When I arrived at Jean-Luc's flat he was still in bed. The door was answered by a tall, slim, dark-haired girl wearing only one of his shirts over her knickers. She introduced herself as Natacha, and called out to Jean-Luc:
"That English mate of yours, I think."
"Get up, you lazy bastard!" I shouted.
"Jo? Shit!" There was an almighty clattering noise from the bedroom.
I'd made good time from Angers to Blois. Being deposited on the highway by my previous night's host before 7 that morning helped, and Jean-Luc was never an early riser, but a single lift -- a trucker, of course, who'd thought at first I was an off-duty national serviceman -- brought me all the way. Two hours thirty through Angers and Tours rush hours in a speed-limited wagon wasn't bad. I'd never been to the flat before, but the second person I asked knew the street and pointed me on my way.
I'd slept OK and felt reasonably bright given the amount of wine and beer I'd consumed the previous night with Georges, and of course the energetic shagging, sucking and licking I'd had with his daughter Marielle after hours. As expected, I'd felt guilty about Alana as soon as I woke up, but after a blast of strong black coffee, an unaccustomed French cigarette, and its concomitant coughing-fit, I reflected along with Kerouac that 'The Road Is Life' and I'd better get back on it
Perhaps that was the beginning of acceptance.
Jean-Luc had been my foreign language exchange partner when we were both fourteen, the pair of us spending a month in each other's homes over the summer of that year. He was the most laid-back Frenchman I'd ever met, with little of his fellow-countrymen's customary prickliness around cultural expectations in such vital matters as the proper temperature of beer or the correct way to cut cheese. He loved rugby and films, had been baffled by cricket and disappointed that there was no proper arthouse cinema in my home town ("Trouble is, there's no British film industry" I told him "And the cinema chains only want American blockbusters anyway.")
Now he had completed his military service, which presumably meant getting up before ten o'clock every day for two years, and was working as a commis-chef in his father's restaurant. This was not, like Yann, because he was dedicated to making a success of the family business, but because he couldn't think of anything better to do, his father was unlikely to sack him, and he could pursue waitresses, which he did with application and gusto, sending me detailed updates in each of his irregular letters.
He flew out of the bedroom in just his jeans, arms held wide to embrace me.
"Why didn't you call? Oh, this is Natacha, by the way."
He was smaller than me, but his scrum-half's strength squeezed most of the breath out of my lungs.
"We've met. And I don't have your number. Didn't even know you had a phone."
Remember this was all taking place in the Olden Times, when there weren't even any personal computers and email, never mind smartphones capable of instant-messaging anyone in the world. Friendships and love-affairs had to be conducted face to face, or by pen and paper, or by using clunky blocks of plastic wired into a physical network of copper cables that frequently failed and cost a substantial amount of money to use.
He made coffee. Natacha got dressed and bade us farewell.
"See you tonight" she told Jean-Luc.
"She's a waitress at my Dad's gaff" he told me. "I'm cooking at midday and tonight, but why don't you call in at the end of the lunchtime stint this afternoon? I'll rustle you up something and you can meet my noble ancestors again."
I accepted happily, then asked if it was OK to stay there for a few days. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me before that there might be a girlfriend in attendance. Knowing Jean-Luc, that was a negligent omission.
He didn't miss a beat.
"Sure. No problem. That's a fold-out sofa you're sitting on. I've known you longer than I've known Natacha, and I don't think she's going to be sticking around, somehow. Hey -- how's your love-life? Perhaps we can find you a waitress too?"
I told him about Alana. A similar version to the one I'd told Georges, adjusted for the ears of a bloke my own age rather than a father-figure, with more sex but still leaving out the specialised interests.
"Bad luck, mate. Bretons can be stubborn bastards."
He showed me how to fold down the sofa, and dragged a spare duvet from a closet in the bathroom. I'd thought I was well enough rested, but when I saw the bed laid out in front of me I felt immensely weary, conscious of the distances I'd travelled -- physical, emotional, sexual -- over the past few days.
"Sleep" said Jean-Luc. "I've got to go start prepping for lunch, so rest up. You remember where the restaurant is? Good. I'll see you there at two-thirty. I'll save some of the special for you."
Jean Delgado Senior was, as his surname suggested, of Spanish descent, his own father a refugee from the Spanish Civil War. His restaurant, L'Etoile du Nord -- The Northern Star -- had been so named when he acquired it, just before Jean-Luc and I were paired by our schools as exchange partners. There wasn't a whole lot northern about the menu there, which relied on Jean Senior's childhood favourites and contained large quantities of chick peas, olives, and garlic. Jean-Luc was always trying to persuade him to change the name to something more authentically Hispanic to advertise its specialities. "The food's authentic" his dad replied every time "That's what people care about." The concept of 'peasant cuisine' has become quite fashionable in recent years. Jean Delgado was doing it forty years ago.
I walked through the door at precisely two-thirty, rested, wearing a clean shirt, and hungry, and was immediately carried back six years by the rich, heavy aroma of Jean's signature 'sopa de ajo' -- garlic soup.
Lunchtime at the Etoile was usually quiet, and there was rarely anyone working the shift except Jean-Luc, his dad, and his mother, Celeste. All participated like the well-practiced team they were in cooking, waiting tables, and greeting customers. There were none of those here now, but the three family members were all sitting at a corner table wearing aprons, sipping coffee. Jean Senior stood to greet me with a garlicky Spanish hug and kisses on both cheeks. Celeste followed suite.
"Joseph! Wonderful to see you. How are you? How are your parents? Sit down. Have some wine. Eat!"