Bits and Bobs

[frost] Champagne, Confetti and Frozen Kisses

the following is an entry for @hepburnettes one-shot competition 'frost' titled Champagne, Confetti and Frozen Kisses.

Instantaneous:
(Adjective)
1. Occurring or done in an instant or instantly.

Love:
(Noun)
1. An intense feeling of deep affection.
2. A person or thing that one loves.

Instantaneous Love:
(Also Called; Love at First Sight)
1. Priceless.

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P A R I S

Cecilia Arnette was beginning to think that she was destined to spend New Year's alone, sipping champagne as she watched the Times Square festivities on the television in her hotel room.

The only comforting thought that she had was that the champagne was free- although she was probably paying for it in the three hundred dollars a night that she was spending on the room. She thought that was reasonable though, for a hotel room that was so close to the Eiffel Tower and on New Year's Eve.

At the time she booked the hotel room- was it only one week ago?-she was so desperate to find one in Paris on New Years that she would have paid anything. Now, Cecilia was regretting her decision to leave behind her friends in Toronto and spend the holiday in Paris.

She could almost picture them sipping their own champagne as they laughed at some silly joke. And here she was, sitting alone in a hotel room with no company other than the low murmur of the television. It made it even worse that the only channels the TV had were in French, and her French vocabulary consisted only of 'Bonjour' and 'Merci'.

Cecilia was standing on the balcony, watching the eager people below as they all scurried in separate directions on the last day of 2014, when she suddenly felt this urge to go out and join them. This is what you came here for, she reminded herself, to find him, and there's no way that you'll find him from up here in your hotel room.

Before she could talk herself out of it Cecilia was slipping on her favourite black dress and silver heels, adding on a fine layer of makeup that made her look a few years older than her young age of eighteen. "You've got this." She murmured quietly to herself, spinning in front of the full length mirror that was in the hotel room's walk in closet. Her brown hair was curled and ran down her back like a waterfall, the way it had looked last year. She also made sure that she wore the same eyeliner as last time, since he had complimented her green eyes and she knew that they only looked that way with this specific eyeliner.

"You're crazy," Cecilia added, laughing at herself as she thought about what she was about to do. This was incredibly unlike her, Cecilia was the girl who stayed at home with a book on Friday night instead of going out to parties and she had only ever had one boyfriend. "But you've got this." Before she could back out, Cecilia had her coat in her hands and she was out the hotel room door.

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He didn't know why he had come. It was an offhand comment that she had made before they had parted ways, but it was the only thing that kept Aiden Cole going over the last three hundred and sixty four days.

"Next year, I'll be here." She had said it with his lips hovering just above hers, and before they could touch for the second time that night, she was gone. He had tried to chase her but she had disappeared into the thick Parisian crowds before he could call after her.

Her. Aiden hadn't learned her name last year; it hadn't come up during their endless conversation. But now, sitting outside the grungy pub where he had first bumped into her- quite literally- last year, he wish he had.