Alex

Today is Valentines Day

"Do I smell nice?" Miss Eclair asked me.

"Yes, are you wearing perfume?"

"Yes, mother said I should smell nice for Alex."

"I see."

"I'll be going now."

"Goodbye."

I spent the day making a cake for Madame, she was coming back from a long vacation. Why she needed a cake when she barely nibbled carrots, I didn't know.

I anxiously waited for Eclairs return, I had always been against the idea that her mother would pick a boy for her and I had a feeling that today wouldn't end well.

I hurried to her room when I heard the soft tapping of her feet, but Madame got there first.

"Alex and I have decided we don't love each other," I heard Eclair calmly say.

"What?" Madame yelled, "the first acceptable boy in five years and you're telling me you don't love each other!"

"Yes."

"You are forbidden from the banquet celebrating my return," Madame said coldly and stormed away.

"I didn't want to go," Eclair said stubbornly when I came in, but her eyes told me otherwise.

I hugged her but she just awkwardly stood there.

"He's in love with Diane, he told me. He said he was sorry, I told him I didn't love him either and that I was sorry as well."

"I see."

"Hey," Miss Eclair said, "is love real?"

I wasn't surprised at the question, with her parents as examples, love was pretty unbelievable.

"Of course it is," I told her, "after all, we're in France."

"So?"

"What's that saying again? Il n'est rien de réel que le rêve et l'amour."*

"If you say so."

"I do."

Miss Eclairs lips curled into a smile, "in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer.

I laughed and hugged her again.

Later, when Miss Eclair was stuck in her room because she wasn't allowed to the banquet, I snuck her a piece of cake.


*Nothing is real but dreams and love.