MY BEST ADDICTION

Chapter 9

“We are not going in for the rest of the week. They decided to give us the week to rest so work starts on Monday”, he said moving me more into his embrace.
‘Being familiar with the boss can be helpful and interesting at times’, I thought falling back asleep.
“Penelope wake up”, I heard drowsily and tried to fall back asleep but I had a sudden urge to visit the washroom that I jumped from the bed and rushed to the washroom to relieve myself.
“Finally awake?’, I heard from the door when I came back from the washroom.
“Go get ready, we have somewhere to go to”, he
continued when I ignored and tried to get back to bed to sleep. I pouted because I was still sleepy but felt giddy and excited when what he said finally registered in my mind.
“Where?”, I asked going over to him with excitement written all over my face. He looked at me amused but I didn’t mind because the thought of roaming around Paris, the city of love, was enough to drive the embarrassment I felt away. I always wanted to travel there one day but never got the chance, so I decided to have fun the whole day till I felt satisfied enough.
“Go get ready and you will find out”, he said dismissively and passed by me into his room.
“That’s not fair, but okay”, I grumbled and left to my room to get ready.
In about an hour’s time, we left the hotel and hailed a taxi for our outing.
We started by going to the Eiffel Tower and I seriously freaked out. I was standing at the topmost floor of the popular Eiffel Tower with the person I felt most attracted to and I didn’t know if I wanted anything more. You could imagine the joy I felt as a hopeless romantic being with him at one of the most romantic places in the world. I felt elated that no one cared I was with my boss on a somewhat date. We looked around the city seeing many buildings and people and laughed more than I ever had throughout my vacation. We took a lot of pictures as memories and left to the Louvre Museum. I saw many arts and felt happy that I could see some of the most talked about arts in the world. We spent less time there and spent even less time at the other attractions because we had a lot of places to go and less time for them since we had only that day till the weekend as our free days.
On Sunday he asked me to get ready since we were going out that evening. I felt excited that we weren’t done with our outing in the city. I slept the whole day and woke up at 6 pm to get ready for our dinner. I heard a knock just as I had finished with everything and left with a handsomely dressed Seth who made me feel self-conscious. We went with a casual but elegant look for this outing but he still looked deliciously handsome that I felt happy to be by his side and almost felt possessive of him not wanting anyone to feast their eyes on him. I wanted him all to myself.
“You look beautiful”, he commented.
“Same to you”, I said but stopped when I realized what I said.
“I didn’t mean you are beautiful, I meant to say you’re handsome”, I said blushing, not looking at him.
“Calm down, I’m not going to eat you”, he said laughing at me. We went out and saw Alfred waiting for us in the car. We greeted each other and sat in the back seat and Alfred drove us to the foot of the Eiffel Tower. We had passed by that place earlier during our outing the previous days so I felt more comfortable but got confused because I didn’t know what we were doing there. Seth explained what we were doing there, assured me that everything was okay and led us to board the Bateaux Parisiens Seine River Gourmet Dinner & Sightseeing Cruise. It felt surreal at first but I got used to it by the time we had been showed to our table by the window for easy sightseeing. We were served wine whiles we selected our foods from the menu presented to us.
“Are you okay?’, he asked when I tightened my hand into a fist and held it in his. I guess I was a little shaken when the cruise started moving.
“Yeah”, I answered smiling at him relishing the warmth of his hand that I pouted when his hand left mine upon the arrival of our food. We enjoyed the vocal and instrumental styling of the on-board musicians whiles we enjoyed our food. We passed by the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum and other attractions and felt awed by what I saw. If seeing those attractions in the day made me happy then seeing them basked in the evening lights made me dumbfounded. It felt magical that I wanted the time to stop so I could savour the moment more but all good things must come to an end. After the dinner we stepped out into the open-air deck for a breath of fresh evening air and once again got immersed in the romance of the City of Lights.
“Are you happy?”, he asked coming closer to stand behind me. He embraced me from behind and I subconsciously leaned into him.
“I am very happy. Thank you very much”, I said turning around to face him. I placed a kiss on his cheek leaving him surprised. I giggled at his reaction but before I could enjoy his reaction more, he kissed me. It wasn’t the kiss we usually shared when driven by our desires, this kiss was slow, as if now learning about our lips, and wanted to take our time savouring it. It felt romantic and sensual in a way and I loved every bit of it. The trip ended back at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and we got off in a joyous mood hoping the rest of the days were going to be as joyous as this day. We walked around for a while waiting for Alfred to come back for us, and got some ice cream and snacks for my midnight struggles. He arrived after a while and drove us back to the hotel. Upon reaching the hotel we bid him goodnight and went to our rooms to rest for work the next day.   
If I thought work at our home company was tiring, then work here was hell. Taking care of a new company is harder than it looks and tiring even though we had an advantage of having a good reputation in the international market. On the first day we had to meet new clients and get them to sign with us and missed our lunch. We drove to a nearby restaurant and had our lunch and later continued working. I bet I would have lost weight and get Haven over my head talking about not taking care of myself. After work, Alfred drove us back to the hotel and drove back to his home.
I went to my room and called Haven since we hadn’t spoken in a while.
“Hello”, she said when she answered. “It’s been awhile. I thought the hot guys in Paris had got all your attention and you had forgotten all about us”, she said feigning sadness causing me to roll my eyes.
“I’m sorry okay, I’m sorry, I’ve just been busy”, I apologized. “I’ll get a hot guy's number for you when I come back okay”, I said trying to appease her and I guess it worked because she went back to her cheerful nature. We talked for a while and hang up so I could have enough rest for work the next day.  
Work became much bearable after some few days that I had enough time to get to know my colleagues. Staying away from my colleagues in our country taught me about the heart of people that I decided to at least get to know some of my colleagues before I left to go back home.
“Are you busy this evening?”, Seth asked one Friday after work.
“No, is there any problem?”, I asked seeing him feel anxious for a reason. He didn’t even look that nervous the day we went out for the dinner. I smiled inwardly feeling happy for no reason.
“No, it’s just that there is a movie showing this evening and I wanted to know if you would want to accompany me’,
“Ah, I see. Come to think of it, I do have a date with this handsome fellow I met today”, I said seriously, looking for a reaction from him.
“Oh, I guess I’m late then. Well have a good night then”, he said and turned to leave. I giggled at how cute he looked being disappointed by my news.
“Where are you going to? Aren’t you going to wait to see who it is?”, I said trying to get his attention but he continued on as if he didn’t hear me talk to him.
“Are you that in a hurry to get ready for our date?”, I shouted to him to which he stopped and turned to face me looking surprised at what I said. I knew he heard me earlier.