During the summer of July, Max Mayfield spends her time in Paris with her two best friends. But she ends up running into an old friend who is certainly way different than she remembered.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
She scanned her eyes along the painting in front of her, Feet planted still on the marble floor. She studied each brush stroke carefully and the tiniest details of each face on the canvas. Art was what took Max's mind off things. It was a way she distracted herself from her busy life and narrow-minded family. Although now she was millions of miles away from them. Which is what makes her time here more peaceful than ever. Just staying in Paris over the summer break with her two best friends. No work to worry about, Not a care in the world.
"You into Veronese?" A voice said behind her.
"Some of them I guess. They're all kinda the same."
"Oh okay, I saw you standing here for a while, Figured you were a fan." He said.
Max turned around to a man who looked about her age. He had short tight coils cut sharply, Dressed in a black coat. "Are you into Veronese?" She asked him. He came and stood next to her. "Not really. I prefer surrealists." He said.
"Surrealism? Yeah those artworks are amazing. You don't really know what your looking at but for some reason you get the message." Max said.
"Exactly." The man replied. "I'm Lucas." He said and turned to hold out his hand.
"Max." She replied and shook his hand.
"So what other artist do you like?" Lucas asked as they walked to the next painting.
"Claude Monet. His landscapes are beautiful."
"I love his paintings too!" Lucas said. Max smiled at his eagerness. There was something awfully familiar about him, She feels as if she's seen him before.
Before she could say anything someone called out his name. It was another man, A bit shorter than him with brunette curls.
"Sorry I have to go. But it was lovely meeting you." He said. "Yeah you too." Max replied.
"Hopefully we meet again." Lucas said as he turned on his heel.
-
Max started making her back into the city still utterly confused on how the guy she met seemed so familiar but she couldn't get the right words out. All of a sudden a familiar blue car abruptly pulled up beside her almost knocking her down. "Jesus watch it!" She said. The window rolled down and it was her best-friend El. Not short for Ella or Eleanor, Just El.
"Sorry about that. Not used to being on the right side." El said. "Where are you heading?" Max asked.
"To this new job I got, I have to meet with them to discuss plans on designing their front yard. Wanna come? They're super rich." She said. "Why not." Max said and walked around to the other side of the car.
El is actually considered an Interior Design but was able to put that knowledge into gardens as well. Rich people pay her tons. to design the inside of their home and the outside.
-
They started to drive away from the city and out onto the outskirts filled with tall, green swiss pine trees and rosemary bushes with their tiny purple flowers. They began to drive on a narrow road leading up to a big steel gate which opened automatically. Someone must've remembered that El was coming. Max couldn't believe her eyes at the sight slowly appearing in front of her.
Three huge houses stood proudly in the afternoon sun. They were all made out of cobblestone. Pretty modern but still had a vintage touch to it. Each house was covered nicely in grape vines with vibrant green trees surrounding them and all sorts of flowers. Each driveway had different cars parked in front, Mercedes, Vintage Cadillacs, BMWs and some car Max has never even heard of. Each house had a big letter engraved at the top. The one on the left had the letter F, The one on the right had the letter H and the middle house had the letter S. Max wondered what that meant. The house with the letter S was much bigger than the others.
In the middle of the massive driveway connecting each house was a beautiful marble fountain. This place was everything Max's life wasn't even close to. And She couldn't imagine how the clients would be like.
El pulled over and parked in a small space just near the gate but nowhere near the Mansions. When they got out a man in a suit rushed out to them. "You must be Eleanor." He said to El. "Oh no, Just El." She politely said. "My apologies. If you would follow me this way." He said and led them both around the corner of a hedge to another massive space that Max didn't even notice.
This space just had freshly cut grass with a small table and chairs but overlooked the sea and a cozy beach area. It was breath taking and the wind tasted like salt against Max's lips. "The client hasn't arrived home yet but he will be right with you when he does. May I get you anything to drink?" The servant asked. "Just two glasses of water please." El said. The servant nodded and hurried off.
The two girls walked over and sat down at the table. Max slumped back into her chair and exhaled slowly. "This place is beautiful." She said. "I know. Nothing like New York right?" El said. "Definitely." Max laughed.
"You think the people living here are major snobs?" Max asked.
"Have you seen their cars?" El chuckled. "But they guy I was on the phone with sounded pretty nice."
"You never know. ninety-eight percent of them are assholes." Max replied. The servant then came back and placed their glasses of water on the table. The glasses were crystal clear with a cut lemon sitting on the rim. "They even added the lemon." She snickered.
The sound of an engine could be heard driving up the road outside the gate. The servant that was heading back up into the house quickly stopped and bowed. The car then came into view. It was a red 1960s cadillac convertible. Max knew because it was the only car she was obsessed with.
She looked into the drivers seat and saw the guy she met at the art gallery. "Wait a second..." She muttered. In the passenger seat beside him was the curly haired guy that called out to him.
They did some sort of handshake before the curly hair went inside to the H house. Max quickly turned back around when she saw the servant approach him and point out to where they were sitting.
"Your client is here." Max whispered to El not knowing if he was behind them. El put down her glass and quickly stood up to flatten her skirt. "El?" He said behind him.
"Yes! That's me." She said. He took off his sunglasses and slid them into his shirt. "Lucas, Nice to meet you." He said and they shook hands. She saw his expression quickly change once he noticed her standing behind El. "Oh and this is—."
"Max." He said.
"And so we meet again." Max says.
"You two have met?" El asks confused. "Just this morning at the Art Gallery." Max says.
"I saw her standing at an artwork for a very long time so I just went up and talked to her." Lucas adds.
"Wow what a small world it is because now she's at you house." El laughs looking between the two of them. They made a quick glance at each other before El pulled out her plans from her bag.
"Okay so basically I was thinking.." She started before they walked off to the centre of the garden.
Max sat back down in the garden chair and pulled out her phone. She's definitely met Lucas before this but just needs someone to jog her memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . hey sorry it took so long for me to post! i finally got motivation so hopefully i'll be on a roll. so many exciting things are coming up and the rest of the characters will be introduced more next chapter!
(if some words were in different fonts ignore that idk what happened)
