Jass

Part 14 - Paris city of Love

"I would like to go back to the Eiffel Tower tonight, to see the lights show." 

"Yes, sure, we will go there."  

"It must look very nice with the lights." 

"Yes, we will go to see, Jasmine" 

They both were lying and resting, Steve was looking at the ceiling and recalling his memories, he was going back in his thoughts to times when he was video calling with Jasmine. 

They had seemed close then, really close; 

they been using words like 'honey', 'sweetie', 'my love', 

giving kisses to each other on camera. On the video calls he had seen Jasmine only in her pants and bra, and they had talked many times about sex. 

She seemed happy then, now she was a completely different person, and she was here in the same room as him, just one metre away, but at the same time so far away from him. 

This is a bitter joke, or paradox. Steve was thinking 

"Jasmine, can I ask you something?" 

"Yes." 

"What happened, you seem different from before, you know when we were talking on the internet, on video calls?" 

But Jasmine was quiet did not answer. 

"Did I do something wrong?" 

"No, everything is okay." 

Steve was waiting for more of a response, but that was all he got. He decided again not to push her further for answers. 

At least I've let her know that I feel something is not right. 

It got dark outside, they had taken a rest, and now they were ready to go and see the Eiffel Tower illuminated, and also to get a glimpse of the nightlife in Paris. 

Each time they used the small elevator, Steve felt strange standing right in frontof Jasmine, almost touching her. 

They parked exactly in the same spot in which they had parked during the day, somehow thes pot was free again. 

'What a luck!' 

Steve thought. As he expected, there was a lot of life on the streets. It was already past 10pm, but there was more people now than earlier during the day. It was difficult to take good photos now in the dark, but Steve took some photos ofJasmine. The Parisian streets by night were filled with a romantic atmosphere; 

the situation was almost asking him to hug Jasmine, or to take her hand, or to put his hand on her shoulder. But after Jasmine's last reaction Steve did not want to risk angry rejection again. 

It was about 1am when they decided to go back to the Airbnb. After their return both of them fell asleep very quickly. The next day after breakfast they went to the Louvre Museum. When they arrived there the queue was very long. They first stood in the queue, but after some minutes Jasmine said she did not want to wait any longer. 

"It's taking too long, Steve, we don't have that much time, let's just walk around here and go."

 "Okay, Jasmine." 

From there they went to Arc de Triomphe, and bythe time they got to the top they were exhausted. They got there by walking up a narrow spiral staircase that ran inside the Arc. 

The information there stated that there were 284 steps to climb to the top. 

The views from the top of the arc were worth all that climbing. And Jasmine got to add more good photos to her expanding collection. 

After that Steve suggested that they go to some street cafe and take a rest, order some food and drinks and stay for a while and relax in the shade. Jasmine at first did not want to go to the café, but after a while Steve managed to convince her. They decided to find the café somewhere close to the Notre Dame Cathedral as soon as they got close to there. 

They found one place, situated almost against the Cathedral, with a good view and with good fresh food. They both ordered the same thing: 

fresh salad with Greek feta cheese, black olives and shrimps in mango sauce. This was served with a fresh French garlic baguette with butter. 

Steve ordered himself a cold Italian beer, and Jasmine had orange juice. 

They were sitting in the shade of a big umbrella, enjoying the meal and drink, watching the life on the French street. 

"Jasmine, they also have ice cream here, shall we try some?" 

"I am full." 

"Just a small one, a little bit?" 

"Okay, but really small." 

"Okay, a small ice cream, I am full too, what flavour would you like?" 

"Chocolate." 

"Okay, I will take vanilla." 

Steve ordered ice creams; it was very hot outside, so the ice creams brought pleasant relief.