When Karen opened the Sunday newspaper, the last thing she expected to see was a photo of her first boyfriend, Leon. That part of her life belonged in another country, a lifetime ago.
She’d been a young literature student in search of adventure. The offer of a scholarship to study at the Sorbonne in Paris for 12 months had been irresistible. And when she’d met the handsome French professor... Well, he’d been irresistible too. For the best part of a year, they’d shared an apartment on the Left Bank. They’d walked the streets of Paris arm in arm, gazed at the Seine by moonlight, and felt like part of the city’s literary soul, meeting writers and poets in bustling cafes.
She’d studied contemporary French drama, and Leon wrote poetry.
Time flew. All too soon, her scholarship expired. She’d returned home, full of plans for further study at the Sorbonne. But it wasn’t to be. Leon had remained in Paris and she decided to stay in London.
We never actually broke up, she thought, sipping her coffee. They’d simply
