One?

by Jennifer L. Cahill

  ‘Yeah, I got locked out and I don’t know where the boys are, and you were in New York, so erm… Zack… here, well… rescued me.’ Zara blushed a little.

  ‘I see, well come on in, both of you, just hop over the bags there… I’ve just literally flown in from New York…’ Penelope opened the door, glad to be home.

  ‘How did it go?’ Zara asked.

  ‘Oh, you know, never without a bit of drama… I’ll tell you later…’ Penelope winked at Zara.

  ‘Ok, … Zack, would you like a cup of tea?’ Zara led Zack into the kitchen.

  ‘Lovely, thanks Zara.’ He sat down, and they continued their getting to know each other chat over another cup of tea.

  Penelope bustled around in the background unpacking and trying to do laundry.

  ***

  An hour later, Zack headed back next door.

  ‘Zara, talk about a silver lining!’ Penelope came back downstairs from unpacking, when she heard him leave.

  ‘I know, isn’t he gorgeous?!’ Zara gasped.

  ‘Totally, you will have to drop in to borrow some sugar in the near future…’ Penelope winked at her.

  ‘Don’t worry I intend to… but look at the state of me, mascara everywhere…’ Zara pointed at her eyes.

  ‘I get my eyelashes tinted, as a precaution against moments like these!’ Penelope sounded sympathetic, she had been there before.

  ‘What? Dyed?’ Zara couldn’t believe this, but if it solved the problem she was all ears…

  ‘Yeah, I don’t do it myself, I get it done, it lasts for about two months, it’s brilliant.’

  ‘I see, so… how did the New York trip go? What was the drama?’ Zara was dying to hear all about the trip.

  ‘You are not going to believe this but Alyx was there!’ Penelope gushed.

  ‘Which one is he? Is he the one that got you drunk that night…?’ Zara was confused.

  ‘No!, that was Richard… no, no, Alyx is the other one, the gorgeous one… the lawyer.’ Penelope was quick to correct her.

  ‘What on earth was he doing over in New York?’ Zara gasped.

  ‘He was working there and he called me in work in London and when they told him that I was at the New York office, he called me there, in work.’ Penelope was glowing at the thought of him.

  ‘You must have nearly had a heart attack!’ Zara could barely take all of this in.

  ‘I nearly did, and I wasn’t even thinking about getting calls or texts because my mobile didn’t work over there, it was actually quite a nice little break from my phone… it was the last thing on my mind. We went out on Saturday night… I think I’m in love.’ Penelope stared off into the distance dreamily as she said this.

  ‘I wouldn’t blame you. Are you going to see him again?’ Zara was on the edge of her seat.

  ‘I hope so… he is still over in New York, so he’ll probably call or something when he’s back in London.’ Penelope flounced out of the kitchen once she had put on another load of washing.

  Chapter 17

  Vive la Résistance

  At 7.30 pm Alyx waited patiently at the table in Buddha Bar, on Rue Boissy-d’Anglas, for his sister. As soon as he saw her he got up to help her into her seat.

  ‘Alyx, I haven’t seen you in ages, you look great.’ Nathalie hugged him warmly.

  ‘Thanks Nats, you look great yourself… glowing? Is that what they call it?’ Alyx grinned at her.

  ‘Em, yeah, I suppose so, only three months to go, I feel like I’m the size of a house!’ Nathalie shifted in her seat to get comfortable, she was very petite and she had a rather large bump for her small frame to carry around.

  ‘It’s really weird, because from the back you look totally normal, and then from the side… well… it’s more obvious,’ Alyx chuckled.

  ‘I know, it’s really odd. So how are things with you, you are terrible at writing back to my emails… what’s that all about?’ Nathalie was so bored on her maternity leave, and she lived vicariously these days through her brother, she could barely believe some of the things that he got up to, and the people that he met.

  ‘Yeah sorry about that, I have been traveling a lot lately, the bands I’m working with need some work done on the digital piracy issues, and anyway I love it all, going to the gigs, being backstage all of that stuff,’ Alyx admitted, there was no way he was complaining about the travel, it was completely his choice to work that way.

  ‘I wouldn’t blame you! Are they playing in Paris then?’ Nathalie enquired.

  ‘Nah, I just thought I’d take a few days off here, to see my little sis… I think they might send me on the Asian leg of the tour so I could be gone for a few months, and I wanted to see how you were getting on with the pregnancy and to see if you needed anything…?’ Alyx and Nathalie had always been close, ever since their parents died, they had always looked out for each other. She was in fact a year or two older, but as she was so tiny he always referred to her as his little sister.

  ‘You are so sweet, and hopefully you will be back by the time the baby comes… So, what’s all the news, are you still breaking all the hearts on your travels, really Alyx… sometimes I think you are worse than the musicians!’ Nathalie laughed.

  ‘Not really, well I haven’t really had the time to be honest, I’m never in one place long enough to break anyone’s heart these days,’ Alyx shrugged.

  ‘Well, Julie is absolutely dying to meet you, she saw a photo of you and she thinks you are completely gorgeous! How long are you here for?’ Nathalie was dying to set him up with one of her parisienne friends, they were all dying to meet him.

  ‘Oh god, you are not going to try to set me up with one of your mad artists friends?!’ Alyx roared with laughter.

  ‘She’s not mad, she’s lovely, but yes she is an artist, so very dramatic…’ Nathalie conceded.

  ‘Hmm, might give that one a miss,’ Alyx grimaced.

  ‘Alright, alright, well I’ll tell her you were not in Paris for too long then.’

  ‘How is Jean?’ Alyx asked.

  ‘Oh, he’s great, very excited about the baby, and spoiling me rotten,’ Nathalie grinned.

  ‘So he should be. I absolutely love this place, it’s the first place that I come to when I am back in Paris.’ Alyx looked around Buddha Bar as he said this.

  ‘Would you believe I only ever come here with you? Jean doesn’t really like it here, too many tourists he says?’ Nathalie laughed at Alyx.

  ‘What tourists?! Well I suppose it’s quite famous so tourists do come here a bit, I never really notice them to be honest.’ Alyx didn’t want to rise to the bait.

  ‘Well technically Alyx, you are one!’ Nathalie teased him.

  ‘Well if I’m one you’re one too! I thought that half-French counted for a lot!’ Alyx exclaimed.

  ‘Ah no, it’s either all or nothing.’ Nathalie sighed dramatically. ‘You know what the French are like, we are mere mongrels to them.’ Nathalie smiled at him.

  ‘Do you believe in this kind of … “there is only one person for everyone” business, like “the one”?’ Alyx paused, and this dramatic question seemed to come out of nowhere.

  ‘Bloody hell, where did that come from?’ Nathalie was shocked, she wasn’t expecting this, could Alyx actually be getting serious with someone?!

  ‘I’ve just been thinking about it lately, and did you know that Jean was the one when you met him?’ Alyx asked.

  ‘Yeah, kind of, why have you met someone nice?’ Nathalie was dying for details.

  ‘Kind of, but I’m not sure, she’s not my girlfriend or anything, it’s really hard to start a relationship when you are traveling so much, but she is lovely. We met up in New York, and that was really cool…’ Alyx sighed.

  ‘She’s American?’ Nathalie sounded shocked, Alyx was so European, she could never imagine him with an American.

  ‘No, no, we met up in New York… she lives in London, but she was over there at the same time as me, so I took her out over there as well,�
�� Alyx stated proudly.

  ‘Wow,’ Nathalie was seriously impressed, transatlantic dates were pretty unusual.

  ‘I know, pretty amazing,’ Alyx agreed with her.

  ‘And then what happened?’ Nathalie was dying for more details.

  ‘Well, she was away, and I was away and we haven’t actually said we are exclusive so it is kind of hanging in the air. We’ve only been on two dates so it’s a bit early for that. I didn’t know what to say to her because I’m going to be traveling a lot, so I think I’ll try to keep in touch with her on email.’ Alyx considered the scenario.

  ‘I see, and you think she might be “the one”?’ Nathalie couldn’t believe her ears, this was so out of character for Alyx, this girl must certainly be something special.

  ‘Well, I don’t know really, that’s why I was asking you, I never really think about things like that… but the question has been playing on my mind lately, like about what if there is only one person for each person, and if there is… how do you know who is the one…?’ Alyx’s sentence trailed off, he wanted the answer but he was actually quite afraid of what she might say.

  ‘Oh, you just know,’ Nathalie stated knowingly.

  ‘… that’s not helpful, what do you mean you just know?’ Alyx challenged her.

  ‘It’s hard to explain, it just feels right, and it feels like nothing else you have ever felt, it’s very intense.’ Nathalie struggled with the explanation… how on earth could she explain women’s intuition to a man?

  ‘And then what about people who get divorced, do they get it wrong or what happens there? It’s very confusing?’ Alyx wrinkled his nose.

  ‘Well nobody really knows, because everyone has their own path to follow, but I don’t think people really get it wrong, it’s just that that’s the one for that period of their life, and then there is another one lined up when the first one heads off!’ Nathalie was considering this as she spoke. She fully intended to be with Jean for the rest of their lives, and shuddered at the thought of not being with him at any point in the future.

  ‘Right, so then, there is more than one, one?’ Alyx looked confused.

  ‘Could be… like… everyone is different, it’s a bit like you know the way people usually have two long term relationships, and then the third one is well… “the one”, like the high school boyfriend, then the university boyfriend, and then the boyfriend when they are working, usually people are ready to get married by then so that ends up being “the one”. Do you see what I mean?’ Nathalie felt like she should be drawing this on a napkin for him, but she doubted that that would allowed in Buddha Bar.

  ‘Kind of… it’s a bit confusing…’ Alyx looked flummoxed.

  ‘That’s because it’s kind of different for everyone really, you need to just do what you feel is right. I went out with Jack for three years, and if you had asked me halfway through that relationship, I would have told you that he was “the one”. Then when I went off to University that fizzled out, and then I met Andrew there, and then we broke up a year after we left University, and then I met Jean when I moved back to Paris,’ Nathalie explained.

  ‘Ok, and they were all “ones” then?’ Alyx frowned.

  ‘Kind of, in a way, the one for the time really. The girls usually call it “the one for now”, because if it’s really the one, you never actually say it in case you curse it!’ Nathalie winked at him as she said this.

  ‘What do you mean curse it?’ Alyx asked.

  ‘Oh my god Alyx, you just don’t get it do you?’ Nathalie exploded. ‘It’s a bit like tempting fate, if you start saying that someone is the one. It’s more about a feeling.’

  ‘Obviously not! I never thought that saying something could curse it! You see, I don’t think guys give it that much thought really, but it sounds like girls think about it all the bloody time, and it sounds very complicated!’ Alyx took a gulp of his beer.

  ‘We are just programmed differently, and yes we do think about it a lot, not all the time, but a lot,’ Nathalie reassured him.

  ‘So, there isn’t one one, there might be a few, but they are the one for that time, and then there is a one… for life, “the one”, one? So why are there a few ones?’ Alyx was starting to confuse himself.

  ‘A different one, for different stages of development, but this happens differently for different people. If you take me for example, I’m so different now compared to when I was with Andy, and I want totally different things from a relationship compared to back then…’ Nathalie was determined that Alyx would understand the concept.

  ‘Ok, now it’s making a bit more sense…’ Alyx sat back in his seat and relaxed a little bit.

  ‘So it’s all about developing yourself really, you learn what you do want from a boyfriend and most importantly what you don’t want… and of course there are some people who just meet someone when they are quite young and then that’s their one, and they develop together and that works out ok.’ Nathalie waited for this to sink in with Alyx.

  ‘Ok, I’m kind of scared of the concept of “the one”, and it sounds like it doesn’t scare girls at all?’ Alyx was starting to feel sorry that he had asked about this now, he felt like he had opened Pandora’s box. All this talk of the one was making him seriously nervous.

  ‘Ah yes, we welcome “the one” a bit more than guys do, it’s a bit of a generalisation, but if we are speaking in general terms, then you are right. The main thing is to just do what you feel is right for you, and when you are ready the one will appear. Oh, and one more thing… it’s usually when you are least expecting it.’ Nathalie reassured him.

  ‘What?!’ Alyx cried.

  ‘I mean, erm well, when you feel ready, someone will come into your life and you won’t know what hit you!’ Nathalie patted his arm.

  ‘Like, kind of… thinking about them all the time?’ Alyx implored.

  ‘Exactly, and it feels like the right thing to do, sort of. Sometimes it can feel like you have known them forever.’ ‘Nathalie felt that she was probably divulging too much.

  ‘And you just know all this stuff?’ Alyx scratched his head as he said this, he sounded baffled.

  ‘Well, girls do kind of consider this kind of thing a lot… and we share our findings. We talk about it a lot,’ Nathalie replied.

  ‘I see, ok, well I’ll take your word for it. I don’t really know what to do next because I’m heading off with the band, it’s an opportunity of a lifetime, and I can’t ask her to wait or anything because we are not actually going out together.’ Alyx looked perplexed.

  ‘I don’t know what to say to you Alyx, I suppose you’ll just have to figure it out before you go… have you no idea how long you will be gone?’ Nathalie tried to help him to come to some conclusion.

  ‘No, it depends on how things go, the band are at a crucial stage, we think they are just about to go stellar, it’ll be really exciting to be there when it all happens,’ Alyx responded.

  ‘I see what you mean,’ Nathalie patted his arm again.

  ‘And… I don’t know who I might meet along the way.’ Alyx was torn.

  ‘Like supermodels and stuff like that, and it’ll be hard to keep in touch, different time zones, random locations etc…’ Nathalie had seen this so many times with Alyx before, he seemed to meet someone nice just before he went “on tour”, it just wasn’t feasible.

  ‘Ha, yeah something like that.’ Alyx chuckled.

  ‘Well, Alyx, if you have to even ask… then… I don’t think she’s the one! Why don’t you head off and see how you feel about it when you get back, after you have met the supermodels etc.’ Nathalie was convinced now, he shouldn’t be questioning it at all, he should go with the band, it was the opportunity of a lifetime.

  ‘That sounds like a good plan.’ This was exactly what Alyx wanted to hear, and Nathalie knew it. This issue was resolved just in time, as their starters were just arriving.

  ***

  At 8 pm, Penelope stepped out of a taxi with two of her colle
agues. It was a lovely evening, and even though it had been a long day, she was delighted to be in one of her favourite bars…

  As soon as they walked in they were ushered to a table for four, with a good view of the whole place. She settled herself into her seat and started looking at the cocktail list. ‘Yum, Kir Royale, that will be nice here,’ Penelope thought to herself.

  ‘Un Kir Royale, s’il vous plait,’ Penelope beamed at the waiter.

  He took the other orders and was gone in a flash.

  Penelope glanced to her left and began speaking to her colleague, there was a lot going on in the bank, but they couldn’t really discuss it in a public place, so she stopped herself from saying anything about the Mortimer situation. She was just about to speak, when she stopped, mouth agape…

  ‘Oh my god! That looks like Alyx, but no it couldn’t be, what would he be doing in Paris?’ Penelope’s heart started pounding in her chest. She tried her best to hide this from her colleagues, she also tried not to make it too obvious that she was staring over at the back of the lookalike’s head. She sat back in her chair and hid behind her menu, just at that moment the guy sat back in his chair and she just knew it was him. She started to get butterflies in her tummy. ‘Oh my god! It’s him, I can’t believe this is happening, this is so exciting, I feel like giggling.’ Penelope sat back in her seat and hid behind her menu, straining to get a look at Alyx, unfortunately, she did not notice the young lady sitting opposite him.

  ‘What do I do?Should I go over there?… no! I can’t, hmm… I think I’ll just wait here and see what happens.’ Penelope couldn’t think of ordering, she now couldn’t eat a thing. She could not believe that this was happening. Three cities in just over three weeks! She sat behind her menu for as long as she could get away with it. Penelope’s heart was still beating really fast…

  ‘Oh my god! I can’t believe this, I can’t believe this!’ Penelope’s mind was racing, she didn’t know what to do, should she go over there, what if it wasn’t him? Who was he with? She couldn’t see! Only one thing to do… she would go to the loo and drop by near the table to get a closer look. Penelope excused herself and tried to walk confidently to the toilets, she walked close enough… but not too close to Alyx’s table, luckily the place was packed, and he had his back to her, so he couldn’t see her. As she got closer to the table, her heart nearly stopped, he was sitting there with a very pretty girl! Penelope dashed into the toilets so that he wouldn’t see her. When she got into the cubicle she felt like vomiting, this was too much. Was he on a date with someone else? Was that his girlfriend? She took a good ten minutes to pull herself together, and to figure out how to get back to her table without Alyx seeing her. She still felt sick, her world felt like it was crumbling beneath her feet, and she had a whole meal to sit through with her colleagues… As soon as she felt relatively composed, she sidled back to the table.