I stab a piece of lettuce with a force it doesn’t deserve. “Merde,” I mutter.
Aaron smirks. “Most know bonjour as their primarily used French word. Of course my woman knows merde.”
“You taught me it.” I chew slowly. “It’s an easy word to remember.”
I set my fork down beside my plate and ignore his lowered chuckle. My eyes scour the view outside our window until they fall on the familiar shape of the Louvre. My heart skips a beat. My favorite place in the world.
“I know what you’re looking at.”
“Please,” I ask without taking my eyes from it. “I promise it’ll be the only time I’ll make you come with me.”
He grins and waves at a waiter for the bill. “I was waiting for you to ask.”
Excitement builds, and I smile at him as he pays. Outside the restaurant, I skip along the cobbled street—in my flats—toward the museum.
“You look like the girl I fell in love with all those years ago.”
I turn to face him. “Being back here with you, I feel it.”
He catches up with me and takes my hand in his. His lips brush across my knuckles, and he pulls me closer to the Louvre. “I’m going to hate every second of this, aren’t I?”
“It’s likely.” I lean into him slightly. He loops our arms over my head so they circle my body, pulling me closer to his side. I fit perfectly against him, and I smile as I remember the endless hours we spent exploring the city exactly this way.
If I close my eyes and believe hard enough, it almost feels like no time has passed. Like we could be here for the very first time, just getting to know each other and falling for the first time. I can kid myself that I’m only just finding out how his touch silences the rest of the world and his kiss sends me into a heady spiral of bliss.
I can pretend that I’m only just finding out that looking in his eyes is the best and worst thing a girl can do.
Nothing has changed. Irrespective of my job or the time passed, nothing has changed. It feels the same as it always has when we’re together.
Being with Aaron is effortless. Just like loving him, waking up to his electric eyes and smirking lips each morning feels so natural that I can’t remember it not being so. The time without him far outweighs the time together, but that doesn’t make the slightest difference.
And the idea of being without him again makes my stomach clench painfully.
The thought of not waking up to a ready-made pot of coffee, to rumpled sheets on the other side of the bed, to his lips brushing across a part of my body, sinks in deep and claws at every part of me.
I squeeze my eyes shut. No matter how it hurts, how hard it will be to say goodbye, how hard it will be to leave such a pivotal part of my life behind, it has to be done.
Nothing can last forever.
I open my mouth but Aaron speaks before I can. “Wait here.”
He releases me and strolls down a tiny street, disappearing into a small building. I stare after him in shock. What the hell?
I wrap my arms around my waist, suddenly feeling a chill from the gentle spring breeze without his arms around me. My foot taps as I wait. What the hell is he doing?
He reemerges a few moments later, a small bag in his hand. I frown. His face is stretched into a grin, his eyes sparkling with the boyish charm that endeared me to him originally, and he stops in front of me.
“Here.”
“A brown paper bag?”
“Just open it.”
I unfold the top, the paper rustling as I do, and reach inside. My fingers wrap around a ball chain, and there’s a small clink as I pull it out.
“Oh my god.”
The Eiffel Tower charm at the end is sandwiched by a star charm and a red glass heart. The bag crumples in my fist as the necklace flattens in my in palm, my jaw slack.
Aaron grins and takes it from me. “I can’t believe the store is still here.”
“Me either.”
He steps behind me and unclasps the necklace. He settles it around my neck and pauses. “Do you remember?”
Do I remember? How could I forget? We were standing in the same place seven years ago when he first gave me a necklace identical to this. It was a crazy, impulsive buy, and he said that he’d bought it firstly because of the Tower.
“The Tower for your love of it and the place we first met,” he murmurs, redoing the clasp. His finger trails over my shoulder alongside the chain as he turns me to face him. “The star for what I see whenever I look in your eyes…”
“And the heart so I’ll never forget I have yours,” I finish for him in a whisper. I reach my hand up and my fingers curl around the charms. “Like I could.”
“Just in case.” He kisses me sweetly.
I reach into my purse and unzip the back pocket. I grab a chain exactly like the one hanging around my neck and tug.
“You still have it.” Aaron takes it from me in awe. “I don’t believe it.”
I tear my eyes, which are filling with tears, from the necklace and find his. “I promised you I’d never forget.”
***
I wake to an empty bed—something I’m more than used to—and the sound of Aaron talking in an agitated tone in the other room. After rubbing my eyes and pulling on my robe, I pad through silently.
“Yes.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “Jesus… I’m not supposed to be working this week. You know that, Dad… Fine… Yes. We’ll be there… Okay. Bye.”
He drops the phone on the floor and drops back on the sofa. His arm rests over his eyes, and he sighs heavily.
“That doesn’t sound like a great way to start your day,” I say softly.
“It’s not!”
I say nothing at the sharp tone in his voice and flick the coffee machine on. I refuse to do anything to make him feel better if he’s going to snap at me like an angry puppy.
“Sorry,” he says, wrapping his arms around me from behind. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way.”
“Damn right you shouldn’t have.” I pour a cup of coffee. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong? If not, I’m going to shower.”
He laughs quietly, but I can still feel the tension in his body. Like he’ll snap if you push him too far. “Someone I’m not particularly fond of heard we’re in Paris this week. They’ve taken the liberty of organizing a company dinner here at the hotel tonight, and my father just informed me that we’re expected to attend. Required to, actually.”