For The Love Of Chéri (CHAPTERS 1-112 REWRITTEN)

Chapter 60 : Spangna Gets Her Heart Broken In The Security Room

She followed Marcel into the security room, with all its monitors which covered all the important areas of the Bordello.

"Baby, have you got a minute?" Spangna asked.

"Of course." He said as he sat before the bank of monitors.

"This guy is my last client." Spangna said.

"That is good. I'm glad. I will meet you out there in Prague once you are free of him." Marcel said.

"Well. I think that we should plan what happens next together." Spangna said.

"In what regard?" Marcel asked.

"Well, the future. Our future." Spangna said.

"Mercy, I don't understand what it is that needs planning." Marcel said.

"Thing is baby, I really rate us. I think you're absolutely bangin'." Spangna said.

Marcel shot her a funny look. "I have not any idea what you're saying, dear."

"Marce, I love you, and only you. Do you think, you could, see yourself with me?"

Marcel spoke quietly, as he looked down at the table. "So you mean, in the longer future?"

"Yes."

He exhaled and leant back in his chair. "I don't think it is wise."

Spangna looked taken aback. "What?!"

"We, as a couple, are good now, but for the longer term you will need someone else." Marcel said.

"What the fuck do you mean, someone else?!"

"Do we have to speak of this now?!" Marcel asked.

"Yes, we fuckin do!" She snapped back.

"N'importe quoi!" Marcel muttered as he looked away a moment.

"Don't you be French to me! We love each other! I'm your other half!" Spangna ranted.

"Yes, but I say this for your own good! You can spend as long as you want with me, and then move on." Marcel said.

"What, why?!" Spangna demanded, "Don't you ever want to make something of your life and get married? I want to share a home with you! I want children and a family!"

Marcel rolled his eyes. "You are wrapped up in the glamour of our positions here! Living together is something very different in the cold light of day! I am trying to spare you. Do the math my dear." he said as he held up two fingers. "I am over twice your age. By the time you are fifty, you will be a widow."

"That's my choice!" Spangna shouted back.

"Why would you want that?"

"Because I love you! You're who I want! Think of the plus side. You'd have someone to take care of you when you're going ga-ga, but you'll probably have no idea who I was by that stage, but I would still love you." Spangna said.

"You speak of senility as if it were inevitable. I would rather end my life, then lose my faculties so that will never be." Marcel said.

"So, you'll never marry me?!" Spangna asked.

"Non,no. Perhaps, ten years down the line you would leave me for some masked hoodlum with hair longer than yours. Don't waste your youth making an ill-judged commitment at twenty." he said, shrugging his shoulders at regular intervals.

Spangna folded her arms and tilted her head, staring back at him as black eyeliner and makeup started to run down her cheek. "Is that it!? You're scared of being hurt? I won't hurt you. In my line of work, I've had a lifetime of men, enough to know what I want. I wouldn't ever stray from you, and you're not even giving me a chance!"

"I think you need to keep your options open." Marcel said as he got up and left the security room with her.

"What options?! And what are you waiting for? A woman your own age?! How's that working out for you?! You're punishing me for being born a couple of decades after you. This shocks me because you're so romantic! But do you even know what love is?!" She said emotionally as they stopped and turned to each other to have their heated debate in the hallway.

Marcel rolled his eyes. "Many a time, have I known of a woman where promises are made and broken, love becomes tolerance and then hate. People fall in and out of love. Is inevitable."

"I'm telling you! I'm happy to make this decision and live by it!" She snapped back.

"You will grow out of me." Marcel warned.

"Don't be ridiculous. You're robbing me of the chance to be happy because you're being selfish! I have no hidden motive! But you always think I do!"

"No, I don't!" Marcel said back, well and truly on the defensive.

"Yes, you do! You know I've got the coil and use protection in all my work. But you think I'm trying to stitch you up, so insist on protecting yourself!" Spangna said.

"Accidents are happen all the time with this pills! How is it looking if I get you pregnant ehh?! " Marcel argued, his grammar deteriorating quickly with his quick and desperate replies.

"So! you tell me you love me and all these sweet, beautiful things, and I'm certainly good enough to fuck several times a night... but not good enough to take your name, or be a wife and mother. Would it hurt you to spend the rest of your life with me?!" Spangna ranted.

Marcel slapped his own forehead with his palm. "Spangna! You are twenty, you foolish girl! I am in my mid-forties with only my home in France and savings to my name! What can I possibly offer you, in actuality?!" he said in a rather frustrated Parisian drawl.

"Love! You miserable, selfish bastard!" she shouted at him as Javier and Juan were walking down the corridor behind her.

"Bordel de merde! This is your British irrationality coming out!" Marcel said.

Spangna slapped Marcel across his face. "You just blame anything you don't like about me on the fact that I'm half English and you always bang on about how you hate the British and you'd never date a British girl, but claim I'm okay cause I'm half Norwegian. You can't keep getting out of things on a technicality! I'm so frustrated by you!"

Marcel looked shocked. "You struck me!"

"You know what?! Keep your fucking lonely, miserable life! Go home to no-one! I'm bloody done!" she said angrily as she pulled off a bracelet he'd given her and threw it at him.

Javier and Juan couldn't believe their eyes as they stepped up their pace.

She saw Marcel look around himself, and wasn't sure if he couldn't believe she was talking to him like this, or if he was conscious of there being a scene.

Spangna looked furious and said hesitantly while trying to think of the words. "Tu, es, un... Arsehole!" she added, giving up on trying to think of the word.

She was going to say something else but got choked up so she turned and left crying.

Next Chapter: You Know What?! I Fucking QUIT!