The incessant ringing of my alarm jolted me out of my dreams causing me to groan. I rolled over to pick up my phone and glance at the time. 4:30 Am. I had half an hour to get ready and be at the airport. The smell of brewing coffee encouraged me out of bed and into the kitchen.

"Good morning sunshine, excited for Paris?" my roommate Drake asked me handing me a cup of coffee.

"So. Sleepy," was all I could say in return.

"Well wake the fuck up," my other roommate Justin shouted as he snatched the coffee from my hand.

I scowled at him and grabbed another cup before trudging back into my room to change and throw some last minute things into my suitcase.

Today I was leaving for a 10 day trip to Paris with my acting team at my university. We were lucky we had a lot of success because the university pays for a majority of our trip and we get to spend time sightseeing and getting into trouble. Most of us barely remember last year's trip to Rome.

For me it was an escape. A different country provided relaxation that I did not have the luxury of when I was in the States. I always had to be on my guard.

I took a quick shower and threw my toiletries into my suitcase and lugged it into the hallway before plopping down onto the couch to wait for Justin and Drake. We came onto the team together 4 years ago and we lived together for 3 years with our 4th roommate Sarah, who wouldn't be coming with us.

When Drake came out of his room, we all headed to his car and piled in for our trip to the airport.

When we arrived we trudged into the terminal to find a our team looking groggy, but our ever energetic Director, Patrick bounced up to us and told us to go check our bags.

After we got through security, in typical large group fashion, we shuffled our tickets to sit next to the people we wanted to. Somehow I ended up next to Justin, which I felt slightly awkward about. We had a long and complicated history, and right now things were rocky between us.

Let me explain. A few years ago I was dating a guy, who was terrible for me, but it was my first adult relationship and I was convinced we were meant to be. Jon and I had an on and off flirtation the summer before but I never really thought much of it when an older man asked me out. About a year into that relationship Justin confessed his love for me, and I being the foolish girl that I am cheated on my cool older boyfriend with Justin. Cool older boyfriend and I broke up and Justin and I were happy for about three weeks until my guilt set in. I treated Justin like shit. I feel awful about it now, but I blamed him from breaking me and cool older boyfriend up. A year ago he started talking to a new girl on our team, who was awful, and I realized I was jealous and told him I still loved him. Well needless to say that didn't go so well, and he told me he couldn't trust me since I broke his heart. Ever since then things have been awkward but slowly mending in a weird sort of way.

I was slightly shocked that Jon was okay with that, but we plopped down next to each other on the plane and settled in for our long day of traveling. I watched a few movies before dozing off. I woke up with my head rested on Justin's shoulder and looked up to see him sleeping too. I sighed. Sometimes I missed these moments. I sat up as the pilot announced our final descent into Paris.

After we got our luggage we climbed onto the bus that would take us to our hotel. I squeezed into a seat with my best friend Jenny.

"How exciting is this," she said squeezing my hand. "What if we meet some cute Parisian guys and have a fling. That would be a dream come true."

I snorted at her. "Yea right, neither of us are lucky enough for that to happen."

"Ugh you're probably right. Still a girl can dream."

Twenty minutes later we pulled up to our hotel and Patrick explained the rules of the trip while the assistant director John went to check us in.

"Alright everyone. You can go wherever you want as long as you do not leave the city limits. There must be four people in each group and there MUST be one guy. I know its sexist, but we're in a different culture. You must be back at the hotel by 2am and you MUST check in with me and John. If you arrive late, you are stuck in the hotel. Now don't forget Friday night I'm taking you all out to dinner. It's the best restaurant in Paris so dress nice and if I don't see you before then we will be meeting in the lobby at 6pm. Have fun; be safe, I love you all! Welcome to Paris!"

Jenny and I squealed quietly as we headed off to the hotel lobby. Jenny and I promised to meet Justin and Drake back in the lobby in half an hour and ran upstairs to our room. Luckily our senior status let us have a room just for the two of us.

I sighed as I plopped down onto my bed. It felt nice to relax and not have any worries but having fun. Keeping my other life secret from my friends hasn't been easy. My prolonged absences always brought up worry, but finally I could spend my last trip with them without worrying about any of that. And maybe Jenny was right; maybe I could find a lovely man that I could forget about when we went home.

I changed out of my plane clothes and put on a cuter outfit. I grabbed my coat and Jenny and I headed downstairs.

"So where to first?" Justin asked.

"Well it's pretty late, so let's see if we can find some food and then maybe scope out the bar scene?" Drake suggested.

We decided that was our best bet so we picked a direction and started walking. We ended up at a small restaurant at random and walked in to be seated. After we ordered some wine for the table I excused myself to the restroom. As I was walking down the small hallway a man came bursting out of the men's room nearly knocking me over.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," he said reaching out to steady me. He was tall and had curly blonde hair with a hint of stubble and a wonderful British accent that made me almost melt. Foreign men have that effect on me. I smiled at him slightly taken. "No big deal."

When I came back to the table I was still thinking about the man when I Justin interrupted my thoughts. "Peyton… earth to Peyton." I glanced up, "Oh sorry whatsup?"

"We're trying to figure out how to find a good bar." Justin said.

"Oh I guess we could just walk into ones and feel them out, we have 10 days." As I was saying this the man appeared by our table.

"Hello, I'm sorry I couldn't help but overhearing your conversation. I am a frequent visitor of Paris and I could point you to some great places to explore."

"That'd be wonderful!" Jenny said staring up at him. "Please sit down."

He pulled up a chair next to me smiling. He reached for a napkin and began drawing. "This place is my favorite in all of Paris. It's more of a club but the drinks are great, and the dance floor is a separate part of the building. There are a few more places further away from here, so this is probably where you will want to go tonight."

"Well thank you handsome stranger," Drake said to him.

"Oh my name is Tom." Jenny Justin and Drake introduced themselves before Tom turned to stare at me. "And what is your name?"

"Oh I'm Peyton. Thanks so much for your help." As I stuck my hand out to shake his, he reached for it and pulled my hand to his lips.

"The pleasure is all mine. Perhaps I will run into you again in this lovely city. I hope you enjoy your night." He headed out the door, and I stared after him. As I turned back toward the table I caught Justin looking at me funny, but I glanced away quickly.

"Now that is what I'm talking about. Also that guy looks like Tom Hiddleston. How weird would that be?" said Jenny. I snorted. "Yea like that would ever happen."
Still I couldn't help but thinking about the man. Aft