1.2 | Je T'aime Encore ✓

03 | i spy

03

i s p y

After reaching France, Anita felt like she slept for too long into the morning. She woke up at 10:30, and realized with a start that she might miss the noon reservation to the lunch place they were going to. Her first day here, and she already overslept.

Fuck.

Anita jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom, managing to shower and brush her teeth in 15 minutes, which was a record for her. She then ran to her suitcase to get her outfit, and hastily threw on a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt. But then, she remembered that Ms. Laurent told her specifically to dress up nice, so she changed into a knee-length plain black dress and a white blazer which she had planned to wear to the gallery before applying pink lipstick and grabbing her clutch.

As she hastily ran out of the room door, she checked her phone and saw she still had 10 minutes to get to the reservation and sighed in relief.

But, after calling an Uber and having to wait for 3 minutes, Anita began to stress she wouldn't get there on time.

She knew that her teacher would be downright furious if Anita came late. And she also didn't want her partner to think she was a slob and a late one, that too.

That wouldn't be good.

She reached the plaza they were supposed to meet at, and hurried through the crowd, muttering apologies as she bumped into people, trying to use her best French accent. She was also silently praying that none of them had any liquids that could be spilled on her jacket, like coffee, soda or whatever French people drink this early in the morning.

While walking through the crowd, she checked her watch to see what time it was. It was 11:57, so Anita has enough time to hurry to get to the restaurant which was only a block away.

But, that split second was enough for Anita to bump into someone. She started to apologize when she felt liquid drip down her jacket.

Slowly, she stopped and stared at her jacket in shock. When you're in a foreign country, you try to speak the language as well as you can and avoid your mother tongue, so you don't seem like an over-excited tourist. But in some cases, like when anger consumes you at the fact that some idiot just spilled coffee on you, you tend to forget that rule.

"You freaking idiot!" Anita screeched still staring at her blazer. "This is new! I can't show up to my meeting like this! I'm going to leave such a bad impression on my new partner!" Anita fumed, while digging through her purse for a napkin, still not looking at the person's face.

"I'm sorry!" The deep baritone vote responded with a light accent. "I wasn't looking where I was going and I bumped into you, and-"

"Wait," Anita said, looking up from her purse to stare at the person in front of her, who was staring back in equal confusion and shock as she faced them. "Leon?"