Into the Dark (ORIGINAL AND UNEDITED EDITON)

One

"Madamoiselle," Delmar corrects from my right.

When I whip my head round and give him a look, Delmar is smiling knowingly at us both, his eyes wide and full of mischief. Is he seriously doing what I think he's doing? Does he even know this man from Adam?  He's as bad as mum. When I look back at Laurent I find his eyes are a little wide now too as he regards me now with curiosity.

Still embarrassed, my good manners take over and I hold my right hand out to him. "Nice to meet you Laurent, I'm Alex." I tell him, and he takes my hand in his and shakes it gently.  "So, La Maison Jeune? That means you're our neighbour?  We live just down the hill from you."

He looks a little surprised as he releases my hand.  "Ahhh you have the house down there? How lovely.  The house is beautiful. I was admiring it only this morning." He nods. Yes clearly French, yet his English is very well pronounced, clear and confident and his voice low and warm.

"Well, I'll tell my parents you said so."

As Delmar starts to ring up my shopping, my eyes wander back to Laurent.  He's leaning casually on the glass countertop now, one hand stuffed deep in his pocket and the other scrolling through his phone.  I take a moment to inspect him - his profile is serious and his face framed in a dark thick stubble / almost beard.  He's dressed in a crisp white linen shirt with rolled up sleeves, and a pair of light brown almost orange chinos and brown dessert boots.   Finally, because I'm staring so hard no doubt, he senses my eyes on him and he lifts his head from his phone and smiles at me.  The heat creeps up my neck to my face.  Though he doesn't speak the entire time Delmar packs my items into my linen shopping bag , he continues to stare at me curiously and the blush on my neck and face holds strong.

As I take the shopping bag, I tell Delmar we'll be in to settle our account before we leave on Friday, if not before - to which he just waves his hand dismissively. We'd forgotten to come in and pay him once and mum had almost had a panic attack at the airport. As soon as she'd got home she'd sent a cheque and an apology card and a promise that it would never happen again. That was six years ago and she's still mortified about it any time we bring it up.
I say my goodbyes to both men and leave them to the farming conversation I'd barged in on.

Outside, I'm fiddling with the bagged items and trying to fit them securely into the basket on the bike, when the shop door dings and Laurent comes striding out, sliding dark ray bans over his eyes as he does. I'm momentarily distracted by the sight of him and it causes the bag to tip over in the bike basket and mums lemons and courgette come tumbling on to the ground and roll along the stone toward him.

"Crap," I mutter.

Before I reach them, Laurent bends down and picks up the lemon and courgette and holds them out to me in quite possibly the most ridiculous way possible. "I think these belong to you."

He's holding the courgette flat in the palm of his hand and the two lemon on either side of it.  It's pornographic. He manages to look at me seriously for a moment, but then he breaks into a soft (sexy) laugh and shakes his head. "I'm so sorry. That was very crude of me. I couldn't resist.." He says.

"It was a gift. I'd have thought less of you if you'd refused it." I smile, taking the items from him and placing them back in the bag. Laurent's eyes go to my bike and then come back to me. "Curious form of transport." He nods.

"The roads are actually really safe here, and wide too." I explain, though why I'm explaining this to him I've no idea - he's French, he knows what the roads are like here. 

He nods again, seemingly unphased by my commentary on France's road network. "Yes, I'm sure you're perfectly safe. But I would feel better if you would let me drive you back. We are going in the same direction after all." he smiles that smile again. The one that makes me feel odd, and like I'm doing something wrong just by having him smile at me like that.