"It was all very romantic," Fantine said with a dramatic sigh. She was sitting in a small cafe with Favourite and her two other friends, Dahlia and Zephine. She had spend the last fifteen minutes boring the other women to death with romantic details of her lunch date with Felix.
"I knew I should not have invited you," Favourite grumbled. "Honestly, Fantine, when are you going to grow up and realize that this isn't a fairy tale romance? He's just toying with your emotions."
"Well I think he sounds absolutely charming," Zephine said with a smile. Zephine was the only one of Fantine's friends who shared her passion for romance.
"And he promised to meet me again sometime to teach me how to read!" Fantine announced excitedly.
"Reading? Oh, how very romantic," Dahlia said sarcastically. Dahlia was uneducated and not very intelligent, but what she lacked in brains she made up for in beauty. She had perfect features and hair that was almost as lovely as Fantine's. Dahlia shared Favourite's low opinion of men and love, but, like Favourite, she was in a very passionate relationship with a bourgeois man named Listolier. However, unlike Favourite, Dahlia was not in the relationship for the purpose of receiving presents. Instead, she kept a lover to "amuse herself" when she was bored. She seemed to live for the compliments she received from Listolier.
Fantine was not deterred by Favourite and Dahlia's lack of interest in her romantic life. She turned to Zephine and let out another dramatic sigh. "He's the one, Zephine. I just know it!"
"I'm so happy for you, dear," Zephine said. "Maybe you and Tholomyes could meet up with me and my lover, Fameuil, for dinner sometime."
"I'd love that!" Fantine replied. "Only, Tholomyes is a very busy man. He runs his family's business, so he has lots of work to do and little time for fun."
"Oh, he's a business man?" Favourite asked with sudden interest. "He must be very rich. I could teach you how to coax him into buying you mountains of presents."
"I don't care for presents, Favourite. All I need is love!"
Favourite shook her head. "You're hopeless, Fantine," she scolded disapprovingly.
Fantine ignored her and continued chatting and giggling with Zephine while Dahlia examined her reflection in the back of a shiny spoon and Favourite played with her new ruby bracelet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Felix couldn't eat. He couldn't sleep. He couldn't even focus on his work. Nervously, he toyed with his pocketwatch and paced back and forth across the floor of Blanchevelle's sitting room. "I think I'm coming down with something, Blanchevelle," he complained.
Blanchevelle laughed. "I think I know exactly what that something is," he said with a wink. "You, my friend, are in love with little Fantine."
"What- no!" Felix protested. "That can't be it. It must be a cold, or a fever."
Blanchevelle shook his head. "I see the look in your eyes, Tholomyes. You can't stop thinking about her, can you?"
Felix sighed and put his head in his hands. "You're right," he admitted in a defeated voice. "Ever since I met her things haven't been the same. I can't function properly because she's always on my mind. This is all your fault, Blanchevelle! If you hadn't dragged me to that lunch, I would never have met her and I wouldn't feel this way!"
"Now, now, blaming me isn't going to solve anything," said Blanchevelle. "The only way to cure love is to satisfy it."
"What should I do?" Felix asked. "I've never been in love before."
"Hmm, let's see," Blanchevelle mused. "You offered to teach her how to read, did you not?"
"I did," Felix affirmed.
"Good," Blanchevelle said, rubbing his hands together and grinning crookedly. "Invite her here tomorrow evening for a reading lesson. I have a plan. If everything goes right, she'll fall desperately in love with you, and then you'll have her in the palm of your hand. A woman in love with you will do anything you want her to..."
YOU ARE READING
There Was a Time
Fanfic"He took my childhood in his stride, but he was gone when autumn came," she said. But who is "he"? And why did he leave? There was a time when Fantine was just a plain, ordinary girl who dreamed of romance and love. There was a time when Felix Tholo...
