3. Lauren
CHAPTER 3
LAUREN
I s he going to kiss me?
The question whirled in Lauren’s mind as she looked up at Nico. He was standing just inches away from her and looking down with an intensity that made her heart race.
Is he going to kiss me?
Do I want him to?
If Nico closed the gap between them and kissed her, Lauren would kiss him back. She knew that as clearly as she knew that the sun would rise in the east and that the moon orbited the earth. After all, Nico was extremely handsome and, for the first time in many years, Lauren had both the interest and the opportunity to act on her attraction.
So, yes. She wanted Nico to kiss her.
But she also wanted more than a kiss. Perhaps she wanted nothing more than a fling with a handsome Parisian — after all, she hadn’t come here looking for a relationship. But still, she wanted more time with Nico. She wanted him to show her around Paris and to keep looking at her with those deep brown eyes.
A kiss would be a good start, though.
If only Lauren were brave enough to rise onto her toes and kiss Nico herself. But it had been so long since she’d even flirted with someone, and shyness rose in her.
Then there was a soft “flump” sound and Lauren blinked, then looked down. A quiet chuckle from Nico drew her attention back up, and she followed his gaze to her hand, which was now holding an empty cone.
“Oh, no!” Lauren glanced down at the remainder of her chocolate ice cream, which was now in a heap on the ground. Then she started to laugh too, and the tension of the moment was broken. Soon they were both in stitches.
“I swear,” Lauren said, still giggling, “this kind of thing doesn’t usually happen to me. First, I smear ice cream all over my face and then I drop it. You must think I’m a total klutz.”
“I don’t.” Nico was chuckling too. “But you have to admit, that was pretty funny.”
“Except now I don’t have any ice cream.” Lauren made an exaggerated sad face.
“You can have some of mine,” Nico offered. He held out his cup, but Lauren shook her head. Sharing a cup of ice cream felt a little too intimate, despite the moment they’d almost shared.
“I’m okay. It was really delicious, though.”
Lauren threw away the empty cone — it wasn’t particularly tasty without anything in it — and they continued their stroll.
“So, tell me more about Paris.” Lauren flashed a grin at Nico. “For instance, where might I look for an apartment?”
“Right!” Nico finished the last bite of his ice cream, crumpled the cup, and tossed it smoothly into a trash can. Then he led the way to a small tabac, a mini stand of the sort that Lauren remembered sold mostly gum and cigarettes late at night. Nico bought a newspaper, then led her to a bench by the river.
“This is a strange way to answer my question,” Lauren pointed out as she took a seat next to him.
“Sorry.” Nico grinned at her. “I just realized that I wanted to help you.” He opened the newspaper and spread it across his knees. Then he pulled a red pen from somewhere in his messenger bag and removed the cap with his teeth.
“This are the ‘for rent’ pages,” he told her. After a scan of the page, he circled a listing and tilted the paper so Lauren could see it. “Here’s a one-bedroom in a nice neighborhood for a fairly reasonable rate. It seems a little high, but that’s because it’s furnished and the gas and water are included.”
“That looks great,” Lauren admitted. “Although without seeing it, we don’t know how many cockroaches they’re hosting.”
“True. But it’s worth a shot.” Nico continued scanning the page and Lauren sat back thoughtfully.
“I have to ask. Most people find apartments online now, right? What are you doing with a newspaper?”
“Maybe I’m just an old-fashioned guy,” Nico suggested. “Or maybe I’ve noticed that elderly people tend to put listings in newspapers still. They’re nice as landlords, plus they don’t get as many hopeful renters since, as you said, most people find their apartments online.”
“Genius.”
“Thank you.”
They smiled at each other, then Lauren let Nico focus on his circling for a few minutes. As he pored over the paper, Lauren watched the river slide by in front of them. The bright scents of cherry blossoms and fresh-cut grass were strong in the air. They reminded Lauren of that hopeful feeling she always used to get before summer started, of anything being possible and her life being wide open.
After the disaster of this morning’s apartment visits and cultural misunderstandings, Lauren’s move to Paris was starting to feel like a good idea again. Once more, almost out of habit at this point, she lifted her hand to her grandfather’s ring and clasped it in her palm.
“All right.” Nico tore out the page he’d been working with, folded it neatly, and handed it to Lauren. “This should give you a good place to start your apartment hunt.”
“Thank you. Really.” Lauren smiled at him. “First you save me from being lost, and then you help me with my apartment search. You’re really my guardian angel today.”
“It’s been a pleasure.”
The past tense sent a sudden wave of worry through Lauren. Maybe Nico felt that, since he’d spent a little time with her, given her directions, and now circled apartments for her, their time together was coming to an end. Lauren didn’t want that.
If she were braver, she might have leaned over and put a hand on his arm or flipped her hair over her shoulder like her friends did when they wanted to catch a man’s attention. But Lauren was out of practice at flirting and she felt shy. Still, she didn’t want Nico to leave just yet.
“Let me invite you to dinner,” she blurted. She felt her cheeks heat, but pushed forward. “If you’re not busy, that is. I want to thank you for all your help this afternoon.”
There was a beat in which Nico was silent, and Lauren feared the worst. Then he grinned.
“It would be my honor. And I have a perfect place in mind.”
Relief and excitement flooded Lauren in equal measure. Nico did want to spend more time with her.
“Great.” She smiled, and he held out a hand to help her to her feet. A tingling sensation ran up Lauren’s arm from the place where their hands met.
“It’s a little too early to eat, though. Shall we walk a bit more first?”
“Okay.” Lauren fell into step beside Nico, adrenaline still surging through her from her request. Lauren had done much harder things than ask a guy out to dinner — from uprooting her life to move to a foreign country, to standing by her grandfather as his daily life had grown more and more difficult — but this still hadn’t been easy.
“So, tell me more about growing up in Paris.” She smiled at Nico. “What was it like?”
“Well, of course it was normal for me.” Nico grinned back. “I went to school and played football — er, soccer — with my friends. I spent time with my parents and dreamed of becoming a spy or an astronaut or a soccer player. Normal stuff.”
“Did you have siblings?”
“No. It was just me and my mom. My dad wasn’t in the picture from the time I was very young.”
“Mine wasn’t either.” Lauren wasn’t sure why she’d shared that. Her father was a small part of her story — she’d never known him and rarely thought about him. But something about Nico’s openness made her want to be open too.
“I’m sorry,” Nico said.
“I’m not. My childhood wasn’t exactly usual, but it was wonderful all the same.” A memory of her grandfather pushing her on the swings, both of them laughing, flashed through Lauren’s mind. He’d stepped up for her when she’d needed someone most, and that would always mean everything to her.
“That’s a good way to look at it. My mother was all I needed, but I still can’t forgive my father for walking out on us.” Nico gave Lauren a slightly strained smile. “I’m sorry. This isn’t exactly a pleasant conversation.”
“Don’t worry about it.” It was clear Nico wanted to change the subject, though, so Lauren searched for an alternative topic. “What do you like to do in your free time?”
“I don’t have all that much free time,” Nico admitted. “But when I have some, I like to read and go to the cinema.”
“The cinema,” Lauren repeated, grinning.
“Is that not the right word?”
“No, it’s right — it just sounds so fancy. I’d usually just say the movie theater. Unless you’re one of those people who like pretentious black-and-white films about the sufferings of the human spirit.”
“Maybe I do.” Nico raised his eyebrows.
“Oh! I didn’t mean to offend you?—”
“I’m kidding. I mean, I do like some classic highbrow cinema, but I also like action movies and the occasional rom-com. And I liked that new animated movie about the goat who opens a Chinese restaurant.”
Lauren laughed. “I saw that with one of my friends and her three-year-old — but why did you see it?”
“Because I enjoy a wide range of cinema ,” Nico told her, his face straight. Then he grinned. “Anyway, what do you do in your free time?”
“I don’t have a lot of free time either.”
“What a pair we are,” Nico quipped. Lauren’s heart skipped a beat at the thought of her and Nico as a pair, but she didn’t let herself get caught up on that.
“I like to run, though. And I like to read, too.”
“What do you like to read?”
Thus began a conversation about books that lasted all the way down the bank. Lauren shared a few of her favorite books and found out that Nico had read and enjoyed some of the same ones. They swapped recommendations and soon became caught up in a vehement debate about the value of a classic they’d both read recently. By the time they’d agreed to disagree, the sun had started to set and the air was taking on a chill that cut right through Lauren’s thin jacket.
“Shall we head to dinner?” Nico asked after Lauren couldn’t hide a particularly forceful shiver. “I’d lend you my jacket, but I don’t have one with me.”
“Well, thank you for the sentiment. And yes, let’s head to dinner — if it isn’t too early.”
Nico made a show of checking his watch and seeming to consider, then gave a nod. “I think we’ll be all right. We’ll need to take the metro to the restaurant. Are you ready?”
“After the mess I made of public transportation this morning, I’d really better learn, ready or not.” They started walking away from the river towards the direction Nico had indicated the metro was.
“I have to ask, though. What mess did you make of public transportation?”
“I took the metro in the wrong direction,” Lauren admitted. “And when I got off, I couldn’t get in through the pay gate for the other direction, so I went back above ground to look for another way to get to the apartment I was trying to see. I finally found a bus, but suddenly it turned off the route I expected it to follow, and I found out that it was a special commuter bus. I ended up walking like a mile to get back on track.”
“Oof. That doesn’t sound like fun at all. But we’ve all been there. When I was in Prague, I tried to go visit a family friend and ended up spending the night in a completely different town than the one she lived in because I didn’t know there was more than one town called Lhota.”
“Oof,” Lauren repeated. “It was good you were able to find a hotel.”
“Oh, I wasn’t. The town was so small that there were no hotels, and by the time I arrived it was late. But a kind farmer ended up letting me stay in a spare room in exchange for helping with the cows in the morning.”
Lauren laughed. “Wow. Your exchange sounds like it was really different from mine. When I was in Paris, I spent a lot of time in museums and cafés — and you apparently spent a lot of time in barns.”
Nico chuckled. “I spent a lot of my time in museums and cafés, too. It was really just that morning that I spent in a barn. And maybe a few more times…” He shrugged. “But I always look back fondly on all the parts of that adventure, even if they didn’t all go the way I planned. It was good I got a chance to be wild and free when I was young, before life got so complicated.”
“Complicated?” Lauren frowned. “I know you must have a job here, but you could go back to Prague for a weekend at least, couldn’t you? It isn’t far.”
Nico opened his mouth, hesitated, then closed it again. “Sure, but that kind of thing is easier said than done.”
Lauren got the feeling that he wasn’t being completely honest with her, but she had no right to complain. They had only just met, and if Nico didn’t want to tell her everything on their first date — assuming this was a date — she couldn’t blame him. Still, she wondered what was so complicated about Nico’s life. Unless…
“Wait. Don’t be mad, but I just have to ask. You aren’t married or anything, are you?”
Nico laughed, then seemed to catch sight of the worry on Lauren’s face, because he quickly shook his head. “No, I am completely and totally single. I have been for years. I wouldn’t be here with you if I weren’t single.”
Lauren heart warmed — it seemed that Nico thought of this as a date, too.
“Well, that’s a relief. And just to be clear, I’m single, too.” Still feeling a little awkward, Lauren raised her left hand to show the lack of a ring.
“Good. If you had a boyfriend, I think he might not approve of me taking you out to dinner.”
“Um, if I remember correctly, I am taking you out to dinner.” Lauren answered quickly to avoid dwelling on the swarm of butterflies that were performing choreographed dances in her stomach. This really was a date. Lauren wished she’d worn more makeup this morning.
“No, no. You invited me, but since I know the restaurant, I’m clearly the one who’s taking you out to dinner. Plus, it would be more than a little rude of me to make you take me out to dinner on your first day in a new city.”
“Paris isn’t completely new.” They began to descend the steps into the metro. “I just seem to have forgotten any and all useful information I might have had about the city in the time I was away.”
“These things happen.” Nico pulled out a plastic card, which he tapped against a reader at the bottom of the stairs. It flashed green and he continued toward the metro, but Lauren had stopped.
“Do I have to do that, too?”
Nico turned back. “Yes.”
“Oh, no. Add another mistake to my list of transportation failures. I didn’t see a gate to go through, so I thought I didn’t need to scan my card anywhere and that it was already activated. I think I might have ridden the metro without paying for it this morning.”
Nico chuckled. “You didn’t get caught, so no harm done.”
“I suppose.” Lauren found her own card in her wallet and tapped it against the reader.
“Anyway, you’re right that most stations do have a gate, so you have to scan your card to enter.”
“This explains why I couldn’t get onto the other platform when I took the train in the wrong direction.”
“Oh, Lauren.” Nico grinned. “This is getting a little embarrassing for you. Let’s blame it on jet lag.”
“Yes, please. ”
Both laughing, they continued onto the train that would take them to the restaurant. Now that evening was coming on, the train was crowded with commuters, so Nico called to Lauren the stop where they’d need to get off before they each wedged into a different part of the crowd. As the train rattled off through the tunnel, Lauren couldn’t help sneaking a few glances at Nico. He had gotten out his phone and was flicking through messages, so he hopefully wouldn’t see her.
After a difficult start to the day, this was starting to feel too good to be true. It hardly seemed possible that she would have met an attractive, funny, intelligent, kind Parisian gentleman on her very first day in France. On top of that, he seemed to be interested in unsophisticated, fish-out-of-water Lauren for some reason she couldn’t quite grasp.
Hopefully, Nico could see past Lauren’s French fumbles and public transit faux pas. And it seemed he could, since they were now on the way to dinner together.
Warmth and anticipation bloomed in Lauren’s chest. It was silly to imagine a whole romance blossoming from an afternoon on the Seine and a dinner together, wasn’t it? Yet she couldn’t help hoping that Nico might become an important part of her time here. Maybe there were other local sights he’d like to show her and more walks they could take together.
If nothing else, maybe Lauren would get that kiss that had seemed so possible on the banks of the Seine. She felt her cheeks heat at the thought of Nico pulling her close and tilting her head back to capture her lips with his own.
No matter what happened next, this was turning into a good day indeed.