Polar Opposites

Chapter 4

William
I watch Scarlett curl every strand of her hair before she bobby pins half of it back, leaving a vintage look to her. She puts on her makeup and swipes her red lipstick across her lips while making a perfect 'o' form with her mouth. I watch her steps into her cocktail dress and struggle with the zipper.
I glide over to her and zip it up from the small of her back to her shoulder blades, leaving goosebumps where my fingers brushed her skin.
She murmurs a 'thank you' and shakily slides into a pair of silver heels and grab a matching clutch from the vanity. She packs it with lipstick, pepper spray, and a small amount of bullets before wrapping a gun strap around her thigh and encasing a small handgun.
Her brow is furrowed in concentration during this whole process but when she looks up at me, she smiles. "You ready?" she asks. I nod and we leave the hotel room.
We drive to Guy Savoy in the stupid Nitro Scarlett picked out, though, I can't disagree with her reasoning.
As I drive, I notice her looking at the Eiffel Tower again with amazement clear in her expression. If I were not driving, I'd probably just watch her eyes light up at just the sight of it against the dark sky.
We pull up to the restaurant and a valet boy takes our car. I lead Scarlett in by the small of her back and hold two fingers up to the middle-aged man at the booth, hoping to not have to speak in French to anyone just yet.
He smiles and gestures for us to follow him, saying something I can't understand. I pull out Scarlett's chair for her and remove my suit jacket. The waiter is saying something to us in French, probably about the menu since he keeps gesturing to it, so I just smile and nod.
After he's gone, Scarlett giggles at me and shakes her head? "What?" I ask, opening the menu as if nothing happened. "How are you going to manage this trip?" she asks as if she's truly amazed I've made it this far. "With you," I smile at her and she smiles and turns her green eyes back to the menu. "You're something else," she mutters before snapping the menu shut,"I know what I want."
"I can't even read this damn thing," I tell her closing the menu and handing it to her to pick something out. "Shh," she laughs and looks around as if everyone heard,"just get what I'm having. It's basically a hamburger steak and it has spinach and mashed potatoes with it, okay? I'll order it for you."
She grabs my hand and gives it a light squeeze but doesn't let go, tracing small circles on the back of it as she looks at the Tower again in the large window we're seated next to. I have the time to watch her now but a young waitress interrupts.
"Hello-ah...I mean bonjour," she stammers, looking frustrated. "Oh, we're American, don't worry. And he didn't take French," Scarlett explains to her.
"Oh, thank The Lord. Ya'll don't understand, this is driving me insane," she laughs along with Scarlett who gives her an understanding nod. "Can I get you two anything to drink?" she asks.
Scarlett orders a glass of Moscato and a water while I order some draft beer that I can't pronounce, hoping it'll be good. "We could order our food right now, also," Scarlett tells her opening up the menu and telling her our choice.
The waitress takes our menus and leaves us be for a while. "Would you like to go to the Eiffel Tower, tonight?" I ask Scarlett, taking both of her hands in mine. I rub my thumb over her left ring finger where Lamar gave her a wedding band and an engagement ring to wear to play the part.
"Are you serious?" she gasps with a smile,"Tonight?" I nod and chuckle as she looks back at it before turning her attention fully to me as if she's now certain that the Tower will stay exactly where it is without her supervision.
"Tonight is our night," I tell her. She blushes and smiles slightly at the table before the waitress brings her her wine and her glass of water. "Your beer will be right out, sir," she assures me.
Scarlett is absentmindedly playing with the rings on her finger, spinning them around. "Having second thoughts about our marriage there, Scar?" I joke. She laughs and says,"Oh no! It was quite wondrous, don't you think?" I laugh at the same fake British accent she acquires when she talks about a fictional elegant event. "Oh, yes. The flowers smelled so fruitful!" I add, though my accent is never as well spoken as hers.
She giggles at my efforts, but them turns serious. "Do you think we'll find him?" she asks after a few silent moments. "Who?" I ask her, completely forgetting the mission. "Henry Lawson," she answers in a low voice.
I think about this for a second. It always feels like this when we first start a case. We never know any more than a few details which leaves the mystery of exactly what we are to do in the air above our heads.
"I don't know," I tell Scarlett,"We've only not caught two criminals. Let's hope he's not our third." This is true. Once, when we were in Brazil, we never found a terrorist who had killed a large group of people at a soccer match. He was believed to have escaped to Iraq and we never heard a word about him again. Another time, we accidentally shot a criminal thinking that he was a bodyguard of said criminal. Only twice did we not bring back a target.
"I think we just have to try our hardest," I tell her.
Scarlett
I sip my wine and look at William. For some reason, I feel something different about him. Like he's not just the same William who has been my partner for four years. Almost like he's a completely new person.
I take his hand again as I look out at the busy streets but to touch him feels foreign, an electric feeling. As I look out of the large window draped in beige curtains on either side, I feel his eyes on me and I feel like he feels different, too.
The waitress eventually brings us our food and we dig in. The steak is exactly how I like it; I'm very picky about how it's cooked. Will likes it to be medium rare but I like medium well. He thinks mine are always too cooked.
"Is yours good?" Will asks as he scoops up a small portions of his spinach. They laced the spinach with nutmeg and a mixture of shredded Parmesan and seasoning. "It's very good," I answer, taking a portion of my own spinach.
We eat in silence for a few minutes as we enjoy the succulence of the steak and the flavor of the potatoes and spinach but the gentle hum of the different candlelit tables around us fill
in the silence.
After we finish eating, the waitress comes back to ask us about dessert. Before we order, I begin to hand her my plate and she gasps,"Oh wow! That is a beautiful ring...you did good,"she tells Will, catching him off guard and making him nearly choke on his beer. "Thank you," he smiles awkwardly, wiping his mouth with his napkin. "Are you two newly-weds?"she asks further. I nod and answer little questions she has like: 'How are we adjusting so far?' and 'What was the wedding like?' I do all the talking while Will nods and murmurs an agreement when necessary.
Once we're done talking about the nonexistent wedding, I tell the waitress to surprise us with dessert before she takes our plates away. She returns a few minutes later with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of a dark chocolate brownie, the combination drizzled in hot fudge.
"This looks amazing," Will tells her. "On the house for the beautiful newly-weds," she smiles at us. I feel a pang of guilt but smile back, deciding that I'll leave her a large tip. She leaves our receipt booklet on the table and scurries away.
After she leaves, Will sighs,"I almost felt like telling her the truth." I chuckle and nod an agreement before eating my desert. Will scarfs his down and sits back. I finish mine a few moments later and begin to fish out 15 euros from my clutch.
"This will be her tip," I tell him, placing it at the base of the candle holder beside the window. He nods and pulls out his Visa credit card to pay for dinner. Normally, I would reject and try to pay half but this time, I'm broke.
I decide to go ahead and hand the waitress her tip when she returns. She smiles and thanks us a couple of times before taking the booklet and wishing us luck when she tells us goodbye. Will slides his card into his wallet and stands up to put on his black suit jacket.
"Ready to go?" he asks me. "Yes," I almost squeal as he takes my hands and leads me out.
William
I grow nervous as I drive her to the tower. I realize that as soon as we hit the top, any truth could come out and it could ruin this trip or it could make it.
Scarlett grabs my hand and squeals as begin to near the Tower. I grab her hand and rub it as I pull into a nearby parking lot.
After we get out of the Nitro, noticing her shiver,I drape my jacket over Scarlett's shoulders.
Scarlett beams as we walk to the base of the Eiffel Tower to board an elevator. I pay the attendant and lead her in, but her smile fades as we start to ascend.
I wrap my arm around her tensed up body as the elevator shakes almost as violently as the plane. "It's really old, Scar. That's all," she nods her head but continues to be tensed until we get off at the first landing.
"I'm taking you to the top," I whisper in her ear, not skipping a beat to pay the next attendant and board the next elevator. With each new landing and elevator, Scarlett gets more and more tensed.
I hold her tighter and tighter each time until we finally make it to the top. "Oh wow," she gasps as we walk to the railing. The whole top is caged in but it doesn't even come close to taking away the beauty of the land below.
I find myself in awe at the scene around me and look for the same expression of Scarlett's face to see tears streaming down her cheeks. "I never thought I'd be up here," she tells me with a voice full of gratitude.

For once, I notice the details about Scarlett. I notice the small pock marks on her elbow, the small scar on her forehead where she ran into the corner of a cabinet when she was a kid, and I notice the little scratches on her finger where she's always getting into something dangerous like trying to make a scrapbook or fixing appliances by herself. I notice the small crinkles beside her eyes where she's always smiling and I notice the small gold specks in her green eyes.

"Scarlett," I begin to step towards her but surprising me, she take my face in her soft hands and kisses me. I freeze at first before kissing her back, shaping my lips to hers. She lets go and hugs me, not giving me enough time to understand what happened. I feel the electricity coarse through my body as I lift her chin up from my shoulder to give her a second, softer kiss.
This time, the electricity runs deeper, feeling every ounce of my body. She's no longer crying when I look at her and instead she's giggling. "You have red on your lips, now,"she tells me, blushing.
I take out a Kleenex from my pocket and lick it before rubbing it across my mouth. Scarlett's lips still look perfect but she's looking at me with an expression I've never seen.
"Let's go back to Castille," she states simply, grabbing my hand. And I follow her, with hunger in my mind.