She finished her sandwich, and he leaned over to kiss her before helping her tug the mask back into place.
“This thing is such a mood killer,” she murmured from behind it, her eyes full of heat but also humor.
“It is,” he agreed. “But also necessary.”
“Well, at least you’ll have the Switch to keep you company in Dubai,” she said, eyes crinkling behind her glasses as she smiled.
“And I did beat you at Mario Kart that one time, which means I’m not completely hopeless.”
“You’re pretty good at Zelda, actually,” she told him. “With a little more practice, you might even catch up to me.”
“I quite like that one.” He hadn’t gotten the hang of all the games she’d shown him, but he liked the adventure quest format of Zelda. “I’ll definitely keep playing.”
“I’m glad. Where will you go after Dubai?” she asked, leaning back on her elbows to look up at the Eiffel Tower looming over them.
“I don’t know yet. There’s talk of sending me to San Francisco to oversee renovations to the location there.”
She was quiet for a long minute, staring up at the tower. “Maybe I could come out for a visit.”
“As a friend?” he asked, his chest filled with a combination of lust and longing and regret.
She turned her head to meet his eyes. “If that’s what you want me to be.”
“It’s not what I want you to be,” he said quietly, “but it’s the only thing you can be. I wander the globe with Exeter. It’s what I do and what I enjoy. And we both know this thing between us was never meant to be a ‘casual hookup when I’m in town’ kind of relationship. You’re meant for something so much more than that.”
“So are you,” she murmured.
“I don’t know that I am.” The thought of getting married, of settling down had always frightened him. What if he lost interest in his wife the way he seemed to do with everything else?
“You are,” she told him with absolute certainty in her voice. “I’ve seen you, Flynn. The real you, not the version of yourself you show your parents. Have you ever considered that you live up—or down, more like—to their expectations when you’re around them? They shuffle you around because they think you’re flighty, so you always hold something back, you let yourself wander because you don’t see any point in building anything permanent when you’ve always got one foot out the door anyway.”
“I—” He shook his head.
“Just make sure you aren’t underestimating yourself.”
He didn’t know what to say to that. After all, Ruby had only known him for a few weeks and under special circumstances. Then again, he was who he was, even in small doses.
They sat on their blanket for a while, talking and people-watching while they soaked up the nice weather and scenic surroundings. When they finally packed up, he texted their driver, who met them at the curb. They spent the afternoon touring Paris that way, driving by most of the locations Ruby had wanted to see. They got out of the car to take pictures, but they stayed outside where the air was fresh.
They saw the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, and any number of other landmarks. At the Saint Chappelle cathedral, Ruby insisted they go inside so she could get a taste of the history before she left Paris. He went ahead to pre-purchase their tickets so she wouldn’t have to wait in line. Inside, they climbed a spiral staircase to reach the sanctuary of the church, taking in the steepled ceiling overhead, light filtering in soft hues around them from the vivid stained-glass windows that reached far above their heads.
“It’s so gorgeous,” she murmured, tugging her mask down for a moment so he could take a picture of her standing at the center of the cathedral. She’d resurrected her #RubyGoesRogue hashtag earlier this week, at first just posting photos from the park near their flat and even a few of them playing video games together. “Putting my hashtag to good use today,” she said as she posted the picture.
“I’m glad.”
After they left Saint Chappelle, Ruby fake-pouted in the back of the car, thinking they were returning to the flat for dinner. “What do you want to pick up tonight?”
“We’re not going back to the flat,” he told her with a wink.
“Ooh, a surprise!” She grinned at him. “Does it involve dinner?”
“It does.”
“But not at the flat?”
He shook his head, watching the delighted expression on her face as she processed this information. It filled him with something warm and light, an impossibly pleasant sensation.
“Well, whatever it is, I already know I’m going to love it,” she whispered, leaning in to kiss his cheek.
