Last Kiss in Paris

Chapter 21 - Third Wheelers for Life

Suggested Song: You Need to Calm Down by Taylor Swift
So oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh
You need to calm down, you're being too loud
And I'm just like oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh (oh)
You need to just stop
Like can you just not step on my gown?
You need to calm down

—

Amrisha was quiet as she sat in the back of the car with Pierre, the bodyguard at the wheel and Madame Choux riding shotgun. "Hey," Pierre said putting his hand over hers. "It'll be alright. Sébastien may not act it, but he's smart. He'll be ok."
"Yeah," Amrisha said, resigned. "But it's just, you know, he's such a nice guy and doesn't deserve to have to go through all this. It's even worse than what Alek has faced."
"I know," Pierre agreed. They rode in silence for several minutes before he spoke again. "He's very good, isn't he? At acting."
"He is great," Amrisha agreed. Before they had left Sébastien had read out a part of his audition script, and it had captivated her. "I hope he gets the Sherlock role."
"Yeah, definitely." Pause. "You like him don't you? Sébastien, I mean."
Amrisha was temporarily caught off-guard. "Well, yeah, I like him, he's a great person," she saw Pierre's expression, and added quickly, "but not in that way, you know." Pierre still didn't look convinced, so Amrisha took Pierre's hand. "Pierre, you are the most amazing person I've ever met. I don't care about your acting or anything, but I care about you. Sébastien and Ben and Alek and the others, I'll worry about them yes, but I'll only ever like them as my friends. But you make me feel a different way. I like you, but it's more than that. I think I- I-" Pierre cut her off by putting his fingers to her lips. Amrisha gulped as she realised what she was almost about to say, then glanced nervously at the rear view mirror, where she could see Madame Choux's beady eyes.
"I understand," Pierre said simply, his fingers still lingering on her mouth. "I'm sorry, of course you can worry for others, I'm not gonna be that jealous type. It was just a spur of the moment. Look, we'll talk about this later, ok?"

*

Amrisha and Pierre didn't have time to talk privately once they had reached the hotel, as they were immediately forced to join the selfie hunt competition as part of afternoon activities. Johnson placed the two in a team with Davis and Sophie, the latter who was immensely relieved to have a distraction from Davis yakking her ears off. All the groups were congregated in the lobby, clutching their clue envelopes, as Johnson read out the rules. He started the timer, and the groups quickly began to disperse.

"Tu peux manger le goûter ici," was the first prompt on their piece of paper.
"That's easy, the café," answered Pierre.
"Omg hurry up guys," Davis called dramatically, already halfway up the grand staircase that led to Level 2. "We need to beat Buvhi's team and win the prize, come on!"
"Oh boy," Sophie made eye contact with Amrisha and both girls rolled their eyes. "This is gonna be interesting."

The next sixty minutes consisted of the four running up and down the hotel and lots of drama. First, Davis was kicked out of Level 8 by security after mistaking the deluxe private suites for the Level 5 budget rooms. Then, he ditched the group and went up to the adult's club on Level 10 and the casino on Level 11 before the others tracked him down and told him his selfies taken were not valid unless the whole group was in it, which wasted a good 10 minutes. Next, Davis and Pierre got into a fistfight after Pierre insisted on getting some food at the café. "If you don't let me eat I think I'll die!" Pierre lamented. "Just let me grab like two apples and I'll be back."
"Never!" Davis fired back. "We already wasted too much time when you guys were too dumb to figure out the casino clue and I had to come back to get you."
"Excuse me," Amrisha began, but the two boys had already started fighting. She tried with much effort to break them apart, but luckily Sophie had darted to the café before the fighting began and came back with muffins to settle the fight. After running to the atrium and then the spa, the group found themselves with three minutes left to complete the final task. They hurried to the pool deck and looked around, but it was deserted.
"Are we sure we got this one right?" Amrisha asked aloud. "Does it mean 'Far below the water?' "
"Yes yes I figured this one out ages before y'all. Throw me your waterproof phone Amrisha," Davis said eagerly, already stripping off his sweater and unbuckling his belt. "Since you all are phonies just stick your faces in the water and I'll swim under to take the selfie. It'll be the same."
"Ew what the heck!?" Sophie grabbed Davis' arm, wrinkling her nose. "I don't think it literally means we have to take a photo inside the pool!"
"Guys!" Pierre gestured frantically as he leaned over the deck rail and peered down. "I think the clue meant 'below' as levels below the pool, not actually in the pool. Hurry, Buvhi's team is already there." Davis let out a girlish squeal of frustration and pushed Amrisha aside as he lunged towards the steps to the outdoor bar, his pants almost falling down.
Sophie groaned for the hundredth time. "Can that guy please stop embarrassing us?"