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He smells her first. A unique blend of gardenia and lily with an undertone of citrus that she’s been wearing since the day he had met her. He turns and catches her silhouette in the front window of the small, less travelled, unique books shop he’d found himself in that afternoon. He was in the loft looking for a specific book he’d been told was there, but he wondered why she was there. She was facing the window so he couldn’t see what she was doing or looking at. He leans against the bannister and watches her intently for a few moments before straightening and stepping back as she turns.She only turns to the side and he notices that the book in her hand was the one he had been scouring bookstores in Paris for. It only takes a nanosecond for his eyes to divert from the book to the round of her stomach. It was still early in fall so all she was dressed in were a pair of black cigarette pants and a men’s crisp white button down, her feet encased in pair of sensible black leather pumps.He watches with curiosity as she adds the book to the stack that was sitting by the register and speaks to the store clerk, her right hand rubbing back and forth across the underside of her belly. The older woman gestures up towards the loft and, from the little French he knew, tells her that there were more books upstairs. He panics for a moment that she might be coming up to the loft that had no escape. He didn’t know why he was so terrified to actually come face to face with her. It had been forty or so years already. He missed her terribly…God if there was any one in the entire world he missed It was her.Downstairs, she laughs and rebuffs the woman’s offer, indicating her stomach and giving a playful roll of the eyes, most likely telling her that it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to climb the ladder. It only takes a few minutes to pay for the books and have them bagged up, and in an instant she’s gone in the jingle of a bell above the door.Years later when browsing through the Sanctuary library he spots the book on a shelf section dedicated to vampires. He carefully pulls it out from its place sandwiched between the other bound tomes and flips the cover open, his brow furrowing when he finds an aged piece of paper inside.
You should have said hi.