Page 32 of The Marriage Agreement
“I can’t just up and leave for Paris and follow you like a dog. Some of us can’t just change our work schedule.” Ever since the DNA test, Damien has been working from home to make up for time with Lake. Another mark for Damien in the ‘good dad’ column. I haven’t also failed to notice his two assistants, Nicole and the other one whose name I always forget, coming and going into the apartment bringing him work. Terry as well.
“Why not? I thought you owned the place?”
“And the place needs to be run.”
“I’m sure you don’t bake the croissants, Poison Ivy. You can come with us or not. The choice is up to you.”
***
We arrive in Paris in the evening the following day and we are immediately whisked to a grand nineteenth-century style hotel. I hate to admit it, but it’s the kind of place I love staying at. It’s as if he picked my choice even though he never consulted me. Lake was too excited to sleep on the plane, but as soon as we touched ground, he knocked out and had to be carried by Damien to his hotel bed.
“Do you want something to eat?” Damien asks after he lays down Lake. The question is so out of left field, I’m too stunned to answer at first. My stomach grumbles on my behalf. “Wanna grab a bite?” In Paris with him? The wise part of me screams no. It’s foolish to follow him to wherever he’s planning to take me. We’re in the city of lovers, after all. But the other part of me, the more reckless part, is curious.
I nod.
“Stay with him,” he says to Nicole as we exit the hotel room. She was hovering by the door and I was a bit surprised to see her there, but Damien doesn’t seem to think anything of it. What’s up with that woman? I refused to bring Greta along as good as she is with Lake. I don’t want Lake to be attached toa nanny or think it’s normal to be close to a stranger and not your own mom. Now I’m regretting that decision. Something in me is telling me not to trust Nicole. Nicole, however, for all my misgivings seems harmless. She nods and enters the suite.
“Your assistant is weird,” I say to Damien as we enter the gold-trimmed elevator.
Damien presses the lobby button. “Funny. Everyone else seems to think she’s professional.”
“And weird. She’s always—hovering.”
Damien cocks an eyebrow. “Around me? She kinda has to. She’s my assistant.”
“I don’t mean it like that.”
“Like what then?”
“She’s in love with you. She reminds me of my pathetic self when I was a teenager. The way she hangs around your every word. The way she looks at you. Everything.”
He bellows out a laughter that makes me feel irrational. “Am I sensing some jealousy coming from you?”
“No!” I said it too quickly.
He chuckles again, turns his attention to the floor numbers going down, and thrusts his hands in his pocket. We ride the rest of the elevator alone and in silence until we arrive at the lobby. Even at a time late as this, it is busy with several guests coming in and out of the hotel.
“Where are we going?” I ask Damien as he strolls toward the exit. “I thought we were eating at the hotel restaurant?”
Damien gestures his head to the side. “There’s a place I want to try out.” And marches ahead of me. I follow him.
We walk into the cool Parisian night for a few minutes until we reach a fancy restaurant nestled in between two large buildings. It’s the type of place one might miss if they aren’t aware. It is also the type you reserve a table three weeks ahead of time. Damien, however, doesn’t seem bothered by all that. Fromthe wad of cash that passes from his hands into the hostess’s, it looks like he bribed her and she gives us a table close to the window with a view of the Eiffel Tower.
“We need to talk,” he says after we order our meal.
“You said so earlier.”
“I know what you’re up to.”
My heart thuds that much faster. He can’t be aware I went to the lawyers. It’s probably not what he’s referring to. I shouldn’t panic. “Being dragged by you halfway around the world is what I am up to.” I try to sound as nonchalant as I can. “And I don’t know, eat food with the father of my child.”
He leans forward. “You mean the one you want to take away from me?”
I stay silent, afraid that the next words I say might sink me.
“I wouldn’t have known if it weren’t the choice of your lawyer. Chester and I were in the same fraternity. He was surprised to find out that not only do I have a son, but his mother is planning on getting full custody.”
Fuck that slimeball. Of course, he and Chester know each other. They have a couple of years difference in their ages, so they probably went to college at the same time. Chester is an old family friend, and I never thought he and Damien would know each other. Or at least be on good enough terms to communicate. I went to the only person I thought would be good enough and unafraid to go against a known titan.“Chester should know there’s something called client-attorney privilege.”
