Read Online Anne Frank and Me by Cherie Bennett - Free Book Online

I calling Ms. Zooms Maman,” Nicole protested. “I have a perfectly good maman who is making a fortune in real estate.”
    â€œNicole, please. This is not funny. I love you. I want you to promise.”
    Everything in Nicole resisted. But this was Jack, the boy she had loved forever and who now pledged his love for her.
    â€œAll right,” she said grudgingly. “Nicole Bernhardt, Mme. Renée Bernhardt, Dr. Jean Bernhardt, and the consistently annoying Liz-Bette Bernhardt. How’s that?”
    â€œThank you.” He glanced toward the kitchen. When he saw that no one was in the hallway, he turned back to her again, a sly glint in his eyes. “If you really do not remember anything, then if I kissed you right now, would it be as if we were kissing for the very first time?”
    â€œYes. But I’m a quick study.” She closed her eyes and lifted her chin. Finally, it was really going to happen.
    His lips met hers. Whatever world she was in didn’t matter anymore, because there was nothing except this moment and this boy and this perfect kiss—
    â€œThat is disgusting!” Liz-Bette shrieked from the hallway. Nicole and Jacques flew apart, embarrassed.
    â€œThere you are, Liz-Bette,” Mimi declared, rushing into the hallway. “Were you spying on them?”
    â€œThey were kissing. With spit”
    â€œLiz-Bette, come here this moment!” Mme. Bernhardt’s voice thundered from the kitchen.
    â€œEveryone is always ordering me around.” Liz-Bette pouted, but she obediently trudged away.
    Mimi watched her go, then waltzed into the room. “Apologies for that unplanned interruption of your romantic interlude. But you didn’t tell me, Nicole. What do you think of my star of solidarity?” She hit a modeling pose. Pinned to her blouse was a six-cornered yellow star like the one Nicole had worn the day before. But unlike Nicole’s star, Mimi’s was festooned with gaudy beads, sequins, and glitter.
    â€œI see you added a typical Mimi touch,” Nicole said. “Frankly, it’s quite the fashion risk. So how come you’re Jewish if Jack—I mean Jacques—isn’t?”
    â€œI’m not Jewish, and it’s illegal to wear a star if you are not. That’s why it’s a political risk, you see,” Mimi said proudly. “Some of us are brave enough to defy the lousy Huns and show our solidarity with you.”
    Nicole peered at Mimi’s star again. There was hand-lettering in the center. “What’s G-O-Y?”
    â€œGoy,” Jacques replied. “Yiddish for someone who is not Jewish.”
    â€œYiddish?”
    â€œThe language of many refugee Jews,” Mimi explained. “This is very bizarre, Nicole, your not remembering anything.”
    â€œI totally agree with you.”
    â€œPromise me you won’t walk home with that thing on, Mimi,” Jacques said.
    â€œOh, you,” she scoffed, then strode to the window and looked out. “It’s so strange. It still looks like the Paris I love, but it has been taken over by maniacs. I hate the Boche!”
    â€œWhy not just shout it out so all of Paris can hear?” Jacques asked sarcastically.
    Mimi shot him a defiant look. “I wish I was in the Resistance.”
    â€œVery smart, Mimi. Our brother is a cop and you want to be in the Resistance.”
    â€œAndré is a French cop, not a Nazi.”
    Jacques threw his hands up in disgust. “He has to work with the Boche, doesn’t he?”
    â€œWell, he shouldn‘t,” Mimi insisted. “He works for Pétain the imbecile and that madman Laval; they’re both in the Nazis’ pockets.”
    Nicole didn’t understand. Who was Pétain? And Laval? She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers against her temples. The whole thing just made her headache come back.
    â€œNicole? Did you hear me?” Mimi asked.
    â€œWhat? No,