Finn and Charlie hadn't really hurried getting out of the Gold Coast area - each inlet, bay and river offering unique anchorage that presented them a variety of natural vistas and experiences. After all, the priority was spending time together. They fished, surfed and snorkeled, in the evenings gazing at the stars on their boat's hammock like two exemplary romantics.
They knew that sticking to a tight schedule really wasn't ideal when sailing - the ocean often had a mind of its own, hence they only made a few concrete plans, including climbing to the North Brother Mountain Lookout at Dooragan National Park and making it to Sydney by New Years Eve. They had a few extra days to spare to make this happen, and Finn was feeling fairly comfortable with that schedule, the northeastern winds mostly providing smooth and rapid voyage. Charlie wasn't licenced for this type of boat, and while she could help him out a little, most of the time it was Finn doing the steering, especially if crossing the trickier coastal bars.
Finn was teaching Charlie how to work the sails, read the ECDIS and plan their passage. She wasn't completely unfamiliar with these things, simply the technology on board being more modern than Charlie was used to, and was picking things up fairly quickly. For the fun of it, Finn had even brought along an antique sextant which he surprisingly even knew how to use. Charlie had enjoyed Finn taking on the role of a 1700s sea captain, with the appropriate thematic accent, for a couple of hours, letting his theatrical self show. Charlie couldn't remember the last time she'd laughed as much as she did with Finn in the past month.
Finn was in the cabin, changing into a clean shirt, while Charlie was just finishing up making their lunch. They were anchored in Iluka Bay and had just been for a walk in the local rainforest and were now starving. With Finn sailing, and Charlie doing most of the cooking, they'd fallen into the traditional gender roles in this, but so far neither had really complained. It was just so easy to get lost in the fun part of this, playing house - if the catamaran could be called that, and the romance that heavier topics hadn't really been brought to the table at all.
"Do you think it's weird..," Charlie began as she was just plating their lunch, mackerel Finn had caught that morning and a fresh salad they'd picked up the day before in Evans Head.
"What?" Finn asked, appearing from the cabin behind her, and wrapping his arms around her hips.
"That we don't seem to really disagree…fight," Charlie pointed out, unsure if it was a good idea to ponder over something that could potentially feel a little like jinxing it. They were having a lot of fun, and there was no doubt this was all quality time. But there were things she wanted to know, discuss, before they both were off to their realities whether they liked it or not.
"Do you want to fight? Because I can fight if that's what you'd like," Finn chuckled, kissing the side of her slightly salty neck.
"No, I don't want to, just… Maybe…. we're just avoiding some difficult subjects?" she pondered, hesitantly.
"You know, there was that pineapple on pizza debacle and I recall something about what color looks best on me which is green of course," Finn laughed, pulling away as Charlie took their plates to the table, enjoying the view of her in her bikini bottom as he stayed a few steps behind her.
"Those are squabbles," Charlie replied smilingly, taking a seat at the corner booth, and positioned her legs comfortably across his, the soles of her feet resting at the seat next to him. "I don't want to fight, but I think.. Maybe there are topics we need to talk about to explore whether there are things that might be potential fights so we can avoid having them in the future," she explained. "I would be more happy to talk sweet nothings and indulge in carnal pleasures all day," she added playfully, "but since we're here, and if we want this to be more than just… ," she continued, not really able to finish that thought fully.
"Alright," Finn exhaled. "I think I get what you mean," he said, and bit into a piece of fish. "Oh, god, love, you did wonders to this fish," he complimented her with his mouth full. He finished chewing and swallowed his food. "So like...do you feel we've divided the household chores equally or would you consider moving for the other person?" Finn added not too seriously.
"Stuff like that, yeah," she replied, continuing to eat.
"So is there anything that bugs you about the former?" Finn inquired.
"No, this is fine, I'll let you know if I get sick of sweeping up sand," she smirked, knowing that he knew that it wasn't exactly her favourite task but it needed to be done every now and again. "Besides in this case I know that this arrangement is just temporary, as we're on a boat, and the real situation is something else altogether," she added, recalling Finn telling her how he was relying a lot on his housekeeper when it came to these things.
Finn shrugged. To him this really wasn't an issue, what he secretly hoped was that she'd pick up the other question he'd put out there. Both of them continued to eat for a minute.
"I was thinking more like... what constitutes cheating for you?" Charlie then said hesitantly, having swallowed a sip of her water. She didn't want him to take this as her lack of trust, it was just every article she'd read in the past few weeks about long distance relationships emphasized the need to have that talk beforehand. She'd also read, already beginning to doubt whether she had been reading too much when she hadn't been feeling well, that many couples tend to avoid conflict in the beginning.
"You really want me to answer that?" he asked, placing his utensils down at the side of the plate. "Now this really does feel like a trap," Finn tried to joke, but the seriousness on her face made it clear this was no joking matter.
He took a moment, sighed, and drank another sip of his drink.
"Sleeping with someone, for one. Falling for someone else, I guess. A kiss would be okay I think - as it's not always anticipated, it could just be the other person's fault," Finn explained.
"I guess I agree with this part. Though 'falling for someone' can be a little tricky, sometimes it can be like an involuntary crush or something which isn't really real. My sister had that once but she told her husband about it and it was fine, she just got a little giddy around the other guy. But she didn't do anything about it," Charlie explained.
"Then the differentiator is, I guess, whether one starts seeing that person on purpose?" Finn discussed, awkwardly. He ate some more of his food.
"Yeah, okay. Makes sense," Charlie agreed. "But what if some hottie offers you a blowjob, let's say? You're almost passive in that situation - would that count?" Charlie asked, causing the mood to become more grim. She had struggled to keep her brain from thinking of these scenarios, but couldn't really help it knowing his history.
"I know I should say 'yes' but I just don't know, alright? I haven't thought about it. I haven't felt like I've needed to think about these scenarios. I haven't had to think about this," Finn began calmly but his train of thought turned into a huff. He was more annoyed than angry, but still not a response Charlie had anticipated.
"I haven't really been in a situation when I'd had someone to consider, and I don't want to play this 'what if' game to be honest. I don't want you to picture things like that," he grumbled, letting his utensils clink down against the plate. "I don't want you to doubt me or my ability to keep my cock in my pants," he said and Charlie felt a little bad for having asked that. That was not really how she'd planned this turning out.
"My work takes me to clubs and lounges and wherever else… and, yes, there will be women. Yes, I'll probably talk to them - it's a part of my job. Yes, I'll probably be propositioned over the course of an evening," Finn explained his reality, which stung Charlie a little. It wasn't nice to hear that each time Finn went to work, so to speak, he'd probably have to ward off women left and right, despite knowing that this was probably an overstatement.
"But Charlie - I wouldn't be here with you if I wanted to fall back into that life. And I'm just fucking scared that I could slip and ruin this, that I could hurt you like that, alright? It bloody hurts that you feel that I could hurt you like that. I love you and..," Finn blurted, having not even realized that this had been the way he'd said it. When his sister had said it to him, it had made him realize it as well. He hadn't felt like this before, even though he had thought he'd loved before, and he didn't know how to handle it. He'd thought about saying it to her almost every evening since Christmas, each night at the next beautiful and serene location - there were nothing but romantic opportunities, but he'd just lost his nerve.
While he spoke, Charlie swallowed hard, feeling a lump form in her throat, taking in everything she'd just heard. It was their first real fight - almost. She'd wanted to know the boundaries and he didn't want to think about it because he was coming to terms with his emotions. But his statement definitely touched her, almost making her want to forget they ever had started this conversation. She put legs back on the floor, and positioned her palms underneath her thighs, pulling back, she felt a little ashamed for bringing it up.
"I love you too," she whispered barely audibly, unsure what Finn's mood was at the moment. She'd never really see him huff like that, be upset and angry - potentially at her. And the boat really wasn't an ideal spot for fights - there were no real doors to slam or possibilities to walk away. God, why had she asked it? - she scolded herself.
"I don't want to hurt you, ever. I'd kill me," he emphasized, not fully registering her whisper. "So whatever you want to put on that list of 'don't' just make a list and send it to me, I just don't want to talk about it," he replied, rubbing his forehead with his palm. Charlie observed him - he still looked upset.
"I love you," she repeated more loudly, stopping Finn's blunder or words.
This should've been a celebratory moment, but Finn just took a moment to gather himself. He felt there was more he needed to say.
"Do you believe I don't want to hurt you?" he asked. Yes, they'd done the trust exercises, they had come a long way - but she had been right - if they didn't trust each other in this, or her him in this, as it appeared to be, they wouldn't get very far in this.
"I do," Charlie replied, humbly.
"Sorry about what I said and how I said it. I don't need a list..," he exhaled, disappointed in himself, having calmed down a little.
"I don't want any of those situations to arise. I was going to suggest this when we got to Sydney, I have a concert and fire torches performance planned for us. And I am not saying this because I don't think I can do long distance - I just don't want to have to do it if we can help it. I know, I'm being the selfish and spoiled brat here, but here goes," Finn inhaled. "I don't want you to go back to your job in Montreal. I want to ask you to come to New York with me," he said. "And I heard you when you said that you're not ready to make that decision yet and I won't demand a decision from you. But I needed to say it, so you'd know that it's an option," Finn explained, almost pleadingly.
Charlie extended her arm to the back of his head, swallowing another lump in her throat. The emotions were almost too much for her to handle.
Finn just sat there defeatedly, feeling like nothing had come out as he'd wanted.
She moved over on the bench and wrapped her arms around her neck and kissed him. She didn't have a lot of answers - she couldn't make him jump from joy right now by saying she would move for him, but she truly appreciated him saying what he had.
"I really really love you," Charlie sniffled and kissed him, Finn's arms wrapping around her waist as strongly as they could hold her, making sure he really heard her this time.
On the days between Christmas and New Year's G had on her mother's suggestion looked up some of her old classmates to see if they wanted to hang out. She knew that in her age people had often changed, moved on or simply no longer cared about someone they'd known years ago. But she'd been pleasantly suprised as two of her friends, Astrid and Léa, were actually really excited to meet up with her. G was grateful to get out of the house, pushing her hesitance towards Remi aside, though thanks to the ongoing transportation strike moving around the city wasn't exactly the easiest of tasks. The silver lining of this was that Paris had a pretty good public bike rental system, Vélib, which cost very little and had docking points all around the city and as the weather, which was surprisingly warm for this time of year and a supporting good bike route network, it made a very good option for someone who was 16.
So they'd spent one day going to a movie and another going simply for some lunch and shopping at La Halle Pajol and Vill'p, and she was truly getting the feel of the city and enjoyed her independence she had on the bike.
"So did you have fun?" Sherry asked, as she returned home. She hadn't done a lot of shopping, just a small bag, having gotten some cool rectangle shaped silver earrings she was thinking of wearing for New Years to look a bit more festive.
"I did. I love what they've done with La Halle Pajol," she said, recalling the indoor garden oasis created into an old factory building. She showed off her earrings to her mother.
"Beautiful, very tasteful," Sherry complimented her.
"They invited me to a party for New Year's Eve," G hesitantly put it out there. She wasn't sure if her mother would let her go to be honest. Her mother wasn't naive enough to think there wouldn't be any alcohol there or that it'd be with adult supervision, not with a bunch of 16 and 17 years olds.
"Where is it?" her mother asked.
"I think she said Villette. Astrid has her own place - her parents didn't want to pull her out of school just because they moved back to Sweden," G said, not aiming to lie. With her mother very much wanting to take after Lorelai in these decisions and be the 'cool' mom, G knew that the best policy was honesty.
She'd gone to a bilingual school when she'd lived here, hence many students were either from various countries, had a bilingual homes or had lived a long time somewhere else growing up. Hence there really were quite a few students like her, who'd been given some more independence early on.
G knew that the location might also be an issue - it wasn't exactly the safest corner of Paris, with fairly cheap living options and high population density, but if one didn't go wandering along the smaller streets after dark, it was usually fine and there were a lot of students living in the area who just knew how to live with things like that. But ideally, she had no intentions of doing that.
"And you really want to go?" Sherry sighed.
G nodded excitedly, making a puppy-dog face.
"Alright, it's not too far from the gallery anyways, I can drop you off but I'm not too sure what time I can take you back - I'm the hostess of the event so I can't just up and leave at any minute, you know. So it might be that you'll have to wait around for a while. Can you check with Astrid if that's okay? Maybe even spend the night?" Sherry suggested. She'd known Astrid and her parents for a long time, and sure she expected teenagers to party, but Astrid had always seemed to her as a fairly well-mannered and responsible teenager. She'd been a little on the chubbier side a few years ago, definitely more about having a slumber party with the girls than organizing some rave with guys and heavy drinking, though she didn't really know her these days. But she truly wanted to be the cool mom, besides, she was pretty sure she'd be better off with her friends than at the opening.
G definitely liked the sound of that.
"Oh thank you, thank you," she jumped excitedly and hugged her mother.
"Hello?" Celeste picked up the phone call to her cell from an unknown number. She had been just going over the stock at Apparatus Bay, while Jess was out helping Luke set up some new furniture for Leo's room, Luke wanting to make it a little bit more permanent now that they knew he was staying.
"Hello, Celeste? This Emily Gilmore speaking," the voice said formally.
"Emily, hi, what can I do for you?" Celeste asked.
"I'm flying over to Paris tomorrow, and I just wanted to pick your brain a little about all the little details I should know," she specified, knowing any inside scoop might help.
Celeste sighed internally. She didn't really want to recall any of those details. But she was grateful for her attempt to help, despite being a little unsure of what this might actually accomplish.
Reluctantly, Celeste picked apart the long and in depth history of her family - which other famous families they were closest with, who they avoided if possible, who were business connections and who enemies never spoken of. Thankfully, Emily's friends in Paris were actually on quite a good list with the Aubertin family, as far as she knew these days, hence there seemed to be some hope in finding out more from that side as well. Celeste explained the family's general living arrangements and also the details on Yvette, her mother's assistant.
As she finally hung up, she had been immersed in that part of her life like she hadn't been in years, having recalled more than she'd cared to. Now with the topic freshly in mind she tried continuing what she had been doing before, but she now could just put it aside like that. Hence, as she still had hours before her shift at the Inn Annex, she opened up her laptop and dived in herself. She knew too little of the present, and in that sense Jess, Emily and even Logan were right - the lawyers only really looked into the official registers and the existing contracts. Everything else was unfamiliar ground even to her by now. She needed to prepare herself and not be blindsided by something she'd simply not looked into. She needed to know what had happened, what was going on with her brother, at least the part that had been released to the media, more than that one article G had sent her had said - she needed to try to understand their motives.
She read everything she could get her hands on, setting news alerts to several keywords, just in case. She didn't want to be reminded of these things, but it was about arming oneself. She also considered contacting the PI she'd once used again, but so far didn't, keeping it as a back up. If they had done it to her, the very least she could consider was returning with similar weapons, right?