Dancing in the Gray (4 page)

He really wished he had her number so
he could call her personally thanking her for her consideration and
explaining to her that he couldn’t attend. It would be rude of him
to let her think he just stood her up, or he wasn’t interested. He
put down the envelope on the table and grabbed a cup of coffee and
a croissant and decided to Google her. Maybe he would get her
corporate number in New York, and they could help him contact
her.

He stood up on the terrace and casually
looked down into the courtyard as he punched in the number of her
corporate office in his phone. He must have been tired or just had
too much Elise on the brain because he saw a woman walking through
the courtyard with shopping bags in her hand that looked just like
Elise. But that was impossible. What were the odds that she was
staying at the exact same hotel as he was?

His call was interrupted by a knock on
the door. He hung up the phone, suddenly remembering the time
difference and promised himself he would make the call as soon as
he could. When he opened the door to his suite, his brother, Will,
was standing there.

Trey had two younger siblings – Will
and Sophia. Will was a very accomplished architect who worked out
of the D.C. and New York area. His sister Sophia was a nurse, and
she lived in Louisiana with her husband and two small
children.

“Hey bro! You just getting here?” Will
came into his suite and shook Trey’s hand.

“Yeah, I just finished showering and
was grabbing a quick cup of coffee out on the terrace.” He and Will
walked back out to the terrace where Will noticed the envelope once
he reached the table. Will picked up the envelope, and
instinctively, Trey tried to snatch it out of his hands, but he
wasn’t quick enough.

“Whoa….what’s this?” Will was taunting
Trey by waiving the envelope in front of him. “Trey. First Move.”
Will read the envelope aloud.

“It’s nothing.” Trey was shaking his
head.

“Whatever, Trey! You tried to snatch
this out of my hand like it held your deepest, darkest secret. My
ass, it’s nothing!” Will was smiling at him in a way that made Trey
want to punch him.

“It’s just something I found in my
laptop bag.” Trey tried to play it off.

“Well, let’s see. The handwriting on
the envelope is definitely female and let’s look inside.” Will
opened the envelope and pulled out all of the tickets and the
reservation. “Holy shit! A Foo Fighter ticket! I thought this was
all sold out?”

“It is sold out!” Trey rubbed that
little fact in Will’s face even though he wasn’t going.

“What is all this Trey? Roller skating,
an evening cruise.” Will wasn’t going to stop until he got answers
so Trey just came clean.

“I met this woman on the plane, and
she’s here in Paris. Her friends wanted her to have fun here, so
inside her bag was all these different envelopes with tickets to
the events that you see in that envelope. Her friend bought two
tickets for everything in hopes that she found someone to have fun
with. After my shower, I found that envelope in my laptop bag with
all the guest tickets.” Trey shook his head and rolled his eyes at
the thought of him having to explain himself to his younger
brother.

“So is she hot?” Will could justify
anything, if the woman was hot. Henceforth, him falling in love and
marrying a woman 10 years younger than him.

His fiancée, Jessie, was an interior
designer who just so happened to be the younger sister of their
brother-in-law, Jake. Jake was Sophia’s husband, and through the
course of their relationship, Will and Jessie were introduced. His
brother fell very hard from the beginning and continues to fall
further in love with Jessie every day. In some aspects, Trey was
very jealous of what his siblings had.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m not going.” He
was trying to get out of this conversation.

“So, she’s not hot.” That pissed Trey
off. Elise was definitely hot.

“Actually she is.”

“Then why aren’t you going?”

“Will, it’s not a good idea. In fact, I
was just about to call her corporate office to get her personal
number to thank her and decline her invitation.”

“Once again, why aren’t you going?
Dude, it’s the Foo Fighters.” Will did have one good point, they
were great tickets.

“I know, but I don’t want to lead her
on. With the election, I don’t have time for a personal
life.”

“Dude, that’s fucked up! Did you hear
what you just said? Dad has been in politics his whole life and he
was always there for us and mom. I call bullshit!” Will wouldn’t
drop it.

“What’s bullshit? I don’t have the time
to dedicate to a relationship right now.”

“Who says you have to marry the girl?
Go to the fucking concert and have a good time. You are already
here. You’ve made the time in your busy schedule. Now just go enjoy
yourself, Trey.” Will was trying to rationalize with him. “What’s
the worst that can happen?”

~

Elise told the car service
to wait for her while she dropped her luggage off with the
concierge. She headed straight to
rue du
Faubourg Saint-Honoré to go shopping. She wanted to pick up a few
things for all the new items that were added to her agenda thanks
to Ashley. She was trying not to get her hopes up that Trey would
join her, but she couldn’t help it. The items she bought definitely
had an air of sexiness, and she hoped he like them. She even made a
stop at La Perla and picked out a few items there. Ok, so he may
not even show up, much less check out her thousand dollar
underwear, but Fun Elise would always be prepared.

She spoke fluent French and Spanish so
navigating the car service around the city was a breeze. She had
business trips in Paris dealing with buyers and suppliers. The fact
that she spoke the language was one of the major reasons she was
able to be successful in her endeavors here. It also helped with
the snoody staff at restaurants and retailers who hated Americans
and would give them a hard time for not knowing the
language.

She made it back to Hotel de Crillon
around mid-morning and decided to take a long bath then try to grab
some sleep. She was still jet lagged, and she knew she would need
her energy for her night filled with roller skating.

She walked through the courtyard of the
hotel with her shopping bags and was very glad she chose to stay
there. It was one of the top luxury hotels in Paris and was worth
every penny. Her suite was beautiful. It had a ton of natural light
that poured into the sitting room through her massive windows. The
furniture was traditional French design with brocade patterns in
light blues, yellows, and gold. Her bedroom was spacious, and the
bathroom was marble from floor to ceiling with a very modern look
that contrasted the classic French design in her bedroom and
sitting room.

She went over to the bathtub and
started the water. She stripped naked and climbed into the bathtub
and just laid there until her skin was pruned and the water was
nearly cold. Her thoughts were mostly of Trey as she reflected on
their conversation on the plane.

She hadn’t felt this way about a man in
a long time; roughly six years, to be exact. She hated thinking of
Rixby. His name caused an instant lump in her throat and her eyes
to water. He caused her to run the emotional gamut in the nine
months they were together.

At first, she was just some girl in the
crowd enjoying his music. Ashley got killer seats to one of his
concerts that put them front row, center. When he looked down into
the crowd he spotted the two of them and pulled them on stage. They
sang and danced with him for a song or two then went back down into
the crowd. After the concert was over, they were approached by his
manager to come backstage to meet him. He was very charming and
said all the right things, but Elise wasn’t fooled. She knew he was
married. She and Ashley thanked him for the invitation and left the
arena.

That was when the rollercoaster
started. He used every resource he had to find Elise sending her
ticket after ticket to concerts all over the country. He even
included plane tickets and hotel reservations. When Elise didn’t
show up to any of his concerts, she got the biggest shock of her
life - Rixby Storm at her front door.

She was studying for a Business Law
midterm when she heard the knock on her door. Ashley opened the
door and was star struck; her mouth was open the entire time that
Rixby was there. He demanded a reason why Elise wouldn’t accept any
of his invitations to his concerts. Elise didn’t give a fuck who he
was. She laid into his ass for coming into her home and disturbing
her during her midterms. That’s when he dropped his rock star
persona and sincerely apologized to her. He offered to buy her a
cup of coffee as a piece offering, which she reluctantly accepted.
The conversation from the apartment to the coffee shop and back was
all about Elise. He wanted to get to know her. At that moment, he
seemed like a normal guy, and Elise started to fall for him. At her
door, he kissed her on her cheek and thanked her for going to
coffee with him. They exchanged phone numbers and that’s when
everything started. He called her that night to thank her again and
that’s when Elise asked him about his wife. He gave her the old
song and dance about how he wanted to end it but she wouldn’t sign
the paperwork, she wanted his money, she was evil, they were
married on paper but he hadn’t loved her in years, blah, blah,
blah. Elise fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

Then late night phone calls that lasted
four and five hours turned into flying around the country to be
with him. He treated her like a queen, and she loved him for it. He
made Elise feel like she was the only one in this world and
promises of forever were spoken. Their chemistry was undeniable
which lead to hot physical relationship that they had.

But their relationship ended just as
quickly and intensely as it started. Elise walked into an after
party to find Rixby. She found him with his tongue down the throat
of some girl. When he noticed Elise standing there, he didn’t even
acknowledge her. He called her bitter and a groupie and told her
that she had to be delusional to think that she was the only one.
Those were that last words that she ever heard Rixby Storm
say.

Jeremy and Ashley never knew why it
ended, they just knew it did. She didn’t want to relive that moment
ever again, so she asked them not to ever speak of him. Being the
good friends that they were, they complied completely. And up until
one day ago, the name Rixby Storm wasn’t spoken.

She liked that her feelings for Trey
were intense even though she just met him, and they could compare
to the feelings she had for Rixby. It was like her spirit was
mending itself and allowing her to finally feel that way again. It
seems that her relaxing bath was not only good for her body but
also good for her soul.

Once she got out of the bathtub, she
wrapped herself into one of the robes that the hotel provided and
climbed into bed. She checked her phone for any messages from home.
There were a few texts from Ashley and Jeremy wishing her safe
travels and to have fun. She smiled as she set her phone to charge
and climbed into her bed. Her eyelids got heavy, so she let the
sleep take her over.

Chapter 4

Elise pulled up the directions for the
roller skating route online and printed it. She asked the car
service to bring her to 14th Arrondissement of Paris at the Place
Raoul Dautry. That was where the route started and where it would
end.

Elise had reached out to the concierge
at the hotel and asked them to find her a pair of roller skates.
She didn’t want to run around Paris to find a pair, and the hotel’s
concierge was known to find anything for their guests at any hour
of the night. An hour after she made the request, a bell hop was at
her door with the roller skates.

She knew that she would probably be
working up a sweat since they were going to be skating roughly 18
miles in the three hour block of time. So she decided to throw on
her white Joe’s Jeans cut off shorts with a navy V-neck Prada
T-Shirt and added her Dolce and Gabbana leather bracelet to the
outfit. She was wearing her Stuart Weitzman espadrilles to get to
the event and brought along her Louis Vuitton backpack purse to put
them in while she was roller skating. She may be going there alone,
and Trey may not meet her, but all her favorite men were definitely
with her, and she looked cute in them.

Elise was about to leave the hotel when
her cell phone rang. It was Ashley.

“Hey Ash!”

“Leesie! You sound different. How’s
Paris treating you?” It was good to hear Ashley’s voice.

“So far, so good! I did a bunch of
shopping this morning, and I am about to go roller skating thanks
to you and Jeremy!”

“YAY! So you got the
package.”

“Yes. You need to work on your
subtlety. Two tickets for everything.”

“No, Leesie. You need to work on your
moves. The old Elise would have five different dates escorting her
to each different event.”

“I was never that good. Besides, maybe
the same guy to all five events is now more my speed.”