“Thought not. My brother’s a space shot. You’re going somewhere fancy, right? He’ll almost definitely get a tux delivered to the hotel.”
“He didn’t say we were going anywhere.”
She just gave me an oh-poor-you look. “You’re meeting up with Rach and Bri? You’re going somewhere fancy. It’ll be for charity. But it will also be for dresses.”
I frowned uncertainly. “I have that black dress I wore for the month’s mind...”
She dropped down next to me, shaking her head. “Nope. Won’t cut it. Don’t worry, you can rent cocktail dresses online and have them delivered to your hotel. Easy.”
I stared at her. “Crazy.”
“Come on, it’ll be fun.” She pulled the computer toward her and started a search. “Look, this site has two hundred different options. And it’s in English.”
“I speak French,” I muttered. But I was already being drawn into the sparkly gowns, which Lauren clicked through without stopping, until we reached one golden ball gown that made us both
“Maybe over the top, but see? You can find something nice.”
I suffered a thirty-second moral quandary about spending money renting a dress, and then the dress won.
Anna wandered in ten minutes later. “What are you guys doing?”
“Renting a dress in Paris for Nat.”
She plopped down beside us and tore open a bag of chips. Crisps. Whatever. “Sweet. Don’t get that one, it’s ugly. That one’s super skanky. No, that’s gross.”
Kate joined us after another twenty minutes. “What are you all studying so diligently?”
“Dresses,” we chorused, in what was possibly the twee-est moment of my life.
We narrowed it down to three choices—a long lavender gown Lauren thought would go well with my hair and eyes; a short black thing Anna favored, though I wasn’t so sure about the weird puff of fabric on the sleeve, and a short, simply cut silver dress with a boat neckline. It was kind of weird but appealing nonetheless.
“Hey, what size are your feet?”
I hadn’t even thought about shoes. “Nine-and-a-half.” They all made faces. “What? What sizes are you?”
“I’m a six,” Anna said.
I stared at her. “Are you serious?”
She shrugged nonchalantly. “They’re beautiful too. I have beautiful feet.”
“She does.” Kate smiled fondly. “She gets them from me.”
I turned to Lauren in astonishment. She shook her head. “I’m no Cinderella, but my feet are still smaller. Just think of it as an excuse to buy fancy French shoes.”
“But I don’t wear fancy shoes.”
Anna popped a chip in her mouth. “Now you do.”
Mike came in, and stopped when he saw the four of us gathered around my computer. “Breaking news?”
I looked up. “Are you getting a tux delivered in France? For any reason?”
“Oh, yeah. There’s some charity thing Friday night.”
Kate’s head popped up. “And when were you going to tell Natalie this?”
His eyes flickered back and forth between all of us and he started to back up. “I can tell when I’m not wanted. I’ll just...go disappear.”
“Go have a boys’ night with Paul!” Lauren yelled after him.
He ducked his head back in. “I’d rather be traded.”
I met his eyes. He grinned and wrinkled his nose at me and vanished.
The O’Connor women went with us to the airport, as they planned to do a little more exploring of the country while we were out of it. Kate gave me one last box before we left. “These are from Maggie. I know you said you could just pick up something in France, but Maggie had your size, and I thought—well, you don’t have to wear them if you don’t want to.”
“Thank you.” I took the box but didn’t look inside. “I’m sorry about digging up the past.”
She smiled painstakingly. “It’s time we got over it. We could have used you ten years ago.”
So. The thing about the Eiffel Tower? It was
That shouldn’t have surprised me. When it was first built in 1890, it was the tallest building in the world, and at fifteen hundred feet it still rose above the rest of Paris, the most iconic part of an incredibly iconic skyline.
Yet at first, catching glimpses of the monument between Haussmann’s elegant apartments as our taxi zoomed through the streets, it looked like no more than a toy. Even when we reached the narrow, tree lined streets of the seventh
Then we dropped off our bags, walked over and looked up.
And up.
It was like a monster. A gorgeous metallic beast that cut into the sky, so large that when you stood by one of the legs it blocked out everything else.
We climbed to the first level, and then took the elevator to the top. Paris spread out before us, as different from Kilkarten as New York from the Andes. To the south, the Champs du Mars spread out before us, a patch of green amidst the elegant tan and gray buildings with their turrets and balconies. A dark, shadowy rectangle sprung up in the distance like a blot against the skyline, while just slightly to the left the much more pleasing golden dome of Napoleon’s tomb marked another park. Farther on came the Seine and its bridges. The shadow of the tower stretched across the green water, pointing toward the Arc de Triumph and its many avenues. Closer, the palace and gardens of the Trocadero curved toward us.
Gazing at it made my heart expand in my chest, until I felt like I might float off, fueled by admiration and happiness and joy and beauty. And then I turned my back on it all and kissed Mike until I thought sheer euphoria would carry me off.
When I drew back, he was grinning so hard his dimple showed. “What was that for?”
I kissed the dimple. “It is a
He slid his arms around my back and pulled me closer. “That so?”
“In fact, if you weren’t here, I’d just have to walk up to some stranger and kiss him.”
For lunch, we spread out a blanket halfway between the monument and the military academy on the other side of the park. Like-minded tourists and locals surrounded us. Children raced tricycles while their parents chatted on green benches.
Men jangling Eiffel Tower keychains walked about, targeting camera-wearing tourists and extracting exorbitant amounts of money. A man with dozens of roses moved from couple to couple.
“Don’t do it,” I muttered to Mike as the salesman walked determinedly toward us. “Don’t make eye-contact. Say
Bouquets were shoved in our faces. “Hello,
Mike looked up. “Yeah, sure.”
I stared at him. “What?” He was
Mike handed me a red rose.
I buried my nose in it, and then frowned at him as the man walked away. “You know they marked this up like five-hundred percent.”
