Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

ONLY TO BE READ IN THE CAFE MARQUIS, RUE DES FRANCS BOURGEOIS,
ACCOMPANIED BY CROISSANTS AND A LARGE CAFÉ CRÈME.
I had laughed, even as I wept, on first reading the envelope – typical Will, bossy
to the last.
The waiter – a tall, brisk man with a dozen bits of paper sticking out of the top
of his apron – turned back and caught my eye. All okay? his raised eyebrows
said.
‘Yes,’ I said. And then, a little self-consciously, ‘Oui.’
The letter was typewritten. I recognized the font from a card he had sent me
long ago. I settled back in my chair, and I began to read.
Clark,
A few weeks will have passed by the time you read this (even given your newfound organizational
skills, I doubt you will have made it to Paris before early September). I hope the coffee is good and
strong and the croissants fresh and that the weather is still sunny enough to sit outside on one of those
metallic chairs that never sit quite level on the pavement. It’s not bad, the Marquis. The steak is also
good, if you fancy coming back for lunch. And if you look down the road to your left you will
hopefully see L’Artisan Parfumeur where, after you read this, you should go and try the scent called
something like Papillons Extrême (can’t quite remember). I always did think it would smell great on
you.
Okay, instructions over. There are a few things I wanted to say and would have told you in person,
but a) you would have got all emotional and b) you wouldn’t have let me say all this out loud. You
always did talk too much.
So here it is: the cheque you got in the initial envelope from Michael Lawler was not the full
amount, but just a small gift, to help you through your first weeks of unemployment, and to get you
to Paris.
When you get back to England, take this letter to Michael in his London office and he will give
you the relevant documents so you can access an account he has set up for me in your name. This
account contains enough for you to buy somewhere nice to live and to pay for your degree course
and your living expenses while you are in full-time education.
My parents will have been told all about it. I hope that this, and Michael Lawler’s legal work, will
ensure there is as little fuss as possible.
Clark, I can practically hear you starting to hyperventilate from here. Don’t start panicking, or
trying to give it away – it’s not enough for you to sit on your arse for the rest of your life. But it
should buy you your freedom, both from that claustrophobic little town we both call home, and from
the kind of choices you have so far felt you had to make.
I’m not giving the money to you because I want you to feel wistful, or indebted to me, or to feel
that it’s some kind of bloody memorial.
I’m giving you this because there is not much that makes me happy any more, but you do.
I am conscious that knowing me has caused you pain, and grief, and I hope that one day when you
are less angry with me and less upset you will see not just that I could only have done the thing that I
did, but also that this will help you live a really good life, a better life, than if you hadn’t met me.