Prologue
Iwas in Paris forless than a week, but it was the beginning of everything, everything that mattered.
We lived in thehere.
We lived in thenow.
Everything in between wasfireandpassion.
The beginning of our romance was not that long ago.It was how I always hoped I would meet my soul mate, how all great love affairs happen, or at least how they did in my favorite old movies.I booked the trip wanting to see the city I daydreamed about my entire life.I just didn’t actually expect to meetOlivier.We didn’t know each other long, but it was long enough to change the course of my life forever...Yet, like a flame that flickers, fighting against the wind, would the end of winter bring an end to us?
Chapter 1
Mid-November
The travel guides failedto capture the emotion I felt as the cab driver swerved through traffic, taking me to the hostel.The lines on the roads that kept the lanes separated at home didn’t seem to exist here, so I snapped my seatbelt across my body.Happiness bordered on nausea due to the wild ride.
It doesn’t matter that he had Spanish music playing and no French accent.The only thing that matters is that I’m in Paris, making the year and a half of scrimping and saving worth it.
My head hits the window, my brown hair whirling over my eyes, when the driver takes a sharp corner, then raises his voice as if I’ve done something wrong while shaking his hand in the air.With a nod of disapproval, his eyes go back to the road instead of reprimanding me in the reflection of the rearview mirror.
I do a double take down a cobblestone street, thinking I just got a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower for the first time, but we’re driving too fast for me to be sure, the street long gone.I sigh, a heavy disappointment coming over me.A poster of the Eiffel Tower has hung on my wall for the last six years.I’m ready to see the real thing.
Four days.I have four days in the City of Lights, so I know I’ll see it.I’m lurched forward as the taxi comes to an abrupt halt before I can worry anymore about French monuments.
“Your hotel,” the driver points toward a building across the street.
Nodding, I smile.“Merci.”
After paying and stepping up onto the sidewalk, I straighten my yellow cotton sundress, adjust my wool coat, and flip the tortoise shell framed sunglasses down over my eyes.The driver mumbles something that sounds as though I’ve angered him in some way as he lugs my suitcase to the curb.He walks away waving his arm in the air before getting into his car and speeding off, his music blaring even with the windows closed.
Looking across the street, another disappointment sets in as I stare at the front of the hostel.The photographer definitely captured it in its best light from the online photos.But it was the cost that sold me.It’s a hostel, so I didn’t expect the Four Seasons, but...With a heavy sigh, I grab the handle of my suitcase and pull it toward the soot covered building highlighting the worst of 1980’s design.I was hoping for historical French architecture, but I guess for twelve Euros a night, I get the eighties.
When I walk into the lobby, I stop, sliding my sunglasses back to the top of my head.The room is tiny with a dingy, stained green loveseat against the wall and a beat up metal desk in the corner.Nobody is here to greet me or anywhere to be found until a door leading to a hallway opens, slamming against the wall, startling me.I lean my head to the side and see a guy press a girl against the back of it.His hands are roaming her body and her arms are around his neck.Their lips are fused and I look away, so I don’t get caught staring.Okay, I peek one more time, then clear my throat.
With his tongue still in her mouth, his eyes open and he looks at me.Pushing her back just a bit, she protests in a series of frustrated moans.Something is said in French, too fast for me to understand.But when the girl glares at me, I realize it must have been along the lines of ‘We have company’ or something like that.
