimatum. Let’s drink to our collective stoicism this year.

” She clinked her glass to Ade’s beer bottle as the strings revived their melody.

With Sylvie and Steph’s attention on the musicians, Ade sank into the chair and traced Sylvie’s picture-perfect cheekbones with her gaze.

The candlelight trembled in the evening breeze, and a shadow danced across Sylvie’s joyful face, while her chest inflated with every phrase of the music.

Ade sipped her beer, desperate to feel something other than a socially unpalatable urge to look, to memorize, to absorb every detail of her new colleague’s appearance.

This was new. This desire to hold onto the moment and fix Sylvie in her mind.

Was it the strangeness of the city? Nothing would feel like home for a while.

Maybe Sylvie would be someone safe to talk to when Steph left.

Steph crossed her legs, relaxed in the flow of the evening. Ade yearned for that kind of repose. To take something in so naturally, instead of analyzing every interaction as if she were performing an autopsy.

Steph would be gone tomorrow, but for the first time since they’d left home, hope rooted in Ade’s heart and her pulse steadied. Could she stay in this moment, anchored by Sylvie’s candlelit profile? That might not be so bad.