Being out on the streets in Paris at night can be a hazard to your health. You'll never know when you could end up being set upon by some of the hoodlum gangs that prowl even the most posh neighborhoods. That said, even I could not give a toss regarding that as I dragged myself into a nearby café to drown my sorrows at being kicked out of the hotel room.
The name of the café did not even strike me as being unusual until the shopkeeper approached me, notepad in his hand. "Welcome to 'My Tea Is Rich'! What would you like to order?" Well, his English is quite good, despite his French accent.
"Je voudrais un demi."
"Huh?" He was probably quite surprised that I could speak some French, and that I was aware of some of the tricks that French waiters would try to pull on tourists. "May I see your ID, please?"
Without thinking, I simply reached into my wallet and showed him my American driving license. Looking down, I mentally prepared myself to get kicked out of the place when the shopkeeper returned with two mugs of beer. The instant he set them down, I reached out for the mug closes to me and chugged down a quarter of the beer. As I recovered from the buzz, I noticed that the shopkeeper was sitting across the table from me.
He spoke first. "I know that you're still a minor, even here in France, but something must be wrong for you to ask for a beer outright." Indeed. "It's not my business to know what is wrong with you, but since business here has been slow for the past couple of weeks, I am free to help you if you need it."
As I downed the rest of the beer, I realised that I had no choice. "I'm actually looking for a friend of mine who is traveling around the world by herself. The problem is that even though I love her, I fell in love with yet another girl I met back in England. I've had some fun times with her, and she wants to go all the way with me but, when I hesitated, she assumed that I loved my friend more than her, so I got kicked out of the hotel room that we booked."
"Ah, l'armour," the shopkeeper drawled. "Oui, I've seen my friend, Paul West, having this problem in the past many times. Ever since he came here to work for my father, he's been sleeping around quite a fair bit." As I raised my eyebrow, he could not help but chuckle. "Let's see... Elodie, who is my sister... Alexa, Florence, Virginie, Gloria... I hear that he is busy fucking a French policewoman with whom he helped prevent an assassination on Monsieur President. Of the five whose names I have mentioned, the only one he's been on fairly good terms throughout would be my sister."
"But..."
"But, nothing! The thing is that you are young. Whether you ultimately end up with one girl, the other, or both is really up to you. Seize the opportunity when you can. If it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be. Paul learnt the lesson the hard way with Alexa." One glare from him automatically silenced my unasked question regarding his friend. Taking this as a cue, I immediately reached for my wallet when he held his hand up in a 'stop' manner. "No, Monsieur Jones, it is my treat to you. Besides, if I had asked you to pay, you have already done so by listening to my advice. Now, go! Go and live life!"
As I was about to leave the unusually-name eatery, I turned to thank the shopkeeper. "Merci beaucoup pour le demi, Monsieur..."
"Ah, no worries, just call me Benoît."
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Standing in front of the hotel room door, I started to mentally prepare an apology when the door opened, revealing a bathrobe-clad Nat. The instant the bathrobe dropped to the floor, whatever apology that I had in mind was completely thrown out of the window as she dragged me inside.
There was no holding back as I took Benoît's advice to heart.
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"That was wonderful, Forsythe," Nat purred as she rested her head on my chest. "I'm sorry for having kicked you out of the room earlier this evening. I thought you didn't love me anymore when you showed signs of hesitating."
"Nat..." She simply looked beautiful from where I was looking at her. "Don't worry about it. Whatever will be, will be. There's no time right now in the present to worry about such things when we should be living and celebrating life. Whatever problems you might have, you know that you can talk to me about it when you're ready to bare your soul."
As the redhead looked up, I suddenly grinned. "We've got a hotel room, and another 12 hours before we have to head to the airport. What do you say to that?"
No words were needed as Nat backed away just so that she could pounce on me.
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