‘What he must do is kick your bottom round this bar and out into the road,’ Liselle snarled. ‘You could possibly have materially broken Leo’s public profile with that photograph.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ Jean jerked again in his seat a bit too violently. The chair fell backwards and his cousin disappeared under the tablecloth.

Leo half-rose and leant over, watching with a frown as Jean struggled to get again up. ‘You okay there? You want a hand?’

‘No, I’m superb.’ Flushed with embarrassment, Jean set the seat upright and sat down once more, although with marked care this time. ‘The factor is, folks have been speaking about you, Leo. Saying you’re washed up. That you just haven’t had an actual exhibition in years.’ He glanced angrily at Liselle. ‘I did him a favour, promoting that photograph to the press. Now everybody’s speaking about him once more. And that exhibition you’ve bought lined up? You watch, it’ll be a giant success now.’

Leo regarded him coldly. He couldn’t deny that what Jean stated was true. Notoriety did publicise a creative exhibition greater than good behaviour. However his mood wasn’t lessened. ‘Perhaps so. However Maeve didn’t deserve what you’ve accomplished to her. They put her title on that press report.’

Jean shrugged. ‘So?’

‘There could also be folks again dwelling in the UK who’ll see that. As you stated, it’s doing the rounds on social media. She works as a instructor. Did you by no means suppose that photograph is perhaps damaging to her profession? Being seen with somebody like me? I’m hardly respectable, am I?’

‘Ha, no one cares about that form of factor anymore.’ Jean dismissed his criticism with a impolite gesture. ‘She’s extra more likely to be promoted.’

‘Nonsense,’ Leo stated flatly. ‘And what if she has a boyfriend again dwelling? What’s he going to suppose when he sees that?’

Jean lowered his gaze to the desk. ‘Okay, I get your level.’ He hesitated. ‘Although Maeve doesn’t strike me because the form of girl who has a boyfriend, in case you see what I imply.’

‘Truly, I don’t.’ There was a harmful notice in Leo’s voice.

The waiter arrived with their order. Liselle accepted her cognac from the waiter, her gaze mounted on Jean’s averted face.

‘The true level, Jean,’ she stated, ‘is that you just labored in opposition to the household by placing out that {photograph} and making it look as if Leo and Maeve are having a relationship. Not solely in opposition to the household, however me too.’ Fury flashed in her eyes. ‘That wasn’t very pleasant, was it?’

Jean stated nothing.

‘Now we’ve got to determine what to do about it,’ Liselle went on.

‘There’s no we. I shall determine,’ Leo informed her.

Jean gave a burst of disbelieving laughter. ‘You possibly can’t sack me, Leo. Your grandmother would by no means enable it.’ His look was nearly gloating, for it was true that Grandmère had a gentle spot for Jean.

‘My grandmother doesn’t run the enterprise,’ Leo identified softly, ‘I do. And whereas, sure, she could favour you as her brother’s solely son, that doesn’t imply she’ll be pleased when she sees that {photograph} you took. You understand how extremely she prizes the Rémy household title. In actual fact,’ he added intentionally, ‘I’ll be stunned if she ever needs to speak to you once more after this.’

His cousin was trying troubled now. He shifted uncomfortably, taking a deep gulp of his cognac. ‘All proper, yeah, let’s say it was a mistake. However you’ll be able to’t blame me. I used to be indignant since you’d spoken to me so sharply. I… I wasn’t pondering straight. However you’ll be able to’t sack me for it, Leo.’ He leant ahead, bitter desperation in his face, ‘What would I do? How would I reside?’

‘It is best to have considered that earlier than you offered my personal life to the press.’

There was a stir behind him. Leo noticed folks’s heads flip in the direction of the door. Liselle choked on her cognac. Jean stared over Leo’s shoulder, his eyes widening, a glance of sudden trepidation on his face.

Earlier than he might flip to see what was taking place, a well-recognized voice referred to as throughout the bar café, ‘Leo, my son!’ It was his father’s voice, deep and authoritative. ‘Simply the person I got here to see. Come, let me shake the hand of one in every of Paris’s most notorious artists… How lengthy has it been, eh?’

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Jerking to his toes, his pores and skin chilly, coronary heart thudding violently, Leo spun to glare at his father. He had supposed to say one thing chilly and slicing, to place his long-absent father again in his place. However a hand had already reached out to seize him, and he discovered himself being hugged and kissed ferociously.

Sébastien Rémy took a step again to review him, with a shout of amusement. ‘I believe you’ve grown, boy… My God, sure, you’ve grown. However what occurred to the beard? I’ve been telling Chanelle right here about this mad artist son of mine together with his lengthy hair and beard and his Bohemian methods… And now have a look at you. You could possibly be any fool in an workplace job.’ He shook his head in mock disapproval. ‘The place’s my wild, good-looking Leo gone, eh? What have you ever accomplished with him?’

With out ready for a solution, which was simply as nicely, as Leo had been knocked speechless by this extravagant entrance, his father squeezed him tight once more, nonetheless laughing, earlier than shifting to grip Jean’s hand and kiss his cousin on the cheek too.

‘Jean, my good friend… You look nicely. And that is your home now? Ah now, that’s a shrewd enterprise transfer. I prefer it… ’ He clapped Jean on the shoulder so violently that Jean staggered, spilling his drink. ‘However not as a lot as I’d like a few of what you’re ingesting. What’s that you just’re throwing concerning the place? Cognac? Wonderful selection, my boy. However let’s open a bottle or two of champagne. We have now one thing to rejoice… ’ Sébastien Rémy turned, indicating the gorgeous younger girl who had trailed in behind him, carrying a tailor-made, open-necked white shirt with dishevelled inexperienced culottes and a gold sash knotted about her waist. ‘That is my new spouse, Chanelle. Isn’t she essentially the most attractive piece of ass you’ve ever seen?’

‘For God’s sake, Dad,’ Leo floor out furiously, ‘preserve it down, would you?’

Everyone was staring eagerly at them, listening to each phrase. Among the prospects have been even filming on their telephones or taking pictures. None of that appeared to have deterred his father from making a public spectacle of himself.

To his shock, Leo felt sorry for the younger girl, who was smiling in a slick, skilled approach – she was a mannequin, in any case, and little question used to being the centre of consideration – however together with her fingers clasped earlier than her chest, indicating nervousness, maybe? The gossip column piece had stated she was carrying a baby. That would additionally account for the pressure he thought he might detect in her face, particularly as Sébastien made a degree of guiding her ahead to be launched to them.

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