4EVER

Chapter 1 - This Man

2008 - Early November

Paris, France

It's hard to imagine silence in a room of 75 people; but that is what began to edge through The Shakespeare and Company bookstore cafe, except for the whoosh of the espresso machines and the extremely respectful but mildly caffeinated chatter.

While the rich and complex coffee aromas accented with clove and cinnamon permeated the air; visually, attention focused on the pretty Noelle Dubois who was being interviewed by Loren Fiennes, the bookstore's owner. The interview and book signing was for the launch of Noelle's first, and very romantic book entitled, 4EVER.

Loren: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming out this evening to show your support for a new author in our community. I am very excited to have Ms. Noelle Dubois with us. As I mentioned, she a new author who happens to live amongst us here in Paris. Her book 4EVER is sweeping our country and around the world as it slowly releases and it is getting exceptional reviews.

4EVER is a collection of short stories and poems compiled by Ms. Dubois chronicling her romances and general relationships with men throughout the years. Her assertion is that all of these relationships change who you are and eventually culminate by leading you to your happily 4EVER after.

We are so pleased she decided to open her book tour here in Paris with us as her next stop is the United States where she was born and raised for several years prior to moving to France.

Please help me welcome Noelle Dubois!

The attendees clapped as the assistant bookstore manager lined up a few questions from patrons for the Q & A portion of the evening. Ushering these folks closer to a small microphone, Loren began his interview of Noelle.

Loren: This book is unlike anything we've seen before. While there are many 'how to' or self help books out there addressing: How to find love. How to prepare for meeting 'The One.'

Your book is a self reflection that draws the reader in to examine his or her lost and current loves. How on earth did you come up with the idea to write this book?

Noelle: Thanks for having me here Loren. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, I see clients for all sorts of reasons but heartache or a broken heart are common pangs which plague all of us at one time or another.

Hearing people's quest for love is fascinating and it causes one to be self reflective when thinking about how to attain the perfect life long love, if that's even possible. Working with people through their romantic and tragic stories got me thinking about my own path to finding a love.

I began to think about how each of my relationships and romances have kind of built on one another and how those experiences are a trail to our forever...or what I hope will one day lead me to my forever one day.

Loren: So explain to us how you hope this book eventually leads you to your forever?

Noelle: Every experience...every relationship we have in life, we gather these morsels of knowledge about people, experiences, and we learn things about ourselves as well. These morsels accumulate and become part of the fabric of our being. It's how we grow and progress as individuals.

Even in the midst of what might seem despair, say at the end of a relationship, we eventually will come to know the gifts we take away from every person and every experience we have in life.

If we're self aware enough, sometimes that knowledge comes to us immediately, while other times it may take us weeks, months or even years to understand the gift we were to learn from our time with a person.