After putting the soup on the stove, I finally took the time to check my phone. I had decided that it was best to leave Cain to his devices for the time being, but when I saw the endless list of notifications on my phone, I somewhat regretted that decision.

Amongst all the notifications, a few important ones stood out.

First, JJ had fallen ill, so Manon needed someone ASAP to fill his shift. So, she asked me if I was willing to sacrifice, and I quote, ‘a morning of my family-dedicated’ time, to come and work at the cafe. She promised a full day’s pay for a half-shift, and as much as I didn’t want to go, still being on leave until Monday, I couldn’t say no to money that wasn’t linked to my father.

The rest of the important messages were from Etienne. He wanted to know if I was alright, or if I needed to be picked up from somewhere. I smiled to myself, knowing that between Etienne and Cain, I wouldn’t be getting into dangerous situations anymore.

Etienne also sent me a meme of a cat pressing on random buttons of an unplugged coffee maker with the caption ‘Alex tried to work at the counter today’. With an endearing smile, I started typing out a response.

“What are you smiling like that for?” Cain asked as he entered the kitchen.

He had changed into a pyjama set (likely fished out of one of my drawers), which was just a tad too big for him. Which reminded me of the other issue at hand: buying clothes. Thankfully I still had enough money left on my personal bank account for an Amazon order or two.

“Someone I like sent me a message.” I replied as I headed to my room to get my laptop.

I could hear him scoff at that comment, at which I rolled my eyes.

“Now, have you ever used a laptop before?” I asked as I returned.

“I’m not stupid.” He replied, in a semi-offended tone.

“That’s not what I’m asking.” I said as I opened the shopping app. I didn’t wait for an answer, as I continued. “This shows you stuff you can buy, you can click on things by moving this cursor with the trackpad, and pressing here. And here is where you type what you want, for example ‘shoes’, so you can see a list of the available options. Got it?”

He nodded.

“Good, then pick out some clothes for yourself, for the size just put in your age, or ‘S’ if they have letter-sizing. Dinner will be ready in 10.”

“Alright.” He said with a serious tone.

I watched as he tried to figure out how to move the cursor, with great focus, before returning to replying to my text messages. If I were to take that extra shift tomorrow, which it now looked like I had no choice but to take, it meant I’d have to leave the kid unsupervised for half a day. Not only did he have nothing to wear outside, but I also wasn’t sure how he’d react to seeing the busy streets of Paris for the first time. He’d need to go outside at some point, of course, but not on a Saturday morning, and not in one of the busiest districts of Paris.

This also meant that I’d have to explain to him what not to do in order not to hurt himself in an apartment.

***

“And that’s how you dial 112 with the landline. Got it?” I asked, as I put on my shoes in the entryway. “I will be back at 2, but if my bus is late I can get home as late as 2:30, so don’t worry if I’m not here right away, okay?”

“Just go already.” Cain said in exasperation.

Once I was fully dressed, I gave him one last worried look. After a shower, a good night’s sleep, and some decent hand-me-down clothes, he looked much more like a normal child and much less like an overpowered killing machine.

“I am not a child, nor am I incompetent. I will be in this exact same spot when you come back.” He said in an annoyed tone.

“You don’t have to stay in that exact spot.” I spoke. “In fact, you probably shouldn’t-”

With an annoyed noise, he threw his hands up in the air and stormed off to the makeshift bedroom.

“Shit.” I swore as I noticed the time on my phone. “I have to run, I’ll be back at two.” I repeated as I dashed out of the apartment.

***

On the bus journey to the café, my thoughts drifted to what story I’d be telling Etienne, and to a lesser degree Manon. I was certain that my manager didn’t give half a crap about my personal life, so I could get away with some poor excuse, but when it came to Etienne, I had to be more careful. He knew a lot about me, and although I had tried to stay as vague as possible when it came to my family, he still knew that I wasn’t close with them, so unlike Manon, he probably suspected that my leave was not related to that.

I sigh. Maybe the easiest thing was to tell him the truth. Or at least part of it.

As I got off my bus, I was surprised to see none other than my crush, waiting for me, with his bike at his side.

“I heard you were summoned by our empress today.” He greeted me with a cheeky smile.

“Oh, so she’s an empress now?” I joked. “Last time I checked that hag didn’t ascend past the title of ‘lady’.”

We laughed and continued our journey up Montmartre in silence. What had at first been a light-hearted greeting, slowly turned into an uncomfortable silence.

“So, how was your leave?”

“I heard Alex did a horrible job-”

We spoke at the same time.

“Sorry, you go first.” I apologised.

He opened his mouth, as if to tell me to speak first, but shook his head before repeating his question.

“Yeah, it went alright.” I said. “I met some old German dude who paid 20€ for a drawing of mine, and my little cousin is now staying with me for a while.”

“I didn’t know you sold drawings.” Etienne pensively replied, as if trying to remember if I had mentioned that before. “Nor that you had a cousin.” He added.

“Oh, I don’t.” I reassured him. “I got distracted for a second, and the dude stormed off with my sketch and left a 20€ note in his place.”

“For a second I thought you were gonna say that you got distracted and got yourself a cousin.” Etienne joked.

“I mean, that too.” I teased him back.

“And how do you know that guy left the 20€ for your drawing, and didn’t just drop the bill as he was running away? I need more details.” Etienne continued, having returned to his light-hearted persona.

“Well, he put it in my sketchbook, as in actually inside it, so I doubt he did it by accident.”

Etienne gave me a look that was both confused and amused at the same time.

“No, but listen, I was sitting on this bench, then I got up, and when I came back my drawing was gone, the German grandpa was gone, and I had 20€.” I explained as I gestured around to accentuate my point.

“Why did you get up?” Etienne asked, still clearly trying to piece the story together.

“Because of the giant octopus.” I explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Where did you find yourself a giant octopus?!”

“At the lake!”

“At what lake?”

With a hand gesture, I told Etienne that I gave up. I knew it wasn’t his fault for not following, but I couldn’t get into any more details. The whole point of doing this operation on my own was to make sure he stayed safe and sound, and got involved as little as possible.

“What about your cousin?” He asked.

“He wasn’t at the lake.” I replied.

“So he didn’t see the art thief.”

“No, why would you think that?” I asked, confused.

“Well I don’t know, you said he’s your little cousin, so I assumed he’s that age where you have to walk them everywhere otherwise they’ll jump under a horse and die. Unless you meant ‘little cousin’ in a purely semantic way, and he’s actually our age-”

“Did one of your cousins get hit by a horse? How? Where?” I asked, in an artificially outraged tone, trying to change the subject.

Etienne didn’t have time to reply.

“Dubois, Soula, could you please be bothered to hurry up?” A familiar voice called out from higher up the street.

Etienne and I both exchanged a look. We must have walked really slowly, if even Manon and her unparkable car had managed to get to the shop before us.

“Yes, sorry.” I apologised.

“We’re coming.” Etienne added, as we both hastily caught up to Manon.