Kissed in Paris (11 page)

“Honey, it’s me, Chloe.”

“Chloe? Where are you calling from? Shouldn’t you be on the plane already?”

 “There’s been a problem, actually, and I wasn’t able to take my original flight.”

“What kind of problem?”

“There’s been a crisis with the conference, and they need me to stay a bit longer to run damage control. I spoke to Angela, and apparently my job is on the line if I don’t stay and get things worked out.” My insides squirmed with each lie I told. This was horrible.

“That’s outrageous. The wedding is this weekend. Sophie flies in tomorrow and both of our families will be in later this week. I need you here. How could Angela expect you to do this?”

“I have to stay until the kinks are fixed. I don’t have a choice.”

“How long is that going to be?”

“A day or two at the most . . . hopefully. I’ll be in touch though to let you know. And I promise, when I get home, I’ll handle my dad and my sisters. I know things can be a bit stressful when they’re all in town.”

“A
bit
stressful?”

“Okay, really stressful.” Paul was an only child and whenever my sisters descended upon our house, he usually found a reason to stay late at the firm so he didn’t have to come home and deal with them. He’d always said it was too much estrogen in one room.

“I need you to deal with Sophie for a day or two, and I should be home before the rest of them fly in. So, no need to worry, okay?”

Paul sighed loudly into the phone. “I was hoping we could do dinner tonight.” He stopped to clear his throat. “I have some exciting news.”

“Really?” My tense shoulders disengaged as Paul took the spotlight off my lies.

“If you’re going to be home in a day or two anyway, we can just talk about it then.”

I wondered if I really would be home in a day or two. “Can you just tell me now?”

“I wanted to tell you over a nice dinner, but I’ve been offered a position at that small firm I was telling you about, Robins and Miller.” I could hear him smiling over the phone.

I racked my brain to remember which firm that was. Paul had been unhappy with the slow growth at his big DC law firm, and he’d been hoping to find a smaller firm, where he could be a bigger fish, so to speak. “That’s great, honey. Remind me again though, which one was that?”

“It’s the one in Pennsylvania.”

My stomach dropped. “Pennsylvania? The one in that really small town?”

“I know what you’re going to say, Chloe. But this could be a great opportunity for us. I mean, just think, with the money I’d be making, I could buy you a beautiful house with space and a yard. No more living in a crowded townhouse in the city.”

“But I love our townhouse in DC. And we talked about this. There aren’t any jobs for event planners in small towns like that.”

 “I know, but sweetie, wait until you see the offer they made me. I’d be making so much money, plus the cost of living there is so low, you’d never have to work again.”

“But I love my job. I want to work. You know that.”

“I know you do. And I don’t want to take that away from you. But you’ll be thirty soon, and I’ve been looking at real estate there, and I found some amazing homes that I know you would love . . . and they’re in a great school district.”

School district
?

Just as I was about to respond, Julien’s leg pushed against mine. I’d almost forgotten where I was for a second. My secret agent travel buddy lounged back in his seat with his eyes closed, hands propped behind his head, legs relaxed out to the sides, invading my space. At least he appeared to be sleeping. Which hopefully meant he was not listening to this conversation.

Paul continued. “I’m thirty-two now, and neither of us is getting any younger. We should really start thinking about having a family. This could be it for us, Chloe. This could be our chance.”

“We’ve talked about this before.” I lowered my voice and turned my face back toward the window. “I have an MBA, and I did all that work so that I could have my own career. And I know I’ve said that I want to have kids someday, but I don’t know if I’m ready for all of that yet. I don’t know if I’m ready to leave the city for good.”

“I know, darling. It’s just that this is a huge opportunity for me, and if you could be happy for me and give it a shot, I think it would be good for us in the long term.”

“But we don’t know anyone there, and you’ll be at work all the time. What am I supposed to do?”

“Chloe, sweetie, I’m sure you’ll make friends. There will be lots of other women and mothers in a small-town like that. You can read all those books you’ve been dying to read or take walks in the neighborhood, or take up cooking.”

And then it hit me. Paul was talking about his mother. This is exactly what had happened with his parents. They’d left the city back when his father was offered a position he couldn’t refuse at a firm in a small town in Maryland. And that’s when Paul’s mom became pregnant with Paul.

He wanted me to be just like his mother. But I wasn’t like her. I had goals and dreams, and I loved my job. I didn’t want to move away from the city and take care of a house and have kids. Not yet anyway.

“Can we talk about this when I get home?” My forehead resumed its throbbing.

“Sure sweetie, but, well . . .” Paul trailed off, and I could see him then, pacing in circles around the house, the way he always did when he disagreed with me.

“Yes?”

“It’s just that . . . well, promise me you’ll think about it, okay? This could be good for us, and I—” Paul’s voice was suddenly cut off.

“Paul, are you there?” I pulled the phone away from my ear and realized the train was now racing through a tunnel.

I’d lost the call completely. And as I stared down at the phone, I had no urge to call him back.

***

I carefully laid the phone on the seat next to Julien so as not to wake him. I needed some time to process all of this.

But just as I was leaning my head up against the window, gazing out at the green, rolling hills which reappeared as we emerged from the tunnel, Julien shifted in his seat next to me.

“You’re a terrible liar,” he said.

So he hadn’t been sleeping after all.

I scowled in his direction. “It’s rude to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations, you know.”

He pressed a few buttons on the phone, then tucked it back into his pocket. “Trouble in paradise?”

I shook my head at him and laid my temple back up against the cool window. “Thanks for your concern.”

“It sounds to me like you are with a man who is not so much of a man, if you know what I mean.”

“Are you seriously trying to say that my fiancé, the man I love, isn’t a
man
?”

“Yes. And you,
chérie
, are
not
a woman in love.”

“How can you even say that? You have no right to make judgments about my life. You know nothing about me, and nothing about Paul. If he were here right now, he would—”

“He would run away like a scared little boy.”

The sound of Julien’s French accent suddenly had the same effect as the Catholic nuns I’d had in grade school scratching their long finger nails down the chalkboard.

“No, if he were here, none of this would’ve ever happened,” I clipped.

“And if you really loved him, none of this would’ve ever happened either.”

“What do you know about love? Have you ever actually been in love?”

Julien’s lips tightened into a thin line, giving me no response.

“So that’s all I’m going to get? You listen to my entire
private
conversation with my fiancé, you make judgmental remarks about my relationship, but you’re not willing to share any details about
your
life with me?”

Julien’s deep brown eyes focused in on mine. “I can just tell, by the way you talk with him, you are not truly in love.”

“So if you’re such an expert on love, where is she? The woman
you’re
in love with?”

“I am not in love with anyone. I know what I know because many women have been in love with
me
before. I can spot them a mile away,
chérie
. But you are right. Your life is none of my business. I just think that a man and woman who are about to be married should make decisions together, no?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned my face away from Julien.

I didn’t want to move to Pennsylvania. I’d been more than clear about that the first time Paul had mentioned it. But I knew my fiancé, and when he got an idea in his head, it was close to impossible to shake him of it.

I would shake him of this one though. I had to.

At least he hadn’t accepted the position yet. And as soon as I got home, we would talk it out and Paul would see my point of view.

But then I remembered that when I did arrive home, we’d have even bigger issues to discuss—such as my stolen engagement ring, a fraudulent bank account, and the night I’d spent with a stranger . . . just to name a few. Ugh.

“I messed up my one chance at love,” Julien’s deep voice cut through my thoughts. “And I don’t like to see others mess up their lives too, that is all.” With that, he stood abruptly and headed down the aisle of the train, leaving me alone and speechless.

As the train rumbled down the tracks, I took a deep breath in an attempt to forget about my conversation with Paul, and even more so, about Julien’s projections onto my life. He didn’t know what he was talking about. He was clearly pinning his own fears and insecurities from his screwed-up love life onto me.

And in less than a day, I would never have to see Julien again.

While this thought should’ve comforted me, I noticed that the giant knot that had formed in my stomach over the course of the day wasn’t loosening up in the slightest. And as I stared out at the looming, gray clouds now hovering over the white stone cottages off in the distance, I realized that this was the first time since those early years after my mother had died that I’d felt so helpless and so utterly out of control. I yearned to hide in one of those cottages and wish away everything that had taken place in the past twenty-four hours.

But I couldn’t. I was on a train with a man I barely knew who was telling me I didn’t love my fiancé.

That was ridiculous. Of course I loved Paul. Of course I did.

Seven

A light summer breeze kissed my cheeks as Julien and I stepped off the train in Annecy.

The sun had just set, but street lamps lit the way while I struggled to keep up with him, my heels digging into the backs of my feet, giving me no mercy whatsoever.

After jetting across a busy intersection, we wound through a sea of dimly-lit cobblestone streets, combing past the crowds of jolly, wine-drinking tourists who were lounging and smoking cigarettes at the endless array of outdoor cafés.

I spotted a couple feeding each other large, steaming bites of chocolaty dessert crêpes, the woman’s expression one of pure ecstasy as she licked a drop of gooey Nutella off the man’s spoon. For a split second, I found myself wishing I could trade places with her. What I wouldn’t give to be on vacation in some fairytale town, eating chocolate off my lover’s spoon without a care in the world.