The Girl In The Louvre - Chapter 10 Farewell 3

Putting away his phone that showed a call duration of twenty-three seconds he walked to the corner and hailed a taxi. After telling the driver, “41 Rue Des Ecoles S’il vous plat,” Julian relaxed in the back seat. Looking out the window in a daze her recalled the past few hours wondering if they had been a dream.

Seeing the park bench that he and Zhi Rou cuddled on while eating macarons he felt a strange emotion well up inside of him. Even in a city filled with lights, smells, noises, and people, he couldn’t help but feel alone.

The car slowly weaved through the streets of Paris before arriving at his hotel. After paying the driver, he somehow made his way up to his room. Laying down on his bed he quickly booked a flight to Vancouver, his mothers first test awaited him there, but he was too tired to think about anything at the moment.

***

After Zhi Rou left Julian, she joined her classmates in a shuttle going towards the Charles de Gaulle airport. Realizing that she was one of the last ones there she quickly scrambled to the back of the van before her teacher noticed and got mad at her for being late.

“What took you so long?” asked Jie Fang. “Or should I say who took you so long?” laughing, she got up and let Zhi Rou sit next to her. As soon as Zhi Rou sat down, Jie Fang started bombarding her with questions. “So did you guys kiss? I bet you did. Were the macarons good? Did you save any for me?”

Knowing that she wasn’t going to get out of this without getting Jie Fang something to eat she grabbed her bag and pulled out one of the boxes of macarons. “Okay, Okay, be quiet. If anyone else sees that we have so many macarons, we will have to share them with everyone,” said Zhi Rou looking like a little squirrel hoarding nuts.

Jie Fang’s eyes widened when she realized that the box was filled to the brim with tasty cakes. “What are you doing,” hissed Jie Fand quietly. “If you open those here everyone will smell them. Let’s open them later on the plane when we are all alone.” Jie Fang covered her face with her hand as she started to chuckle softly while thinking of all of those cakes.

“How many do you think is in there?” asked Jie Fang, drool practically dripping from her mouth.

Looking at her friend who was slowly growing crazy, Zi You felt incredibly happy. ‘She is someone who almost never gives up treats and yet she gave these up for me, all so I could stay with Julian by myself,’ thought Zhi Rou touched at her friend’s compassion. “There are fifty mini macarons, one of each type,” said Zhi Rou. “Julian thought that it would be unfortunate if you left France without even trying macarons and so he bought you a bunch of them.”

“Wow, that boy that you just picked up is amazing,” said Jie Fang in awe. “He even knew that I wanted to try every cake.” She was almost floating off the ground, her smile was so wide that her eyes made crescents.

They smiled at each other and patiently waited for their shuttle to reach the airport. When they got there they were rushed through the baggage check and security point. After a short wait, they boarded all the plane got into their seats.

When they were safely hidden from the view of their other classmates, Jie Fang and Zhi Rou secretly took out the package. The green box covered in a silvery blue ribbon was quickly dismantled by the two of them and the lid was quickly lifted off. “Oh, there is a letter,” Jie Fangs expression lit up again. “Your boyfriend sure is full of surprises.”

Zhi Rou was a little confused, when did he manage to slip a letter inside? Then she remembered running off towards the park and realized that he probably slipped it in then.

Putting away the letter that was addressed to, ‘Dear Jie Fang’, they finally saw the rows of different macarons “If there are only one of each type, what do we do?” asked Jie Fang with a confused expression. “Should we each have a bite of each one?”

Smiling, Zhi Rou laughed, “I knew you would ask that.” She reached back into her bag and pulled out a red box and with a golden ribbon.

“Wow, honestly I’m more surprised that your bag could fit them both without me noticing then the fact that he bought you a box too.”

Sticking out her tongue cutely, Zhi Rou opened her box. As she was pulling off the lid she noticed a golden envelope slipped inside.