Wanderlust (15 page)

“
Make me the happiest undead immortal in the world, and say that you will be mine for all eternity,” he said, a smile so big and bold forming on his lips that it was competing with the diamond for clarity and cut.

I dropped to my knees next to Chaseyn. In my wildest dreams, I had not anticipated this. Nodding my head fervently, tears began streaming from my eyes, and I threw my arms around his neck before shouting out a resounding
“
Yes
”
so loud that I was sure it could be heard all along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower.

“Hey. Is everything okay here?”

I was jolted back to reality by the sound of a stranger’s voice behind me. I wiped a tear from my cheek and stood to face the man.

“Yes. I’m fine. Just thinking about my boyfriend.”

“Well, if that’s him over there, he hasn’t peeled his eyes from you once. I saw the two of you fighting earlier, but let me tell you, you have nothing to worry about. He loves you very much,” the man said, and I wished people would stop reminding me of that.

“I know, but that’s not him.”

“I’m sorry,” the man said apologetically. “I just assumed…Are you all alone, then? That’s an interesting ring you’re wearing.”

And, that was enough to put me on high alert. Chip’s warning rang through my ears, and I started moving--fast.
Don’t talk to strangers.
Eli must have shared my thoughts because he began moving--no, running--toward me. I pulled my hand up close against my chest and cradled it protectively with my other hand, as if shielding the ring from view would keep the man from remembering what he had seen. I knew it was ridiculous, but it was also instinctive.

“That’s enough,” Eli shouted at the man, who had been following close behind me. “You need to leave her alone.”

“So, you are together,” he said to Eli. “My apologies. She said you weren’t her boyfriend, and I misinterpreted it as an invitation.”

“Did you ever,” Eli said, wrapping his bulky bicep around my waist and whisking me down the street. When we were safely out of the man’s sight, he held me at arm’s length and inspected every inch of me.

“Is this really necessary? You were watching me the entire time. You know the creep never laid a finger on me.”

“Don’t you
ever
do that again,” he commanded, pulling me into an embrace so tight that I thought my insides might start to ooze out through my mouth and ears.

“Do what? I didn’t
do
anything.”

“Whatever, it sounded like the right thing to say. All I know is that I don’t ever want to think about losing you again…even if you’re not mine to lose.”

“O-kay,” I said with hint of skepticism in my tone. “Just forget about it. It’s fine.”

On the surface, I tried to seem unfazed by what had happened, but on the inside, I was all shook up. Two things had made me feel this way in the past few minutes. One was the strange man. I wondered how long he had been watching me and why my ring had caught his attention. The other was the daydream and how, in it, Chaseyn had asked me to be his for all eternity. It reminded me why I had needed time to decide if being with Chaseyn was right for me. There was more to it than whether or not I loved him. It was about eternity. Being with Chaseyn boiled down to just that. Eternity. Was I ready to make that kind of commitment? ’Til death do us part takes a whole lot more consideration when one of you is never going to die.

Chapter 17 - The Rest of the Day

“I’m not sure I can just forget about an encounter like that, Lia,“ Eli argued. “I mean, that guy was seriously creepy, and he clearly wanted something from you. What did he say, anyway?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said calmly, hoping to soothe him with my nonchalance. “He was just some old guy looking to get off.”

“I don’t care who he was or what he wanted, I’m not letting you out of my sight for one more minute.”

“Fine,” I said, giving in. It was better than wasting away our precious time arguing, and I most definitely didn’t want to screw up and accidentally tell Eli the man was interested in my ring. That would put him over the edge, and I would end up spending the rest of the trip locked under twenty-four-hour surveillance, staring out the hotel window.

By now, it was late in the afternoon, and we had wanted to pass by the Notre Dame Cathedral before heading home. We must have stopped in about 50 souvenir shops on our way. Eli wanted to buy everything that bore the cathedral’s name given that he was going to be attending the college of the same name back in the U.S. in the fall. When my feet simply couldn’t take any more, I dragged Eli to a nearby café.

“Enough,” I said. “I need to eat. I can’t believe you’ve gone this long without food.”

“There’s so much to see. How can you think about food?”

“What? This coming from the man who could eat Manhattan…are you feeling okay?” I asked, pressing the back of my hand to his forehead for emphasis. “No fever.”

He smiled that million-megawatt grin--the one I hadn’t seen since he realized I was truly in love with Chaseyn--and I knew everything was going to be fine between us.

“Maybe I could stand to eat a little something,” he said coyly, and I knew I was about to experience the full wrath of Eli’s empty stomach. He pulled the menu from its stand, and I could tell he had just found a little piece of heaven. He gave me a sheepish look and said, “I think we should get one of everything…Chaseyn’s treat.”

I raised an eyebrow and gave him a puzzled look. He responded by taking his wallet from his back pocket and pulling a plastic card from one of it’s thin inner pockets.

“I still don’t understand,” I questioned. “How did you get a credit card?”

And that’s when I saw it. The name “Chaseyn Lear” was emblazed across the bottom of the card. “Huh?”

“He gave it to me for emergencies,” Eli said, calling the server to our table. Looking up at the raven-haired beauty, he pointed to the menu and indicated he wanted to sample every item The girl smiled and nodded vigorously before running off toward the kitchen, likely calculating the enormous size of her tip as she went. “I’m pretty sure that us not being able to cover our bill counts as an emergency, doesn’t it?”

“Don’t mention food of any kind,” Eli answered, every bit as unreceptive as myself. “We kind of overdid it in the eating department.”

Overdid it was an understatement. We had ordered so much food that the server had to slide another table beside us so that she had a place to sit all of the dishes. There were muscles, pomme frites, escargots, éclairs, and more. So much more. By the time we had left the little bistro, we were stuffed so full that we weren’t certain we could move. Somehow, we had managed to make our way back to the hotel, where we fell into a deep slumber while waiting for the girls to return.

At about 6 p.m., we heard the rustling of the lock followed by incessant giggling and the crinkling of what sounded like an endless sea of bags. I opened my eyes to find Addie and Chip followed by an entourage of two busboys toting boxes and bags stacked up to their eyeballs.

“What the--?”

“Now, before you get too upset, let me explain,” Addie cut me off, her hands held up in front of her silently begging me to put my thoughts on pause. “I know what you’re thinking, but we’ve got it all figured out.”

“Good,” I said, propping myself up on my elbows, “because I am not helping you lug an entire boutique’s worth of purchases all over this continent.”

By now, Eli had come to, and his eyes were popping out of his head as he took in the spectacle unraveling before him.

“We’re going to have it all shipped home so you guys don’t have to worry at all,” Chip said to Eli in an effort to placate him before his lips could catch up to his eyes.

“Oh, I’m not worried about that,” he said. “I’m just wondering, are those La Perla bags I see?”

“Um, yeah,” Addie said reluctantly. “Why?”

“I will personally strap every one of those bags to my back and carry them across the ocean if you’ll just put on whatever is in those bags and rock them around this room for five minutes,” he said, tongue hanging askew as he, literally, panted the words.

“There’s no way I’m putting on that kind of fashion show to help the two of you get your purchases transported,” I said, slugging Eli in the arm for even thinking it.

Addie blushed. She clutched the small diamond ring that dangled from the chain around her neck. Why was she wearing it there instead of on her finger, I wondered? Regardless, she ran into the bathroom and remained there for a few minutes.

“Do you think she’s changing into it?” Eli asked, breaking the silence. We all laughed, and Addie finally rejoined our gathering.

By the time the girls got their bags sorted and stowed, a solid hour had passed. I splashed a little water on my face and put on a fresh set of clothes in anticipation of a fun night out.

“We should go to that place Madonna owns,” Addie said. “I’ve always wanted to go there, and now I’m finally old enough.”

We agreed it was a good idea, but we had a few hours to kill before the party would really get started so we decided to take in a view of the city from the sky at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

“Can we make a quick stop first?” Eli asked shyly. It was rare for him to make a request, so we all felt obliged to comply and nodded before we had even heard his full demand. “We need to get something to eat. I’m starved.”

I rolled my eyes and walked out the door, a slight wave of nausea lurking in my belly from the memory of how we had stuffed our faces just a few hours earlier.

“Later,” Chip said, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him out the door.

***

We waited in line for what felt like hours. Finally, we made our way into the humungous lift that would take us and who knows how many dozens of others to the top floor of the Eiffel Tower.

“No. Of course not,” he said, but as the elevator lurched, indicating the start of its upward rise, Eli grabbed my arm with the strength of a vice grip.

I nearly laughed out loud, until I saw the look of fear on his face.

“Don’t you dare say a word to the others,” he threatened. Addie and Chip had been separated from us when we climbed aboard, so I knew there was no other way for them to find out. When we stopped at the second floor to let people off, he loosened his grip and let his gaze linger over the heads of the other riders. He towered over the majority of people, and this situation was no different. His shoulders relaxed, and I knew he had spotted them.

He sounded like a child who had just broken his mother’s favorite vase, and I knew this was important to him. I nodded silently, and as the engine roared back to life, I grabbed his hands in my own and smoothed my thumb across his knuckles in a soothing gesture. He looked at his shoes instead of at the amazing view.

Chapter 18 - Sylvie

All tolled we were at the Eiffel Tower for 2 hours and 27 minutes. We spent 39 minutes in line to go up, 46 minutes riding the elevator up and down, 43 minutes in the line to go back down, and a whopping 17 minutes at the top of the tower. It was worth every one of those minutes. When all was said and done, it was about 10 p.m., and we figured it was as good a time as any to head back to the main routes to see the city lights and get our dance on.

“Guys, we have to get something to eat, or I might die of starvation,” Eli stated, not a hint of teasing in his tone.

“Eli, I can’t afford to keep constantly buying food,” I replied. “We just ate that huge meal a few hours ago. How can you be hungry again?”

“I don’t know, Lia, I just am. Can we please just stop someplace, please?”

Chip and Addie ducked into a nearby scarf shop while we stood there bickering. And, we stood there a long while, our arms flailing and voices rising as we hashed out our differences. I was tired of spending our entire vacation in search of food or eating, and I was going to set some ground rules once and for all.

“It’s like all we do is sit in restaurants watching you stuff your face,” I said angrily. I regretted the words almost the instant they came out of my mouth, but I couldn’t stop myself from continuing to say words that I knew would hurt him. “I know that tasting the culture is parting of the experience, but it’s like you’ve fallen victim to the seven deadly sins, and you’re hung up on gluttony. Pretty soon, you’re abs are going to look more like a blubber bag than a washboard. Why did you bother coming with us if all you wanted to do was check out the eating establishments?”

“That’s not fair, and you know it,” Eli shouted in retort. “I wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for the boyfriend you pretend you don’t have.”