Page 37 of Mostly My Girlfriend
Suddenly his touch was gone, and he was standing. Did I see him adjust his pants around his crotch? No, I didn’t. I did not see that.
“Are you changing for dinner?” he asked even as he walked toward the door. “Our reservations are for nine.”
I picked up one of the bags at my feet. It had been silly and whimsical and cost entirely too much money, which was always how I felt when I made these purchases. Even when I had the money to afford them. Guess that poor girl from Iowa was still buried deep in my psyche. Which hopefully was a good thing, as it would serve to keep me grounded.
But I’d seen the dress and it made me think of all those old Audrey Hepburn movies my mom used to make me watch with her. So I went with my gut.
“Yes.”
* * *
Dinner on the Seine
Julia
“Are you cold?”
I shook my head. We were inside the main cabin of a boat coasting us along the Seine. We’d finished the main course and Ethan had ordered something for dessert as well as more champagne. And I was sitting here, watching snow fall on the Eiffel Tower, which was lit up in a way that it sparkled, thinking I would never forget this night. I looked at Ethan and thought how familiar his face was to me.
“You need trim your eyebrows,” I told him.
He wiggled them instead. “You look beautiful, Jules.”
He did, too. He was wearing his white tuxedo jacket and bow tie, which complemented my simple but elegant backless black cocktail dress.
It was cut pretty severely in the front as well. When I’d tried it on at the store, I felt stunning and sexy. When I’d changed into it back at the hotel and considered I would be sitting across from Ethan in this dress, I’d felt…naked. And a little nervous.
Now…now I felt beautiful.
“I feel like…I don’t know. Is it too cliché to say I feel like Cinderella? Only I’m taking this dress home with me and I would prefer that the car you hired for this trip not turn into a pumpkin.”
“Fair enough.”
“Should we be talking about work? Should I be helping you strategize for tomorrow’s meetings?” I asked him because that was my role in the company. That’s why he’d brought me here. For business. But if we had to talk shop, I knew it would probably break something in my heart.
“No. I got everything I needed done today.”
I could actually feel myself pouting. In my life, I had never pouted.
“Are you pouting?” Ethan’s eyebrows shot up and it made me chuckle.
“It must be the Parisian air. My lips just did this thing when you said something that I didn’t like.”
“Didn’t like?”
“Well, if you’re done with work, don’t we have to leave?” I asked. It would mean spending Christmas Eve on a plane flying to Seattle. I would then have to decide if it made sense to try to get to my mom’s for Christmas Day.
“I thought tomorrow we could spend the day touring Versailles.”
I gasped. “Oh, I always wanted to see Versailles, but it can’t possibly be open tomorrow. It’s Christmas Eve.”
He lifted a shoulder. “It is for us.”
At that moment the waiter brought us another bottle of champagne and some chocolate debauchery. I knew Ethan would take one bite of it and leave me to eat the rest. Bastard. He knew I was helpless against chocolate.
Ethan always said he loved watching me eat dessert because it gave him a glimpse into what I must have looked like as a little girl. The part of my life he hadn’t been around for.
“So we don’t have to work and we don’t have to fly back? And we get to spend all day on a private tour of Versailles? That’s what you’re telling me right now?”
