Brave Bold Belle (ft. Liam Payne)

Chapter 29 - Paris

    I arrive at Gare Du Nord at twenty past ten in the morning and I don’t expect to find Liam around. I know he’s busy doing promo or something else. I mean, this is their first show in the European leg so it’s kind of important. However, I do expect to find some familiar face or someone waiting for me who’ll take to Liam or wherever I can wait for him. The trip was nice, comfortable enough and I managed to sleep a bit so it felt even shorter. Now here I am, in Paris, not knowing what to do next. Liam said he would try to be here but he wasn’t sure, yet I didn’t ask him exactly who would pick me up.

Silly Belle.

Suddenly, hands are over my eyes and I drop my small bag as my own hands fly to grab the stranger’s ones. I try not to scream, but my heart is beating widely, scared.

“Guess who?” a male voice says that I immediately recognise. I can’t believe how accustomed I’ve grown to it in two months.

“Liam,” I say, a smile on my lips. “You scared me!” I add in a loud voice, almost a scold as I turn around and slap his hands away. “I thought I was gonna die!”

He laughs at me before grabbing my face in his hands. “Welcome to Paris, Belle,” he says softly before placing his own lips on top of mine. I close my eyes and kiss him back, not even fighting it mentally. “I missed you,” he says and I only smile. I have missed him, but I’m not nearly ready to say that out loud.

“I thought you wouldn’t be here,” I tell him because I really believed that. He shakes his head and smiles softly as he picks my bag with one hand and with the other grabs mine.

“That’s what I wanted you to believe. We did the promo in a morning show so now we are free to go around. We just have to make sure to be in the venue a few hours before the show for sound-check and all that jazz,” he explains and I nod. “Dean came with me. He’ll drive us and make sure we don’t get lost or die.” Liam points at a big bald guy dressed in black a few metres away, watching us closely. I wave at him and he only gives me a nod.

Bodyguards, always so impassive.

“So, now that you are in Paris, where do you wanna go first?” Liam asks me and I focus my attention on him now. He is smiling happily at me, kindly and I do the same.

These feelings I’m developing are still conflictive and they give me a bad headache, but I can’t run away, especially when we are in public. I have to be cosy and look happy, even if that could make things worse for me.

“Let’s start with the basics: Eiffel Tower,” I say and his smile is wider.

“Great. Let’s go then,” he agrees giving me a little squeeze before raising our hands and leaving a warm kiss on the back of mine. The gesture makes my heart flutter and I have to scold myself mentally to keep it under control.

So we go to see the Eiffel Tower, we buy souvenirs­­—so overpriced it makes my stomach hurt—and have breakfast together. He tells me about the trip with the band and what they have prepared for today’s show. I tell him about how things are going with Dad and Ariel’s album. I also tell him about my plans to meet her next week and he seems surprised for my willing to befriend her. In sum, we have a nice time. Then he takes me to one of those street fairs to buy more things and I actually help him because he wants to take souvenirs for his family this time and I think that’s great. Here he makes me tell him why I don’t like France, especially when I refuse to let him buy me a shirt that says Paris Je T’aime. It’s mostly because for some reason every one assumed I was French and it was always brought up to me. It’s the same why I don’t like The Beauty and the Beast—besides the issue with abusive relationships and Stockholm syndrome—, because I don’t like to be imposed analogies and when people bring that up too often, I end up rejecting it, hence hating it.