The Call Boy I Met in Paris – Episode 72
Sophie expected a quiet dinner where she could interrogate Justin between courses. Instead, the French restaurant stood empty when they arrived, every table immaculate and every candle unlit. “Why is no one else here?” she asked. “Did you book the entire venue?”
Justin adjusted his cuff with suspicious innocence. “I suppose I did.”
Before she could object to the extravagance, he disappeared behind a partition. The room darkened, then warm lights rose over flowers, a small cake, and a framed photograph of Sophie’s mother.
“Justin, what is going on?”
He returned carrying a bouquet. “Happy birthday, Sophie.”
She looked from him to the cake. “I do not celebrate my birthday.”
“I know.” His gaze moved to the photograph. “Your birthday is the anniversary of your mother’s death.”
Sophie nodded. For twenty years, celebration had felt like a betrayal, so she treated the date as something to survive in private.
Justin placed the bouquet beside the portrait. “These flowers are for her. I want her to know you are not alone anymore.”
The anger she still carried over his identity did not disappear, but it lost its sharpest edge. Wealth could reserve a restaurant; it could not manufacture the care with which he had included the mother Sophie refused to forget.
“I will always be by your side,” he said. “I think she would be happy knowing that.”
“Thank you.” Sophie touched the frame, then turned back to him. “Thank you, Justin.”
He lit the candle and told her to make a wish. For the first time, Sophie wanted something beyond surviving her family: a marriage that no longer depended on payment, secrets, or an expiration date.
Her phone rang before she blew out the flame. Ted wished her happy birthday and asked whether she had recovered from the café. Sophie told him she was feeling better and that she was with Justin.
A short silence followed. Ted said he understood, wished her a good evening, and ended the call.
Justin watched her smile. “Why so happy?”
“Nothing.” She reached for his hand. “I am just enjoying the evening.”
Outside the restaurant, Ted lowered his phone and looked through the window at them together. “Happy birthday, Sophie,” he murmured. The choice in her smile was unmistakable, and this time he accepted it.