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“She’s not wrong,” Levi says.
“I went to Florida in the summer once!” I protest.
“You went to Orlando. That’s not the same as living in the heat all year long,” Levi says. I love that he knows that about my past. He rubs my back and Delphine peers at us both. She’s the only one of the staff who’s come to visit us in the Needles, and she’s probably the only one who looks at us indulgently.
I look up at him fondly.
“You two look like you’re itching to start gossiping in French,” Levi says. “Go ahead. I’ll go back to reassembling your desk.”
“Are you sure?” I ask. “It’s so rude.”
“Go ahead. It’s your language. You have the right to it. And I have to learn it someday.”
“But if you learn French,” Delphine says, “he will have no secrets left.”
“I think that’s the point,” I say, but I’m not mad about it. There’s something relieving about knowing that Levi knows my heart.
“Where, then, is the mystery, if there are no secrets?” she prods.
“I think we had enough of it at the start,” Levi says. “Go on. Parle avec ton amie.”
I know I’m flushing in happiness. I can feel it. I get out of my chair enough to kiss my husband properly, and even though it’s a G-rated kiss, it still packs a hefty punch. He smiles at me, and Delphine laughs in delight.
“You are so in love,” she says in her rapid-fire French.
I don’t even try to play it off. “It’s embarrassing,” I admit. “I thought all of these very high-minded things about how when I fell in love it would be very rational and balanced and gentle.”
She snorts. “What complete rubbish!” she says. “Love is a harsh and brutal master. It can be gentle and kind only when you submit to it, but the rest of the time, it is like going down a waterslide and not being sure where it will end.”
“That feels too close for comfort,” I admit.
“Well, for the record, I’m glad for you. Do you notice that you speak normally now?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
She cocks her head at me. “When you first came, you spoke English very carefully, and very…properly, but now when you speak English, you sound like a French boy again.”
“I hated that.”
“Why? It’s who you are. What do you care what strangers think of you? Assimilation comes at a great price.”
“How would you know? I think you lean into everything that would keep you from doing it.”
“When I first came, I assimilated as much as I could. I didn’t grow up exposed to English like you did, so I could not mimic the accent, but everything else, I went out of my way to give up my Frenchness. And then I realized that there were things I liked about being French. I’ll never not be French.”
“I’m not French, though.”
“Well, no one’s perfect,” she admits.
In the background, I hear Levi’s phone ring and the soft rumble of his voice as he answers. He comes to the door. “Baby boy, Patrick wants to talk to you and wants to know where your phone is.”
“It’s in my pocket. On silent,” I answer. “I always keep it on silent.”
“I swear to God you’ll be the death of me,” he says, and props up his phone against one of the cheeses. “I’m turning on the video.”
“That poor Camembert,” Delphine says.
Patrick instantly materializes on the screen, looking well-dressed and dapper. “Bastien, I just got an offer from the Chancellor. On a Saturday! He wants to make this go away.” He is walking while he talks. “For context, there were network trucks on that lawn yesterday, the alumni association’s fundraising letter goes out in nine days and it calls Fairhaven the most welcoming campus in Virginia, which is very much in opposition to Gay Professor Forced out of Job.” He uses air quotes.
