I said something friendly in response, but he disappeared into his room without a word. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, so I put his attitude down to his stressful work situation. He was obviously on edge. As for Valérie, she seemed surprised: ‘It’s strange seeing him react like that. Usually he doesn’t give a damn what I do. I had the feeling I could go out for dinner with Brad Pitt and he wouldn’t even bat an eyelid. Apparently I was wrong …’ I wanted to tell her what I knew: that her husband might have been incapable of expressing this recently, but he loved her. But that wasn’t what she saw at all. Once she’d got over the initial shock, all she perceived in her husband’s behaviour was misplaced bitterness. She was deeply unimpressed by his attitude. It was intolerable, she said, to bemoan a situation while doing nothing to fix it. I even heard her hiss: ‘It’s pathetic.’ Relations between the two of them were more explosive than ever.

47

We took our seats in a charming little bistro. Valérie explained that she’d never been here before: ‘I often walk past it though. I’ve always dreamed of coming in, but I was waiting for the right occasion.’ She wanted us to order drinks straight away. ‘Why don’t we get some champagne to start?’ I wasn’t sure what I could do to curb her enthusiasm. Of course I was thrilled that she was so invested in the evening; this was an opportunity for me to get to know my character even better (I wanted to know more, for instance, about the reasons behind the obvious tensions with her sister). But I was absolutely determined to avoid any ambiguities. While I liked this woman, I saw her above all with the eye of an entomologist dissecting a beetle. Clearly we were not on the same wavelength at that moment. Valérie’s opening salvo confirmed my suspicions.

‘Well, it’s not every day that I go out for dinner with a writer. I mean, it is quite exciting.’

‘I don’t know why you think that. Writers are mostly pretty dull.’

‘You’re not. I think you’re quite sparkling in your interviews. I’ve watched everything I can find on the internet. People adore you.’

‘Not everybody.’

‘Are you talking about Le Masque et la Plume? I listened to that show. It’s true they were hard on you. But they’re like that with everyone. Every time I listen to it, it’s brutal. I think it’s over the top, personally. You can critique a book without being so hateful. Frankly, all I feel for them is contempt.’

‘Oh, don’t say that. Your words might end up in my book, and I don’t want them to take offence. I’m terrified of them. Say something nice about them, please!’

‘Seriously?’

‘Yes.’

‘Um, all right … I think it takes a lot of courage … to express your opinion so strongly … Is that okay?’

‘Yes, very good. Keep going.’