The Paris of Our Dreams, page 1
The Paris of Our Dreams
Tomás Costa
Copyright © 2015 by Tomás Costa All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be copied, shared, or used without the author’s permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner, except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, without permission.
Table of contents
PART I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
PART II
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
PART I
Chapter 1
It could be said that this party had gotten out of control, but the truth is, for this crowd, it was only getting started. What could Marie have done? Honestly, not much. The number of people had decreased while the consumption of alcohol and drugs increased, and it was still quite early. Sophie was already blind-drunk and so were several people whom Eric didn’t even know. The important thing was that his three bandmates were there, each one naturally with a hot girl (or two) by their side. They were drinking, true, but they weren’t drunk. They were actually in the sober area of the party, as unusual as this was.
There were several couples making out in the living room and every imaginable place around the house and the gardens. Luckily for them, it was a huge place. Unfortunately for the owner of the house, it was a fancy estate that was inevitably getting trashed by a bunch of French youngsters.
People were everywhere, some already lying down on the couches, someone having less of a good time in one of the bathrooms. There were people in the yard and in the bedrooms. The place was a whirlwind of misplaced furniture, empty bottles, broken glasses, spilled libations, and people drunkenly dancing to the incredibly loud music that was playing.
Eric had learned to see beauty in that years ago.
Marie wasn’t enjoying the mess people were making in her aunt’s house, but she never seemed uncomfortable or surprised. She knew how it was.
Marie and Eric were trying to go to one of the bedrooms for some more privacy, but the only thing they found was a couple having sex. They tried another room, but as soon as they started to make out again, they were bothered by knocks at the door and people laughing. People knocked again, laughing, screaming obscenities as if it was the funniest thing in the world.
Eric simply opened the door, stared at them, and the crowd quickly dissipated, afraid of him. As soon as Eric and Marie had taken off their shirts (and God how happy he was when he finally took her shirt off) Fernando appeared, marching through the door, holding Sophie in his arms, completely drunk. He literally dumped her onto the bed by their side—the bed where Eric had been imagining all the nice things he’d soon be doing with Marie, the girl with the fiery hair. Marie sighed, shook her head, and stood up, getting dressed. Eric put his head on the bed and looked at the ceiling, frustrated.
Sophie was a mess. She was complaining about everything and only stopped after a few minutes to run to the bathroom to puke. Eric tried to keep it cool as he quietly stood up and put his shirt back on, trying to maintain his patience with the ridiculous situation he had no idea how he had gotten himself into. Once she got near the bed again, Marie sat beside her friend while Eric and Fernando sat against the wall in front of them.
Sophie was now drunkenly laughing and saying random, disconnected things. They all listened to her garbled words sympathetically—except for Eric. Marie’s face even looked like she was in pain with her friend, which was not something Eric would expect. After all, she was just drunk. Maybe she should feel pain for the people who have to be around that pretentious, girl, Eric thought.
Eric just wanted to have sex with Marie, by far one of the most gorgeous girls he had ever seen, but he would’ve never stood for that situation if she wasn’t such a good friend of Tom. That’s the only reason why he was still in that room being patient with these people he barely knew.
A few moments later, Sophie started to cry. A lot. Probably over some guy or low self-esteem. Eric and Fernando looked at each other and took deep breaths, Fernando even rolling his eyes over the situation, in a gesture of pure masculine complicity. They actually didn’t know each other. Eric didn’t even know Fernando’s name at that point. He didn’t care either. He would be gone in a couple of days anyway.
As for Sophie, it was, indeed, about a guy. She started talking about him while crying at the same time, creating a very pathetic scene. In her lost words, sobbing like a baby, she said she hadn’t forgotten him even though she knew he was a jerk. She still wanted him and didn’t care about humiliating herself for him . . . again. Oh, that’s promising, Eric thought. Eventually, she reached the phase of trying to get her phone and call people (or the guy) but was promptly stopped by Marie, who actually gave a shit about her friend not humiliating herself for said guy. Surprisingly, Sophie spat poisonous words at her caring friend even before Marie was done talking:
“Yeah right. As you don’t feel the same way about Philipe. Should we call him, Marie?”
The atmosphere in the room immediately got tense—as if Marie, Fernando, and even Sophie had held their breath while Sophie said that. Marie quickly left the room, hurt, after swearing to Sophie a couple of times in French. Fernando stayed in the room, looked at Eric, and tried giving him a brilliant piece of advice. “If I were you, I’d go after Marie, man.”
Eric once again took a deep breath, trying to stay cool about it. But he was getting really tired of this whole situation. As he started to walk toward the door, Fernando asked him what he should do about Sophie. That’s when Eric realized how young and inexperienced the guy was.
“Put her in the bed. Give her water—a lot of water—but only when she stops running to the toilet. Then, try coffee at some point. And some bread. If she gets worse, call Marie. Good luck.” Eric said, thinking he would never have to deal with this girl again.
Fernando agreed with everything.
Eric went after Marie and found her on the first floor, drinking wine by herself in the kitchen.
At that moment, a guy was walking toward Marie in the cockiest pose possible, to which she said with her finger raised, “Nah, nah. Keep walking buddy” and pointed in the other direction.
“What?” The guy didn’t understand how she was rejecting him like that.
“You heard her, bro,” Eric said, as he not so gently pushed the guy away from the kitchen. Marie looked at Eric and just gave him a quick smirk as she kept drinking.
“Hey . . .”
Eric gave her a quick smile. Marie put her glass down and said, “I’m sorry about all of that. I guess your night hasn’t been that fun, huh?”
“Oh no. You’d be surprised.” Eric smiled, and Marie looked at him to see if he was being ironic or not.
She eventually smiled too. “Great. I told Tom I’d give you a hand here while you’re in town, and you’re the one helping me taking care of my drunk stupid friend . . .”
“Oh, Don’t worry. I won’t tell him.” Eric smiled
Marie smiled again and nodded. God, she was gorgeous.
She drank some more, and finally asked, frustrated, “You know what time is it?”
“No idea . . .”
Marie smile. “It’s midnight. And she’s already passed out drunk upstairs because of a jerk that doesn’t deserve her. And you know the worst part? It’s the same shit almost every weekend. Sometimes even during the week, and that’s always fun, right? I miss Tom. I miss having people around who aren’t . . . Ugh . . .”
“You know what? Forget them.” Eric was talking about everyone at the party. “Get the wine, and let’s go outside, hmm?”
She shrugged her shoulders and followed him, with the bottle in her hand.
They left the kitchen, passed through the living room, which was packed with people, and ended up sitting beside the pool, away from the noise and the intoxicated guests. They spent some time there, talking about silly and unimportant things, though in a very sincere way.
When it started to get cold, Eric gave her his jacket.
After a while, a guy sat near them, looking at the moon, talking and smiling with an unmistakable facial expression: He was totally tripping on something. He tried talking to Eric and Marie about things that only tripping people could follow and soon lost interest in them and disappeared into the garden.
They kept looking at the water and its greenish color, with all the lights of the night reflected on its surface. The reflections were creating a very nice atmosphere, with the big yard surrounding them and the comfortable chairs nearby.
It was a nice house and some really nice company.
They kept talking for what seemed like an eternity, both laughing in turn, until a miracle happened. Life seemed to have started—as if something just clicked—and Eric took a nice deep breath in a way he hadn’t done in ages. He felt alive and awake. Somehow, he felt connected to this girl, who he barely knew.
He was in Paris once again, and that had so many different meanings to him.
Marie ended up putting her head on Eric’s lap. Her red hair smelled incredibly good. “So, how are you enjoying Paris so far?” she asked.
“Oh, I love it here . . .”
“Really? That’s great to hear. First time? I guess not, right?”
“Yeah, no, not at all. But I always enjoy coming here.”
“Cool, cool. And where are you from again?”
“Hmm. Where I live you mean? Technically, San Francisco.”
“Cool. Never been there, but I’ve heard it’s nice.”
“Yeah . . . not the worst city to live.”
“Is that the first time I’ve asked you this?” She smiled.
“Hmm. Where I am from? No, you asked me that like twice before. You always think I’m from Montreal because—”
“Of Tom. Right, right.” She smiled.
“Yeah. And maybe because I have a slight Quebecois accent when I speak French.” He smirked at her.
“Ha, yeah . . . maybe. So, you learned French in Montreal?”
“I actually lived in Paris for a few years when I was a kid.”
“Oh, really? Interesting. So, I guess you met Tom when you were living in Montreal?”
“No. I started to go to Montreal more often because of Tom, and eventually, I think I’ve spent . . . hmm . . . I guess it was around three months living there with him. But, yeah, at that point I already knew Tom.”
“Ah, ok
“What about you? How did you meet him?”
“Hmm. My older sister is close friends with Katherine. One of the last times they were here together, I got really close to Tom. But that was a couple of years ago. Maybe more. Do you know Katherine too, by the way?”
“Oh, yeah. I know her.” Eric smirked
“Ha. What was that smirk for?”
“Oh, nothing. Well, I mean, Katherine is something . . . special, right? Unique woman. ”
“Yeah but . . . Hey! You never told me how you met Tom in the first place. Then, you can explain to me what you meant about Katherine.” She smiled.
“Hmm. Well, it’s a work-related thing as you probably already realized, right? He was one of the guys that really helped to start our career. I guess I owe him a lot. And he’s turned out to be a great friend over these last few years.”
“Oh. I see. He’s such a great guy.”
“He is. So, you were telling me this is your aunt’s house?”
“Yeah. Yeah, it is.”
“That’s a freakin nice house.”
“I know . . .” She smiled in a very gracious way.
“Wow, you really, really like your aunt, hmm?”
She smiled at him. “Wow. Is that obvious?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“Yeah. I guess she’s, like, my favorite person in the world. And she’s so much fun too. And . . . well, fun is something that’s lacking in my family sometimes, you know? We’ve always been really close.”
“Hmmm. I see.”
“What I mean is . . .” She smiled. “And the same goes for Tom. He sees the best in people. And he was like . . . an angel to me, because I met him at a very difficult moment in my life. He helped me to realize a lot . . . about who I am and who I want to become. And when I shared all of that with my aunt . . . I knew she would understand. And she did. So much has changed since then.”
“You’re happier.” He was looking at her.
“Yeah.” She nodded and smiled.
“But not quite there yet.”
She gave him a big smile as if she was making fun of herself. “Well, as my not-so-good drunk friend probably made you realize, there were some bumps on the road since then. I guess there’s still some stuff I wish I could handle better.” Then, she looked at the house.
Eric, for the first time that night, realized that she wasn’t at all enjoying having all those people in her aunt’s house. “I see . . . Well, I wish you the best of luck with that.”
“Thanks.”
He cleared his throat. “So, when did you start listening to our music?”
“Hmm. I don’t know, all my friends are pretty much your fans. But I can proudly say I listened to you waaay before them.” She laughed as if it was the coolest joke ever. “Tom always recommended your music to me. Maybe even before that, I already knew your band. Yeah, I don’t quite remember. I think I was pretty impressed when Tom told me he knew you . . . or maybe it was after. Dude, I’m sorry, I really don’t remember.”
They sort of laughed.
“I see. You know, it’s like the tenth time I’ve come to Paris after meeting Tom. I wonder why he never introduced us before. We were even in Paris together a couple of times.”
“Hmm. Good question. Well, I guess it could be weird for him to try and introduce their two best friends? And you know how Tom is. Maybe he thought we were in two way different moments in our lives. I know I was . . . I mean, from everyone else I knew . . . Also, you don’t have the best reputation, mister.” With this, she giggled and winked at Eric, who shrugged his shoulders as if saying “It is what it is.”
“I don’t think I asked you before: how did you like our concert?”
“Oh, that was amazing. Seriously. You guys really make the crowd go crazy, you know that?”
He smiled. “We try . . .”
“No, for real. You guys’ energy is something out of this world. Man, that must be so cool. Being on a stage like that. Traveling around, partying around.” She paused. “Then having to take care of the drunk friend of a friend of a friend.” She smiled. “Best three days in Paris ever, right?”
“Not bad, not bad. At least I have a good story to tell. They’re important too, you know.”
“Right. Good to know,” she said and smirked.
“What about you? Having fun?”
“Yeah . . .” She wasn’t convincing.
“Hmm. Away from . . .” He meant the noise in the house.
“Oh. Yeah. It gets a bit overwhelming sometimes.”
“So. Here, right now, at least, a bit of a good time?” He smiled.
“Yeah.”
“Cool, so my mission here is complete.”
She tilted her head back and smiled. She sat again and kissed him.
They stayed in silence for a moment.
“Don’t you love these light reflections in the water?” she eventually asked.
“Yeah, it creates a really nice atmosphere here.”
“Yeah. Wow, look at the moon.”
They started looking at the moon, which probably wasn’t as fascinating as it had been to the guy who had joined them before, but they were also smiling in an unmistakable way. They kissed some more, and then the conversation got lighter, helping Marie to forget the mess that was happening inside her aunt’s house. Marie was an affectionate girl with a gracious smile, and Eric was having a really good time with her. Tom’s best friend is definitely something special, he decided.
Even without realizing it, they were both very much present in that moment, not wishing to be anywhere else in the world. They were finally in a place that was giving them some peace of mind.
But only the place.
Chapter 2
Minutes later, Fernando found them by the side of the pool and sort of killed the magical moment. He said that Sophie hadn’t gotten better but left the room and went back to the party.
