by Tia Siren
“Yeah?” She grinned a shy grin and leaned back in her chair.
“Yeah. Have dinner with me.”
“I’d love to.”
“Beautiful. Would you like to recommend a good place to go?”
“Actually, there is a small restaurant around the corner that is really good. They aren’t terribly expensive either. Do you like beef bourguignon? They make it the best.”
“Sounds perfect. Let’s go.”
He escorted her out of the coffee shop and they walked arm in arm down the street and around the corner toward Le Petite Rose des Sables.
“Here it is,” she said, stopping in front of a small shop with two small windows and a door.
Edward had to look twice as he didn’t think the place was big enough for a full kitchen and dining area. Keeping an open mind and trying to trust his new friend, he smiled and opened the door. “After you.”
They walked into the tiny shop and took a seat at an available table. The walls were bare rock and cement and the tables were lined with red and white checkered tablecloths that matched the curtains on the windows. It reminded him of a cozy kitchen belonging to an old farmer woman. Each place he looked represented a different part of the world as if the owners traveled and brought back souvenirs with them to display in their little shop.
“Do you like it?”
“It seems to have a lot of character. Yes, I think I do.”
When an old man came out from the kitchen and greeted them, they each ordered the beef bourguignon and red wine. The evening moved swiftly as they talked about their lives and politics and Eva’s dreams and Eddie’s aspirations. He found it very easy to talk to Eva and he didn’t want the night to end but the wine diminished and the night grew late. When the bill came, Edward pulled his wallet out and pulled his American Express Gold card out, setting it on top of the bill. Before Eva could see it, he quickly picked it up and shoved it back in, pulling the most basic credit card out and setting it down.
“You don’t have to pay for mine,” she said.
“No, it’s okay. I don’t mind.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want you to feel obligated.
“I just grabbed the wrong debit card, that’s all.” He hated lying to her, but he needed to keep her thinking he wasn’t disgustingly rich.
He poured the rest of the wine from the bottle into each of their glasses and dismissed the issue by changing the subject.
They were made to go after the old man shooed them out the door so he could lock up and go home. As they walked out the door, the old man stopped them and nodded. “Vous avez quelque chose de rare. Je peux le sentir et je ne me trompe jamais. Cherish ce que vous avez entre vous et la vie amoureuse.” He spoke slowly but Edward could tell he was a wise old man.
Eva smiled at the man and took his hand, patted it and hugged him. “Merci Monsieur. Bonne soirée.” She couldn’t stop smiling as they left the little shop and walked back toward the coffee shop.
“What did he say that has you all smiles?” asked Edward.
“He said we have something rare. He senses things like that and he is never wrong.”
“Wow, no kidding.”
“He told us to cherish what we have and love life together.”
“Do you know him?”
“I’ve been in his shop a few times, made small talk with him, but nothing too deep.”
“Well, I think we should take his advice. We wouldn’t want to piss off the old man.”
Eva giggled but didn’t say anything.
“Meet with me tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” She lost her smile and looked down at the sidewalk.
“We can go roller blading in the park.”
“I’d like that,” she said, her smile returning.
He walked her back to the café and they parted ways from there with a light kiss on his cheek and a promise to meet him in Parc des Buttes Chaumont at one.
Chapter 11
The week flew by with much of Edward’s time being spent with Eva, dining out together in cheap cafes and shops, roller blading, swimming in the park, walking along the lake and talking about everything. She was so different than the other women that were in his life. He hadn’t even tried kissing her yet but he was growing quite fond of her and wanted much more.
The street lights shone much brighter for some reason on this night as they walked out of the park. His hand was in hers and his thumb stroked the back of her hand. He felt every inch of her touch as she pulled him closer. Their shoulders touched, their arms glued to each other, as conversation became more intimate.
“Eva.”
She looked at the sidewalk beneath her feet and continued to walk next to him.
“I have something to confess to you.”
“What’s that?” Her voice was meek and quiet.
He wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to come clean so he could begin a relationship with her on a much more intimate and honest level.
She looked up at him, waiting to hear what he had to say. When he stopped, she turned toward him and looked into his eyes. He pulled her closer on that street corner in the middle of Paris and lost his train of thought. The only thing that existed to him at that moment was her, and her eyes, and her lips, and her touch. He leaned down as she closed her eyes. When his lips touched hers, he pressed them into hers and inhaled deeply. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her into him and deepening his kiss. The moan from her mouth caused his body to react. His tongue slid past her lips and explored her mouth with an urgency he couldn’t control. His hands slid down her back, pressing the small of her back into him.
She gasped and pulled back from him, looking up into his eyes. “Eddie. Stop.” She looked down and covered her mouth. “Please.”
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. You are the most amazing woman I have ever met.”
“Thank you, Eddie.” She seemed to struggle with the words she wanted to say. “What were you going to tell me, you know, before you kissed me?”
He couldn’t bring himself to say it, not yet. This moment was so perfect. “I wanted to confess that I think I’m falling for you.” He tried to kiss her again, but she turned away. “Eva? Did I do something wrong? Did you not want me to kiss you?”
“I did. I do.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“I just can’t.”
“Sure you can. It’s easy.” He pulled her closer to him and leaned in close. “Let me show you,” he whispered, kissing her again.
She opened her mouth and allowed her body to mold to his, then pushed back again. “I… no. I can’t do this.”
“You are confusing me, Eva.”
“I can’t get serious with you.”
“Why not? I thought everything was going so perfectly.” He felt like someone was squeezing his heart.
“It is. Too well. I think you are amazing. I have never met anyone like you and if we were in a different moment in time, this might have been a wonderful relationship, a connection, intense, real and very intimate. But the truth is, I’m going back to England tomorrow evening and I can’t rely on a long distance relationship. I can’t have any complications in my life right now.”
“I promise you, this won’t be a complication.”
“How? How can you promise me that? You are going back to wherever they direct you to teach. I’m going back to school for two more years. How is that not complicated?”
He saw her getting upset and wanted to tell her everything but he didn’t. Something stopped him. He wanted to tell her he could fly back and forth to see her every night if he wanted to. He wanted to tell her he could buy a town house close by until she was finished with school. He wanted to show her he could buy his way into her life until she let him into her heart, but no matter how he tried to word it, it sounded like he was a big fat ridiculously rich liar.
“Let me see you tomorrow. I’ll take you to breakfast and we can talk more then.”
She shook her hea
d no and sniffled. “I can’t. I think we should say good bye now and go our separate ways.”
“Why? We still have one day.”
“It will be hard enough saying good bye now. Please, Eddie?”
He slowly walked her across the street toward her room in the small bed and breakfast she was staying at and didn’t say another word. When she linked her arm into his, he cherished each step he took with her by his side until they got to the front steps of their destination.
She hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for everything. You have made this an amazing vacation for me.”
He kissed her intimately, not wanting to let her go. “At least give me your phone number. If I’m ever in town, I can call you again.”
“I don’t have my phone anymore.”
“I can’t leave you here, knowing I won’t ever see you again.”
“I will call you when I get back to school.” She pulled out an old gum wrapper and a pen from her purse and handed it to him. “Give me your number.”
He wrote his cell phone number down and gave it back to her, lingering before letting it go. When she looked up at him, he let it go.
She hugged him one last time, then ran up the stairs into the bed and breakfast.
He didn’t turn away until the front door had closed completely, then he turned away and walked slowly back to the Shangri La Hotel. He was careful not to talk about where he was staying with Eva and he always walked her back to her room before going to his, buy this was the first time he regretted keeping it all from her.
He pulled his phone out once he was around the corner and turned it back on. He had almost forgotten about Joseph and the research he was supposed to be reporting back about the business. He counted twelve voicemails, six texts and two full pages of emails.
“Shit,” he said quickly walking back to his hotel. It was almost midnight in Paris so it was about eleven in Brighton. He decided to wait until the morning to call Joseph, until his phone rang and it showed Joseph’s name on his caller id. He took a deep breath, thought for a moment and answered his phone.
“Caldwell.”
“What the fuck, man.” Joseph wasn’t happy. “Did you drop off the planet or something?”
“Hey. No, sorry I didn’t get back to you.”
“Get back to me? Hell, I haven’t been able to reach you in days.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I had to disconnect for a while. I knew you weren’t going to understand so I just did it.”
“Well, I guess I don’t have much of a choice on the matter then do I?”
“Is everything going okay?”
“You’d know if you decided to answer your fucking phone.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“The deal we wrapped up two weeks ago fell through.”
“What? No, it can’t. They signed off on it.”
“Yeah, well, their lawyers are on us telling us we covered up some major mistakes. They want their money back.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Yes. I am.”
“How the hell… wait. What?” He heard Joseph erupt with laughter and he knew he had been had.
“Naw, man. Everything is going well. I just wished you would have kept in contact with me. What did you find out?”
Edward was supposed to have met with Brian Spawnery, CEO at Ardo and report his findings back to Joseph, but he dropped that ball as soon as he met Eva. He did nothing business related the entire week he was there. I guess it’s a good idea Eva doesn’t want to see me tomorrow, he thought.
“I’ve been writing it up on an email. I’ll finish it up when I get back into my hotel room and send it off to you by tomorrow. You should have it in the morning.” That should buy him some time.
“Man, what is up with you?”
“Nothing. What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’re acting weird. Like some kind of love sick teenager.”
“Well, I did meet someone.”
“Shit.”
“What? She’s nice. Beautiful.”
“I don’t want to hear this.”
“I don’t know why you’re getting all defensive about this. You love women.”
“Women! Plural.”
“Well, maybe I met the one who will keep it single.”
“Awe, man. Alright, dude. When ya headed back?”
“Day after tomorrow.”
“Okay, man. See ya then.” Joseph kept things very short after learning about Edward’s new female friend. He knew once Edward had his mind set on something there was no changing it. He could only listen, ride along and hope for the best. Luckily, it always worked out in the end.
Chapter 12
“Brian Spawnery.”
“Brian. Hey, it’s Edward Caldwell,” he said with his phone on his ear.
“Can I help you?”
“You don’t remember me?”
“Edward Caldwell? I’m sorry. Should I?”
Edward let him think while he poured coffee from the pot in his room. Fresh out of the shower with a towel still around him, he wanted to get an early start to his day.
“It’s Eddie, from college.”
“Eddie Caldwell?” he exclaimed. “Damn, I haven’t seen you in what, ten years?”
“Yeah, it’s been a long time.”
“What the hell ya doing these days?”
“Remember Joe Johnson?”
“I do, yeah. You two were inseparable.”
“He and I ventured together and started that company.”
“No shit. I remember you were gearing up for it just before graduation. How’s it going? Get much success in that?”
“Well, I’m in town for a couple of days. Got some time for me today? We can have a couple of beers over lunch and I’ll tell you about it.”
“Yeah, sounds great! Oh, wait a minute.” Edward heard some ruffling of papers. “Shit, I have a meeting this afternoon early. But hey. What about tonight? Say after six?”
“Sounds good. Where do you want to meet?”
“Where are you staying?”
“The Shangri La Hotel.”
“Shangri La? Damn, you must be doing well for yourself. There’s a place about five minutes from your hotel called Pub Kleber. Google it. You shouldn’t have a problem finding it. Meet me there about six.”
“You got it. See ya then.”
It wasn’t difficult for Edward to gear back toward his business since it was all he knew since he graduated college. As he pulled his suit out of the closet, he looked at it as a foreign object. Although the week flew by, it seemed like ages since he arrived in Paris wearing the suit he held in his hands. Eva was still heavy in his mind but he knew how to switch the feelings off when he needed to.
He draped the suit on the back of the sofa and walked to the nook. He sipped his coffee and enjoyed the view from the open glass doors, letting Eva’s pretty face take up his time and his thoughts before pushing her into the back of his mind. He thought about the way she looked at him, her eyes dancing, and how her tongue would jet out of her mouth to moisten her lips as they talked. His body stirred when he began to wonder how she looked as he peeled her clothes from her body, letting them fall to the floor. He parted his lips as he imagined his hands sliding over the curves of her body, her breasts rising and falling with each heavy breath she took. He closed his eyes and could almost feel his lips touch her skin just above her collar bone, working his way down to the nipple on her perfect breast, taut and hard from the anticipation of what was to happen. His tongue would play over the hardness, causing little electrical currents to be sent up through her body, pushing her closer and closer to the edge before he dominated her fully, causing her to submit to him, becoming his forever.
He knew, she was different. Eva was the woman of his dreams and he was going to do whatever it took to make his dreams a reality.
A knock on the door startled him for a moment until he heard the sweet voice of a woman.
“Service de chambre.”
He reached down through his towel and pushed the palm of his hand into his cock trying to control it before getting up and walking to the door. With his cock in control, he opened the door with just his towel on and looked the pretty maid directly in the eyes.
“Entrez,” he said, deepening his voice.
The door opened and she looked into the room, seeing Edward standing at the open window, bare chested and gorgeous. The pink in her cheeks darkened as she pushed a small cart with his breakfast into his room. As she uncovered the dishes for his inspection, he stood very close behind her, wanting to touch her and seduce her the way he did when he wanted a woman. He raised his hands to her arms, hovering them over her, hesitating and wishing the woman in front of him was Eva. His heart ached for her.
Just as the maid turned toward him, he stepped back and put his hands down, locking them behind his back.
“Monsieur?”
“Everything looks wonderful. Merci.” He forced a smile and turned away from her, grabbing his robe and slipping it on over his towel. It felt odd to turn away from a sure thing, but something in him didn’t want casual sex with a stranger any longer.
He hadn’t turned down another woman in years and after the maid had left, he did another act that he hadn’t done since his adolescent days. He walked back to the open doors, leaned his head against the wall and pulled his towel from his body. With thoughts of Eva invading his mind again, he fantasized what it would have been like to make love to her while masturbating beneath his robe that hung loosely around him.
Walking into the Pub Kleber, he looked around the bar that seemed to be dated back to the 1930s and looked for a familiar face. As soon as he saw Brian, he knew it was him. Brian was hovered over an attractive woman and trying unsuccessfully to get her phone number.
“Brian,” he said, leaning in briefly before stepping back.
Brian turned around and let out a hearty laugh. “Ha ha! Look at you!” He stepped forward and gave Edward a bear hug, slapping him on the back. “You haven’t changed a bit, well, except for the threads. Very nice, by the way.” He was being overly dramatic and boisterous as he had always been in college. Brian was not the most attractive guy in the group, but because of the guys he hung with, he was popular by association. He still looked the same except for an early receding hair line and a larger size in the pants, possibly two larger sizes.