The Girl In The Louvre - Chapter 3 A Chance Meeting 3

“That is unfortunate, maybe I could take you sometime when you are in Paris again?” said Julian, although he did not look like he truly thought it was unfortunate, instead he looked like he was planning how to get her to go there with him.

Zhi Rou looked excited, with her soft lips subconsciously raising into a soft smile. “I would love that,” she said looking once again into he eyes. It only took her a moment though for her to realize that she would probably never be coming back to Paris, or even to France for that matter. At least not until she was ready for going to university at which time he probably would have long forgotten her. Feeling a sharp pain in her heart she grew bewildered. ‘Am I really this upset about never seeing Julian again?’ she thought while keeping her head down. ‘I just met him a few moments ago, so why do I care so much?’

“Hey Zhi Rou and Jie Fang, look to the right. That is the Winged Victory of Samothrace,” said Julian while looking at the statue. “It is really amazing what you can walk past in Paris without even noticing.”

“Wow, it is incredible, I really have no idea how someone could have created that sculpture that long ago,” said Zhi Rou in awe. “I mean, how hard would it be to carve that marble with that precision without any of our modern day technology.”

Jie Fang grabbed her arm and pulled her forwards. “Hurry up, I and see the Monalisa so we can go and get food afterwards.” Considering the amount of time that they had taken so far they wouldn’t have that much time to have a snack.

“Okay, okay, slow down I was just looking for a little bit,” said Zhi Rou while stumbling along.

“So, is your art department really important in your school?” asked Julian while following the two girls. “I’m just asking because there is no way that we could fly to Paris and stay here for a couple of days to look at art in my school.”

“Yeah, the school that we go to is mostly about the arts, especially canvas paintings and sculptures,” replied Zhi Rou. “It is sort of like a school for aspiring artists.”

“That is really cool, does that mean that you guys get to learn about painting every day instead of doing English or mathematics homework?” asked Julian. “Or do you still have to do all of the homework but it is just not as much as regular school and most of your day is spent on learning about art?”

“The later, we do all of our normal studies but they are not as important nor taught as in-depth as our art studies,” said Zhi Rou while struggling to find something to talk about. “Where are you from? You speak perfect English but I can’t really tell where your accent is from, is it Canadian?”

“Yes, haha you got it on your first try well done. It is just that I have been out of the country for almost two years now and so my original accent is not that thick. It only takes one phone call with my friends back in Canada to get it back though,” he said while laughing. As they were talking they approached the last flight of stairs before the Monalisa.

Imagining Julian standing outside in Canada with snowflakes gently falling onto him made her blush and feel a little light headed. When she was about half way up the stairs she misjudged her step and started falling backwards. It happened so fast that she only felt the faint feeling of weightlessness before hitting something. ‘Oh,’ she thought ‘that didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would’. Shaking her head to clear her dizziness she smelt the nostalgic smell of fresh pine needles.

“Are you alright?” Julian asked from underneath her. His hand still wrapped around her waist and his aching back slowly sitting up from the cold hard marble. “You should really look where you are going because I won’t always be there to catch you, that is unless you deiced to take me up on my offer and marry me.” His eyes once again carried that mischievous twinkle from the first time he caught her but for a second, they seemed to flash with a rare trace of seriousness. ‘If you marry me I will always be there to hold you in my arms when you fall and push you back up’ thought Julian.