The entry chimes rang while I sat in the back of the store going through a box of old vinyls. I thought I had asked Kenji to lock the door because we were closed, it was time to clean.
"Ken you moron I asked you to shut the door!" I yelled dusting the cobwebs off me, I got up to go apologise to the customer and send them away.
I noticed a man browsing through the sheet music, if Baba saw this she would probably panic. I grit my teeth, I didn't want to confront some stranger!
"Um... excuse me sir," I spoke up, "we're closed."
"Closed?" He turned around.
Our eyes met, and I felt like I was sixteen again. He looked the same, in fact even more handsome now that he wasn't an awkward teenager anymore. His blue-green eyes were brighter than ever, everything about his face- it made me squeal on the inside.
"Ye-yes." I stuttered nervously looking at my shoes, "this is my grandma's store, I'm just looking after it for a while."
I could sense his gaze on me, he had a smile curled on his lips. Oh he knew the effect he had! I couldn't help but sneak in a few glances at him.
"If it's not too much to ask, can you please tell Baba I stopped by?" He ruffled his hair.
"Sure?" I frowned. Since when did he call my grandma Baba? Kenji and I have been calling her Baba since we were kids.
He thanked me and left the store, I shut the door after him and decided to look for my stupid sibling. He's so dense I often wonder how he made it past the age of 5.
It didn't take long, he was hiding behind a dresser and overhearing the whole conversation that went down.
"Hi brat." He waved at me.
"Dense himbo." I rolled my eyes at him.
"Soooooo...." He smiled mischievously, " you don't need to hide your face Emi! I can see you blush."
"Coming back to Monaco was a bad idea." I sighed.
"Why is that? what happened?" He asked.
"Stuff happened when I was a teenager and I thought I'd be way past it but I'm clearly not." I awkwardly laughed.
"If it's to do with your friends from high school, please remember Emiko! You are Emiko Nohara! The best screenwriter Japan has seen in a while, and all of them are trust fund babies."
"You dated them all." I scoffed.
"I never said they're ugly." He shrugged.
I let out a hearty laugh and smacked his shoulder playfully, we got back to cleaning out the store and arrange things.
Let me give you a little backstory to what the heck I'm doing in Monaco in a vintage store. I was born here, in fact I lived here till the age of 15. My parents work as investment bankers, they got an offer for a better pay in Geneva so that's where we went.
Until a few years ago, when my paternal grandfather fell ill so we moved back to Osaka where I continued my education. All the places I had been to, the cultures I had got to be part of inspired me to work on a story.
My Professor was so impressed by it, she set up a meeting for me with her husband who was a producer. And before I knew it, I was graduating from university while they were in talks of making a TV series out of my work!
I was pretty pleased with myself, and even my family was really happy for me. The first season fared very well, the audience loved it. Now the problem is, I have a horrible writer's block.
My Baba, invited me to come back to the place I called home. She said that a change of scenery would help my brain get back its creative edge, but so far all it has done is feel butterflies for a boy I liked when I was fifteen.
It has to be him, he was just like that. You know the people you lock eyes with once but you remain fascinated forever? The man who just left has to be him.
I heard knocks on the door, they brought me back to the present. I got up to see who it was and why they couldn't read the "sorry we're closed" sign on the door. It was Baba, waving at me to let her in.
"How has the cleaning come along?" She asked. "You'll get to eat goodies only if the job has been done well."
"Did you really miss us or did you just want free labour?" Kenji laughed dusting the furniture. "Before you try to defend yourself, some young man came looking for you-"
"Also he touched the sheet music but I didn't know how to stop him, he called you Baba too." I answered, trying to hide how flustered I was.
She looked at us, narrowing her eyes thinking about who it could be. She used to take piano lessons for the kids here and all of them fondly called her Baba, now all of them were young men and women who would come around often to see how she was doing.
"Brown hair, chiseled face, a nice stubble, blue green sunken eyes-"
"Charles! He stopped by? Why didn't you call me?" She scolded Kenji.
"Because I didn't know you wanted to meet him? Also who is he? A model I suppose?"
"Emiko," she looked at me, "don't you remember him? He used to go to school with you!"
Oh I remember him alright, a lot more than I intended to. I shook my head to convey I didn't, that was years ago I explained.
"Do your friends know you are in town?" She asked.
"I don't have friends here." I smiled awkwardly. She looked at Kenji, expecting him to answer the same question. "He has more exes than friends here." I laughed.
"And she's lying, she has a friend here." He spoke up.
"Not Matteo," I sighed, "he'll host a reunion if he figures out I'm here."
"What about your other friends? You know the, the blonde one!" She smiled expectantly.
"Do NONE of you remember the last time I came here for the summer?"
"I remember some of it, can't be arsed to care about what happened to you." Kenji picked up the feather duster again.
Baba started scolding him for being rude but it had no effect on him, he continued laughing and poking fun at me. At this point I was immune, besides that summer was years ago! I wasn't 17 anymore.
I told Baba that I was getting tired of dusting old things and wanted to go sit down at a café for a bit, she told me to take Kenji along which is something I would definitely not do. So the next best thing naturally was to just sprint out of the store.
The streets were so familiar yet so different! The first thing I did was get onto a bus and go down my everyday route from school to home, Monaco was changing a lot. The tiny principality was getting so crowded with all the skyscrapers and random buildings. To my delight, the apartment building I called home was still intact, they would have thought I'm such a creep for just standing at the entrance and smiling at the sky.
"Emiko! Is that you!" A voice with a very heavy Italian accent exclaimed.
It was Matteo, and he was running towards me now, with grocery bags in his hands. As much as I had been avoiding him, I was actually kind of glad to see him again. I waved at him to confirm that indeed was me.
"How have you been and where have you been!?" Matteo grinned, giving me a bone crushing hug.
"I've been good Teo!" I managed to squeal before my ribs started hurting.
"How have you been?" I asked holding onto his hands.
"I've been great! I followed my interests and now you're looking at Elsa's Newest Chef de Partie." He beamed proudly.
"I'm so happy for you!" I hugged him. "Will you join me? I'm on my hunt for a café to sit down and do absolutely nothing."
He looked at me in confusion, "Is this really Emiko? What did you do to my Emi?"
"What are you saying?" I laughed.
"The Emi I knew would avoid humanity altogether if she could, and you.... Are inviting someone to join you at the café?"
I couldn't help but laugh again, he was right. I don't really like the label, but I have always been somewhat of an introvert. Matteo has always been a loud and jolly extrovert, he was my first friend.
There was a lot to catch up about, it was silly of me to think that I should avoid running into Matteo. Who knows? Maybe this could be the summer I reclaimed Monte Carlo.