Page 82 of French Kiss

Epilogue

Nineteen MonthsLater

Paris - The Jules Verne Restaurant - Atop the Eiffel Tower

I’d climbedthe steps of Sacré Coeur. I’d taken the escalator up to the top of the Pompidou Center and sat on the terrace of Le Perchoir. I thought I’d seen the best views Paris had to offer.

I also thought I knew what love had to offer. And frankly, what I’d seen so far hadn’t impressed me very much. Or maybe what I’d experienced that vaguely resembled love wasn’t enough for me. My relationships had been fun and convenient and had kept me from feeling alone.

For a long time, that was all I wanted or needed. I thought maybe I’d never find more than that. Maybe love couldn’t provide more than that. It was okay, though, because I knew I’d have a promising career. I could fall in love with that. I could do a lot of good. My life would be full and orderly and predictable.

Was that what I wanted?

I thought about that idea as I looked at the people around me. I couldn’t have been more wrong when I’d thought planning was the key to my life.

So I picked up my story where I’d left off.

“I know this is a very long story, and I appreciate you humoring me while I explained everything. I felt like the details were important to make sense of how I ended up here. Now. This moment,” I said, looking around me and taking in the view from the roof deck.

Not a cloud marred the gorgeous blue sky, which was unusual for Paris. There was always a chance of rain.

Then I turned to Josh. He looked a little bit nervous, and even though my voice sounded shaky, I kept going.

“But then I fell hard for someone who blew up my whole dumb plan. And I’ve loved him every day since then. Because every day is different, and every sunset is worth watching and none of it is predictable. He made me stop trying to second-guess and control everything. He made me realize I could just trust. And suddenly, my load got a little lighter.” I looked at Heidi when I said that because I knew she understood. It was what she’d always said about her relationship with Karim back when I was convinced I was strong and independent enough never to depend on someone else.

She smiled. So did Karim, sitting next to her in the second row, behind my parents. Amrita and Shelby had flown in to meet us as well. All the people I loved in the world, in one place. My heart felt full.

Then I looked at Josh, the unbelievably handsome guy in a grey suit that made his eyes a deeper shade of grey-green. It had been less than two years since we’d met beneath the Eiffel Tower, and I couldn’t believe how happy I’d been every day since then. But I’d also wanted to come back to Paris and finally get to the top. It felt fitting as a destination for the two of us.

Maddox wasn’t there. No one knew what had happened to him since we graduated. It wouldn’t have been hard to track him down in his fellowship program, but I hadn’t bothered. He wasn’t the kind of guy who came to weddings.

When Josh had proposed to me a little over a year earlier, he didn’t give me a ring. He gave me a new version of the lock he’d bought me that day on the bank of the Seine river. This one was small platinum padlock with a diamond on the bottom, where the key would go. “No key,” he said.

“No need to unlock it,” I said.

I’d worn it on a necklace every day since, and I wore it on my wedding day, hanging down the front of my white silk slip dress, which admittedly was more casual than a lot of wedding dresses I’d seen. I’d tried the traditional dresses, a whole armful. But I didn’t like any of them.

So I bought the slip dress. It was perfect.

On the day I married my best friend, my favorite person in the world, I wasn’t about to wear something that didn’t feel comfortable. It was a step up from a hoodie and no makeup, so I felt like I was making progress. And I knew that the right guy would love me anyway.