Adrià told her take possession of the house; take possession of me. And he had her choose between two rooms to set up her drawing studio, and her books, and her clothes and your life, if you want to, my beloved Sara; but I didn’t know that in order to store all of Sara’s life it would take many more cupboards than Adrià could possibly offer her. ‘This will work very well. It’s larger than my studio in Paris,’ you said, looking into Little Lola’s room from the doorway.‘It has light and it’s mostly quiet. Since it’s interior.’‘Thank you,’ she said, turning towards me.‘You don’t have to thank me. Thank you.’Then she sprang into the room. In the corner by the window there was, hanging on the wall, the little painting of the yellow gardenias by Mignon welcoming her.‘But how …’‘You like that one, don’t you?’‘How did you know?’‘But do you like it or not?’‘It is my favourite object in this house.’‘Well, from now on it’s yours.’Her way of saying thank you was to stand in front of the gardenias and stare intensely at them for a good long while.The next action was almost liturgical for me: adding the name Sara Voltes-Epstein to the mailbox in the lobby.
