“Victoire? But when?”

“I ran into him after I left the Orsay museum. He’s already pleaded your case for you, so you don’t have to go through the trouble. Now give me my key.”

I held out my hand and waited. Sebastian dropped his head and sighed.

“Forgive me. I should have been honest with you from the beginning. God was trying to tell me something when you found Julie’s bear under my bed, but I didn’t want to listen. I was afraid of scaring you away, and we had so little time together…”

Looking up again, he continued, “But you must believe me when I tell you there has been no one else in my life for a long, long time. There was no one when I met you, and now there is only you.”

I looked at his earnest expression.

“Victoire was right. You do have a silver tongue. You make everything sound good, even lies. Well, I’m through listening. If you don’t give me the key I’m going to start yelling.”

For one endless minute, we stared at each other wordlessly. Then he placed the key on my waiting palm and left.