It took them two days to get all of Alexis furniture ready for pick-up from the people who had already purchased it from her. She took straight cash for the bed, desk and shelving which Alexis knew she could convert into liquid Euros for Paris. It was still such an exciting thing to think they'd be spending two whole days in Paris together. Some people dreamed their whole lives of such romance and she was one of the lucky few who'd actually found it.
As she looked around her empty room, Alexis felt a sudden pang. It was going to be a lot harder than she thought to say good-bye to her cozy little English nest. There were so many memories in that room, good and bad and great. There was the time when she'd finished her exams and had spent her entire day in bed with the Harry Potter series on Blu-Ray to fight off the cold she knew would inevitably come after the stress of midterms. There was the time when she'd stayed up on Skype with Beckett planning the wedding flowers. There was the time she'd gone out partying with her roommates and felt like her head had been encased in cement when she'd awoken with a hangover the next morning.
Chats with her family and friends, and in the last year, her boyfriend. Photos hung on the walls, laundry kicked out of the way, shoes under her bed. All the space that had been hers and hers alone.
'The porter from the post office just came and grabbed the last box, it's going out this afternoon on the international post,' Shane told her, then saw the look on her face as she studied her empty room. 'Saying your goodbyes?'
'Yeah. Already said them to the girls last night at dinner, now time to let go of my little Fortress of Solitude.' She looked around, sighed fondly. 'There's a couple of very personal memories I have in this room. Couple of important firsts, too.'
'Like?'
'The first time I had sex. Night of the senior charity ball, JP and I came back here and we did it. It wasn't what I thought it'd be.' Alexis turned to him. 'That came later, with you. You're the first man I've made love with, and I'm very glad I've learned the difference. You're also the first boyfriend I've had visit me internationally, and the first boyfriend I ever had Skype-sex or phone sex or cyber sex with, however you want to say it.'
'Seeing as we've done all three, all three works for me.'
'I love you Shane, so much.' She gave him a tight squeezing hug. 'I know I could do this stuff on my own, but where's the fun in that?'
'Makes me think of a few other things that are better when not done solo.'
'Dirty.'
'I was thinking video games or going to a sporting event. Who's the dirty one now?'
Alexis laughed, then had one last look around her room. 'Bye house,' she said softly, then putting her hand in Shane's, closed the door.
The trip down to Paris wasn't a short one, but as Alexis and Shane were taking the overnight, the potential stress of sniping with each other because of closed quarters was diminished exponentially. Even more, because they were on the train and not flying Shane didn't spend the international trip in a state of utter panic. It was yet another reason he loved her - though a flight from Heathrow or Gatwick would have been much faster, she knew that it would stress him out a great deal and the last thing she wanted to do was to add to his anxiety.
They arrived at the Paris Nord station just after nine, and a short trip on the metro-train later they were at the Hotel Ibis in the borough of Pont-de-Charonton, a ten minute bus-trip from the heart of Paris. It was different than London, more sprawling and spread out, Shane noted, but just as breath-taking in its grandeur and history while still being very much a modern city. Case in point - the view out their hotel window was overlooking the Seine right near a cloverleaf overpass.
'Why again did we chose a hotel this far from everything?' Shane asked.
'Because it's way cheaper to stay in a business hotel like this for a week, more secure than a hostel, and besides, we didn't come here to stay in a hotel, right?'
'Right,' he replied with a green. It was another reason Shane loved his beautiful shani; though she came from Manhattan money Alexis did not suffer from affluenza and lived on a budget that most young women her age with her privileged background wouldn't normally possess. 'So, it's ten pm in Paris, what do you think we should be doing?'
'How about a shower, room-service, and getting yourself on the right time so we can be up tomorrow morning at like six am to be in line for the Louvre when it opens? I was doing research in between exams,' she explained with a sheepish grin.
'I think that sounds like a brilliant idea.'
Though part of him felt like an old man for going to bed so early the night before, hearing the six-am wake-up call from the front desk in the morning made Shane thankful they'd done just that. They'd had a light supper of salad, chicken and apple tarte in their room the night before and turned in around eleven, and both awoke ready to rock and roll when the alarm went off.
'Hey, you're up,' he said, when he reach for Alexis beside him and saw her already at the foot of the bed going through her toiletries kit. 'Did you hear the alarm?'
'Yeah, after I finished using the bathroom. I'm too excited to sleep and I'm only on an hour's time change. You're trans-Atlantic still.'
'True say. So where are we heading first?'
'Anywhere. Everywere.' Alexis smiled. 'I'm calling dibs on the shower, I need time to dry my hair.'
'Fine by me.'
When they were ready to go, they had the receptionist give them a little bit of tourist guidance in the form of a spot to get a tasty and reasonably priced breakfast and a map with all the museums, towers, parks and other points of interest neatly marked so even the non-French-speaking Shane could understand the route. A short bus ride later and they were at Dejeuner Delicieux, enjoying a basket of sweet, dense breads, cheese, fruit and jam while they studied their map.
'So we're starting at the Louvre, the Jardins des Tuilleries is a little tricky to appreciate in all its glory in the winter, so why don't we take the metro over to the Arc de Triomphe and from there we can go to see Jim Morrison's grave. Or we can start at the Louvre and go down to Notre Dame, maybe check the Musee d'Orsay. What do you think?'
'I think I'm glad we're in public so I can't get you naked and hear you speak even more French to me,' he replied with a wink. 'And I think going to the Louvre then uptown to the Arc and over to the cemetery. And, if I'm reading this right, there's also a hop-on sight-seeing bus we can hook-up with right at the Arc.'
'There is indeed,' Alexis confirmed after a quick glance at the map.'
'Is there anything you want to do, like if you can only do one thing, what do you want to do?'
'I want to go to the perfume museum, and that place you said the little macarons came from.'
'Oh, Laduree? They're all really close together, right near the Opera Garnier. What about seeing if we can get tickets to the Lido or the Moulin Rouge for tomorrow night?'
'Actually, I already have a little surprise lined up for a night on the town.'
'Do you?'
'I do.' Shane picked up her fingers, then caught the eye of the waitress. 'How do I ask if she could take a picture for us?'
'Excusez, ma'm'selle, pouvez-vous prendre une photo pour nous?' Alexis asked her in flawless French and the woman nodded, snapped a couple pictures for them, including one of them kissing, then looking into each other's eyes when they parted.
'These are awesome Lex,' Shane told her as they crossed the foot-bridge to the Louvre courtyard. 'I'm going to print one or two of these out, put them on my desk at work.'
'Make all your corpses jealous?'
'Something like that. Oh, wow.'
They went through the centre arch into the C-shaped space where they could see the glass pyramid and despite the nip to the wind, tourists and Frenchmen alike were lined up to get in and see the beautiful statues, paintings and other sundry relics. Across the street he could see the gardens that Alexis had mentioned over breakfast, and briefly wondered if making a Dan Brown joke would be cheesy.
'Come on, Professor Langdon, let's go find those clues left by the Priory of Sion,' Alexis said, making him laugh as they lined up. 'Do you think they have the upside down pyramids inside?'
'I think that was just for the movie, but I could be wrong. Hey, can we go and see the Venus de Milo?'
'So long as I get to see the Madonna on the Rocks.'
'You told me you got to already see that?'
'That's the one in London. This is the original one, the one they used in The Da Vinci Code. It's the only duplicate painting Leonardo ever did. Did you know that three of the four artists the Ninja Turtles are named after are lefties like me?'
'Which ninja turtle are we talking about?'
'Donatello. Leonardo, Michaelangelo, and Il Rafello were all south-paws. I wonder if they'll have any Bernini sculptures here, his work is so beautiful, it always looks like his subjects had giant wind machines on them.'
Shane laughed as they moved with the line like a little caterpillar of parkas and bombers' jackets. Only Alexis could juxtapose the high-art with the totally quirky like that. 'I love you.'
'Love you too.'
R&R&Enjoy
