July 5th 2020

Chapter 187
Their Escape to Art

"There, I think this is a good 'walking through Paris museums' look, yeah?" Maya stood upright after getting her sandals on, taking a turn for Lucas as he turned off the television. She had to smile, seeing his little befuddled look for a second before he could blink and respond.

"What are the qualifications for a good museum look?" he wondered.

"Proper but not formal, not too heavy, good footwear," Maya listed off at once.

"Then it's perfect," he stood from the couch and moved to join her. "Plus you look very cute right now," he informed her with a nod.

"Bonus points," she smirked, kissing him before moving to get her bag. "Let's go, husband!"

It was their seventh day in Paris, the last of the first half of their trip. Maya and Lucas were both eager to get going and head out into the city, even if it would be to spend most of it indoors, at a couple of museums. It had been the plan for days, that this would be their museum day, though they had come very close to rescheduling it after the previous day had been sort of a wash.

The previous morning, when Maya had awakened, she'd had one thought in mind, and it was to hand over controls of their activities over to Lucas. After their day of painting excursion, it had been important to Maya that he should get to make that same kind of choice, too. He wouldn't see it that way, and she knew he would have been one hundred percent honest in saying that he was satisfied to spend the day watching her as he had done. But at the same time, she knew that, given the chance, he would get such a kick out of finding something here that meant a lot to him in some shape or form. She'd wanted him to have that.

It had been raining when she'd woken up, and she hadn't thought too much of it. If anything, she'd just smiled, thinking about Lucas and his good luck rain theory. It had rained, on their big Date night. The dress had managed to be saved from it, just barely, as she'd only had to run from the cover of the restaurant to the back seat of the waiting taxi. It had been enough, in her mind and his, that they were 'blessed by the luck rain.'

By the time Lucas had woken up, too, and by the time they'd gotten out of bed, the rain had grown steadier, a downpour which forced them to look at the forecast for the day. It had gone from the previously announced light showers to possible heavy falls throughout the day, and it had left them with a choice to make. They did not mind going out in the rain, although it did sort of take some of the freedom out of their choices, and they didn't want to have to think too hard about what they would do. They might have switched things up and done their museum day then, but Lucas had pointed out that they would be more at ease in this on a sunny day, and they might want to take a chance that the following day would be one of those. So, museum day remained as it had been planned.

This left them with this rainy day to contend with. They met with Caleb and Talia, the four of them joining for breakfast downstairs. The other couple was just as perplexed about what they might do, didn't feel like going out. So, at first, they had all decided to spend some time at the hotel pool that morning. They had arrived there, after breakfast and after getting changed, to find they had the place to themselves. It made way for a whole load of silliness mixed with moments of peace. It wasn't long though that the four of them were joined by other guests, and within an hour it seemed that much of the hotel had chosen the same solution to wait out this rainy day.

"Why don't you guys come up to our room?" Lucas had told their new friends. "It's almost lunch time, we can order something to be brought up and eat there."

That was what they had done, and as they'd been waiting for their food, Talia had spotted the set of DVDs sticking out from the top of one of their bags. Maya had explained what they were, and then all it had taken had been for Caleb to say that his laptop could play DVDs from anywhere, and the plan was set for the rest of their day. It had been ridiculous and wonderful, and after a while they didn't remember about the rain.

It had all been such a great day, and they might have taken their fellow newlyweds with them to the museums, knowing well that Caleb especially would have loved it, but then they were unavailable. Talia had some family living out in Poland, and with her having already crossed the ocean, they were making their way into Paris today and tomorrow to spend some time with her and her new husband.

"We still have times, and who's to say we can only go once?" Lucas smiled as they went their separate ways after breakfast.

"No one, no one is saying that," Maya agreed with a laugh.

For how much the previous day had been led by rain, this one was mastered by the sun. Maya and Lucas made their way out into the city and decided to be dropped off a little way away from their first stop, walking the rest of the way.

"We are not going to be running around this one, are we?" Lucas guessed as they walked through the doors and Maya already had her eyes turned up and all around. He got hold of her hand and gave it a light squeeze to get her attention.

"Huh?" she asked. When he chuckled, she looked back at him. "What?"

"I was saying we were not going to be running around in here, and then you distracted me by… well, being you," he told her. She smiled, tipping her head to his shoulder for a moment.

"I think it's going to be one of those 'you should hold on to me' days."

"Got it," Lucas assured her, lifting up their joined hands.

They had gone to a few museums the last time they'd been here, but they'd only had an afternoon at their disposal, which did not make for any lengthy or really complete explorations, certainly not as much as either of them might have liked. That had been six years ago, nine years since Maya's first time out here. She'd had a week back then, with her parents, but they'd definitely gone in with a goal of seeing as much as they could. They had been to some museums, but again really not in the way she might have wanted to take it all in, and it was so long ago by now…

Between this, and her education, and his old guide job, and their history together, museums were so much of a thing that this day felt like a necessity and, yes, something they would happily repeat once or twice more before they left.

The strongest memories they had, when it came to museums, oh, they had so much power in them, whenever they were remembered. Their field trip in seventh grade, her first year with the rest of them, breaking away from the rest of their class, searching for weird stuff… Their first date, even if they'd never really made it into the museum for being so rain soaked as they'd been… And then the chance they'd had, to make up for that with the museum to themselves, thanks to his mother… Lucas remembered the two of them, sat on the floor, staring up at one painting for… ages. He had gotten Maya a poster of it, and it had been on her bedroom wall, and then in their room in Houston, and now, framed, it hung in the living room at their home…

They might not have been able to sit on any floor here, but they'd stood in some places, hardly moving for some time. The way Maya looked at some of these works, she might never have left until she had fully internalized what it was like to see what she saw with her own two eyes. When they'd stopped for lunch, after having spent hours in one museum and as they prepared to also spend hours in another, she'd pulled out her sketchbook at once, like her brain was spilling with so much that she had to set some of it down. By now she was getting to feel less guilty about 'painting in his face' and to know he did not feel like he was being ignored. It would have been ignoring who she was to make her do anything else.

"You're going to have so much to tell your students, aren't you?" Lucas asked with a smile as he looked to the tube carefully stood next to his chair. It contained a pair of posters they'd bought at the souvenir shop and would likely hold more after their next stop, the better to be carried back home next week.

"Might not start with that, but yeah," she agreed, and he loved to see how excited it made her, more than she already was.

Their afternoon was equally enthralling if not more. Lucas would sometimes start and whisper at her ear some facts he had retained over the years, pulling out his 'guide voice,' with a French twist. He might have done it to see if she would be able to hold her composure. And oh, how close she'd come to losing it a few times.

"I…" she'd whispered back, pointing at him, clenching her hand, like she was resisting saying what was on her mind, which only made him press on. "You put a pin on that right now, Friar."

"Why, Friar?" he turned back on to her, and the smile it earned him was perfect.

"I'm just saying, that voice could be put to much better use later… tonight," she whispered, eyebrow arched in such a way as to make him become the one in need of controlling his face.

So, the remainder of their time at the museum was spent great and quiet reverence, passing the odd whispered reaction between the two of them.

"I could live here…" Maya breathed, looking back at the building as they'd walked out into sunset over Paris.

"Here in the museum or the city?" Lucas asked with a curious smile. Maya responded by pointing back to the doors. "Well, the benches were pretty comfortable, I bet we could push a couple of them together. And there's a restaurant for food, bathrooms… I bet we could make it work. The dogs though…" She let out a small sigh as they started on their way to find where they might have dinner that night. "We'll come back," he promised her. "Before we leave, or on another trip… We'll come back."

"We will," she echoed. In her mind, she imagined returning here, in a few years' time, him and her and a child, or two, or more… "There are a lot of other places we need to go, too, other cities, other countries… Growing up, I never thought I could ever get to see them, but things are different now. I want to see them, with you."

"Count me in," he gladly smiled back at her, pausing a moment where they stood so he might kiss his wife, see that light in her eyes. "So, where are we going to hang these?" he asked, pointing to the tube slung over his back.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners