Paris by Heart

by Nora James

  “You love her, don’t you?”

  “Of course I love her. She’s my daughter.”

  “Not Christine, that woman I saw at the restaurant. Even if I cleaned up my act, there’s no hope for you and me ever again, no matter what happens with Jim or anyone else. You really love her.”

  “I do.”

  He loved Elise so deeply, so passionately that he’d do anything for her. A lump formed in his throat as he hoped that he wasn’t about to lose her anyway.

  ******

  Elise had been wandering around the giant concrete machine that was Charles de Gaulle airport. After a while she decided to check in her luggage so that it would be easier to browse the shops without a case in tow. She walked around in circles for what felt like a long time before finally finding the check-in counter for her airline. They mustn’t have been open for her flight for very long given that it was still early, yet a sizeable queue had already formed.

  While Elise stood in line she watched families and couples walk by, some visibly stressed, snapping at each other, others talking too loud, excited like little children on their first school outing. A young couple arrived, the man rolling a suitcase. They stopped before the line and the woman threw herself into her companion’s arms and closed her eyes tight, hugging him as if her life were about to stop without him.

  Elise moved ahead, the line in front of her shortening, and she noticed another couple walking by a few metres away. As tears streamed down the woman’s face, the man took his wife’s hand and kissed it tenderly, biting his lip as he looked away. Elise turned on her heels and saw yet another man, older this time, saying goodbye to the woman in his life, his pained eyes following her every movement.

  The lady behind Elise in the queue gestured for her to make her way to the check-in desk. Elise looked up and saw an attendant was free to take her luggage, the light above his counter green, but somehow her feet had turned to lead and stuck to the floor. She looked down and chuckled. “My feet are saying no. My mind is saying no. And my heart is definitely saying no.” She smiled at the lady in the queue. “You go ahead. I’m not ready to go home.”

  Elise left the queue, pulling her luggage behind her. Why she’d ever imagined that it would be easier to leave without Paul by her side was beyond her now. What had possessed her? Leaving Paul was never going to be easy, no matter how or when she did it. No, leaving Paul was the hardest thing she could ever do and she wasn’t prepared to do it like this. She didn’t want to be without him, didn’t want to go home at all even though she loved her country. There had to be a way she could stay longer in Paris. She’d probably lose her airfare—she was sure her insurance wouldn’t cover heartbreak—but it was worth every cent. You couldn’t put a price on love.

  Suddenly her phone rang. She fumbled around her bag for it and saw it was Paul. He was probably going to blast her. There were already missed calls on it, too—all from Paul—although she hadn’t heard the phone ring earlier. She must have been in a noisy part of the airport.

  She took a deep breath. “Hello?”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m really, really sorry, Paul. I don’t know why I thought it would be easier to leave without you by my side. I’d give anything to be with you now.”

  “Where are you?”

  “At the airport.”

  “Where at the airport?”

  “Where? In the outer circular corridor near the Singapore Airlines check-in.”

  “Oh, you are too!”

  Frowning, Elise peered ahead. She searched through the unknown faces and then the sea of people opened up and there stood Paul, handsome, warm, tall, glorious Paul, Paul who made her heart beat faster, Paul who made her melt, Paul she couldn’t leave. She dropped her bags and ran towards him, her heart exploding with both happiness and surprise as he rushed to her, too.

  He picked her up and spun her around in his arms and she laughed and laughed as people moved away from her dangling feet. He finally put her down, lifted her face to his and kissed her and her whole body trembled with delight. She could have sworn that her soul did, too. He wrapped his hand around hers and her tears came fast like a river through a broken dam. She sobbed with joy for she was with him again, and she sobbed with sorrow for she was uncertain of what the future might hold for the two of them.

  She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’ll stay longer. I’ll find another course to do. I have a little money that I could use for that.”

  She held her breath, hoping to see those perfect lips of his curl into an even more perfect smile. Instead, he remained serious and frowned.

  “That money is for your own café, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, but that dream won’t me make happy if it has to be without you.”

  “And what would happen at the end of the next course you do here? You’d be in the same position only broke. No, that won’t do. It won’t do at all.”

  Her stomach churned with disappointment. She hung her head. “You came to say goodbye.” She nodded. After all he was right. If she spent all her money to stay longer she’d be in the same position a few months from now. She wanted to curl up on the floor and sob.

  He placed his hands, those strong, loving hands, on her shoulders and she couldn’t help but think that it was the very last time.

  “I couldn’t ever sit back and watch you use all your money to stay a little longer. There’s no way I’d let you give up on your dreams to be with me.” He rubbed his nose. “There is another option though, one I’d prefer by far. It might not solve your visa issues instantly but I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”

  “Tell me.”

  “We could follow our dreams together.”

  She drew a breath as he kneeled in front of her and took her right hand in his. “I love you, Elise. I have from the very first moment I laid eyes on you. I’m not rich. I’m not famous. All I can offer you is my heart but if you’ll have it, marry me.”

  She let out a sound of disbelief and gazed at the crowd that had gathered around them. It was much more than she’d expected, more than she’d dared dream of, and she froze, unable to speak the words that were lost in the corridors of her mind. There was so much to feel; her heart in her throat, the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks, the joy ready to explode from her chest.

  Paul must have taken it for hesitation. “We don’t have to live in France. We can open a café in Australia, the two of us, if you like. I’ve talked to Nicole. She’ll let me take Christine. But if you want to stay here, we could run the Café des Amoureux together. Julie is giving it to me. It would be yours as much as mine.”

  “He’s handsome,” said an elderly lady in the crowd.

  “Say yes,” yelled a young man. “Or I’ll marry him!”

  Elise laughed with the crowd, pulled Paul to his feet and, cupping her hands tenderly around his face, kissed him with all the passion that was bursting inside her. “Yes,” she cried. “Oui, oui, oui, oui, oui! I will be Madame Fontaine. I don’t care where I live as long as I’m with you, but I do have a penchant for running Le Café des Amoureux.”

  “You do?”

  She grinned.

  “So do I,” he said.

  This time he kissed her like a king and she melted in his arms to the cheers of the onlookers.

  Once they’d come back down to Earth, Paul and Elise returned hand in hand to where Elise had dropped her luggage a few metres away and collected it.

  “There’s only one thing I regret,” said Paul as they exited through the glass doors.

  “What’s that?”

  “That I didn’t ask you sooner.”

  He squeezed her hand as they stepped out of the airport and into a much brighter day together under the Parisian sun. “Welcome home, my darling.”

  She squeezed his hand in response, her heart bursting with the kind of happiness that comes but once in a lifetime.

  That he hadn’t asked her sooner didn’t matter in the slightes
t. Tears of pain had turned to tears of joy, an end had become a beginning and two hearts now beat as one.

  That was all that mattered.

  Glossary

  Most of the French words and expressions used in this book are set out below for ease of reference. Please note the pronunciation is explained through a rather loose use of phonetics and is nothing more than a fun guide.

  You can’t beat listening to a native French speaker to get it right. For accuracy try the internet, your French neighbour, or better still, enjoy a trip to France!

  FRENCH

  PRONUNCIATION

  ENGLISH

  absolument

  absol-oo-mon

  absolutely

  arrondissement

  aron-diss-mon

  area of a city, administrative district

  au revoir

  oh rev-oo-ar

  good-bye

  australienne

  ostralee-ayne

  Australian (feminine)

  bonjour

  bonjoor

  hello/good day

  bonne soirée

  bon sua-ray

  good evening

  boulettes de viande

  boo-let-de-vee-ond

  meatballs

  ça rigole

  sa reegoll

  you’re laughing/there’s laughter

  ça suffit

  sa soo-fee

  that’s enough

  c’est

  say

  it is

  charcuterie

  shar-coo-tree

  small goods shop

  chasseur

  sha-sir

  hunter (the hunter’s chicken)

  Chez Jojo

  shay jojo

  (At) Jojo’s

  chouquette

  shoo-ket

  pastry puff

  comment allez-vous?

  comon-talay-voo

  how are you?

  compagnie

  com-pa-nee

  company

  confit de canard

  con-fee de canar

  preserved duck

  crise cardiaque

  creeze cardiac

  heart attack

  croque-madame

  croc madamm

  croque-monsieur with egg on top

  croque-monsieur

  croc muh-see-uh

  grilled ham and cheese sandwich

  de rien

  de ree-en (nasal)

  you’re welcome (it’s nothing)

  double-entendres

  doobleu-on-ton-dre

  dual meaning

  elle

  elle

  she

  elle est

  elle ay

  she is

  elle vient de tomber

  el vien de tombay

  she’s only just fallen

  enchanté(e)

  on-shon-tay

  pleased to meet you (enchanted)

  entrez

  ontray

  come in

  établissement

  ay-ta-bliss-mon

  establishment/business

  excusez-moi

  ex-coo-say-mwa

  excuse me

  famille

  fa-mee

  family

  filet

  fee-lay

  trickle (also means fillet)

  fromagerie

  fromash-ree

  cheese shop

  incroyable

  ancrwa-yab-le

  incredible

  j’ai faim

  jay fah (nasal)

  I’m hungry

  je ne sais quoi

  je ne say kwa

  I don’t know what (something indescribable)

  la dame du restaurantla

  dam du resto-ron

  the lady from the restaurant

  l’australienne

  los-tra-lee-enne

  the Australian

  Madame

  madam

  Mrs, Madam

  Mademoiselle

  madam-wazelle

  Miss

  maman

  ma-mon

  mum

  mamie

  ma-mee

  nanna

  ma petite chérie

  ma pe-teet sherry

  my little darling

  marché aux fleurs

  marshay-o-fler

  flower markets

  merde

  maird

  shit

  Monsieur

  muh-see-uh

  Mr, Sir

  non

  no (nasal)

  no

  oui

  wee

  yes

  papa

  papa

  daddy/dad

  parisienne

  pa-ree-sea-enne

  Parisian

  parler anglais

  par-lay onglay

  speak English

  pâtisserie

  pa-tease-ree

  cake shop

  plat du jour

  pla-doo-joor

  lunch special (dish of the day)

  pourquoi

  poor-kwa

  why

  poussez

  poo-say

  push

  quartier latin

  car-tee-ay la-tan

  Latin quarter

  qui c’est?

  key say?

  who is it?

  ratatouille

  rat-a-too-ee

  dish of zucchini, tomatoes and eggplant

  rendez-vous

  ron-day-voo

  appointment

  rue Mouffetard

  roo moof-tar

  Mouffetard street

  seulement

  solmon

  only

  sorcière

  sor-see-air

  witch

  Sacré Coeur

  sa-cray-kerr

  Sacred Heart (basilica)

  terrasse

  tayrass

  outdoor seating area

  toilettes

  twa-let

  restrooms

  une minute s’ilvous-plaît

  oon minoot sill voo play

  just a minute please

  vol-au-vent

  vollovon

  light as air savoury pastry

  vite

  veet

  quick

  voilà

  vwa-la

  there/there you have it

  vous avez

  voo zavey

  you have

  vraiment

  vray-mon

  really

  Thanks for reading Paris by Heart. I hope you enjoyed it.

  If you’d like to know more about me, my books, or to connect with me online, you can visit my webpage www.norajames.com.au, follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/norajamesauthor or like my Facebook page www.facebook.com/authornorajames.

  You can also follow me through my publisher’s page here www.escapepublishing.com.au

  Reviews can help readers find books, and I am grateful for all honest reviews. Thank you for taking the time to let others know what you’ve read, and what you thought.

  If you liked this book, why not try my previous novel Dark Oil?

  You can find it on my webpage above, my publisher’s page, all major e-tailers, as well as here https://www.millsandboon.com.au/product/9780857990877

  This book was published by Escape Publishing. If you’d like to sample some more great books from my fellow Escape Artists, please turn the page.

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