There was a particular kind of freedom in being known only in the present.
Alina realized it one afternoon while sitting at Les Repas de la Famille, watching Claire argue mildly with Thomas about a paragraph neither of them interpreted the same way. Isabelle was in the kitchen with Elodie, debating the appropriate amount of thyme in a stew. Luc had stopped by earlier to deliver something his mother had forgotten at home, nodding politely before disappearing again.
No one there had known her before.
Not before Èze.
Not before the stone house.
Not before the quiet.
They did not see her as someone who had once stood beside a CEO at gala dinners. They did not measure her against a surname. They did not approach her with assumptions disguised as curiosity.
To them, she was simply Alina.
The woman who read thoughtfully at book club.
The woman who laughed easily at dinner.
The woman who made a perfume called Fly High.
The woman who sometimes ate alone on her verandah and sometimes didn't.
There was no backstory attached to her presence.
No shadow trailing her.
And she found that she liked it that way.
That realization settled deeper when Luc asked her to have coffee.
It was a Sunday morning, bright and uncomplicated. The church bells had just finished ringing. She was walking back from the market with a small bag of oranges when she saw him waiting near the fountain in the town square.
He did not look dramatic.
He did not look rehearsed.
He looked slightly uncertain, which humanized him in a way she appreciated.
"Alina," he said, offering a small nod. "Do you have a minute?"
"I do," she replied.
He gestured toward a nearby café. "Would you like to have coffee with me? Nothing elaborate. Just coffee."
She studied him briefly—not suspiciously, just observantly.
A coffee did not mean a future.
A coffee did not imply commitment.
A coffee was simply a conversation with caffeine.
"Yes," she said. "I'd like that."
They chose a small table outside. The café was quiet at that hour, locals speaking softly over porcelain cups.
Luc ordered espresso. Alina ordered something lighter.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Not because it was awkward.
Because it was new.
"I realize I've mostly seen you at group dinners," Luc began. "Or across tables with other people."
"That's true," she said.
"I thought it might be… interesting to speak without a buffer."
She smiled slightly. "You're very direct."
"I try to be."
He did not ask where she came from.
He did not ask about past relationships.
He did not mention New York.
Instead, he asked about books.
"What are you reading now?" he said.
They spoke about fiction first, then about scent memory—Claire had apparently mentioned the perfume she created. He asked what inspired the name. She answered honestly.
"Freedom," she said. "But quietly."
He nodded as if that made perfect sense.
The conversation unfolded easily.
There were pauses, but they felt like breathing, not gaps.
Luc spoke about his work in Nice, about the pressure of managing a restaurant that carried his family's name. He admitted he sometimes preferred Èze because it moved slower.
"Nice feels like performance," he said.
Alina recognized the word.
"And Èze?" she asked.
"Feels real."
She looked at him for a moment.
She understood that distinction more than he realized.
The coffee ended naturally. No lingering tension. No awkward extension.
He stood first.
"Would you like to do this again sometime?" he asked.
She considered the question.
"Yes," she said finally. "Coffee is easy."
He laughed. "I'll remember that."
They parted with a simple goodbye.
She did not feel exhilarated.
She did not feel anxious.
She felt… normal.
Which, she was discovering, was extraordinary.
When she returned home, she placed her oranges on the counter and opened her phone almost absentmindedly.
Her NYU group chat was active, as usual.
She typed before she could overthink it.
I had coffee with Luc Fournier today.
Three dots appeared immediately.
Julien was first.
Excuse me?
Ethan followed.
The Luc Fournier?
Camille added:
Details. Immediately.
And then Margot:
Is he kind?
Alina laughed softly at the screen.
It was just coffee.
Julien replied almost instantly.
There is no such thing as "just coffee."
Ethan:
Statistically, coffee is a gateway beverage.
Camille:
Ignore them. Was it comfortable?
Alina leaned back on her kitchen chair.
Yes. It was comfortable.
Margot responded a moment later.
Then that's what matters.
Julien added:
Does he know who you are?
Alina paused.
He knows I'm Alina.
There was a brief silence in the chat.
Camille typed.
Good.
Ethan:
Does he seem strategic?
Julien:
Does he look at you like he's calculating?
Margot:
Does he respect space?
Alina stared at the flood of questions and shook her head, smiling.
Wow. You guys do care about me, haha.
Julien replied immediately.
And you've noticed it just now? How dare you!
Margot added:
We have always cared. You just didn't always let us show it.
Camille:
We are protective. That's different from invasive.
Ethan:
I reserve judgment until further data is collected.
Julien:
I volunteer to interrogate him.
Alina felt warmth spread through her chest.
Not because they were excited.
But because they were invested.
In her.
Not in the narrative.
Not in the spectacle.
In her.
She typed:
It was just coffee. And I liked that it was just coffee.
Margot sent a small heart emoji—rare from her.
Then enjoy it as it is.
The conversation drifted to other topics soon after—holiday planning, Julien's latest chaotic business meeting, Ethan's grocery chain expansion, Camille's daughter's obsession with 1992.
Alina set her phone down.
She walked outside into her garden.
The afternoon light had softened, turning the stone walls golden. A breeze moved through the lavender bushes.
She realized something quietly profound.
These people—Claire, Thomas, Isabelle, Elodie, Luc—knew nothing of her past life.
They did not treat her like someone who had survived something dramatic.
They treated her like someone who simply existed.
And her NYU friends—Julien, Margot, Ethan, Camille—they knew her history. They knew her transitions. They knew her sharp edges and her silence.
And yet—
Neither group defined her by what she had been attached to.
She was not "the former wife of a CEO."
She was not someone orbiting a man's name.
She was Alina.
Present.
Reading.
Laughing.
Sitting at cafés.
Blending perfumes.
Accepting coffee invitations without attaching narrative weight to them.
Friendship without history, she thought, was light.
Friendship with history was grounding.
And she was fortunate enough to have both.
As evening approached, she brewed tea and sat on her verandah.
She replayed the coffee conversation in her mind—not to analyze it, but to feel it again.
Luc had been curious, but not intrusive.
Attentive, but not overwhelming.
Interested, but not claiming.
A coffee did not have to mean more.
And that realization felt like another small victory.
Inside her house, her phone buzzed once more.
Julien again.
For the record, if this Luc hurts you, I will personally fly to France.
Alina laughed out loud.
Duly noted.
Margot added:
You don't need protection. But we'll always stand nearby.
Alina closed the chat gently.
The evening air cooled slightly.
She inhaled.
Friendship without history was liberating.
Friendship with history was protective.
And for the first time in a long time, she was surrounded by both.
She did not feel small.
She did not feel overshadowed.
She did not feel defined by absence.
She felt held—by people who knew her now, and by people who had always known her becoming.
And that, she realized, was more powerful than any title she had once carried.