Anna and the French Kiss: Anna and the Fairy Tale Ending

II. A New Place We Can Call Home

"That driving inspector was a load of bollocks!" Étienne strides in the back room of the theatre where we both work. His boots clomping as loudly as ever. He doesn't look upset, yet his tone of voice says otherwise. It's 1 P.M, the start of his shift and also the start of my lunch break.

"I'm guessing the test went not so well?" I ask as I rummage through my book bag desperately looking for my phone and wallet.

Étienne grins. He reaches into his pockets and pulls out his key ring. Dorm key, house key, key to lock and open the theatre doors, and then I see it. A car key. Étienne's smile widens. He shakes the key ring above his head.

"Wanna give it a spin?" Étienne holds out his hand.

"Your shift is starting Étienne." As much as I'd love to drive around the beautiful city of San Francisco with my even more beautiful fiancé, work is important too.

"I'll talk to boss about it later. It won't take us that long, we'll make it back before your lunch is over." Now Étienne is dragging me out the theatre and into the parking lot, a shiny black car sitting there.

"My lady." Étienne jokingly bows while opening the door to the passenger side of the car.

I can't help but laugh. Times like these remind me of how madly I've fallen for him, and how happy I am to have fallen in love with him. It's been three years since we met at School of America in Paris, and just two years ago did we get engaged. Now, here we both are, in the city of San Francisco together.

Étienne's driving is not as bad as you'd think. "Anna." He looks at me. "To your right, there's a nice view of The Bay and all the ships currently sailing on it. If you look to your left, there's an even better view of a gorgeous young male who doesn't really feel like driving anymore."

"Étienne! You said we were driving around and then heading back to work." I was excited to be spending this time with him.

"Fear not, young tourist." Étienne is smiling again. "Now, if you look to your right, there is an apartment building where the two of us will soon be living in."

I'm in shock, did I hear him correctly? When he said he was taking me out, I thought it would be for a lunch date in the car. I never thought he'd surprise me with an apartment. A feeling of uncertainty crosses me. "We're living here? What about school?! Your mother? What about my school? How did you even find this! More importantly, how are we going to afford this?"

"Cricket's friend owns the building. He recommended the place to me, as he and Lola have no intention of moving out together just yet. I told mum about this already. She's helping us move in next week. As for school, dorms are closing for the summer. I figured it would be a good time for us to move in together." Étienne grabs my hand and squeezes it.

I squeeze back. "The place looks great, but are you sure you want to do this?"

"Anna. I couldn't be more certain. Plus, rent isn't even as expensive as you would think." He leads me to the building's main door, and grabs hold of my legs.

"HEY! Étienne! What are you doing?" I laugh. "Put me down!" He's running across the hall now. I'm struggling to get out of his tight hold.

"Close your eyes!" I hear Étienne pull out his key ring again. The door swings open and he plops me on top of what I assume is a couch. "You are now allowed to open."

The building may have looked gorgeous, but inside is not.

"Bare with me now. The place is furnished and pretty ugly and gross. But we're allowed to move around what we like and dislike. Throwing everything away is an option too." He sits down on the couch next to me, and holds my cheek.

I look straight into his eyes. "The flooring is nice. The furniture? We'll need help on that. And the walls? Definitely need to be repainted."

"Let's paint it together." Étienne pulls me on top of his lap. I grab his hair and his hands are in mine. We're kissing at this point. The scent of his clothes, the build of his back, everything about him is so lovely. We stop and look at each other, and continue again because we're both certain this is real. The first step towards our life together is this.

Étienne slowly pulls away. "As much as I love having you on my lap and your lips on mine, we're still on a tight schedule."

I roll off of him, and run towards the door. "I completely forgot about work! Hurry or we'll be late!"

We're both laughing as we race each other down the hall towards the parking garage. Quickly, we get into the car, still laughing, and drive back towards the theatre.