You Can Run To Me

Forty-Five

Maybe they weren't officially in a relationship just yet, but for all intents and purposes they were boyfriend and girlfriend. As if haunted by the way their first date had ended, Ephren toned down his ambitiousness on their next dates. Natalie didn't mind too much – it was much warmer for one. Besides, how could you really go one up on a secluded date in the woods (Natalie couldn't help but blush a little when the question crossed her mind, shortly followed by an answer)?

That was a point though; they still hadn't really done much more than kiss and touch a little so far. Natalie couldn't help but imagine that with most girls he'd have gone all the way from day one. She was mostly a little relieved, though, since they'd have to do it in one of their rooms. Maybe he'd actually intended it to go that way in the woods – not that Nat would have wanted them to. The grass might seem soft and the glade private, but that doesn't mean they'd have stayed that way.

The rumor mill had already decreed that they were official, and had more or less left it for old news as the end of the month drew near. Natalie, meanwhile, was pretty loath to be the first one to declare it a proper relationship, even as her friends rolled their eyes and insisted that the guy would never dare to be the first. She certainly wasn't about to tell her parents about them. Her parents. Who were at the other end of the line, patiently trying to get back her attention.

"Natalie? Yoo-hoo."

"Sorry, I... thought I saw a squirrel in the tree outside."

"There's a tree outside your window?" asked her mom at the same time her dad cried, "And was there one?"

Natalie paused a moment, trying to disentangle their jumbled sentences. "Sure there is, and no, there wasn't a squirrel. I think it was just a leaf or something."

"So, quoi de neuf?" asked her dad, unperturbed.

"What?"

"It's French," her mom sighed. "I told him to stop doing that, but I think he keeps forgetting." She glared at her husband almost angrily on the other end of the video call.

"It means, 'what's new'," he said, cheerfully ignoring his wife.

"Why were you speaking French anyway? What's got you all excited?" she asked with an instant twinge of regret at her phrasing.

Her mom gave him a look of concentrated acid, and then sweetened instantly as she turned to her daughter. "We were planning on telling you today, sweetie, but-"

"We're going to Paris!" her dad yelled, his voice going almost tinny for a moment. At Nat's wince he grimaced sheepishly, "Sorry."

"Umm..." said Natalie, not sure what to ask first.

"It's actually your dad's work. They want him to go over there for a week, and we figured we might as well make it into a little holiday, take a week off. His work doesn't really need him straight after, and you know how flexible mine is."

"Mom, you're self-employed."

"Exactly," she replied with a smile. "The only catch is..."

"It was really short notice and we can't take you out of college for this..."

"And we figured it would be a great chance for you to hang out with your friends..."

"Besides you never liked all that sight-seeing stuff really, did you?"

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"Well," said her mom around a nail, "We're kind of going to be in Paris during the Easter break."

Natalie's mouth was slightly ajar. Her parents were going to leave her behind when they went to Paris... and during one of her only holidays, too! If someone had tried telling her that an hour ago she'd have rolled her eyes and laughed. She tried to imagine what they'd say if she made a similar announcement. They'd be apoplectic, she was almost sure. This was insane. Compared to this, her having a boyfriend seemed positively tame. They were looking at her expectantly, and she was about 90% certain they were holding hands below the table they had the laptop sat on, waiting to see her reaction. She took another second to compose herself.