Before we could enter, Crow grabbed my arm. “Can you speak French?” he asked. “How will we know what to order?”
Good question. I hadn’t worried about that in any other city. We seemed to always find someone who spoke English, but this place didn’t look like it catered to tourists.
“It’s okay. We can work it out. Use Google Translate or something. What’s the alternative? Get Mickey D’s? I’m not eating a Big Mac in Paris.”
“True.”
We entered, and the waitress pointed to a table. That much was easy. I understood pointing.
Even though it was daylight, this place had a romantic feel to it. The waitress had put us in a little nook away from the main room, as though she’d known we wanted privacy. Not that there were many other people in the place, since it was late in the afternoon.
I picked up the menu. Yikes, it was all in French, but there were some words I recognized. Some I guessed at. The waitress walked over, tapping her pencil on her pad. She said a few things in French. I had no idea what they were, but she sure sounded cranky. But I wasn’t used to French people. Maybe they sounded cranky no matter what they said.
We ordered soup and pointed to a few other things.
“What if they’re weird things?” Crow asked.
I shrugged. “We don’t eat them. It’s not like it’s the end of the world. If it’s too disgusting, we can ditch this place and get a baguette and some cheese somewhere.”
We didn’t have to worry, though. All the food was great. My belly had stretched with all the food by the end of it.
“But I need crepes. I can’t come to Paris and not have crepes. And macaroons. Oh, there are too many delicious foods.”
Crow’s eyes sparkled. “You have five more days. You don’t have to eat the entire city out of food today.”
I liked his logic. “Should we go?” I asked him.
“Just a minute.”
He fumbled with something in his pocket. I had no idea what. I was too busy trying to figure out our check. And did we need to leave a tip? I wasn’t sure on the system here. I should check online, or maybe it was easiest to leave a standard ten percent. I was going to ask Crow, but he didn’t meet my gaze. Weird.
“Ah, Fay, I have something,” he said.
“Umm?”
I still was only half paying attention. Then he handed a small box across the table. That got all of my attention.
“For me?” I asked.
He nodded.
My heart fluttered as I opened up the box. Crow didn’t seem like a jewelry-buying kind of guy, so this gift was all the more precious.
It was some kind of pendant. At first, I couldn’t work out what was on the silver chain, then I turned it toward the light.
“A firecracker!” I laughed.
“Yep.” He didn’t look at me.
“I love it. It’s perfect. You acted so weird when I said we needed to get something to commemorate today, but you had this all along. That was sneaky.”
He looked up and gave me a huge grin, his teeth gleaming through his beard.
I wanted to put it on right now. No, I wanted Crow to put it on me. That was the proper way to do things.
“You have to do it,” I said, handing the box back to him.
He stood up and fastened the chain, his fingers grazing the sensitive skin on the back of my neck. Every touch sent shivers of anticipation down my spine.
When he’d finished, I put my hand up to touch it.
“Thank you so much,” I said. “I’m going to wear it every day.”
Wow, Paris really was the city of love.
Chapter 19
AFTER OUR BREAK FOR lunch, we kept walking. I took thousands of photos. We ended up at another great place for dinner, then went to a little bar.
We’d had such a great time all day, but once we sat down to have a drink, Crow seemed nervous. For such a laid-back guy, that fidgeting was really strange.
We sat in the semi-darkness. A few small lights illuminated the room, but most of the light came from the flickering candle on our table.
“You’re an amazing girl, Fay,” he told me.
I smiled, but something about his tone made me think there was more behind his words than simply paying me a compliment. Did he want to break up?