Inglourious Romance

Venus in Blue Jeans

Their wonderful experiences didn’t end that night. The entire week, Christoph and Amaya shared pleasant and romantic adventures together. They saw parts of Vienna that Amaya didn’t know existed. They went to restaurants, visited landmarks, and went to secret places that only a native of Vienna would know. He showed her the most spectacular spots to watch the sunset. They watched as the sky transitioned from a myriad of beautiful colors until fading to dark, navy blue lit only by the moon and stars in the distance. They made tender love every night, and Christoph proved to Amaya with each passing day that he loved her with all of his heart and that he wanted nothing more than to please her. Through all of this, Christoph couldn’t have been happier. He wondered if, by some cosmic anomaly, they were always meant to be together. 

Christoph decided one day to take Amaya down to the famed Sacher Hotel to have lunch, coffee, and a slice of sachertorte, the namesake and one of the most famous confections in Austria. Sachertorte essentially was a two layer chocolate cake with apricot preserves in between the layers. The cake was glazed with chocolate, and an authentic sachertorte had an edible chocolate piece that was stamped with “Hotel Sacher: Wein” and served with a dollop of handmade whipped crème.

Every bite of the Sachertorte Amaya shared with Christoph was delicious and melted in her mouth, and Christoph seemed to enjoy watching her indulge for the first time in a dessert made famous in his country. He was honored to have introduced and witnessed many firsts for Amaya, and he had no doubt that she would have several photo albums to fill when she got home. Already her website abounded with pictures from her many trips, and several of them were pictures of the two together.

The more time that Christoph spent with Amaya, the more in love he fell with her. They were meant to meet and be together, he decided, and he was starting to see himself having a future with her. He wondered whether it would be the right time to take Amaya to meet his family, to do that this week or to hold off until he came back for the holidays. But the holidays were such a long way off. He had already mentioned her to his mother, but he hadn’t made any plans to take her to meet his family. He didn’t want to overwhelm her or make her feel awkward. At the same time, he wondered whether she would want to spend Christmas in Austria with him. From what he understood, she had a close family, and he figured she would want to spend her Christmas with them. Would she want her family to meet him as well?

For now, Christoph held off on planning anything for the holidays. At the moment, he was content to simply show her around as much of Vienna as he could in his week spent with her. He decided that the aloneness with her after spending so many months of limited time was more paramount than visiting his family, whom he could see at any time. Cannes was coming up quickly, and so were the premieres. If the film made a huge impact on his career, then the moments spent alone with her would be rare; he wanted to capture as much of their time together as he possibly could.

Their time in Vienna was nearing to a close, and it saddened Christoph immensely. He knew that she would soon have to leave to return to the United States, yet he wanted her to accompany him to the Berlin premiere and possibly to Cannes if she could swing it. He would have loved for her to come to all of the premieres, but he knew that she had to return to her job at some point and begin working on a new project.

On their last night in Vienna, Christoph decided that he wanted to take Amaya to one of the nicest restaurants in town. He had promised himself when he stood with her atop the Eiffel Tower that he would show her the world. He wanted to spoil her and treat her in a way that no man had ever treated her before. She deserved nothing but the best, to be exposed to elegance and treated like his queen.

He had chosen a quiet restaurant called Steirereck, Austria's only double Michelin-starred restaurant. It was located in the beautiful Stadtpark, which would be the perfect setting for a romantic evening. In preparation for their night out, he bought Amaya a nice little black A-line dress she could wear on their occasion and a pair of high heels. Then he whisked his pretty little queen away for the most enchanting evening he could muster.