July 6th 2020

Chapter 188
Their Escape to Bonds

Of all the memories which would come to be captured in their travel log/album, of their one hundred pictures, they would say there were several who would fall under the category of 'you really had to be there.' A lot of those included Caleb and Talia, and maybe the top most of those had been the tenth night they spent in Paris, the night of July 14th. The other couple, who in just a few days had really taken to feel part of their world, was checking out the following day, flying home to Atlanta. There really could not have been a better send-off than to find themselves in the middle of a holiday.

They had used one of their 'photo emergency' spare shots today, after having filled their quota of seven only to return to the hotel and to Caleb and Talia's room, only to find themselves putting on something like a small show, born of tipsiness and emotions over the split that was to come.

The last few days really felt as though they had gone by in the blink of an eye. They kept saying it, but it really felt that way, like the days had been unmoored and sent spinning away much faster than they were meant to go along. In just a few more days, they would be flying home, too, back to the real world, real life, back to work, and very soon school… one a student, the other a teacher… and sooner still another wedding, Asher and Ray…

They hadn't spoken or corresponded in any way with anyone back home since they'd left. That had been a reasonable choice, respected all around. It was one thing to check in with home when they were just travelling, but this was their honeymoon, this was something for the two of them as they began their married life, their bubble, far away.

It wasn't as though they didn't think about their people back in Texas… and Arizona… and Arkansas… and New York… Often they would see something and it would remind them of one of their friends, or of family. They would see a person and it would feel like they had found this one or that one's French counterpart.

The day after their museum adventures, they had gone for a bit more sightseeing, with their friends from a few floors down off with their visiting relatives, all leading them to the evening, where they had tickets to go see a play. This had been one more gift from Sophie's mother, as though their being bumped up to first class on their flights to and from France hadn't been enough. She had seen it herself, on her last passage through Paris, and she'd insisted that the two of them would enjoy it as well.

Lucas could not say what Maya had enjoyed the most between the play – which had genuinely been wonderful – and the theater itself. It had been just one of the things to make them think of their friends, in this case Rosa, who would have gone about as wide-eyed and quiet as Maya had done upon seeing it.

The day after that, yesterday, they had been reunited with Caleb and Talia, and they'd taken the opportunity to go and have themselves a bit more of museum strolling. Lucas had quickly found himself joking along with Talia as the two of them would look on to their respective spouses looking like a couple of gaping kids in candy stores, if those kids could talk and talk and talk about this artist's inspiration or that artist's use of colors as though it was the greatest thing they had ever seen.

"We better not given either of them any sugar…" Talia had whispered to Lucas as Caleb and Maya had led them into the next section and both given something like a squeak at what they found.

"I will literally carry her away if I need to," Lucas had laughed, miming himself lifting his wife off the ground. "What about him?"

"He's all limbs, and I'm stronger than I look," Talia had assured him.

After having spent most of that day with long pauses, followed by brief steps and another pause, they had flipped things on their head by ending up in a club and dancing the night away. They had returned to the hotel in the middle of the night, splitting off to their rooms and much needed sleep.

When Lucas had awakened that morning, he'd found the bed empty next to him and his wife sitting off on the couch. Walking over to her, he already heard the low whirring that told him she was printing photos with the printer he had given her, with her log open in front of her.

"Hey," he'd leaned over the back of the couch, pressing one and another kiss to the side of her head, until she lifted her head back and turned it so they have one proper kiss. "Been up long?"

"Ten minutes, I think," Maya told him, peeling the little paper covering the sticky part of a photo they'd taken the night before, showing them and their friends huddled together at the club, and sticking it on to the open page. "I just wanted to get the pages set, figured maybe we could ask Caleb and Talia if they wanted to write in here, too, and since they're leaving tomorrow…"

"That sounds great," he told her, moving around to sit with her, feeling the unmade sigh in her words. He wasn't looking forward to seeing the pair disappear either. "I love this one," he laughed, picking up the just printed photo and showing it to her. He'd been the one to take it. The picture showed him walking with Maya on his back, her arms around his neck, and next to them Talia, holding Caleb in the same way as he pointed ahead.

"She really is strong," Maya declared. "What was he pointing at?" she asked, trying to remember.

"I think he saw some old movie posters in a shop window," Lucas recalled.

"Oh, yeah, I think I saw those," Maya smiled. One thing they had learned about Caleb was his love for that old style of movie posters. It wasn't even about the actual movies themselves, not all the time, but the aesthetic of the posters. According to Talia, they were running out of wall space. Soon enough, he'd hit the ceilings, and then it would be down to the floors.

They had met with their friends for a breakfast that might as well have been called lunch for the time they'd finally woken up, and gotten dressed, and made their way to the restaurant. They were all still just about getting used to the time difference as it was, which only made them laugh now, as they would have to go and get back on their old time.

After their plates had been cleared off, they'd stuck around at their table a while longer, as Maya and Lucas showed their travel log to the other newlyweds. Caleb and Talia had been very eager to put in their part when they were asked. Talia had written in, bent over the page with a curtain of wavy brown hair to hide the words. When she'd been done, she'd pressed the pages together, 'locked' them together with a pair of folded triangles, one at each of the outer corners.

"Don't look yet, okay?" she'd told them. "After you go home, the first time you think about how you miss when you were here…" she mimed the removal of the triangles with a smile.

"Deal," Lucas nodded, even as Maya chimed in.

"Done," she grinned.

"My turn now," Caleb motioned toward the log. He'd already pulled the small case he always had in his pocket, with his pencils, sharpener, erasers… He was itching to sketch. In no time, he was working on what turned out to be a portrait of Maya and Lucas, and the clothes and the presence of others around them set the scene as their dancing at the club the night before. He had a particular talent in depicting motion, and looking at the two of them on that page, they could practically hear the bounce of the music, the flash of lights, the energy, the joy in their eyes, their faces…

"A Caleb Stamp original, and it's all ours," Maya beamed, after passing the log over for Lucas to get a closer look.

"Well, now you owe me one of yours," Caleb grinned back.

"May I borrow your pencils?" Maya reverently asked.

"Why are those girls looking at us?" Talia asked, as her husband was passing his sketchpad and the pencils across the table. Lucas, Maya, and Caleb all looked to where Talia nodded, discovering a trio of teenage girls, possibly two sisters and their friend, going by looks and the presence of parents along the table. They were indeed looking toward them, and when Maya looked up and made eye contact, they perked up at once.

"Friends of yours?" Caleb asked.

"Uh, well…" Maya blinked. Ten whole days and there hadn't been any kind of encounter. "So, I mentioned how I was in a band, yeah?" She had never gone into much detail about any of it, especially about the fact that they were privileged with a following that dotted the globe. It wasn't so much that she hadn't wanted to tell them or worried of what they'd say. Really, there was no reason except for an opportunity to kind of… unplug. She had to plug back in real quick, the better not to turn this into a scene. She'd waved back to the girls with a smile. "Following's kind of all over the place."

The girls had remained at their table, and Maya had done her own drawing for Caleb and Talia, as she answered their questions about the band, and her music… When they'd found out who she was working with these days, they'd been understandably surprised, though to their credit they hadn't gone and changed their behavior around her in any way.

With the favor returned, pencils and books had been collected and the four of them had finally left the dining room. They'd gone out into the city after this, catching the odd celebration or activity for the holiday. This had seen them through the afternoon and part of the evening. They might have stayed out longer if not for the fact that Caleb and Talia needed to get back and get some rest in anticipation of their departure the next morning. They weren't quite ready to turn in, so they'd invited their friends to their room.

Thus, there they'd ended up, the balcony doors opened on to the city so they might catch any remaining sounds of the day. At some point, Talia had revealed how she was on the verge of signing a contract of her own, with a ballet company, which would take her travelling around the world. It was the perfect sort of arrangement for the young couple, as she would get to dance professionally, as she'd always wanted, and Caleb would get to discover new cities, explore his art in that way… They didn't see themselves settling down in any one place for a while.

The end of the day, with the stories of the singer and the ballerina had ended in the most random of ways, with Talia being talked into giving a bit of a demonstration, for which Maya happily provided a soundtrack. If this was to be the last time they all hung out together, they could not have asked for a better epilogue. It was at once very silly and kind of beautiful, and that had been their time together in Paris in a nutshell.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners