It had been a long week since the movie premiere.
It felt like it had lasted almost a month.
A month in which I had not seen hide nor hair of my boyfriend.
No kisses. No dates, zilch, nada, nope.
I sighed, washing my hands at the back sink. We'd been turning out tons of croissants this afternoon. Carrie had been experimenting with how they turned out after being frozen and while it wasn't exactly how things were done at the patisserie, I was finding that they were delicately crispy, still flakey and the butter was still all melty in the croissant when it was baked. So, our first update to a pastry process was fully implemented.
We'd be able to spend most of a day making croissants twice a week and not have to worry about them the other five days a week. Which mainly meant that anyone could step into the kitchen and lay out croissants on a baking pan to rise for a few hours and bake them off. Which would be a huge step in the day off situation. Because if we didn't have to make the dough or form the croissants that day, there was just simply less work to handle and it would be easy to be on lower staffing as needed.
My thoughts had gotten away from me, just thinking about croissants. What I'd meant to be thinking about was how much I actually missed Sam this week.
Text messages and video chats were not hugs and kisses.
Never had been, never would be.
Cam was great. He basically treated it like it was my period and was one of the most attentive best roommates ever. He made sure to have my favorites on hand and settled on watching a lot of movies this week. Ladies choice, of course.
It was all due to Serina's movie schedule, that we'd spent any time apart.
They'd had to do a bunch of reshoots that needed to be done out of town so off they'd gone.
The morning after the premiere.
Because the premiere wasn't for the movie she was shooting. No, they'd simply held a premiere here because that's where she was. The premiere was for the movie that she'd shot in LA last year before coming to Europe to film her current movie. They were in the French countryside somewhere. He wasn't able to tell me where exactly.
I'm sure that was a security requirement. But still. Totally sucked if you ask me.
So our night together was ruined by her husband leaving right after the premiere. Then he was unexpectedly taken out of town for the shooting of new scenes.
Thank god I got to talk to both Sang and Raven this week at length. Like hours of talking.
"Jess..."
I looked up to find Cam poking his head into the kitchen. "Hey, Cam, what's up?"
He grinned. "Your boyfriends back and you're gonna be in trouble..." he sang out.
"Hey now, hey now, my boyfriend's back???!!!??!?!?" I sang but shrieked at the end. "Seriously? And I'm not gonna be in trouble."
He laughed. "Serious as a heart attack, my lovely bestie. They're on their way up to the penthouse right now."
"Are there any requests?"
"A proper tea for an American in Paris with a kiss for the bodyguard, I think is what I heard." He said.
"You're a pain in my ass." I said, grinning at him.
"Yes, but what an ass it is..." he popped a pose before laughing at me again as he headed back to the front desk.
Carrie laughed at me too while I went around the kitchen putting together a tea tray for Serina. "You're overthinking it." She observed and I stilled.
"What?"
"It's okay. Just be yourself, make the tray the way you taught me and just go upstairs and kiss your boyfriend already." She said, bumping me out of the way with her hip as she took over and very efficiently and capably put together a tea tray worthy of presenting to any British Royal who happened to pop in and want a tea tray.
"Whoa... Carrie..." I smiled. "That's beautiful and perfectly balanced for what she needs."
She scoffed but smiled. "Learned from the best." She said.
I rolled my eyes. "I suppose you did." I smirked.
"Go on... room service required to the penthouse." She said before adding a box of the tea bags we knew Serina liked. "I think she's out." She shrugged.
"Thanks, Carrie. That's the perfect attention to detail that we need to always remember for all guests not just our VIP's..." I gathered up the tray and headed out.
"Duly noted!" She yelled after me. "I'll write it into our steps list to look for something special on those."
"Good." I called back before I made it to the elevator and called it down.
~ ~ ~ ~
The main room of the penthouse was empty when I walked off the elevator so I set the tea tray up by Serina's usual chair by the windows and went to turn on the kettle for her tea, taking a few moments to pick up the kitchen a bit since no one had set foot in the suite since housekeeping the morning after the movie premiere and there'd been a few things left behind to clean up when they left town. A startled yelp escaped me when a pair of arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me into a firm hug. "FiFi..."
I laughed before struggling a bit to get him to loosen his grip on me so that I could turn. "Sam!" I grinned at him before he hauled me up in his arms to kiss me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and moaned softly, lips parting so the could deepen the kiss.
Man.
The man could kiss.
Butterflies whipping up to a frenzy in my belly as his arm tightened around me and one hand slid up into the hair on the back of my head, holding me in place even as he shifted my head to be tilted to the right as he plundered my mouth with his tongue.
"God, I missed you." He groaned after our kiss ended and he rested his forehead against mine for a moment before he gently put me back on my feet.
"Missed you too." I smiled. "But I'm really glad you're back if it means kisses like that."
He laughed before dropping a kiss on my nose. "Dinner tonight?"
"Are you sure?" I asked, knowing that things would be a bit difficult since they'd just got back into town.
Unexpectedly.
He nodded. "Cam agreed to stick around for a couple hours so I'm sorry that it really will be just dinner."
"Or dessert." I teased, watching his blue eyes flare with interest and desire before he tamped it down.
"Dinner." He said firmly, the corners of his lips still quirked up in a smile.
"Dinner it is. Do you want to come over for dinner or should we go out? I'm off in a little bit so I can go home and start something if you want to come over." I said.
"Let's go out. I'll have enough time to come pick you up and we can go to one of those restaurants you really like a couple blocks away from your place."
"Sounds like a plan, call me when you start out?"
"Absolutely." He nodded, kissing me again, only to pull away with a frown when the kettle I'd turned on started to whistle to indicate that the water was ready for Serina's tea.
"Back to reality." I smiled, reaching up and caressing his cheek. "But won't be long until dinner time."
"Nope, not too long for that." He said, releasing his grip on me as I turned to start the tea brewing. "I'll let you finish getting her set up, she's probably waiting for the tea."
"Thanks." I said.
"Not a problem, my beloved Fifi."
"We're going to have to talk about that nickname. I don't think it's fair that you're calling me something that reminds me of poodles frolicking in the park." I frowned.
He laughed as he left the kitchen and headed to his room or office down the hall. I took the tea out to the table where I'd set up the tray and smiled when I found Serina sitting there, looking out over the view and starting to nibble on a few of the treats. "My favorite other person." She smiled, setting down the croissant and letting me set the tea down before she stood up and hugged me.
"Good to see you too, Serina." I smiled, hugging her back. "Good days on set?"
"Horrible days on set but they're totally done now." She rolled her eyes before sitting back down again.
"Well, there is that."
"Exactly." She bit into the croissant again. "These are still great. I'm so worried about how I'm supposed to get them when I go home."
I laughed. "Well, maybe we can work out mail order someday." I teased. "Or you'll just have to move to Charleston once I'm home and have my bakery open."
"That could be worth considering." She said, pointing the croissant at me before she finished it. "I'll mark it down on things I may want to do when I grow up."
I laughed. "Thanks for bringing my man back. I was missing him." I teased. "But I need to go finish up my shift so I'll see you later."
"Sounds good. Thanks for the tea tray." She smiled, waving me off before selecting her next treat to sample.
"Later." I called out over my shoulder, heading to the elevator again. "See you later, Sam." I called down the hall while I waited.
"Uh huh... later, Fifi."
I rolled my eyes as I got on the elevator and waited to descend.
Annoying nicknames for the win, apparently.
Fifi. I snorted, crossing my arms to wait.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I'd showered as soon as I got home, putting my hair in a braid down my back instead of drying it before dressing casually in a pair of jeans and a couple of layered tanks under a cute cropped cardigan. I was finishing off my outfit with accent jewelry and my trusty converse before plopping myself down on the couch to watch Eiffel pounce on dust bunnies while I waited for Sam to show up.
I pondered why there were always so many dust bunnies for Eiffel to pounce on before making a mental note to do a deep dive on the living room.
It clearly needed to be dust mopped in the worst way if the size of the bunny was any indicator that we were doing a horrible job of getting under the furniture that was covering our hardwood floors.
I was broken out of my dust bunny survey by a firm knock on the door and I blinked, surprised that I'd not realized he was getting close to arriving before I grabbed my purse and went to open the door. "Hey."
"Hey, Fifi." He grinned at me before leaning in to brush his lips against mine.
"Enough with the Fifi." I grumbled, walking out and pulling the door shut behind me before locking it.
"You know you like it."
"I know you have to have a code word in place so I tolerate it." I arched an eyebrow at him before he laughed again and wrapped his arm around my shoulders as we headed down the stairs.
"Fair enough." He said softly when we reached the ground floor and walked out the door. I glanced up at him. "Using Fifi, I'll keep in mind you merely tolerate it." He smiled briefly before leaning down slightly and kissing my forehead. He shifted our course slightly, heading off towards the restaurant we'd decided on for our meal.
Once we were seated, Sam let me take charge of our meal so I put in our requests for wine as well as a selection of appetizers and small plates for us to share. I have to admit that I'm spending all of this year in Paris taking notes on the various things that I would miss so much that I'd need to figure out a recipe for them at home with the ingredients that were readily available in Charleston. I sat back slightly, studying him as our wine was delivered and poured for us. "Missed you." I offered, taking a casual sip of my wine.
He smiled as he took his own sip. "That's good wine." He murmured before his blue eyes focused on me. "And I missed you too. Very much." He said.
"I feel like we missed the boat a bit while you were gone. We should have video chatted more." I wrinkled my nose at him.
He reached across the table and took my hand in his. "Agreed, that's on me though. I got really locked in to the security and secrecy of the situation."
I gave his hand a squeeze as we started to nibble on the first small plate that arrived and he asked more about my week and I filled him in on everything we were implementing at the hotel.
I'll give him an award for pretending to be fully invested and interested in what I was droning on about.
He didn't once look bored and I halfway wondered if he really was interested in all things pastry as told by me, Jessica Lee.
I slowed in my rambling discussion as more food arrived and I was distracted by attempting to shove all things perfect into my mouth. I mean, Cam made a pretty good version of Coq au Vin but eating the dish as prepared by a French chef was an otherworldly experience. Sam seemed to agree as he was also quiet, too busy eating and enjoying our dinner to say anything.
We ordered a dessert to share as well as some after dinner coffee. I glanced around the quiet restaurant before glancing at him again. "That was an amazing dinner."
"Agreed." He nodded.
I squinted at him slightly. "Something on your mind?" I asked, attempting to keep my tone light and not drag us into some heavy discussion but to be honest, he was a little quieter than usual tonight. "Too tired or looking forward to not having to put up with me any longer tonight?" I joked.
"Never." He looked as if I'd just slapped him. "No, I'm sorry. It's definitely not you, you, as always, are a delight and treasure, my beloved Fifi."
I laughed. "But there is something on your mind." I raised an eyebrow.
His shoulders slumped and he exhaled slowly. "Yeah, Jess. There is something on my mind." He admitted.
"What's going on, Sam?"
He opened his mouth but shut it again when our dessert and coffee were set on the table. "So..." His eyes met mine again. "Movie's done. No more filming, it's off to edits."
My mouth ripped open slightly as my forehead furrowed. "So, no more reason to be in Paris."
Sam flinched. "Right. That." He shook his head before taking a sip of coffee. "Serina's wrapping things up. I think she has a couple meetings set for this week, a photo shoot or two for a magazine interview and a perfume ad but..." He shrugged.
"How long?" I glanced at the dessert and pushed it away, no longer interested. "How long until you leave? Any vacation days?"
"I can't stay. I have to see her back home, wrap up the final part of our contract..." He shook his head.
"Oh, that makes sense." I finally nodded, choosing to ignore the sharp pain that hit me at the fact that he hadn't talked about vacation time.
"I realize it's less than ideal. But, Fifi... we knew I'd have to leave at some point."
"Yeah. Yeah, we did." I nodded. "Not the first time I've had a relationship with an expiration date." I finally said. "Doesn't mean it hurts any less." We drank coffee in silence, both of us ignoring the dessert. "And what then?"
He looked surprised at the question. "What then, what?"
"After she's home and the contract ends?"
"Oh... haven't thought that far ahead yet." He studied me. "I might be looking into relocating my business office to Charleston."
My breath caught in my throat. "Really?"
He nodded, one shoulder lifting in a shrug. "Just giving you a heads up that I might be looking for you next summer."
I smiled. "I'll make a note. Assign you a number." I wrinkled my nose at the look he gave me. "Sorry, it's just.. there could be a line of second chance options vying for the attention."
"Bah." He scowled for a moment but grinned. "Let's go. I'm pretty sure we're not eating dessert now and the check's been settled."
"Sounds good..." I tried to swallow my sadness but the smile I offered him was more than likely a little broken.
Like how I was feeling right now as I let him escort me on a path through the restaurant.
"It's going to be okay." He murmured, pulling close into his side as we walked out to the street. He pressed a kiss to my temple. "I swear, Jess. It's going to be okay."
I knew it would be.
Just had to get myself used to the idea first.