The New Boy- Completed

Fourteen

"I don't think this is the healthiest breakfast." He chuckled, yet pulling one of the macarons from the box.

"Oh and bread is? We're on holiday. Chill out." I sipped my coffee, looking up at the tower before us. 

"I'm not complaining. I just-" 

"Didn't think I'm the kind of girl who eats breakfast?" He looked at me, rolling his eyes knowing I had clocked him "Breakfast over here is literally the best meal. Pastries, fresh bread, amazing jams, biscuits and cookies. I'd skip every other meal just to eat Parisian breakfast daily."

"These are really good." He took another and I smiled. 

"Told you. There's a little bakery down from the hotel that does the best fresh bread on earth. If you're lucky I'll show you it whilst we're here." 

"Have you tasted every bread?" 

"Every single bread from every single shop and bread maker in the whole world." I nodded, laughing. "Nothing compares to this place. The coffee is mediocre mind but we can get the bread and go to a better coffee place down the road and eat like this." 

"Are you planning a date for us Freya?" He raised his eyebrows, a huge smirk covering his face as I almost choked on my coffee, a deep laugh breaking from him as I held my hand over my chest.

"No. I most definitely am not." 

"Sounds like a date to me." 

"Fine. No bread for you. And no more Macarons either." I closed the box standing up from the wall we were sat on. 

"Okay! Okay, Okay. Not a date. Just don't take away the cookies away." I rolled my eyes, handing him the box and he smiled again. "Sit down." 

"No, you think this is a date too don't you?" 

"No. You said it's not." 

"It's not." 

"Then sit down and eat something. I want to go to this little museum I found online  but I don't understand most of the translations so I need my French expert to come with me and she can't do that if she's dead from starvation." He pushed the box in my direction, forcing me to take another and sit down. 

"Which museum?" I brought one leg up onto the wall, turning to see him better. 

"Carnavalet museum. It's like an old mansion filled with art and French history. Thought it would be right up both of our streets. Some of the rooms are decorated like a palace and they look breathtaking in photos." 

Evan pulled his phone out, handing it to me and swiping through some screenshots he'd saved. I'd been to most of the many museums here. This one must have skipped the list or maybe I thought I'd already been so I'd missed it. I hadn't been either way. 

"They've got a new exhibition too that only opened a few months ago. There's not many details about it online but it looks like a French royal history thing." I nodded, cool and collected. Distant relatives. Very very distant. Probably no resemblance at all. I'll check the room first. Be fine. 

"Sounds good." I handed him his phone back as we stood up and started walking in that direction. 

It wasn't far away. 15 minute walk if that from where we were. It was still early, only 9am but the streets were pretty busy. I put the last of the Macarons in my bag over my shoulder, holding my cup close so I didn't spill it. 

"Did you remember your meds this morning?" My eyes widened as his back pressed against me and he whispered in my ear. We were stood in a crowd at the crossing so it's not even like I could move. I nodded and felt him wrapping his hand around mine. "I don't want to loose you in the crowd. I need you at the museum." I could feel my cheeks burning hot as he stood up. God I must look so weird. Stood here, eyes like an owl with some stranger as close to me as possible, holding my hand and blushing like childhood crush just kissed me on the cheek. 

He didn't drop my hand for even a second the whole walk there. In all fairness, neither did I. I didn't even loosen my grip on him. I kept looking down at it as we walked; not knowing what to do.  It felt nice. His hand in mine felt natural. The perfect fit. 

"How did you learn French so well? I struggle so bad with any languages." 

"French?" I smiled as we started walking through. "That was Sterling. His mum is French so he taught me when we were little." 

"You say that like you speak more?" He pushed his hand into mine and I had to manually remember to breathe. This was definitely feeling like a date right now. 

"Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, I do sign language too." He stood still just look at me with a blank face. "Oh! German. I speak German too. And I know some Latin but not a lot. I hated Latin classes." 

"What school did you go to where you can fluently speak 5 languages and dabble in 2 more." He laughed. 

"A posh one." I nodded, grinning for him. 

"Clearly." He shook his head as we started walking again. "Fucking Latin?" 

"Well yeah. I mean, most languages, the words come from Latin. It's one of the oldest languages in the world so many common words come from it. Etcetera, Rigor Mortis, Vice Versa. Those are just a few, but there's so many that we use daily." 

"Interesting." He smiled like he was fascinated with the words coming out of my mouth. "Teach me something." 

"Now?" 

"Yeah." He nodded quickly pulling me to the side of the room. "Anything." 

"I don't know much." 

"Literally anything." He smiled as he leaned against the wall on his shoulder. 

"Okay, um-" I sighed "Vino veritas." 

"Vino Veritas?" 

"Yeah." I nodded, smiling. 

"What does that mean?" 

"In wine there is truth." I giggled and he laughed. "The phrase carries on something about w=in water there is good sense or good health or something. I like the wine bit though." 

"Me too." The hand that wasn't in mine, reached out, landing softly on my hip. "Teach me something else." I smiled.

"Okay so there's Carpe Diem right, seize the day. But mine and Sterling's favourite is Carpe Vinum." 

"What does that mean? Seize-" 

"Seize the wine." I giggled and he laughed loudly. 

"Is everything you know wine related?" 

"Pretty much yeah." I nodded. "I was 17 okay? We were snobby kids who stole their parents wine, not the spirits. Wine was the drink. Even now when we're drinking someone will just start shouting in Latin and it sounds like something being shouted to raise a demon from the outer circle of hell."