Love in Seasons

Chapter 4

Chai woke up at 5am, Paris time. She peeps through the window curtains and sees the snow falling...

    "Woooowww" she exclaimed.

    She immediately changed to her winter clothes, thermal stockings, ¾ sleeve black flare dress, her black winter boots, her cute black beret hat, black mittens, and Pink hooded down jacket. She hurriedly went her way outside the hotel to experience for real the snow shower. She looked her way up to the clouds and held out her hands as if chasing the falling snow around her.

     She could not keep herself from smiling even though she knew she looked weird in the eyes of the passersby.

    "Bonjour! Are you enjoying yourself my lady?" a familiar voice spoke behind her.

    She was surprised and turned around to see who he was.

    "Patrick!" she blurted out.

    Once again, she was mesmerized by him. Yet, she is embarrassed
being caught up by him in that crazy situation.
"I'm so sorry, this is my first time seeing the actual snowfall..." she said.
Patrick smiled at her.
"You can't enjoy the snow just like that, come with me!" he said, pulling her hand and they both ran.
He brought her in an open space, probably a public garden which is now covered by white snow.
"What should we do here?" Chai wondered.
Patrick lies on the snow and does a butterfly move.
"What are you waiting for? Come quick!" Patrick told her.
She doesn't know what to do. She felt stupid but she obliges with his invitation.
She lied on the snow floor and the butterfly moved like a crazy person. It felt surreal but real. Yes indeed, she is enjoying her first winter wonderland right at the heart of France.
Chai posed in the snow and Patrick took a lot of photos for her. When they went back to their senses, they realized it was already 8am.
"We're so doomed Pat!" Chai screamed looking at her watch.
Patrick just laughs hearing her say that.
"You're the boss, so what's wrong if you're late?" Patrick said.
"I don't want to finish late today... remember you promised to stroll me around France and cross to Italy starting tomorrow..." Chai sounded disappointed.
"Relax. We will get it done right on time." Patrick replied.
When they reached the shooting location, everyone was staring at the two of them.
"Ms. Chai, where did the two of you come from?" some of her staff asked her.
"I'm so sorry we just enjoyed the snow too much." Chai replied.
Her staff are a bit adamant.
"Don't worry about the photoshoot. We actually have good photos here. Just focus on Patrick's interview and artwork." Chai told them and showed her photos taken by Patrick a while ago.
Patrick just sat in front of his canvass and began painting. Everyone marveled at him. They hastily took photos of him doing his piece of art, they also instructed him to do some nice poses for the magazine which he readily complied. In just two hours, he was done painting a beautiful winter scenery Chai is very much familiar with.
It is the white garden they went to early that morning. She can't help herself but smile.
"Ms. Chai, we may now proceed in the interview, may you do the honors?" some of her staff asked her.
"Sure." She immediately said,
She walked towards Patrick and sat in the chair beside him.
"Hi pat." She said,
"Hi beautiful." He answered.
Everyone in the audience shivered hearing that.
Chai smiled and shook her head.
''We were able to see some of your artwork, not actually but in photos and we noticed how lovely your artwork was. Just like this winter scene you just painted here... how do you do that? What is your inspiration?" Chai asked.
"Nature et vie. It means nature and life. To make my artworks vividly alive, I need to see that painting inspiration with my two eyes. So, in order to do that, I travel a lot. I traveled in each city, in each suburb and bring along my brushes and canvass so I can really transform the scenery into an artwork." He said.
"That's quite fascinating. Isn't it difficult to do that? Your load is heavy while traveling and where do you usually spend the night like for example if you went to a suburb?" Chai continually asked.
"I'm a natural nomad. I can sleep anywhere, and I am strong enough to bring all my stuff. As a matter of fact, I can pack light every time I travel." Patrick answered letting out his winsome smile.
Chai felt she can melt anytime with that smile, but she remained her composure.
"Where do you want to head next and find new inspiration for your next piece?" Chai asked.
"When I met you, that gave me a clue. I guess I will be flying to the Philippines soon." Patrick answered.
Chai swallowed a lot. Chills simply run through her spine hearing that.
"We will be happy to see you in Manila then. Our 7,100 islands will be more than glad to welcome you with open arms." Chai said.
And they smiled nonchalantly towards each other.
"Ergo, this artwork, is my token to you, Ms. Editor-in-Chief..." Patrick broke the silence and picked up the canvass, handing it over to Chai.
"Are you serious?" She asked in surprise.
"Yes of course. You own this. Without you, I can't paint it..." Patrick said.
"Grazie!" Chai said in Italian.
Patrick smiled all the more.
"See we're done in just three hours, now let me take you to Florence if you may, bring your stuff we will start our journey this afternoon!" Patrick told Chai.
Chai told her staff what to do next, went back to her hotel room and packed some of her stuff. Patrick picked her up with a camper van that he rented.
"What's this?" Chai was once again surprised.
"A Camper van, it's cheaper and easier to move around with this." Patrick said.
"Are we going to sleep in this van?" Chai felt hesitant.
"Yes. Wherever the night catches on us, then we will just park this there and sleep. You're not accustomed to this, don't you?" Patrick smiled while asking.
"Yeah. I never did this in my entire life and..." Chai felt hesitant to say another word.
"What? Come one tell me..." Patrick insisted.
"I don't sleep over with any guy I just met..." she said.
Patrick smiled all the more.
"I know, Filipinos, you guys are very conservative. Ergo, this camper van have two rooms inside and a nice bathroom. Go ahead and check it for yourself. Have you watched tiny house in youtube? You basically have seen one of these babied there if you were able to watch some of its episodes." Patrick explained.
Chai feel relieved hearing those words. She entered the van and saw what she saw in tiny house episodes in youtube.
"Thanks Pat." Chai said when she finally sat in the passenger seat.
"You're welcome. It's my pleasure to tour you around. Please do the same for me in the Philippines." Patrick grinned while driving the van.
"We'll surely do that! Just keep in touch with me, ok?" Chai said and smiled back to Patrick.
They enjoyed the scenery along their road trip. It takes eleven hours to reach Florence by land. They alighted Paris at around one in the afternoon.
They did some stopovers to eat some decent meal and rest a bit. They reached Florence at around 1am. Patrick looked for a nice spot to park and they went to their rooms to sleep.
The next day, they proceeded to iGhibellini for breakfast. Patrick ordered coffee and croissant for them.
"Is this the typical French/Italian breakfast?" Chai asked Patrick.
"Si (Yes). We don't usually eat breakfast, if we eat it's always a light breakfast." Patrick explained.
Chai nodded.
"In the Philippines, breakfast is usually the most important meal. We prefer eating rice and fried viand such as tocino or longganisa..." Chai replied.
"To-ci-no? Long-ga, what? What's that?" Patrick asked.
Chai smiled.
"Those are pork marinated and fried, tocino is marinated pork, while longganisa is pork wrapped in pork's intestine then fried." Chai explained.
"Those sounded weird and scary, are those stuff tasty?" Patrick asked.
"Yes! It is delicious. I felt like missing those now..." said chai while nibbling her croissant.
Patrick laughed at her.
"It felt like one croissant is not enough for you." He said.
"No, I'm fine." Chai said and smiled.
"Please let me taste that breakfast when I went to Manila, ok?" Patrick told her.
"Of course." Chai said.
Once done eating, they then tour around Florence and saw the beautiful architectural design of the city.
They went to Boboli Gardens to commune with the nature. They proceeded to Piazzale Michaelangelo and enjoyed the beautiful view of the city.
Chai stared at the beautiful city view in the deck.
"What can you say?" Patrick said.
"Sooo beautiful..." Chai mentioned in amazement.
Patrick looked at her intently.
Chai suddenly noticed it and looked back to Patrick.
"Why?" she asked.
"You always have me curious about you..." Patrick answered.
Chai looked at Patrick and smiled. She then again turned her head and look back in that wondrous city view right before her very eyes.