French Kissing: Season One

by Harper Bliss

  “That’s what I’m here for, right? Being your eyes and ears where you can’t be…”

  It wasn’t exactly in the job description, but Juliette certainly appreciated the initiative. “Nadia and I will work it out.” Juliette said it more to convince herself, but the words sounded hollow and weak.

  “I’m sure you will, boss.” Sybille’s voice grew a bit hoarser when she pronounced the word ‘boss’, or maybe it was just Juliette’s imagination—or the lack of sleep again.

  “Speaking of which, I’ll be taking the Friday before the Quatorze off. Please reschedule anything I may have had on the books for that day.”

  “Certainly.” Sybille stood up and, this time, pulled her skirt all the way down. “Anything else?”

  Juliette shook her head. “No, thanks.”

  “Just a quick reminder, Dominique Laroche will be here in an hour.”

  Dealing with someone else’s divorce was not something Juliette looked forward to, and she hoped Steph had things firmly under control on that front. Juliette nodded, emptied the cup of coffee and handed it back to her assistant.

  She couldn’t help sneaking a peek at her swaying hips as Sybille exited her office, and couldn’t shake the feeling that a sway that lush was not purely accidental.

  STEPH

  “I’d like to speak to Stéphanie in private if that’s all right,” Dominique said, her gaze firmly planted on Steph.

  Steph had kept a straight face throughout the meeting, admiring Dominique’s matter-of-factness about it all, but now her nerve was crumbling.

  “She’s all yours,” Juliette said, a wide smile glued to her lips. Obviously, she didn’t have a clue. Claire knew Steph better, and in a more intimate way, though. Steph glared at her from under her lashes.

  Claire shot her a quick glance, her face expressionless, but didn’t say anything. She just shook Dominique’s hand and exited the conference room, hurrying to her next meeting.

  “Shall we go to your office?” Dominique directed her attention back to Steph before turning to Juliette and offering her hand. “Thank you for all your help, Madame Barbier.”

  “Our pleasure.” Juliette stood there beaming for a while.

  “Stéphanie has been such a delight through all of this. Her support has been invaluable.”

  “Glad to hear it.” As Juliette made for the door, she shot Steph a quick wink.

  “Shall we?” Dominique held the door open for Steph, as if she was the one working at Barbier & Cyr and inviting Steph into her office.

  They walked to Steph’s broom closet of an office—a far cry from Claire and Juliette’s corner offices with magnificent views—in silence. Steph felt as if all the other employees were looking at her as they walked past, suspecting, their stare burning into her flesh, branding her as the person who, no matter what the stakes, simply couldn’t keep it in her pants.

  “Almost as fancy as your flat,” Dominique said with a smirk, closing the door behind her.

  “With the accounts I’ve been getting lately, I believe I may be on my way up.” But not if anyone ever finds out. Steph leaned against the side of her desk.

  “I have a problem.” Dominique stayed glued with her back against the door, keeping her distance from Steph.

  You’re not the only one. “What’s that?”

  “I can’t seem to get you out of my head.” The expression on Dominique’s face didn’t change.

  “Oh,” Steph said, her heart thundering beneath her chest.

  “I guess what I’m saying is…” Dominique’s voice had dropped an octave. “I wouldn’t say no to doing that again.”

  “Really?” The throbbing in Steph’s chest seemed to be travelling downwards.

  “I’ll be at l’Avenue Foch after nine tonight.” She inched even closer. “You know where to find me if you want an encore.”

  “But, I thought the whole point—”

  Dominique was so close to Steph she could put a finger on her lips. “Shht.” She shook her head. “Let’s not talk about it.” She pressed her finger into the flesh of Steph’s lips and dragged it down.

  Steph squeezed her fingers around the edge of her desk, holding on tightly for support. She had to swallow before she could speak. “I—”

  Dominique kissed her gently on the lips. “Shht,” she repeated. After one last stare into Steph’s eyes, she turned on her heels and was out of the door.

  Steph stood leaning against her desk for long seconds after. She’d only just held it together to make it through that meeting with her bosses. This account had such potential to make her career. Was she really willing to give that up for another romp, no matter how good, with a totally unavailable woman?

  If only she could ask someone—anyone—for advice. She dug out her phone from her blazer jacket and called Nadia.

  NADIA

  Nadia met Steph on a park bench just outside the hospital, half-expecting a speech on how badly she was treating Juliette, despite that not being Steph’s style at all. Then again, nothing was how it was supposed to be these days.

  “What’s going on?” It wasn’t even lunch time yet, and she already longed for a glass of wine.

  “I don’t even know where to begin, but you’re the only one I can talk to about this.”

  Relieved this wasn’t about her, Nadia straightened her spine and regarded Steph expectantly. “I’m all ears.”

  “I seem to have developed feelings for the one person in the world I shouldn’t have feelings for.”

  “Feelings? You?” Nadia joked, but soon pulled her face back into a serious expression when she noticed the utter despair in Steph’s eyes—not something she’d witnessed many times before.

  “We have this client. Very high-profile, and they’re letting me take the lead. She came on to me and I went with it and then… oh fuck. What a mess.” Steph buried her head in her hands.

  “Hey, hey…” Nadia put a hand on her friend’s back. “Slow down. Start again.” Nadia had never been very involved in Juliette’s work and, especially lately, she had no idea who was on Barbier & Cyr’s client’s list.

  “This stays between us. You have to promise me.” Steph looked up at her.

  “I swear.” Nadia grabbed Steph’s hands and held them in hers.

  “It’s Dominique Laroche. We slept together on Monday night and I can’t stop bloody thinking about her. We decided it had to be a one-off, but then this morning, she propositioned me again.”

  “Jesus fucking christ.” Nadia’s eyes grew to the size of saucers. Utterly speechless, she just shook her head. “No way,” she managed to say after a while.

  “This could cost me everything and, instead of walking away, something you know I usually have no problem with, I’m so attracted to her I just can’t…” Steph shook her head.

  “But, Steph, she’s married. Not to mention the poster child for a political party dead set against gay marriage.”

  “She’s getting a divorce.”

  Nadia tried to process all the information as quickly as possible. “But still.”

  “I know. I know.” Steph squeezed Nadia’s hands so hard, she was afraid she may leave them bruised.

  “Look at me, Steph.” If she had come to Nadia to have some sense talked into her, she’d come to the right person. “Are you sure you’re not falling for her just because it’s so impossible? Something illicit can be very exciting, until it comes out and you find there was really nothing to it, but you’ve only gone and lost everything you worked so hard for in the process.”

  “You’re probably right.”

  Nadia couldn’t remember a single time in the years of their friendship she’d seen Steph so dejected—hurt almost—over another woman. “You’ve come for my advice, I take it?”

  “Yes.” Steph looked at her with so much hope sparkling in her eyes.

  “Reject her advances. Don’t give her this power over you. Keep it professional.” Nadia realised it was easier said than done.

 
“I’m sorry to lay this on you. I don’t want this to come between you and Juliette, especially now…”

  “Don’t worry about Juliette. This stays between us.” What’s another secret? “But if you decide to break it off now, and I sincerely hope you do, Steph, don’t tell Claire and Juliette about it. There’s no need for them to know.”

  “What if Dominique blabs?”

  “She has much more interest in keeping this quiet than you. End it now, before it’s too late.”

  “She invited me to her place tonight.”

  “Don’t go.” Nadia wondered when she had become the voice of reason. “It may be difficult and tempting, but is it really worth it? What else does she have to offer but a few orgasms?”

  Steph feigned a chuckle. “Of all the women in Paris…”

  “We all make bad judgement calls, Steph. It’s how you clean up your mess that matters most.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you and Juliette always made it look so easy, but now, even you two are barely holding on…”

  “It’s complicated.” Nadia knew she was hiding behind a silly cliché, knew it all too well.

  “Why, Nadz? Why is it suddenly so complicated? She’s in pieces, you know. You moving out, that hit her hard.”

  Sadness bunched in the back of Nadia’s throat. “I—” All the tension of the past months, and especially the last two weeks, seemed to transform into tears. Inspired by Steph’s candour and trust in her, and before she had the chance to realise fully what she was doing, tears streaming down her cheeks, Nadia launched into her own confession, saying the words out loud for the very first time. “I cheated on her.”

  Steph’s skin tone was naturally pale, but she seemed to grow even paler. “What?”

  “A one-night-stand with a visiting consultant from Belgium. She’s long gone now. It meant nothing and left me feeling utterly devastated and empty, but the worst of it was that Juliette didn’t have a clue. She was too busy, too ignorant to notice any change in me at all. Ironically, it was only after I slept with someone else that our relationship really started to deteriorate. She just doesn’t have a clue. Never even bothered to ask me if something was up. I mean, how do you not notice? She knows me through and through…”

  “Shit.” Steph pursed her lips together. “When did this happen?”

  “A few months ago, when she was spending even more time at the office than usual… not that that’s an excuse, I just, I wanted to be noticed.”

  “Probably when we lost the ICM account, one of Juliette’s major clients.” Steph, the most promiscuous person Nadia knew, had trouble looking her in the eye. “I presume Juliette doesn’t know.”

  “God no.”

  “Are you going to tell her?”

  “I fear it may totally destroy us if I do, but how can I not?”

  “Shit,” Steph said, again.

  “Oh yeah.” This was hardly the lunch break Nadia had imagined when she came into work that morning, but, in a way, she was glad to at least have gotten it off her chest. Not that it changed much.

  CLAIRE

  “Are you sure me being here is okay?” Claire asked. She didn’t really care, what with Margot’s dark eyes staring back at her the way they did.

  “I’m on call and I want to see you…” Margot shrugged. “What was I going to do?”

  “You know, you are much less uptight than I thought you were.”

  “Is that a compliment?” Margot sipped from the coffee Claire had brought her, black and large. It was gruelling sitting next to her in the on call room and not being able to kiss her.

  “I can’t really imagine giving you anything but.” Inwardly, Claire cringed a bit at the cheesiness of her comment, but the look on Margot’s face more than made up for that.

  “Just to be clear, and to avoid further disappointment, this is not a date and I can get called away at any moment.” Margot’s blue scrubs were tight around her shoulders, the sleeves cutting off just at that delicious hint of bicep.

  “I suppose I’d better get used to that.” Claire was distracted and began to suspect quite the toned body was hiding underneath Margot’s clothes.

  Margot downed some more coffee. “You’re looking at me in a funny way.”

  “Do you work out?” Claire knew she sounded like a middle-aged cliché. She felt like one as well.

  “Of course I do. Kickboxing at least twice a week. You don’t?” Margot made it sound as if it could be a punishable offence to not belong to a gym or at least own a pair of decent trainers.

  “Erm, between work and social obligations, I can’t really seem to find the time.” A reply so inadequate, it almost made Claire blush—and she was not the blushing type. She was also starting to feel self-conscious about her body.

  “You seem to have time for cosmopolitans at Le Comptoir though.” There was not a hint of reproach in Margot’s voice, just amusement.

  “Touché.” Claire sagged against the backrest of her chair. “I was just wondering, you know, where those biceps came from. If you’ve always had them or started working on them to impress me.”

  Margot was so pretty when she smiled, the naturally more stern expression dissolving from her face completely. “You should come with me some time. I take morning classes at a little boxing club near your office.”

  “Oh god,” Claire groaned. “Next you’ll be telling me you practice yoga at sunrise every day and only drink green tea.”

  Margot held up her coffee cup. “And I’m only drinking this out of politeness.”

  “Or because you’re smitten.” Claire chuckled.

  “Clearly,” Margot leaned over the small formica table that separated them, “I have other ways of impressing you.” With one hand she pulled the sleeve covering her right upper arm all the way over her shoulder while flexing her bicep.

  “Clearly.” It was all Claire could muster.

  Margot leaned back in her chair and let her sleeve fall back over her arm, muscles relaxed. “If I were to ask you on a morning kickboxing date, would you make a counter offer?”

  “Hell yes.” It was Claire’s turn to lean forward, staring into Margot’s eyes while doing so. “Dinner at my place this Friday. I can’t cook but I’ll figure something out.”

  Margot broke out in the cutest giggle. “Gosh, you just made that sound very tempting.”

  Claire arched up her eyebrows expectantly. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “How can I possibly resist?” The playful tone in Margot’s voice awoke more than one butterfly in Claire’s stomach.

  Claire sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and sat staring at the doctor silently for a few seconds. There was something so pure and direct about Margot, so simple and irresistible. She could kick herself for missing it the first time they had met.

  “What?” Margot asked.

  “Did you really think I was out of your league?” Claire couldn’t wait until Friday, when she was planning to make a move. On home turf, in the privacy of her flat.

  “You’re so glamourous. I guess your lipstick was so sparkly it blurred my vision.”

  “You’re a kickboxing surgeon who rides a motorcycle. If anyone should have been intimidated, it should have been me.”

  “Who said anything about being intimidated?” Margot narrowed her eyes and twirled a finger around a loose strand of her glossy black hair.

  The excitement rushing through Claire’s blood was a sensation she hadn’t felt for a long time. This could really be something.

  A device clipped to the waistband of Margot’s trousers started beeping, signalling the end of their impromptu non-date.

  Margot scrunched her lips together in a pout, one eyebrow raised. “Got to go.”

  They rose from their chairs simultaneously and before Margot had a chance to take a step, Claire grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her near.

  “We should do this again some time,” she whispered in Margot’s ear. Standing so close to her made Claire’s tum
my go funny again.

  “Soon.” Margot stared up into Claire’s eyes for a split second before leaning in for a soft, quick kiss on the lips.

  A huge smile spread on Claire’s face as she watched Margot dash off into the corridor.

  JULIETTE

  “Is this about that threesome you hinted at a few weeks ago?” Claire asked.

  Steph nearly spit out the beer she had just sipped. “What?”

  The three of them sat at one of the high-top tables outside of Le Comptoir for a drink after work. Steph and Claire opposite Juliette, both drinking beer—Steph’s usual tipple but uncharacteristic for Claire.

  “Nadia and I just want a night out with our friends, for old time’s sake. That’s all.” Juliette looked at Steph. “You practically live there, so I figured we could count on you.”

  “Sure, but what was that about a threesome?” Steph’s face was hidden behind her pint glass.

  “Nothing. We don’t want a threesome. We’re fine and I told you that in confidence.” Juliette shifted her gaze to Claire who sipped from her beer uncomfortably. “What the hell are you drinking that for, anyway?”

  “Can’t you tell?” Steph said. “She’s in love.”

  “Margot is fond of a beer now and then, so I thought I’d give it a go,” Claire said without qualms. Her crush on Margot seemed to have taken thirty years off her mental age, the way she was behaving.

  “Will you come with us to Les Pêches or not?” Juliette couldn’t help but feel a little bit jealous of the early stages of romance her best friend found herself in.

  “It will have to be on Saturday night. I have a hot date on Friday.”

  “Ooh, planning on playing doctor and nurse, are you?” Steph cooed.

  “If I have my way, oh yes.” The love-sick smile on Claire’s face was more than enough to rack Juliette with guilt about the current sorry state of her own relationship.

  “I thought I’d find you here,” a familiar voice beamed from behind Juliette.