‘Ah…?’ My mind spins what to say. Do I outright deny it, or admit the truth?
He gives me his lopsided grin. ‘It’s OK. Your secret is safe with me. I just wanted to pass on my personal thanks.’
‘So it’s just friendship between you and Coraline, nothing more?’
‘Nothing more. But that’s enough for now.’
‘How do you know it’s me?’
‘A friend.’
‘Who?’
‘You’ll see.’
‘Why all the mystery?’
‘Why not?’
‘OK. While I’ve got you, that calligraphy letter you gave me, was that story about the apartment in the 4th all a lie?’
He frowns. ‘No, the abandoned apartment was real.’
‘But the letter insideMadame Bovary?’
He has the grace to blush. ‘Another gift from your secret admirer.’
‘Who is…?’
‘Enraptured with you and got a bunch of us to help, because he wanted to romance you the way you would enjoy. He’s a great guy. Speaking of, here’s one last letter from him.’
I narrow my eyes. What is going on? I open the letter and all it says is:
Meet me at the Jean Rictus garden square
‘Give love a chance, Lilou. You’ve helped so many others. Now it’s your turn.’
Geneviève sashays back in and reads the letter over my shoulder. ‘Ooh, the love interest! Well, what are you waiting for, Lilou? Go! I’ll watch Ephemera for you.’
‘What if it’s someone I don’t know? Or worse, don’t like? What if he’s a cat smuggler, a serial killer?’
Geneviève turns to Pierre. ‘See what I’m working with here?’
He smirks. ‘Go, Lilou. What have you got to lose but a bit of time?’
‘Think of what you’ve got to gain! You tell people all the time to trust in the process. It’s time for you to trust in this.’
‘But…’ But they’re right. What if this is the man of my dreams? There is a man I’ve come to adore, but I can’t even admit it to myself most days. ‘Fine, I’ll go. But I just need to do one thing first.’ I log on to the Paris Cupid website and type. I’m not going to hide any more. I have nothing to be ashamed of.
I’m writing today to demystify the truth about who I am and why I built Paris Cupid. My name is Lilou Babineaux and I’m Cupid. I wanted to remain anonymous because I didn’t think matches would trust in a matchmaker who couldn’t find love herself, and because some of my past relationships were a disaster. But what I’ve learned along the way is thatthose disasters are part of the journey to finding real and everlasting love. We’ve all had relationships that didn’t work, betrayals of trust – I am just the same as my matches who only want to believe that love is out there for them, it’s just a matter of finding it. I wanted to bring the lost art of love-letter writing back so we’d have these keepsakes in the future and we could look back to the past and remember how it felt in that first bloom of love by sharing all of our hopes and dreams on paper. I’m incredibly proud of Paris Cupid and the commitment each match has made to try this new way of finding love, friendship or a pen pal. That’s all I hoped for. After all, isn’t life so much better when you’ve got someone to correspond with? I hope by sharing who I am, you’ll understand my motivations were pure. All I ever wanted was to help ease the lost, the lonely and the heartbroken, but it’s developed into so much more than that. I might not be the matchmaker you imagined, but I promise you, I’m good at what I do. And I did it all for you.
I post it on the site and on my personal social media accounts. ‘OK, I’m ready.’ From behind the desk I grab my personal diary and shove it in my handbag and dash out the shop, but not before I see my neighbours’ eyes trained on me. Does that mean it’s not one of them?
32
I thank the taxi driver and jump out at Jean Rictus garden square. I smother a smile when I see where I am. The famous Wall of I Love You. Where the sentiment ‘I love you’ is written in over two hundred and fifty languages. That’s a lot of love languages. I gaze around, trying to spot who my secret admirer is, but can’t see anyone. Then I spot a familiar face. Coraline.
She walks over and hands me a bunch of long-stemmed red roses. ‘Red roses symbolise passion, desire and romance. These are from your secret admirer, and he’ll be along shortly.’
