So far New Year's Eve in Paris was going off without a hitch. Seemingly she floated around her apartment drifting from own room to the next smiling and nodding dancing and donning out les bisous to those who paused her long enough for more than a word.
The french practise of kissing both cheeks was one she was more than well practised in, years of holidays to Paris with her mother to shop, or far down South during the summers for family vacations. She could remember one particular year when Piper was only six years old, when they had rented a old chateau, with picturesque stone walls and climbing ivy.
It was a nice memory filled with walks on sandy beaches and swimming in cool pools. It was that particular holiday herself and Drew were feeling particularly mischievous and had convinced Piper she could walk on water, gently steering her out onto the thin pool cover before dropping her hand and pushing lightly, suffice to say Piper couldn't walk on water but it had resulted in a late night hospital trip where she had ended up sitting in the A&E being taught french culture by a hospital security guard and his son, being taught the meaning of the french bisous.
Uncorking another bottle of champagne she poured herself a liberal amount sighing as she sipped the bubbly liquid, fifty euro well spent she decided even as she winced at the price, her bank account had been frozen because of some weird mess up with the American to European withdrawals, she hadn't overdrawn, that was borderline impossible, but they were worried someone had hijacked her account, her own fault she should have registered as out of the county, so she was surviving on a small savings account she had created on her sixteenth birthday, it had a tiny amount of money but her parents had already promised to wire her more so she wasn't going to worry, too much, she hated the loss of control.
Trying not let her eyes fall to Clarisse, the older woman was intriguing, not beautiful in a conventional sense but she was attractive, tall with short hair that hung loose to the bottom of her ears, hazel eyes and her muscled figure.
She instead pressed a smile to her face before turning to look for Charles. Finding him in the next room she leant in against his broad figure relishing the warmth, letting her free hand slip into his cropped dark hair, breathing in the smell of the Armani cologne she had bought him for Christmas , and just below that the smell of his fathers machine shop, always about even after two weeks out of the country.
Leaning up to kiss him, slightly tipsy from her fifth, or was it sixth, glass of champagne, she forced the images of Clarisse holding her in the shower out of her mind. It wouldn't happen again, she would make sure of it, she loved her boyfriend, last night was the last time.
But she loved Clarrisse too.
That thought danced around her head stirring thoughts of her two lovers side by side. The three of them together. But no Charlie was too conservative and Clarrisse too possessive, better to forget the whole thing. Charlie was good for her, good to her. That thought was a good one. Christmas morning cuddling under their blankets.
Shaking her head she leant in "bon fin de l'année " she whispered as she closed her eyes swaying slightly with the music.
And when the clock struck twelve she didn't care to find Clarrisee for a kiss, instead she leant up and smiled at her boyfriend, "je t'aime" it wasn't really a lie. And she pretended it wasn't Clarrises face and rough lips she was picturing as she kissed him.