We walk into the club and smile at each other as ‘Lil Kim And Ray J ‘Wait a minute’ comes on. We immediately hit the dance floor and dance like there’s no tomorrow. His hands on my waist, my hands on his chest running down to his stomach. ‘Lil Kin’s rap part comes up and I do my part. I take over. I take charge.
He can’t complain. He loves it.
I’m from the land of women.
Sunny days chrome spinnin’
Juice and gin and,
It’s on tonight.
If you feel you’re number one.
Representin’ where ya from.
Sex, you gettin’ some.
It’s on tonight.
The song goes off and we both sit down and relax. “Want something to drink?”
I nod. “The usual.” I smile. My usual consists of a Long Island ice tea. That is the best stuff. Let me tell you. A song called ‘Must not chase the boys’ comes on. I think it’s from Play. I’m not sure, but it’s catchy.
Just like every young teenager. They’re feeling the same thing.
The funny thing is deep down the real thing about the song is to have sex or not?
Good question.
He comes back with a coke and rum and my ice tea. I take a gulp and smile. “Good.”
He nods. “So... why are we here?”
“Just to get out. We’ve been so busy. You with this whole surgery thing and me with the Gallery.” I sigh. “So... it's a way of escaping even if it is just for a night.”
He nods as he takes a drink. He looks out at the dance floor at all the people dancing with the flashing lights and finally turns back to me. There’s no expression on his face as those five words escape his mouth. “Why not take a week?”
I think I scared her. She hasn’t said a word to me since we got back. It’s two thirty in the morning and I know I'm wide awake. “Laur?”
She turns to me and half smiles. “Yeah?”
Finally, a word. It’s a start. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She shakes her head and plops down on the sofa. She bites her lower lip and sighs. “Where would we go?”
“There’s tons of places to go.” I laugh softly.
“What Miami, La, Bahamas, Italy. I mean where Justin. Where do you want to go?”
I smile and lean back as I cross my arms over my chest. She’s going to get a kick out of this. “Paris.”
“Paris huh? Romantic.” Marissa smiles at me as she picks up a box and starts to unload it. The place is finally painted a light kind of dark green. Its called Onion Green. It doesn’t exactly remind of an onion. Which, I guess is good.
“Yeah.” I nod. I’m hanging paintings as she takes out little knickknacks to decorate the place. I hope costumers don’t think those are on sale. “I mean we have four days before the surgery. What are we going to do leave tonight and come back Wednesday evening?”
“Why not?” She laughs. “I wish James would do that for me.” She sighs softly and turns tome. We’re both staring at each other now. I know something intelligent is going to come out of her mouth. She’s like that. “Why would you not want to go to the most beautiful place on earth with your fiancé? What’s wrong with you? Are you seriously deranged?” She laughs. I know she didn’t mean to say that as nasty as she did. But, still. That hurt.
“No.” I look down at my hands. “You really want to know what’s wrong?” I slowly look up at her. She’s moved from across the room to right in front of me. I sigh. “I’m afraid he’s going to die. I’m afraid that next Thursday when he goes in there to get that surgery he’s going to die on that table. That is scaring the hell out of Mar. I mean, shit, my life revolves around him. I have friends but to me, he’s all that really matters in the big prospect of life.”
She takes my hands in hers and smiles. “Go. Talk to him. Love him the way you do. Let him love you and allow your fear to pass into him.”
I smile as I kiss her cheek. “Thanks.” I look at my watch. “If I go I better go now, huh?”
She shoves me out the door and laughs. “GO!”
I laugh as I run to my car and jump inside.
Here we come Paris, France.
Watch out.
So we’re on a plane once again. Hopefully this trip works out better than the last one. What made her decide to go is beyond me. But I’m glad she finally did decide. You know, to go to Paris with me.
Lauren’s always been like that. Always waiting until the last minute to decide on anything. Why do you think it’s taken her this long to get the damn Gallery painted?
Decisions, decisions.
I hope she doesn’t take this long to decide on something about our wedding. I clear my throat and turn to her. Why not ask now? “Laur?”
“Yeah?” She drops her magazine and looks at me. “What?”
“Uh.” I sigh. “How about a date?”
“Justin we’ve dated off and on for... as long as I’ve known you. Well not dated.... But more like friends with benefits, or something.” She squints her eyebrows together in thought and I sigh and shake my head.
“No. Not that kind of date. I mean for the wedding?”
She stares at me blankly for what seems like forever. Funny how people use that sentence a lot. Huh. “Lauren?”
“Yeah. Uh....”
She’s having a brain fart.
“Lauren. You don’t have to decide right now. But sooner rather than later would be nice.”
She smiles and giggles softly like a schoolgirl with a crush. That makes me laugh. Seriously, it does. “Okay.”
She leans over and kisses me softly. I live for her kisses. It’s like heaven on earth. She knows what she’s doing and it makes me happy, very happy. “So... what do you want to do when we get to Paris?”
“Go get a hotel.” She smiles. “Then make love, and then go see the Eiffel Tower.”
We’ve been to Paris before. Once when we were eighteen. It was a getaway. We needed it because I had just gotten my first break in years from singing and dancing and touring and Lauren was going off to college in the fall. So that summer we bought tickets and went thee for the whole summer.
My mom was pissed.
Not that she didn’t trust me with Lauren. But... mothers will be mothers. Once she had caught us in the middle of the act and it traumatized us both for a long time. But that was when we were like... fifteen, I think.
It was scary.
She was pissed then.
It’s not very often when I see my mom pissed at me. But trust me, it’s not a sight to see. It’s a sight for sore eye. Her face gets all red, and she screams and I think she even threw something at the wall once.
Scary.
The plane is landing and I have to say this is Lauren’s worst part. She never did like airplanes. Especially after September eleventh. It was a bad day for traveling. Even now. But she just holds my hand and holds her breath until we're firmly on the ground.
Thing is, she doesn't let go of my hand until are feet are on solid ground. She likes being in the air, but with every slight bit of turbulence, she jumps and I think she's having a panic attack.
Pretty scary shit, if you ask me.
She finally lets go of me when we’re in the terminal. She smiles and walks off towards the bathroom. She has this thing with bathrooms on an airplane. It scares her because she thinks when she flushes the toilet that she can get sucked out too. She’s full of shit if you ask me.
But I love her anyway. Her and her scary bullshit.
She comes out and I smile and she hugs me and we walk to the baggage claim and grab our bags. Two suitcases and one backpack. Of course the backpack was our carry on. An officer stops us as a random check and searches our bags and nods and we walk on. She turns to me and looks back at the man and then back at me. “That was a cute dog. I want a dog like that.”
“A blood hound?” I raise my brows and head out and hail a cab.
“No. Not that kind. But something small. Maybe a poodle or something.”
I laugh and place out bags in the trunk once the cab drier pops it open. I open the back door and she slides in.
“Something like a silky terrier....” She turns to me and frowns. “Maybe.”
I sigh. “It’s okay.”
She knows that was the kind of dog I had bought Britney on her ninetieth birthday when we were together. Of course that was before Lauren and I got together. And then Britney interfered and broke us up and I swear Lauren was ready to kick some ass.
We approach the Hotel and we both smile as we walk in. I’ve already booked a sweet. “Mr. Timberlake.” I smile at the woman and wait as she searches for my name in the computer.”
She smiles. “Oui. Mr. Timberlake. Pièce 210.”
I nod. “Thank you.”
She nods in return. “Appréciez votre sejour.”
There’s this beautiful sign of the hotel right above the elevators. “Hôtel de Crillon.” Laurens smiles as she truns to me. “Sounds romantic.”
“Nothing romantic about it.” I laugh. “It means. Hotel Of Crillon.”
She laughs. The elevators open and the man hands me my keys. These people are extremely smart. She blushes at me and I think she has something on her mind. “What?”
“Nothing.” She shakes her head. She’s still smiling and trying not to laugh. The doors open and she takes me into her arms.
“Voulez-vous coucher avec moi.”
I throw my head back and laugh. She said it perfectly. “All right. I can do that.” I take her hand and we both run to the room and throw open the door and take each other right then and right there.
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Footnotes:
Oui. Mr. Timberlake. Pièce 210--Yes. Mr. Timberlake. Room 210.
Appréciez votre sejour---Have a nice stay.
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi---Want you to sleep with me
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