A Paris Affair Read Free Page B

it take batteries?”
    “Nine-volt batteries. But both parts can also be plugged into an electrical socket.”
    “How far does it transmit?”
    “Fifty meters.”
    “I’ll take one.”
    “Excellent choice, madame. I’m sure you’ll find it extremely practical when your baby arrives. Do you know if it’s a girl or a boy?”
    Louise smiled.
    “Yes, it’s a girl. Her name is Rosie.”
    *   *   *
    Rosie was born a few days later. Back at home, she slept in her crib in a delightfully girly lilac-colored bedroom. And with the “Baby Monitor” Louise could hear every cry and whimper Rosie made.
    “What the hell is that?” asked Louise’s husband, Andr é , rendered rather surly by the night feeds and the way his life had been turned upside down by the arrival of this bawling, insatiable being.
    “It’s so I can listen to Rosie no matter where I am. It’s really practical. I can go down to see your mother on the first floor. I can even go across the road to buy bread.”
    A staticky sound came through the receiver, followed by a quivering cry of hunger.
    “Oh, our little angel wants more milk!” sang Louise.
    “Ugh, how do you unplug this thing?” Andr é sighed.
    *   *   *
    She could attach the receiver to her belt. Louise never tired of hearing that light, fragile breathing, all those sweet little baby sounds.
    At the other end of the apartment, far from the mauve bedroom, she held the receiver to her ear and listened to her daughter breathe. Terrified, like all mothers, by the thought of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Louise kept the device under her pillow at night, the volume turned to its lowest setting. Her husband was oblivious to this fact. Sometimes, when the silence seemed too loud, she would get up in a state of dread and tiptoe to Rosie’s room to check that she was still breathing. Then Louise would return to bed, reassured by the little start her baby made when she stroked her cheek.
    *   *   *
    “I still think you should try to lose some weight,” said Julietta, Louise’s best friend.
    Julietta was tall and slim. You would never have guessed she’d had two children.
    Three months after Rosie’s birth, however, Louise’s ankles were still swollen.
    Louise shrugged. “I know, I know. Andr é tells me that every day. But I don’t have the energy to start a diet.”
    “You should do it before it’s too late.”
    “Too late?”
    “The longer you leave it, the harder it gets. You’re nearly thirty, Louise. Be careful.”
    “Oh, give me a break.”
    “I’m saying this for your own good. And anyway, think about Andr é .”
    “What about Andr é ?”
    “Well, he probably wants his wife back. You were slender, before Rosie.”
    “I know.”
    “Men are fragile after a birth. My husband became depressed after our second child. It was him, not me, who got the famous baby blues! And my cousin’s husband kept cheating on her after the birth of their son.”
    “Andr é would never cheat on me.”
    “How can you be so sure?”
    “He has too much respect for me. He puts me on a pedestal. He would never do that.”
    “I admire your confidence, but I don’t think any woman can really be certain of that.”
    “Did yours cheat on you?”
    “I hope not. But to be perfectly honest, I have no idea.”
    “How would you react if he did?”
    “I’d be devastated. Crushed.”
    Rosie screamed through the receiver.
    “She’s always hungry, your daughter,” Julietta observed.
    Louise struggled to her feet and began walking toward the baby’s bedroom.
    “You’re right, Julietta. I need to lose ten pounds.”
    “More like twenty,” said Julietta.
    “I hate you.”
    “I’m the only one who can tell you the truth.”
    *   *   *
    Louise often went down from her fourth-floor apartment to see her mother-in-law on the first floor. The sexagenarian was very fond of her son’s wife.
    “I’m going to start a diet,” Louise told her.
    “That’s a good idea.”
    “Oh,