The muffled sound of the Vicky's laptop tones through the door. I slowly open it and throw my bag on the side table.
"Hey, you're already back?" Vicky turns the volume down. "Tell me how it went."
"It was okay, I guess."
"Okay? What happened?" She wants to know. I try to downplay my sadness, I don't wanna be sad because of him. Who even is he?
"Maybe I'm just better off without him." Is the only thing I say before I hide in the bathroom.
***
The time is over, my mind becomes free again as the voice of the professor tells us to come to an end. Vicky lets out a relieved sigh and hands her sheets to the professor.
"How did it go?"
"I think I did pretty good. There were many questions I was prepared for." I tell her and she agrees. I'm glad to see her free from all the stress that has been piling up throughout the process of studying.
"We have to celebrate this. Lola months of studying nonstop and finally we're free."
"I don't know if I'm really in the mood for celebration." I admit and she groans. "Anyway, I'll tell you later if I will go, right now Denis needs me." I kiss my friend's cheek before I leave to go to Denis' work. He works at a music shop in town and whenever he is by himself he asks me to keep him company.
***
"Denis?" I call as I enter the store.
"Oh hey Lo. How did the finals go?"
"Pretty good actually." I take off my denim jacket and hang it on the hanger in the back room. "Now we're fully focused on moving to Paris."
"I almost forgot you were leaving. Seriously, what am I supposed to do without you?" I laugh. "Before you leave we have to throw a goodbye party." I raise my brows and shake my head. His intentions may be nice, but honestly I'd rather be gone before anyone notices.
"Why do I have friends who always like to party?" Now it's my turn to make him laugh. "You know what? Just come with Vicky and I, we will go to a party later on, we could just celebrate us graduating and at the same time make a goodbye party out of it."
"Cool, can I bring some of my friends?"
"Only if they're hot, so Vicky won't mind." After a while of chatting I help Denis with stacking up a few boxes full of CD's in the back room. They have all sorts of music here, and I'm really tempted to just throw one CD in the player and listen to it.
"You have good music here." I say.
"Define good music."
"Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey, Beyoncé." I reach out for a box at the very top and struggle to get it. With my five foot six inches I wouldn't consider myself short, but unfortunately also not tall enough to reach those boxes.
"Oh here, let me help you." Denis walks up behind me and leans over me.
"I got this."
"No you don't, you dwarf." I nudge his side, but he blocks it, grabbing me by my wrists.
"Stop!" I laugh, suddenly the door opens and the ringing of bells gets triggered.
Denis and I freeze and look at the man that walks inside. He looks at the both of us and notices me, just as I notice him too.
Adrien Coste. Why does he have to be here, looking more attractive than ever? He is wearing a beige cotton coat over his grey suit. The water drops on his coat indicate that it has been raining which I didn't notice at all from all the chatting. I can hear my pulse beating in my throat.
"Adrien?" I hear myself startlingly say.
"Hello Lola." He presses his full lips together, his eyes narrow. Denis clears his throat and tells me, that he will be back in a few minutes. As soon as Adrien and I are left alone, I ask him the first question that is on my mind.
"What are you doing here?"
"What do you think am I doing inside a music shop?"
"Right." I respond.
"I'm leaving tomorrow and wanted to buy something as a memory, you know?" I gulp as those words leave his mouth. I haven't really been thinking about how long he would stay.
"Oh."
"What?" He steps closer.
"Nothing, I just said 'oh'." I hiss.
"I see you recovered from last time." He refers to Denis. I scoff and shake my head, trying to stay calm as possible. How dare he just walk in here with this horrible attitude?
"There is nothing going on between us, he is a friend." I roll my eyes. It's not the first time I had to explain it to someone.
"So this means I can still show you Paris?" I knit my brows together and try to process his words.
"Seriously, do you really think I will crawl back to you after you stood me up?"
"No."
"So why do you even bother asking? Just leave me alone okay?" I try to keep my voice down.
"I wish I could. I miss you Lola." I shake my head and try to suppress a laughter.
"You're ridiculous. You don't even know me and we barely did anything together."
"I wanna know you."
"I don't want you to know me and I don't wanna know you. If you really wanted to know me, you wouldn't have ended our date like that." I cross my arms and try to reduce the anger inside of me.
"I know, I apologize for what I did, but I had to."
"Why? You didn't even give me a proper explanation." He bites his lip and runs his long fingers through his tousled yet perfectly styled hair.
"I can explain it to you. Only if you come with me to Paris over the weekend." My eyes widen and my mouth falls open. A smile plays on his lips and he takes my hand in his. "Come with me."
"I can't."
"Why not?" His jaw tenses.
"Because I don't want to. Besides, I have plans with my friends." I pull my hand away and shove it in my pocket.
"What plans?"
"We're going to a club or a bar or whatever."
"You know you don't really wanna do this right?" I roll my lips in and tug a hair strand behind my ear. "Just come with me and I promise I will explain to you why I ended our date." I huff. Just by looking him in his dark brown eyes, is a single reason for me why I should go with him.
"Why can you only explain it to me when I come with you?"
"Trust me Lola."
"Why?"
"Because you won't regret it." Is all he says as an answer to my question.
"Just for this weekend and you will explain in full detail, why you dumped me." He smiles and his eyes light up.
"Gauthier will pick you up." I part my lips, but he cuts me off before I can even protest. "At home." He caresses my bottom lip. "What CD would you recommend me?" I struggle to answer right away.
"Um... Denis works here."
"I don't care about what he likes. I want you to tell me." I bite my lip. "Stop doing that." I immediately let go of my lip. "What is your favorite album?"
"I recently downloaded one of Aretha Franklin's albums on Spotify, it's called I Never Loved A Man The Way I love You." I am tempted to bite my lip again, but his gaze falls on it, then he looks into my eyes again.
"Do you have a copy, maybe as a vinyl?" I take a deep breath and look at the back room door, wondering when Denis comes out.
"I can look." I say and go over to the F section of the vinyl records. Within a minute I find what he requested.
"Here you go." I hand it to him, "Denis will do the cashier stuff, I'm not familiar with it." I let out a nervous and short giggle.
"Thank you."
I call Denis, he comes out glaring at me with a questioning look. As soon as he sells the vinyl, Adrien leaves with a goodbye to both of us, but I'm the only one who sees his wink.
"You know him?" He tilts his head.
"Yeah."
"You don't seem like the type of girl to like guys like him." He isn't wrong, but you can't deny that Adrien is universally attractive. No matter your type, you just can't deny that he looks like a Calvin Klein model.
"I sort of know him. We only met a few times, but that's it."
"I don't trust him." He states. "I don't know."
"You sound like a jealous boyfriend." I laugh.
"Maybe I am jealous." My breath hitches in my throat and I pretend to have overheard it.
"Anyway, I have to get home right away Denis. I realized I have plenty of things to do."
"Oh come on, what can it be? The finals are already over." I put my hand on his shoulder.
"Stop whining, deal with the fact that I do have a life beside school." I laugh and so does he.
"Alright, see you around." He kisses my cheek. It's strange how he just does it, I have never received this kind of gesture from him even though it's pretty common here in France.
"See you."
"And about that party, I can't wait." Oh shit, the party.
"Yeah sure." Is all I say and then I leave before he can go further on with the topic.