Bex
Lars:I’ve got some bad news.
Me:Theo was right. You really do begin a lot of conversations that way.
Lars:Someone has leaked our shoot schedule to Kylie and Jasper. They’re here.
Theo:In Paris?
Lars:At our hotel. Katrina saw Kylie at the spa.
Theo:It could be a coincidence. Paris is a popular destination and that’s a popular hotel.
Lars:That they haven’t even mentioned it on their channel suggests to me that it’s got less to do with travel than it does catching you guys not acting married, so I’m putting you in the same room. It’s a suite…one of you can take the couch. I’ll let you fight it out.
Theo:Bex’s life is more tragic so she gets the bed.
• • •
I arrive in Paris early in the morning and take a cab to the hotel, my face pressed to the window as I take it all in. I was too young to really appreciate it the last time we were here, but the citysparkles in the early morning light, the tall windows and wrought-iron balconies gracing each building like something out of a Victor Hugo novel. At one intersection, a quick glance to the right reveals such a perfect, unimpeded view of the Eiffel Tower that I gasp, “Oh my god, that’s the Eiffel Tower!” I’m sure my driver is rolling his eyes, but I refuse to take my gaze off the view long enough to check.
Only minutes later, we pass the Arc de Triomphe—I manage to remain silent this time—then veer off the Champs-Élysées onto the more subdued but lovely Avenue GeorgeV.
We stop in front of the hotel and a bellman lifts my bag from the trunk. I dutifully follow him through the luscious marble lobby and get my keycard, ignoring the impulse to blow all this off and rush outside to see more of the city, before I head to the room reserved for me and Theo.
Our suite is palatial—Lars definitely was not trying to rom-com one-bed us. The primary bedroom is huge, there’s a pull-out couch, and we even have two bathrooms, so it will be very difficult, realistically, to play the “oh, I didn’t know you were in here” card when he’s showering.
A loud rap on the door interrupts me just as I’m kicking off my shoes to face-plant into bed. I know it’s not Theo—he won’t be in Paris until this afternoon, and he’ll have a key anyway.
I reluctantly trudge back across the suite to find Caden waiting with a wardrobe rack of clothes. “Hey,” he says. “This is all the stuff Mindy sent for you and Theo.”
“I’ll take it,” I say, but instead of pushing the rack my way, he shuffles, glancing from me to the carpet beneath his feet. “Look…I’m sorry about what I said the last time I saw you.”
My arms fold across my chest. “When you said my family died to get away from me?”
He winces. “It was a low blow. No hard feelings?”
There are still hard feelings. There’s also him coming to myroom in Amsterdam, and generally being gross several other times too, but I just need to get through this. “Yeah, whatever,” I say.
He nods toward the room. “Let me just wheel this in.”
I reach for the handle. I don’t need Caden in my room, refusing to leave. “I can get it.”
“Bex, I’m not a rapist,” he says with an exasperated laugh. “Just let me wheel this in for you. It’s heavy, and it’s hard to steer. That’s why they didn’t send Katrina up with it.”
I give in with a shrug, stepping out of his way. He pushes the rack into the living room and leaves it beside the polished mahogany dining table. “Man, they really set you guys up, didn’t they?” he asks, looking around.
“Yeah.” I shove my hands in my pockets, waiting. We’ve made up, but I’m not about to pretend we’re friends.
“Okay, cool,” he says, looking around one last time. “I’ll see you downstairs this afternoon.”
I lock the door after him and return to the big bed, stripping down to my T-shirt before I slide between the soft sheets.
When I fall asleep, every dream is about Theo. Some of the dreams are distressing—in one of them he tells me a marathon is twice the distance I believed it was, and we have to swim to reach the starting line—but most are incredibly pleasant. Theo’s looking at me in that way of his, as if he’s considering what he could do to me. Paula’s telling us to kiss and Theo growls, “I can do a lot better than that…” as if he’s going to do a lot,lotbetter.
And then I wake to noise in the room beside mine and shoot upright.
He’s here.And while I did really like the version of Theo who was growling in my dream, I like the real version who won’t admit he’s attracted to me even more.
