Faux Pas

by Natasha Madison

  My grandmother’s face lights up even more. “elle est tellement belle, tellement mieux que les images.” She is so beautiful, so much better than the pictures, she says, and Meghan looks at me again. “When are we eating?” my grandmother asks, walking away from us.

  “What pictures?” she asks quietly, and I grab her hand.

  “Um, I may have showed them a couple,” I tell her, and she looks at me.

  “Let’s eat,” my grandmother says and hooks her arm into Guy’s, who leads the way to the dining room. We sit at the grand table that fits twenty but all at one end. “So, tell me, Meghan,” my grandmother starts, “how long have you had your company?”

  Meghan looks at me and then at my grandmother. “For about five years,” she says as a bowl of soup is placed in front of her. “I started slowly while I was interning for a design firm.”

  “I saw some of the pictures,” my mother chimes in. “You have an eye for color and texture.”

  Meghan looks down and then up. “Thank you.”

  “I saw the plans that you are working on now,” my father says, and my head whips to Meghan, who looks confused. “La Plume blanche.”

  “Oh my god,” she says under her breath and looks at me, almost glaring. “I had no idea it was for you.”

  “It is turning out to be one of my favorites,” my mother says. “Stunning. I can’t wait.”

  Meghan doesn’t say anything; she just smiles and looks at Giselle. “I need to use the restroom.”

  “I’ll show you,” I say to her, and she gets up, putting her napkin beside her plate. We walk out, and I know she’s angry. Once we are out of the room, she turns to me, and I hold up my hands. “I can explain.”

  “Really?” she says, crossing her hands over her chest. “How are you going to explain that someone else contacted me for this project?” she asks, hissing quietly. “How are you going to explain that you lied to me?”

  “I never lied to you,” I tell her, putting my hands in my pockets. “Would you have charged me if I asked you?”

  “Of course not,” she says, throwing up her hands.

  “Exactly,” I tell her. “You are one of the best designers out there, and you would have done all of it for free.” She rolls her eyes at me and crosses her arms over her chest. “All I did was suggest you; the rest was up to the team.”

  “You still knew and didn’t tell me,” she says, and I counter.

  “There was nothing to tell,” I say and then walk to her. “There was nothing to tell because I didn’t make the decisions; my mother did and my father. And they made it without knowing it was you.”

  “But,” she says, and I hold her arms.

  “But nothing. Your work speaks for you,” I tell her. “Now let’s go back in there and finish dinner because we need to talk.”

  “You said that last night.” She comes closer to me, her hands going to my chest. “And then I put you in my mouth.” I stop her from talking.

  “We are going to talk far away from each other,” I tell her.

  “We did that in the shower,” she says, and my cock starts to get hard.

  “Fine. You’ll stay in the closet, and I’ll call you,” I tell her, and she throws her head back and laughs. We walk back in, and the rest of the night is filled with embarrassing stories of when I was younger. My mother and grandmother both hug her goodbye when we leave.

  When we walk back into the bedroom, she sits on the bed and takes off her shoes. “I love your family,” she says, and I nod at her.

  “We need to talk,” I tell her, and I see the worry in her face. I put my hand out to her, and she takes it, and I bring her to the couches.

  “Alex,” she says quietly.

  “Sit,” I tell her, and she does. I slip my jacket off and toss it in the chair. I don’t bother sitting down because I’m too nervous. “There are things that have been going on that I haven’t told you about.”

  “Okay,” she says, and I see her start to wring her hands.

  “There is no easy way to say this. There is a bounty on your head,” I say, and she looks at me in shock. “Jacqueline did not take those photos lightly.” I shake my head.

  “So she is having me killed?” she asks, shocked and almost in tears.

  I laugh. “No, Chérie,” I tell her. “She put a bounty on your head for any information about you.”

  “Oh my god,” she says, putting her hand to her mouth. “She doesn’t even know me.”

  “Exactly, which means she can’t fight what she doesn’t know,” I tell her. “So she put out that she is willing to pay for information.”

  She throws up her hands. “For what? I’m nobody.”

  I shake my head. “Giselle topped her price to keep the information away from Jacqueline.”

  Her hands go to her head. “How much is this bounty?”

  “It started at fifty, then Giselle put it to eighty, then Jacqueline found out and put it to a hundred.”

  “That’s crazy,” she says. “Let her be.”

  “Grandmother took it to two and then called all the papers herself,” I inform her, and now she flies up.

  “Your grandmother isn’t going to pay two hundred dollars to keep information about me private,” she says, and I take a deep breath and roll my lips.

  “Thousand,” I tell her.

  “Two thousand dollars?” she says, now pacing back and forth. “I have to pay her back.”

  “Chérie,” I say quietly. “It was two hundred thousand.”

  “What?” she yells, grabbing her phone and then looking at me. “What is her number?”

  “Who?” I ask.

  “Forget it. I’ll call Giselle, and she will give it to me,” she says and then tries to call, and I take the phone from her.

  “Seriously, Chérie,” I tell her. “The press, they are ruthless,” I start telling her the truth. “They will dig and dig and dig until they find something.”

  “So,” she says, “let them. I have nothing to hide. I’m a successful business owner who drinks more wine than she should. Who went to Paris on a whim because again, she drank too much wine”—I laugh at that—“and fell in love with a man.” She stops talking when she realizes what she just said. “I mean, fell in love with the city.”

  “Chérie,” I tell her for the first time, going to her.

  “I didn’t.” She starts to talk, and I put my lips on hers.

  “Je t'aime,” I love you, I tell her, “with everything that I am. I didn’t think I could love someone else so much.”

  “You don’t have to say it just because I said it,” she starts. “I was fired up; it was the heat of the moment.”

  I smile at her. “So you don’t love me?”

  “Shut up, Alex,” she says, and I laugh. “I have nothing to hide. Let them dig.”

  “They are going to follow you and always be there,” I tell her. “You didn’t sign up for this.”

  “No, I didn’t,” she says, “but unfortunately, it comes with you, and when push comes to shove, I pick you.”

  “We could beat them all and make our own statement,” I tell her. “Nothing personal. I mean, there is a movie premiere this week.”

  “Fine,” she tells me. “Let’s do that.”

  “Are you sure?” I ask her. “You can have the Alex without all this.”

  “No, I can’t,” she says, and I have to agree with her. “I might have to go shopping for an outfit. I didn’t bring anything fancy enough.”

  “Giselle can help you,” I tell her. “Tomorrow.” I pick her up. “I need to do something urgently.”

  “Really?” she says, putting her arms around me.

  “I need to show you how much I love you.” I wink at her and walk to bed, and by the time the night is over, we have come to the conclusion that we really love each other.

  I spent the days working and so did Meghan; she set up shop in one of my offices. Now five days after she arrived, we are back in Paris for the night. I’m in my cl
oset getting ready for the big outing tonight. “Alex.” I hear her call from the bathroom. When the press got wind we were showing up at the movie premiere together, it made everything snowball into action. Ten minutes after that went out, I had designers calling me to offer to dress Meghan.

  Giselle took a hold of that and now she is in our bathroom getting “glammed.” I walk into the bathroom, and she stands there with the dress on and turns to me. “Is this okay?” I take her in, wearing the dark maroon tube dress, but it is covered up with a longer lace dress that goes to her neck. She turns around, and I see that her back is bare but covered with her hair. The dress stops mid-thigh, but the lace falls past her knee. Nude shoes finish the outfit, and her makeup is a touch more than what she usually wears. She puts her hand on her stomach. “I might be sick.”

  I walk to her; my blue suit all done, and I’m ready to go. “It’s going to be fine.” I kiss her and then hear Giselle.

  “The car is waiting,” she says, and I grab her hand and walk out to Giselle and Guy. “I knew that color would be awesome on you.”

  “You did,” Meghan says, and we walk down to our waiting car. “So I’m just going to follow.” She looks at us and then at Guy. “You look like you’re going to throw up.”

  “It’s his first time out with me since our engagement,” Giselle says, and I look at him, laughing.

  “Fuck off,” he says and grabs a water bottle, drinking it.

  “Okay, we’re here,” Giselle says and looks over at Meghan. “YOLO.” She winks, and Meghan laughs.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Meghan

  “This is it,” I say under my breath when we arrive at the movie premiere. I’m at a fucking movie premiere. What the hell has happened to me?

  I look over at Giselle, who winks at me before she reaches out and grabs Guy’s hand. “YOLO.” I shake my head and laugh with Alex next to me.

  “Amour,” he says softly. “Je t’aime.” He kisses my neck and then steps out, turning around and giving me his hand to grab. I don’t know what I’m expecting, but it isn’t what I get when I finally step out of the car. The yelling just gets louder, and the people are chanting his name as we start down the red carpet, the four of us standing together. There are so many flashes that I don’t think I can see clearly, a steel barricade keeps the press in back of the red carpet, so they are all lined up and calling his name.

  “Alex!” they scream. “Who is the woman?” He just smiles at them and brings me closer to him.

  “Vultures,” he says, and I look over and laugh at him. He lets my waist go and holds my hand as we walk down the red carpet to Tyler, the star of the show.

  “Hey, look who showed up,” Tyler says, laughing and coming over to greet Alex with a handshake. “I heard that it’s your big night, so thanks for taking all the attention off me.” He winks at him. “This your girl?” He points at me. “How the hell did you manage to get her to like you, let alone date you?”

  “It was all my charm,” Alex says. “That and she returned a bottle of my wine.”

  He throws his head back and laughs. “I like her already.” He looks at me. “I’m Tyler.”

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Meghan,” I tell him, and he just smiles at me.

  “And she isn’t French.” He laughs. “This is better than I thought. Let’s get a picture,” he says, and he puts me in the middle of him and Alex. “You son of a bitch,” Alex says. “You better get your paws off my woman.”

  Tyler shakes his head. “Jessica.” He yells down the line at a woman with brown hair and emerald green eyes who turns around to look back at who is calling her. When she sees it’s Tyler, she just turns back around. “That woman,” he says and storms toward her. She sees him and raises a microphone to her hand and turns to smile at him, asking him something.

  I turn to follow Alex when we hear a roar of people, and the cameras start going off. “Putain,” Bitch, Giselle says.

  I look down the red carpet to see a woman in a white pants suit walking and posing, but only when she turns to the side do I see her pregnant stomach. I turn to see Alex is seething, and he glares down the red carpet, and I know that the cameras are probably snapping pictures. “Amour,” I say softly to him, and he turns his eyes to me, going soft. “Je t’aime.” He reaches up, and his thumb rubs my jaw. “Also, if you kiss me in public, I’m going to kill you.”

  He throws his head back and laughs, and the next thing I know, Giselle is suddenly beside me, and I hear a French voice. “Giselle mon amie comment vas- tu?” Giselle, my friend, how are you? I turn and see Jacqueline right beside me. She leans in to kiss Giselle on the cheeks. J'ai appris la nouvelle, félicitations, tu vas te marier. il me tarde !” I heard the fantastic news about the wedding. I can't wait. I stand here and look at her; she has a thick layer of foundation, and her fake eyelashes are so long I’m wondering how she can blink.

  “Merci,” Giselle says, playing and smiling the part. “Je n’oublierai pas de t’envoyer des photos.” I'll be sure to send you pictures.

  I look over and see that Alex is now holding his teeth together so hard, the tic in his forehead is coming out. I reach my hand out to her and see that the press is all watching this one moment, so she has no choice but to smile at me, though her eyes glare. “Je ne pense pas que nous nous soyons déjà rencontrées, Meghan,” I don't think we’ve ever met. I'm Meghan. I grab her hand and shake it. “Meghan Prust. Vous savez au cas où vous auriez besoin de faire des recherches.” Meghan Prust. You know, in case you need to find me or look me up. She doesn’t get a chance to say anything when we hear a couple of bells ringing, telling us that the movie will be starting soon. “We should go.” I look at Alex, who smiles at me, and Giselle, who grabs a smirking Guy by his hand. Alex doesn’t say anything to me; he just leans in and kisses me softly on the lips, then he smiles at me. I pick up my hand and wipe the lip gloss off his lips, and we walk inside the theater.

  We find our seats, which are just next to Tyler. “I heard there was a cat fight on the red carpet, and it had nothing to do with me.” Tyler leans over the woman who is Jessica.

  “For once,” she says under her breath, and he just glares at her, but she never looks his way. We take our seats, and the movie starts. I sit in the seat between Alex and Giselle, who sits next to Guy.

  I lean over midway and whisper in his ear, “I have to go pee. Is it rude?”

  Alex turns and looks at me. “It is not rude at all.”

  I get up as quietly as I can and walk toward the door. An usher is waiting, and I ask him for directions to the bathroom and walk into it. I’m washing my hands when the door opens, and I look up into the mirror and see Jacqueline walk in. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Meghan Prust.” I shake my head and take my hands out of the water and grab some paper.

  “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the woman who is trying to find me,” I tell her, my heart beating so fast as I stand here and go toe-to-toe with this woman as I’m drying my hands.

  “You know that it’s only a matter of time before he gets bored of you?” she tells me. “He was never one to keep his attention focused for very long,” she says, looking at herself in the mirror and then turning back to me. “And when he’s done with you,” she says, “and he will be done with you, who do you think he’s going to go back to?”

  I turn to walk to the garbage to toss my paper out, my neck getting hot and my knees starting to shake. “I’m really hoping that you’re not actually waiting for him,” I say with a smile. “I mean, he could be done with me tomorrow or maybe even the next day,” I say, tilting my head. “You never know what can happen, but,” I say, laughing, “you can bet your ass he isn’t going back to a woman who cheated on him and tried to trap him with a baby that wasn’t his.” Her smile leaves her face, and it’s now filled with fury.

  “He loves me,” she shouts, and I just shrug my shoulders.

  “Maybe,” I tell her, and she smiles, “or maybe not.” I stand straight now. “Th
ere is only one sure thing today.”

  “And what is that?” she asks, folding her arms over her chest.

  “Tonight, I’m the one he’s taking home, and tomorrow, I’m the one he’s waking up to.” I shake my head. “So for now, that is all that matters.”

  I walk past her, and as soon as my hand grabs the handle, she starts. “But who is he going to go to when you’re not here?” I look over, and she smiles. I walk out and almost smash right into Alex’s chest.

  “What was taking you so long?” he asks.

  “Your ex was in the bathroom, and we were getting to know each other,” I tell him, and he looks over my shoulder as Jacqueline comes out of the bathroom. “She also informed me that when I leave, she’ll be waiting for you with open legs.”

  He doesn’t say anything; he just grabs my hand and brings it to his lips. He tries to say something, but Jessica walks out of the theater and makes her way to the side door with Tyler right behind her, trying to get her attention. “Jess,” he hisses before he follows her out.

  “Do you want to go?” Alex asks me, and I just shake my head.

  “I’m not going to let her know she gets to me,” I tell him. “Like I told her tonight, you are coming home with me.”

  “Not just tonight, Chérie,” he says, leaning in and kissing me. “Let’s go back in.”

  The rest of the night went smoothly, and we ended up going to one of the restaurants that they own, and Alex was introducing me to everyone. My phone chimed in my purse, and I took it out only to see that Kate had sent me a picture.

  The picture was of me and Alex when we arrived, and the caption was:

  Alex ne vit plus son histoire d’amour caché

  Alex no longer keeping his secret lover to himself

  You look amazing. Can’t wait to hear all the stories.

  I smile at the message and then notice my Gmail was in overdrive. I scanned the emails and most were Google alerts about me. Alex looked over my shoulder and smiled. “Well, there goes our quiet time,” he says, and I just shrugged. “Just remember that I warned you.”