Wrong Time (16 page)

“Of course I don’t find you repulsive,
and Megan could never hold a candle to you. I didn’t know that you would ever
want to be with someone like me back when I said that. I just think that you’re
in a fragile state right now. I would love to kiss you again, but right now I
think it would be better if I were what you
need
me to be, instead of what I want to be.”

 
“Okay. I’m going to be completely honest
with you. I don’t know how I feel about you. I know that I like having you
close by and that you’ve become my best friend over the last few days, but
outside of that, I have no idea where any of this is going. What I can tell you
for sure, though, is that I do need you right now, so stay and be the person
who we both want to be, if nothing else, for tonight,” Trish said as she walked
up to him and placed her hand in his.

Lee knew that it was the wrong decision,
but he didn’t care anymore. He pulled her in close and gently stroked her hair.
Then he leaned in to softly kiss her. Trish transitioned their soft sweet kiss
into a deeper more passionate one and pulled him toward the bed. Lee didn’t
know where any of this was going to end up in the morning, and honestly, he
didn’t care anymore. This was what they both needed tonight.

Chapter 15

The next morning, Trish woke up but
didn’t completely open her eyes out of fear of what she may see. As she
recapped everything that had happened the night before in her mind, she grew
more and more embarrassed. How could I have just thrown myself at him? Now
things are really going to get weird. Maybe I’ll get lucky, and all of this
will just be some kind of strange dream, Trish thought. At that moment, Trish
felt an arm drape over her, and when she finally gained the courage to open her
eyes, her fears were confirmed. Lee Higgins was lying directly beside her. She
turned to look at him, and unfortunately for her, his eyes opened. They both
lay there in silence just staring at each other for a moment until Lee looked
away.

“Well, this is a little awkward, isn’t
it?” Lee asked.

“Do you think?” Trish asked
sarcastically.

Trish heard a knock on the door and
then a voice.

“Hey, Trish, have you seen Lee? We
can’t find him,” Jess said through the door.

“No, I haven’t seen him. I’ll be out in
a minute, and I’ll help you guys look for him,” Trish said.

Lee looked over at her in a strange
way.

“Oh, so that’s how this is going to
be,” Lee said.

“Just hold on, and let me think about
this.”

 
“Look, we are two grown adults, and they
aren’t going to care what we did or didn’t do last night,” Lee said.

“The window . . .” Trish said.

“What?”

 
“You need to go out the window.”
 

“But how will I get back inside, and
where will I tell them I went?”

 
“I don’t know, but we just have to get
you out of here now,” Trish said while grabbing the top cover and carefully
pulling it around her so she could get dressed in some limited form without Lee
seeing her.

“Oh, come on. It’s not like I haven’t
seen you naked before,” Lee said while standing straight up.

“Oh my God! Hurry up and put some
clothes on,” Trish said while trying to look anywhere but at Lee.

Lee only laughed and began to get
dressed. Once he was dressed, Trish ushered him to the window, and he climbed
through it. Lee walked back around to the front of the house and rang the
doorbell.

“Lee, thank God! We’ve been looking all
over for you. Where did you go?” Michael asked.

“I went for a jog,” Lee answered.

Michael examined him for a moment.

“You went for a jog without any shoes?”
Michael asked.

“Yes, I uh, wanted to feel the ground
beneath my feet, literally.”
 

Michael only gave him a very strange
look and told him to come inside. I’m so glad that Michael is dumb. No one else
would have bought something like that, Lee thought. Before long, the four of
them had made breakfast and sat down to eat.

“So last night was fun, right?” Michael
asked everyone.

“It was fun. Don’t you think that it
was fun?” Lee asked while looking at Trish expectantly.

“It was very fun. The movie had a
surprisingly pleasant run time, but I think that it may have been too much fun.
I don’t know if we should go to the movies again,” Trish said.

“Oh, come on. I was thinking that we
could all go to the movies together more often,” Michael said.
 

Jess had caught onto what the
movies
was probably referring to.

“No, Michael. I think that if they want
to go to the movies, we should let them do it on their own,” Jess said.

“Fine, then you and I will just go
together,” Michael said.

“We are never going to the movies!”
Jess said in shock.

“What? But I thought you had a good
time last night.”

“I did, but I think that we’re having
two very different conversations here.”

 
Michael looked beyond confused, and after
a few seconds, he gave up on even trying to figure out Jess’s mysterious
message.

“Fine, but you two should definitely go
out and have fun more often. You can never have too much fun. You should at
least go to a movie occasionally,” Michael said.

“So what do you say, Trish? How about a
movie every once in a while?” Lee asked while trying to contain the laughter
inside of him.

Trish didn’t know what to say. There
were two different conversations going on at the table, and she couldn’t decide
how to answer the question.

“I guess it would be okay to occasionally
go,” Trish finally said for lack of a better way to answer the question. By
this time, Lee was grinning from ear to ear. I’m glad that Michael is so naïve,
Lee thought, as he stared at a now laughing Trish. Michael, meanwhile, was more
confused than ever.

* * * * *

When Nathan and Sam arrived in Paris,
it was a little past four in Paris’s time zone, but to them, it felt like it
was only about nine or ten in the morning. When Nathan stepped off the plane, you
would have thought that he was stepping onto the moon. Just that first step
onto the ground was enough to bring a smile to his face.

“What has gotten you so excited?” Sam
asked after noticing his face.

“I’ve never been outside of the United
States, but I’ve always wanted to travel the world. I guess that this just
feels surreal to me. I always said that I was going to visit Paris, and here I
am,” Nathan said.

Sam couldn’t help but admire the
expression on his face. He looked like a little boy that had just been given a
Christmas present.

“Well, stick with me, and you’ll go to
plenty of places before this is all over,” Sam said while grabbing his hand.

The two of them walked through all of
the many airport checkpoints and then went outside to catch a cab. Once they
were inside and Sam had explained to the cab driver where they were going,
Nathan asked her a question.

“Where are we going to be staying?”

“We’re staying across the road from a
famous cemetery.”

Nathan’s face turned a pale sort of
color.

“We came to the most romantic city on earth,
and now we’re staying across the street from a graveyard?” Nathan asked in
disappointment.

“People actually come from all over the
world to visit that cemetery. All types of famous people throughout history are
buried there.”
 

Now that Nathan thought about it, he
was sure that he had seen a reference to the place in an old movie. When they
finally arrived, Nathan paid the cab driver, and they started to go inside the
building. Once they climbed the stairwell and reached the top floor, they saw a
small older French woman waiting for them. She welcomed them to the building
and gave them their key. They went inside. The place was fairly small, with a
living room, a kitchen, and a small bedroom, but it was certainly charming with
its many books, its piano, and its generally very relaxing atmosphere.

“So we don’t have to work tonight. How
about we go out and explore the city a little bit,” Nathan said.

“We’re probably going to be making a
move tomorrow. Jason is supposed to call me later today to let me know the details.
I think we should just get some rest for tonight,” Sam said.

“Fine,” Nathan said in dejection.

Sam felt a little bad while looking at
his sad face, so she said the words that she had told herself she wouldn’t say.

“All right, stop moping. Let’s go see
your overgrown tower.”

They walked out the door and to the
subway a little down the road where they rode to a stop that was very close to
the tower and got off. Once they arrived at the Eiffel Tower, one thing became
obvious.

“We are
not
waiting in line to ride the elevator to the top,” Sam said.

The line was literally backed up for
what looked like a mile.

“Okay. We’ll climb it the old fashioned
way,” Nathan said and started walking toward the line for the stairs.

Within about twenty minutes, they had
paid and were starting their long climb. As they climbed further and further up,
Nathan got more and more winded. Eventually, somewhere between the second and
the third level of the tower, he found a bench to sit on. Sam turned around and
sat down beside him.

“What happened to all of that
enthusiasm about climbing the tower? At this rate, I’ll have to carry you back to
our room,” Sam said with a smile.

“I’m okay. I guess I just expected the
climb to end in a little more romantic way and not with me hunched over on a
bench,” Nathan said while managing to smile.

“Well, I’ll tell you what. If you get
up right now, we’ll have a romantic dinner after we get off of this wretched
thing.”

“Deal,” Nathan said while standing up.

The truth was that Sam had kind of
looked forward to coming here, and a nice romantic dinner was her idea of a
good time, not climbing a half mile into the sky. They walked up two more
flights of stairs, and there was the answer to Nathan’s prayers.

“Oh, thank God, an elevator,” Nathan
said.

It turns out that the last level of the
tower could only be accessed by elevator. They waited in another line and
eventually rode to the top. Once they reached the top, they noticed two things.
The first was the beauty of Paris’s night skyline, and the second was the fact
that there was a pretty romantic restaurant on top of the tower. After Nathan
had his fill of taking pictures, they went into the restaurant. They ordered
some food, and Nathan ordered them a bottle of champagne.

“So what is the deal with you ordering
champagne?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know. This is supposed to be a
romantic dinner, and what says romantic like a bottle of champagne on top of the
Eiffel Tower?”

Sam looked a little uneasy.

“Is something wrong?” Nathan asked
after noticing her distressed look.

“I’ve never had alcohol.”

 
“Really? How is that even possible?”

 
“Well, at the institution where I trained,
they didn’t exactly make it a priority to give us anything to drink besides
water,” Sam said.

Right. She didn’t even know how to
react to an energy drink, Nathan thought.

“Well, that’s okay. You can try it
today with me,” Nathan said.

 
Once the champagne came, Nathan noticed
that Sam liked it, like maybe a little too much.

“You might want to take it a little
slower there, champ,” Nathan said.

He was still only halfway through with
his first glass, and she had just finished pouring the last bit of the bottle
into her glass.

“Why? This stuff is amazing. Waiter,
can we get another bottle?” Sam slurred.

After they finished their third bottle,
it became clear to Nathan. I’ve created a monster, he thought. Once the check
came, Nathan was extremely surprised by the dollar amount on the bill. It was
over three-hundred euros. Nathan slid his agency card across the table. I hope
the boys back in D.C. don’t mind a few strange charges coming across on this
trip, he thought. When everything was settled and they were walking back to the
elevator, Nathan noticed that Sam was walking with quite the stagger.

“Do you need some help?” Nathan asked
while grinning at her.

“No, no, I’m doing just fine,”
Sam
answered with a large drooping smile.

They made their way back down to the
second level and were descending the stairs to try to make it to the first
level. Nathan was walking in front of Sam just in case she fell. Suddenly, he
felt her fall and catch herself by grabbing him from behind.

“Okay. That’s it. I’m officially
carrying you home now,” Nathan said while scooping her up in his arms.

“And here I thought that I was going to
end up having to carry you home,” Sam said while giggling.

As they exited the tower, Nathan began
to set her down, but she grabbed his face and pulled it close to hers and
kissed him.

“Thank you for today,” Sam said as
Nathan set her back down.

They walked arm in arm back to their
place.

Back at Nathan and Sam’s place, they
had just walked inside, and they were getting in bed when something unusual
happened. Sam began kissing Nathan over and over again, and as she started to
get on top of him, he pulled away.

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked.

“I’m going to hate myself for saying
this, but you’re drunk. I don’t think that we should do anything you’ll
regret,” Nathan answered.

Sam smiled down at him.

“Oh, just shut up and kiss me. We’re in
the most romantic city in the world. So what if I’ve had a little too much to
drink.”

As Sam got back on top of him and
pinned him to the bed, she began to kiss him again. Nathan gave in and made no
effort to stop what was going on. As they both grew more and more passionate,
Sam started to feel a bit uneasy in her stomach. She tried to ignore the
feeling and told herself it was just butterflies over what was about to happen,
but the feeling wouldn’t go away. Finally, the stabbing pain began to worsen.
Sam quickly jumped off Nathan and ran to the bathroom. Horrible sounds of
sickness were heard from outside the bathroom.