Living with Love (Lessons in Love) (3 page)

“I’m so glad we did this,” Ashley declared, her drunkenness bringing on a bout of sincerity.

“Me too,” Alex agreed.

“I’m serious
, Alex! There is no one I’d rather be here with, seeing these sights for the first time! And we will remember this trip for the rest of our lives!”

“I know
.” Alex smiled.

“Like, we
’ll be telling our children and our children’s children about it all,” Ashley continued.

“Will we tell them about the time we went through the
Channel Tunnel?” Alex asked jokingly.

“I’d tell them I was too drunk to remember that!” Ashley laughed a little too eagerly, but so did Alex.

As the train finally came to a standstill in Paris, both girls were in fits of giggles, laughing merrily in their shared moment.

****

Alex tilted her head to the left and squinted at the picture that was behind a pane of bulletproof glass.

“It’s so small,” she declared.

“Mmm,” Ashley agreed, glancing at the long line to get close to the picture. “I’m not sure it’s worth the wait to see.”

“For some reason I always thought that the Mona Lisa would be…
bigger.”

“Me too!” Ashley enthused, her voice rising slightly
, which caused some nearby art enthusiasts to scowl at her in annoyance.

“Everyone here is so serious,” Ashley said sternly, lowering her voice and mimicking the general consensus.

“People take art seriously.” Alex shrugged.

They were standing in the Louvre,
the museum that housed the largest collection of art in the world, close to the exhibit of arguably the most famous picture in the world: the
Mona Lisa
.

“Why do you think she’s smiling?” Alex asked as they headed out of the room, back into the main corridor that snaked through the maze of exhibits.

“I bet it’s a guy.” Ashley sighed. “Even back then, I bet men were trouble.”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed. Most of both her angst and euphoria seemed to derive from a man.

“So where next?” Ashley asked as they wandered the corridor, selecting an empty bench to sit at and browse their map of Paris.

Ashley had highlighted all the locations she thought they should visit. There was the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and the nearby wealth of luxurious designer shops.

“I mean, we simply have to go to Chanel while in Paris,” Ashley said, tapping the spot on the map with her manicured nail.

“Not that we can afford anything in there.”

“That’s not the point.” Ashley shook her head. “Chanel is like an exhibit in itself, like our generation’s
Mona Lisa
.”

“That makes our generation sound very consumer orient
ed.”

“But fashion is art,” Ashley argued
, and Alex had to nod in agreement. Though she thought of someone who wouldn’t be so quick to agree: Oscar.

For a brief moment she thought of him in his hospital bed, reading his books, seething about what was wrong with the world. She did miss him. She missed his dark humor and irrepressible opinions. He had an opinion about everything. But Alex knew she couldn’t let her mind linger on him for too long. She needed a distraction from her own thoughts.

“So shall we do the Eiffel Tower or the shops?” Alex asked, checking her watch. “We’ve only got time for one if we want to get back to the hotel and change before dinner.”

“Okay…” Ashley looked intently at the map, trying to decide how they should spend their afternoon.

“The tower is a landmark, and we should see it, really,” she began. “But then the shops are a sight to behold in themselves, and shopping is my favorite thing to do, like, ever.”

“So you’re saying that the Eiffel Tower is too romantic a destination?” Alex began, forcing a decision from Ashley’s comment.

“And that, really, as a girls’ vacation, we’d be better off shopping?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying!” Ashley beamed. “You’re like a mind reader!”

“With a specialty in Ashley,” Alex joked.

“Yeah
.” Ashley’s smile fell away slightly, and she looked down sadly at the map.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.”

“Ash?”

“You’ll be mad at me,” Ashley said, her voice small.

“I could never be mad at you,” Alex reassured her. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just…” Ashley looked at the map and sighed deeply. “Pierre always said he’d take me up the Eiffel Tower, that’s all. And I know that this is a man-free vacation, but being here, in his city, seeing all the things he promised to show me himself, it’s hard.”

Alex placed a comforting arm around her friend. “Men really do suck,” she stated.

“I feel stupid for even thinking about him!” Ashley lamented, hitting the map in frustration.

“I’m sure that he never thinks about me, yet here I am moping on our girl
s’ vacation!”

“Ash, it’s okay
. I mean, I’ve done my fair share of moping this vacation.”

“Guys are just a waste of time!” Ashley seethed. “All they do is make us unhappy!”

Alex leant her head against Ashley’s shoulder, sharing her pain.

“But who is worse?” Alex asked philosophically
. “The fool or the fool that follows them?”

“The fool, definitely,” Ashley decided immediately. “The fool shouldn’t let anyone follow them in the first place.”

“Let’s just forget about boys and enjoy our vacation,” Alex said softly. “I’m sure trying on some overpriced designer items will help you feel better.”

“Yes, it will
,” Ashley agreed. She folded up the map and returned it to her designer satchel. They started to walk down the corridor, but she stopped briefly, looking thoughtful.

“I mean, one day we will find the right guy, right? It won’t always be this hard, be this painful?”

“Of course we will,” Alex answered with complete conviction. “We just haven’t found them yet.”

But Alex wasn’t quite as sure of her latter statement. A part of her felt that she had indeed found the right guy for her
; it had just never been the right time. Perhaps there never would be a right time. Maybe it was an obscenely rare occasion to discover the right guy also at the right time. Determined not to let men ruin her vacation, Alex pushed the thought out of her mind and focused on finding a designer shop to lose herself in.

****

Ashley spotted the Chanel logo when they were still several blocks down the street from it, walking arm in arm past boutiques and brasseries.

“All these cakes look so good,” Alex cooed, glancing in shop windows and seeing neatly stacked macaroons of all the colors of the rainbow.

“There it is!” Ashley stopped and pointed excitedly at the double C sign, which Alex had to squint at to even make out.

“How can you even see that?”

“I’m hardwired to seek out anything designer,” Ashley explained, smiling.

“Okay, well
, before you go rushing in, I want to broker a deal,” Alex said sternly.

“What kind of deal?” Ashley countered, intrigued.

“You can have one whole hour in Chanel, on the condition that we then go have cakes here.” Alex gestured to the small cake shop they were currently standing outside.

“Done!” Ashley reached out and shook her friend’s hand firmly. “Now let’s go abuse my father’s credit card! As Chanel in Paris definitely sounds like an emergency to me!”

Within the designer store, Ashley was in her element. She tried on dresses and jackets, all of which fitted her like a glove. She had the figure of a model. The staff had initially been aloof towards the two American girls who came rushing into the store, but once Ashley mentioned her father’s credit card, they were much more attentive.

“You’re not really going to buy anything here, are you?” Alex asked with concern, noticing with a panic the price labels on the items. A Chanel
sweater alone could cost thousands of euros. She didn’t even want to try to figure out what that would be in dollars.

“I don’t know, maybe
.” Ashley shrugged casually. “I’m in dire need of some retail therapy.”

As Ashley tried on items, Alex carefully navigated her way around the shop. It was so much nicer inside than normal shops but with far less merchandise out. There
was only one of anything out on display. If Ashley wanted to try something on, she had to request it in her size.

Around the store, there were lavish chaise lo
ngues and chairs for patrons to sit in, and twice, the girls were offered champagne but declined, on Alex’s insistence, as the last thing Ashley needed to further fuel her splurge was alcohol.

Wandering around absently, Alex found that she was struck by the designer handbags, each neatly sat within a modern
-art-style bookcase, lit from above to reveal their full glory.

Tentatively, Alex lifted down a beige quilted handbag that had the Chanel logo stitched on the front in black. It was beautiful. Glancing around to ensure she wasn’t being watched, Alex even dared to place it on her shoulder, looking at her reflection to see how it looked. It made her appear so professional and grown up. It was the sort of extravagant gift her father would have bought her in a heartbeat.

Thinking of him made Alex suddenly unbearably emotional, and she put the handbag back and went to sit and wait for Ashley on a nearby chair. No matter how many years passed, there were still moments when her father’s loss could quite literally take her breath away. Feeling winded, Alex sat and waited for the sensation to pass.

She knew that he’d be so delighted to see her now, off travelling in Europe, becoming a young woman. Her father
had always spoken about wanting to travel and see the world. To Alex he’d always appeared so cultured and worldly, and she admired that immensely.

Lost
in her thoughts about her father, Alex didn’t see Ashley appear in front of her, proudly clutching a number of Chanel-branded shopping bags.

“Ready to go?” Ashley asked.

“Huh, yeah.” Alex got up and then surveyed the bags hanging off Ashley’s arms. “Dare I ask how much you spent?”

“Enough
.” Ashley shrugged.

“Won’t your
dad be mad?”

“No, he said he wanted me to go enjoy myself and get a few treats
,” Ashley explained, and Alex nodded with understanding. Had her father still been alive, she was certain that he’d have said the exact same thing to her.

****

“Oh my God, these macaroons are amazing!” Ashley declared as she finished off her second one.

“I know, right?” Alex agreed, taking a genteel sip from her cup of tea, resisting the urge to eat a third macaroon herself.

“Thanks for letting me go shopping,” Ashley said once her mouth was no longer full. “I know that sightseeing is important to you, so I promise, the shopping bug is out of my system, for now.”

“Don’t worry about it
.” Alex smiled. “Besides, look what we can see in the distance?” She looked out of the main window of the cake shop, and Ashley followed her gaze.

“Oh, no way,” Ashley breathed
. There in the distance was the Eiffel Tower gracefully hanging above the nearby buildings, looking down on them and the rest of the city.

“So we did get to see it
.” Alex smiled. Then she hailed a nearby waitress and asked her to take their picture, with the distant tower the backdrop.

Smiling
at the camera, both girls held up a brightly colored macaroon, looking the image of happiness.

“
Merci
,” Alex said sweetly to the waitress as she handed back her camera.

“Get you, starting to sound French,” Ashley noted, impressed.

“Well, when in Rome,” Alex joked.

“Speaking of Rome, I believe it is our third and final stop.”

“Indeed.” Alex felt happy and sad at the same time. She didn’t want their vacation to end, but she was excited to visit the historic Roman city.

“Oh, before I forget
.” Ashley rummaged amongst her Chanel bags and then passed one across to Alex.

“What’s this?” Alex asked, confused.

“It’s for you. Open it,” Ashley urged.

“Ash, I can’t
—”

“Don’t be silly
. Just open it,” Ashley pressed.

As instructed, Alex opened the bag and reached in beneath the Chanel logo tissue paper to find the beige quilted bag she’d previously slung over her shoulder. When she looked back at Ashley
, her eyes were bejewelled with teardrops.

“It’s for when you start your hotshot job in New York,” Ashley explained, becoming equally tearful.