Chapter 1

Lonely in Paris

Staring at the Eiffel Tower while eating my baguette, every single one of my friends must have thought that I was so lucky to be in Paris. I was in my red knee-length dress with my black coat complimenting its shape, my beret hat screamed sophistication, and my ankle-length boots made me look like the artsy type of girl. I was a 25-year old woman off to the great adventure of my life, only I was not.

Staring at the Eiffel Tower while aggressively eating my baguette, I felt this sudden surge of self-pity swallowing me whole and leaving no crumbs. How many times did I dream about travelling in this iconic landmark? I dreamed about it my whole life!

Okay, well, the exact dream was that I fall in love with a chivalrous man. Then, we met up at Eiffel Tower. He'd look like Tom Hanks and he has a son too! Yeah, I know. I was dreaming about my Sleepless in Seattle moment. I just wanted it to be Sleepless in Paris for my own story because you know, I wanted to have some originality. This Eiffel Tower should have been my Empire State Building but here I was: crying while eating my baguette. My goodness! I ate the whole baguette in less than five minutes.

Let me give a rundown with what happened:

Three days ago...

"I am such a proud best friend! Anastasia Rose Steele, don't you ever forget me when you become a famous artist!"

"Shut up, Kate! You're exaggerating."

"What? Is it bad to be this proud of my best friend who just landed a job at Lotus Publishing?"

Yes, I landed a job as an illustrator at Lotus, but it wasn't really a big deal for me. This publishing company housed so many legendary authors of our time. But I wasn't an author. I was an illustrator. My job description meant drawing front covers of novels. This didn't grant me creative freedom since I'd have to draw what the author wanted me to. Also, I will draw the illustrations for children's storybooks which I didn't find challenging enough.

The real dream was to be a painter. If I did greatly with pencils, charcoals, and digital arts, then I did excellently with paint brushes, palettes, and canvas. I tried many times to get my paintings out there, but to no avail. Most of my paintings were overlooked. But I had to start somewhere. Illustrator may not be my dream, but Lotus would give me the name to start to get there. I was going to make it!

Kate knew all about my dreams. Since we were in high school, she'd push me to go for it! This world will always be mean, but it will definitely be meaner especially if you want to make a living out of art. To have Kate as my best friend got me through my doubts.

We were having dinner and it's been ten years yet she still stayed the same-she's still the same best friend who pushed me to aim for my dreams albeit the discouragements of everyone including my parents.

"Enough about me. What about you, Kate? What's new?" I asked.

"Ugh! Same old. Resigned from my job."

"Why?" I asked even though already knew the answer.

"Not for me," she simply said.

Kate had always been a happy-go-lucky type of girl. As her mother said, it was a miracle that she graduated college. After college though, she skipped from one job to another. Recently she worked as a barista, but as she said, it wasn't for her.

"Then, what's for you?" I asked. I loved to paint. Kate loved . . . drinking wine?

"I don't know," she shrugged as she took another sip of the white wine we ordered.

"Oh well, we're still twenty-five. We'll figure it out," I assured.

The reality was that the Kavanaughs own a lot of motels across Seattle and up until now, they give Kate a monthly allowance. People could mistake her to be a lazy rich girl-yeah, that's true-but there's so much more to her than that. Someday she'll prove that. She just needed that spark.

Kate cleared her throat and asked, "So, you're going to Paris tomorrow, huh?"

"What?" I was puzzled.

"You know, your boyfriend's there?"

"Yes, I know my boyfriend is there, Kate, but he's there for work."

She rolled her eyes, "Girl, Jose just told Ethan that he can't wait to meet up with the love of his life in the Louvre on Wednesday and by Wednesday, I mean tomorrow."

Ethan was Kate's little brother and it confused me how Jose can hang out with him without realizing that Ethan didn't enjoy his company.

My eyes widened. Jose! Why didn't I get all the hints?! Tomorrow's our third anniversary and he's in Paris. He just bank transferred $4000 before he left. I gasped out loud which caused Kate to gasp too.

"What?"

I had a Eureka moment, "Kate, before Jose left, Celine Dion's 'When I Fall In Love' was playing in our vinyl!"

Her brows arched, "That means?"

"He was giving me a clue! It was Sleepless in Seattle!"

We screamed like high school girls before she helped me book a ticket from Seattle to Paris for tomorrow. I knew it! The ticket cost exactly $4000.

Present Day

Funny how a miscommunication can sometimes lead you to knowing the truth. After appearing sorrowful and lonesome under the Eiffel Tower, I decided to take a walk down the streets of the City of Love.

Maybe I could distract myself from what happened 48 hours ago. I stared at the finest architecture of the place and I thought about painting this scene when I take a hold of my paint brush. It would definitely take a lot of work, but it will be worth it. Maybe by then that would distract me from the brokenness I was feeling inside.

I pep talked to myself, "Ana, Jose is a loser. Yes, he is a handsome man blessed by the looks of his Mexican ancestors and he has six-pack abs, but he is a loser, okay? He is a photojournalist always in action, but he is a loser, okay? You are way better off without him!"

Then, a truck with the poster of a movie on it passed from my right side, and all the pep-talked melted.

"L'Anniversaire," that's the title of the film for crying out loud!

All of a sudden, I remembered the thing I wanted most to forget:

Two days ago...

Before Jose left our apartment, we talked about his itinerary in Paris. Yes, we talked about the details so I knew exactly what time he's gonna arrive at the Louvre. I was going to be a little late, you know, because the climax on Sleepless in Seattle? There was this whole are they going to meet up or not? You know what I'm talking about.

It's not in the Eiffel Tower, but I was all good because it was the Louvre!

Dressed in my flowy white dress with black strapped ballet shoes, I felt like a main character in my own romantic movie. I cut my hair into a bob and for some reason, it made my blue eyes look more like sapphire!

I went inside the museum and it was as pristine as I expected. The whole paintings I wanted to bring home, the whole paintings I wanted to see-they're all here! Okay, well, it took me more than an hour to find Jose because I wasn't searching for him. There were too many masterpieces to gaze at and one hour wasn't even enough.

Then Right in front of the Mona Lisa painting, Jose was there. Alright, he was no Tom Hanks, but he still looked sexy in his . . . plaid shirt and faded trousers? Jose's never been the best at dressing, but I assumed he'd change for Paris, but enough about that.

I slowly walked towards him with the same doe eyes Meg Ryan had in the movie.

"Jose?" my voice was filled with wonder. Okay, I tried to sound like Meg.

"Ana?!" I was taken aback by that. Why did he sound so . . . alarmed?

"Happy Anniversary, my love," I gave him a soft peck on the lips.

"What are you doing here?" He sounded agitated, but I guess it's just me.

"Well, I picked up the clues," I told him.

"You did?!" He sounded scared now. He's being weird.

"Yes, Silly, why else would I be here?"

He gulped. Why was he looking at me like I was some kind of murderer?

"Darling, Jose, this place is boring. Let's go to a club!"

A woman came out of nowhere and touched my boyfriend's biceps.

"Shit!" Jose cursed.

I looked at the two of them back and forth. The woman had dark shoulder length hair and she wore this oversized black dress. What the hell was going on?

"Jose, what's going on here?" I seriously asked, my Meg Ryan voice faded in an instant.

"Ana, this is Leila, my new girlfriend," he said with a guilty voice.

"Your WHAT?!" I saw red and yes, the whole museum heard it. And Mona Lisa behind Jose was definitely disrespected by that outrage. So, I took a deep breath, calmed down, and asked him to follow me outside.

So, he complied.

When we were out of the building, I screamed, "WHAT THE FUCK? YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" I hit him multiple times with my cute handbag. Whoa! Who knew this could be a weapon?

"Ow! Ow! Stop it, Ana!" Jose attempted to dodge the blows I hit.

"You piece of shit!"

"If you won't stop hitting me, then we can't talk," he said and with everything that I had, I managed to calm down.

"TALK!" Okay, I wasn't that calm.

He winced, "Ana, I want you to know that I am very sorry. When we had a convention in New York, I met Leila and things just. . . made sense."

That was taking a dagger to the heart.

"What?" I was barely audible.

He took a deep breath before saying, "You always say that, right? We meet people for the first time and it feels like we've known them our whole lives? That's how I feel about Leila."

"This doesn't make sense," I said.

"We don't make sense."

I shook my head, "No, no, but you told Ethan that you're going to meet the love of your life here."

"Leila is the love of my life." Ouch!

"But what about the money for the plane ticket?"

"What?"

"The four-thousand dollars?" Duh!

"Ana, I didn't pay my share for our bills for a few months now, right? That was my payment."

I shook my head again and again. I was losing my mind. "What about Celine Dion?"

"Celine Dion? What does she have to do with this?"

"Her song? You played 'When I Fall In Love' when you left? That's the theme song of Sleepless in Seattle" Duh!

"The playlist was on shuffle," He dryly replied.

I exhaled and tears came out of my eyes.

Jose then explained, "Ana, you are a wonderful girl. We've had a great time in the three years we've been together, but it's not you, it's me. You just love so ... grandly and I am tired of keeping up with that. It's hard to keep up with you."

"What?"

"I wish you all the happiness, Ana. I am really sorry," he gave me a kiss on that cheek before he went inside the Louvre again.

There I stood in my white dress, crying, then the thunder roared, and the rain poured down.

He was . . . gone.

Present Day

The night was still fresh for me. Every second just ached. I called Kate immediately that night and Ethan on the background kept on screaming that he knew Jose was up to no good and that he never liked him for me.

I was so fixated on his reason. My love was too grand and he cannot keep up with it? Did I make our relationship into some type of competition?

Okay, what did he mean by grand? Did he mean that moment when I orchestrated this flash mob in the mall. He was obsessed with Pulp Fiction that time so I surprised him with this flash mob of The Twist for his birthday. I was dressed like Uma Thurman!

Or was I too 'grand' in our first anniversary? When he was watching a lot of Houdini, I took some magic lessons to know how to perform magic tricks myself. I took him to this magic show and I was the last performer on the final act. The magic ended with a huge poster saying, "I Love You, Jose! Happy 1st Anniversary!" I was almost cut into pieces, but it was worth it!

Or was it last year's anniversary? He said he missed Mexico City so I surprised him with a whole miniature that was as huge as our bed. Okay, we didn't know where to put it after so it got sold to this random girl online.

Was it grand? And if it was, wouldn't you love it if your partner treated you that way?

"He's just making an excuse, Ana. Don't ever think badly about yourself, or I guess you can tone it down a little," Kate told me the night when I called her.

So here I was inside a train doing everything I can to not think about him anymore. But how could I? When two teenagers were making out in front of me. Then, two boys just sat next to me and they were holding hands. I didn't understand French but love had no language. You can easily identify it. Then on to my left, an elderly couple sat. The elderly man just kissed grandma on the cheek.

Damn! I need another baguette!