Your Perfect Year(100)

“Quite a lot,” Jonathan said proudly. “I took your advice to heart: I’ve been running my life according to what the diary tells me.”

“How’s it going?”

“Wonderfully!” He began to count off on his fingers. “I’ve given up jogging and started playing tennis, I meditate every day, and every morning and evening I write down all the things I’m grateful for. During the last two months I’ve been to the coast more times than in the whole of the last five years, I’ve started singing again—even if it’s only in the car and the shower—and I’ve been learning Italian.”

“Wow! It sounds like you’re keeping busy.”

“It’s fine. I’m doing most of it in my spare time.”

“And how’s the publishing industry?”

“Going well,” Jonathan replied evasively.

“So everything’s back in the black?”

“Not quite yet.” It was Jonathan’s turn to put a large piece of flan in his mouth.

“You haven’t made any changes, then,” Leopold said.

“I’m on the case.”

“Hmm.”

“What do you mean, ‘hmm’?”

Leopold waved a hand. “Let’s move on, before I step on your toes again. I think this calls for another slice.”

“Excellent idea!” Jonathan was about to stand when his eyes fell on the door, and on the two women who had just come through it. One of them was tall and slim, with red hair; the other was a head shorter, with a curvaceous figure and a tousled short haircut.

Jonathan N. Grief felt as though someone had bashed him over the head.

Or like a firework had been lit inside him and was about to explode.

As if he were four years old again and was about to find the longed-for Carrera racetrack set beneath the Christmas tree.

Or his mother was about to take him in her arms and gently whisper “Nicolino” in his ear.

However absurd it sounded, he, Jonathan N. Grief, knew he was in love. And he had no idea who with.

For no sooner had this incredibly beautiful red-haired woman appeared in the café than she was gone again, sweeping out through the door and vanishing from view. In a reflexive action, Jonathan had risen a few inches from his chair and was about to push the table aside to run after the woman when Leopold’s voice brought him back to reality.

“Hello? What’s the matter?”

“I’m sorry?”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Um,” he stammered, “uh, no, um, it’s nothing.” He continued to stare at the door.

Leopold turned. “Who’s there?”

“No one,” Jonathan said quickly. “I just thought I recognized someone.”

“And that’s why you’ve gone as white as a sheet?”

“Have I?”

“Chalky white.”

“Oh.” Jonathan hesitated a moment longer, then pushed his way out from behind the table, almost knocking it over, and rushed to the door. He didn’t care whether or not it was the right thing to do; if he’d learned anything in the past few weeks, it was to say yes. And that was why, even if it meant making a fool of himself, he simply had to find out who this woman was.

Under the astonished gazes of the café patrons, Jonathan tore open the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. He looked left—nothing. And right—nothing. His heart racing, he ran to the nearest corner, but there was no sign of the red-haired woman. He hurried to the other end of the street. Also fruitless.

Slowly, he went back to the café but lingered outside for a few minutes in the wild hope that she might return.

She didn’t.

The door opened behind him after a while, and he heard Leopold’s voice.

“Are you coming back in? Or are you trying to make yourself scarce before the bill comes? There’s no need—this is my treat.”

Although he really didn’t feel like it, Jonathan found himself laughing.

“What’s up?” Leopold asked as they sat back down at the table and Jonathan stared into space. “I could do with a laugh.”

“It’s absurd,” Jonathan said, breathing heavily.

“What is?”

“I’ve fallen in love.”

“In love?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “I’ve got it bad.”

“I don’t think I’m getting you. You’ve fallen in love? Just now, or what?”

“Yes. A woman came in here. I just looked at her and something went boom.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Boom, bang-a-bang.”

“Which woman?” Leopold turned, craned his neck, and looked around the café.

“That’s the problem.” Jonathan laughed again. “She went straight back out and disappeared from the face of the earth. I couldn’t see her anywhere.”

“Shit.”

“Indeed.”

“Does this happen to you often?”

“What?”

“You know, this love-at-first-sight thing.”

Jonathan laughed. “No, never before! I don’t even believe in it.” He shook his head at himself. “But this woman . . . There was something about her. Oh, I don’t know. It sounds completely crazy.”