Chapter 17
GAbrIEL
I thought that I was attracted to Laila before.
But as I sat here studying her beautiful face and sketched her, that attraction intensified.
How could one woman be so breathtaking? She looked even better than she did all those years ago.
Her warm brown eyes sparkled, her gorgeous skin glowed and when she laughed at a bad joke I made (what do you call a drawing dog?
The answer in case you were wondering was Paw-casso…), I was convinced that my heart doubled in size.
When I started drawing her braids, the artist announced that he had finished, but I told him that I had not.
I had already offered to pay him double to allow us to sketch each other so I was confident that he would wait.
Once I had finished, I handed the drawing to Laila.
‘This is… incredible!’ she gasped. ‘How the hell are you so good? Now I’m even more embarrassed about my childish sketch.’
‘I love your portrait. You made me look very handsome. And my personal trainer would be very impressed with the size of the muscles you have given me.’ I grinned.
‘Hey! I’m very proud of those Michelin-man-esque arms,’ she laughed. ‘And if you ask me, they’re an accurate reflection of how they look in real life.’ Her gaze moved to my biceps and she bit her lip.
So Laila liked my arms. Interesting…
‘You are finished?’ the artist asked, which was clearly his way of asking us to pay and leave so that he could move on to drawing the couple that were hovering.
‘Oui.’ I pulled out my wallet.
‘No!’ Laila jumped up. ‘Let me pay!’
‘It was my idea, so I will pay,’ I said as I firmly pressed several notes in the artist’s palms. ‘Come, we must go. Merci.’ I nodded to the artist, took Laila’s hand and led her away.
Mon Dieu.
Her palms were so soft. I had noticed it before when we shook hands.
I expected her to pull away instantly but when she did not, I decided that I would not either. They were so warm and comforting.
‘Why didn’t you let me pay?’ she said as we stood outside a café. ‘I should at least pay half!’
‘Do not worry.’
‘But…’
‘We should get lunch, non?’ I said, changing the subject.
‘I’m buying!’ she jumped in.
‘I am afraid that will not be possible. According to this text, the hotel has already arranged it.’ I held my phone up to show her a message that had come through from the Love Alchemists to say that we had the choice of dining at three different restaurants and they would settle the bill on our behalf.
‘That’s good of them,’ Laila said. ‘We can have lunch there, but later you have to let me buy you some ice cream or a coffee.’
I loved Laila’s determination to pay her own way.
Even before my app started making money, my ex expected me to cover everything. And the more money I made, the higher her expectations became.
I knew that I should tell Laila that I had sold my app, but I had noticed that people treated you differently when they realised you had money.
Perhaps Laila would be more open to something happening between us during our hotel stay if she did not believe I was a poor man trying to make it in the business world, so it might work in my favour.
But there was also a risk that it would make her uncomfortable.
And as I could not predict how she would react, I decided that for now, it was better to say nothing at all.
‘Deal.’ I went to hold out my hand for her to shake again, but then I realised that she was still holding it. Laila noticed at the same time and swiftly pulled away.
‘I…’ Her eyes widened. ‘We should, go. I’m starving.’
During lunch, we chatted easily. We laughed about our drawings and took silly photos holding the professional sketch in one hand, our own attempts in the other and putting our face in between the two.
We marvelled at how delicious the food was then Laila threatened not to talk to me again unless I let her buy us ice cream for dessert.
‘I will agree to your demands,’ I smiled, ‘but first I must take you to see something.’
‘Where?’
‘To Le mur des je t’aime, which is the I Love You Wall in English.’
‘Oh, that sounds romantic.’ Laila swallowed hard. ‘I’m not sure that’s a good idea, given the circumstances.’
‘Do not worry. You will not be required to kiss me against the wall or declare your undying love for me. Unless you want to, of course…’ A mischievous smile touched my lips.
‘What? No, I wouldn’t—’
‘Je plaisante!’ I grinned. ‘I am joking! It is a nice place to visit and it will help us to earn extra points. You want to win, don’t you?’
‘Course! Although…’ She paused. ‘I’m still not sure how long I’ll be staying.’
‘Are you not having a good time?’ My face fell.
‘I’m having an amazing time!’ Laila replied quickly.
‘So why would you leave?’
‘Because…’
‘If you are about to mention my mother again, then I ask respectfully that you do not. I know you believe that she is an angel, but she has no right to pass judgement on anyone.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘We are here.’ I pointed to the square by the Place des Abbesses Metro, thinking I was glad that we had arrived now so that I would not have to answer Laila’s question about my mother. ‘Come.’ I led her over to the wall which was covered in dark blue tiles with white writing.
‘Oh, wow.’ Laila moved past a crowd of tourists gathered in front of us to an empty spot so that she could get a closer look. ‘So I’m guessing somewhere on here it says, I love you? Not that I love you, I mean, the phrase.’
‘Oui, there are three hundred and eleven declarations of love written in two hundred and fifty different languages here.’
‘That’s brilliant! Not sure how many I’d be able to spot though. Languages have never been my strong point.’
‘It is never too late to learn. We should take a photo. Then you can look at it and learn a new way to say I love you every day,’ I suggested.
‘Nice idea. It’d help if I had someone to say it to though,’ she sighed.
‘But you do!’
‘Gabriel, you’re a great guy, but—’
‘Not to me,’ I smiled. ‘To you. Please do not be offended but I get the impression that you do not have a very high opinion of yourself, which again, I respectfully would say is crazy, because you are a wonderful woman.’
Laila’s eyes popped.
‘Thanks. That’s kind of you. I… like I said before, I haven’t really had any reason to like myself that much so…’ She shrugged.
‘Well, maybe now is a good time to start.’ I looked around us and saw that the people who were filming and taking pictures were just about to leave.
‘Stand over there.’ I pointed to the centre of the wall.
‘I would like to take a photo of you in front of the wall. I know you came here for romance and you have decided that you do not want to pursue that with me. But perhaps if you will not allow yourself to fall in love with me, you will use this as an opportunity to fall in love with yourself.’
Laila looked at me with a stunned expression on her face. She opened her mouth to speak, then decided against it and positioned herself in front of the wall.
‘Smile!’ I said and she flashed a weak grin.
‘You can do better than that! Show me the beautiful smile you had after you threw orange juice at my crotch,’ I said and Laila winced before bursting out laughing.
‘There! That is much better.’ I took several photos of her.
‘Now do a heart symbol with your hands so that every morning when you look at this photo you will be showing yourself how much you love you.’
‘Is that what you do?’
‘Of course! Every morning, I look in the mirror and tell myself that I am amazing, kind and handsome. This is normal, non?’ I laughed and so did Laila.
Snap. Snap. More beautiful photos of her.
‘I can’t tell at this point whether you’re joking or telling the truth.’ She laughed again.
‘I guess you will never know! Come on. Give me your best love heart gesture.’
‘I think you’re trying to turn me into an egomaniac!’ she said as she put her hands together in the shape of a heart and held them in front of her.
‘Non, I just want you to see what I see.’
‘And what’s that?’ she frowned.
‘A wonderful woman who is smart, strong, generous, caring and very beautiful.’
Laila’s eyes widened and then her face broke into a big smile. I took another burst of photos.
‘You’re such a charmer,’ she said sheepishly.
‘I speak only the truth. You should listen to the song called “Soulmate” by Lizzo. I will add it to today’s playlist. Now, we should take some photos for our Love Tasks.’
I stepped beside Laila, being sure to keep a respectable distance, then held the phone up and snapped away.
A crowd was gathering and I could see that other people wanted to take pictures so I stepped aside.
‘I have an idea to help us to get extra points,’ I said.
‘I think that we should write down something that we both love about each other. And before you start to get worried, it does not have to be romantic. It can be something innocent. For example, I love your smile or I love the very excellent drawing you did of me earlier.’
‘Ha!’ She laughed. ‘We don’t even have any paper.’
‘That is true.’ We could write something on my phone, but it would not be the same.
I scanned the gardens. I spotted a woman sitting on a bench who was writing in a notepad.
‘Wait here,’ I said before rushing over to the woman.
A quick glance at what she was writing told me that she was not French. ‘Excuse me, do you speak English?’
‘Yes,’ she said.
‘I need a few sheets of paper from your notebook and to borrow your pen. I can pay you if you need to buy a new one.’ I reached in my wallet and took out ten euros and held it out to her. ‘Is this enough?’
‘It’s okay! You don’t need to pay me.’ She tore out a few pages from the centre of her book and handed it to me along with a pen.
‘Merci,’ I smiled. ‘I will bring the pen straight back.’ I returned to Laila, waving the pen and paper in the air.
‘Did you just pay that woman for some paper?’ she frowned.
‘Non. Come. Write down something you love about me. Should I ask the lady for more paper? Maybe one sheet isn’t enough.’ I flashed her a mischievous smile.
‘You certainly think a lot of yourself,’ she smiled back.
‘There is nothing wrong with loving yourself. Within reason, of course.’
She took the paper, wrote something down, held it close to her chest so that I could not see it then handed me the pen so I could do the same. Once I’d returned the pen and we’d waited for another group of tourists to take photos, we stood in front of the wall.
‘Would you like me to take it?’ the lady who had given me the paper asked.
‘Oui, merci,’ I said, handing her my phone, then returning to stand next to Laila. Her beautiful scent surrounded me and I tried not to let it affect me. I took a small step away from her to try and create some distance. ‘After three, we should hold up our pieces of paper. D’accord?’
‘Okay,’ Laila agreed.
‘Un, deux, trois!’
Once the lady had taken a few photos, I took my phone back and Laila joined me.
‘Let’s see!’ she said excitedly. ‘I’d like to know what you’ve written.’
Laila stood closer and leaned in as I brought a photo up on the screen. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to let her hypnotic scent affect me again. I almost wrote down how much I loved it.
The truth was that there were so many things that I loved about Laila it was hard to choose just one. Her scent, her smile, her beauty, her strength… I could have filled dozens of pages. And the exciting thing was that there was still so much to discover about Laila.
‘That’s really sweet, thank you,’ she said as she zoomed in on the photo to read my sign.
I had written that I loved her laugh. It was joyful and made my heart feel like it was being pumped full of some kind of happy gas.
Then I remembered that she’d also written something about me. I suspected that it was a very safe comment, like my knowledge of Paris.
I swiped over the screen, moving the image so that I could read her sign.
I love your accent.
I lifted my gaze and looked at Laila, who was smiling.
‘What?’ she frowned. ‘Don’t you like what I wrote?’
‘Of course I like it. I was just surprised, that is all.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I thought that you would choose something more generic, for example you like my shirt or my shorts.’
‘Well, obviously I like your shorts. I helped you choose them, remember?’ She laughed.
‘And yes, I was tempted to say I like your shirt. You always look very smart and I like the way that you roll the sleeves up…’ Her eyes dropped to my forearms. ‘You have very nice… anyway, yeah, your accent is nice.’
‘Merci,’ I said, interested that she was about to tell me that she liked my arms. ‘What do you love about it?’
‘It’s deep and… and, well, kind of sexy.’
‘Really?’ I raised my eyebrow at this unexpected compliment. ‘Well, in dat case I think I should er, how do you say, speak more like dis,’ I said in an exaggerated accent.
‘Stop!’ She slapped my arm playfully. ‘Now you sound ridiculous! Come on, I saw a cool-looking ice cream place back near Sacré-C?ur which had a long queue so it must be good. Let me buy you an ice cream before your brain overheats from all the compliments I’ve just given you.’
That was actually a good idea.
Laila had just said that she liked my shirt, that my accent was sexy and I was pretty sure that she wanted to say that she liked my arms too.
Three compliments from the woman who said that she was not interested in me romantically.
She mentioned that we would be getting ice cream to cool me down, but now I began to wonder whether it was Laila’s resolve and willpower that were finally beginning to thaw…