Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris

I stand gaping at the name, all my thoughts blurring into unknown. The cold seeps into my warm clothes and with each breath, I exhale more and more vapour. Suddenly as a loud horn is blown, I jump right at the place I stand and turning around, I notice the egoistic stranger and the driver glaring my way. Realising swiftly that I still haven't pulled my little luggage out because all my life never did I have to do anything of that sort, I rush to grab the same which was resting in the backseat but too late, because the impudent stranger flings the same out of the window and now it is on the cold, cold ground.

"Hey?" I shout immediately, pulling up the straps of the bag.

"You're welcome" That's all he says before the cab slowly fades into the dark of this chilly night.

Mixed in the fog and smoke as he is gone carried by the rush of the wind for good, I still find myself foolishly staring at the empty street. This sure gives me the feel of an epilogue but I know this in my heart that it is just the beginning of an unknown story.

My bags are soon taken care of by the hotel staffs and leaning on the reception desk, I fill in my details. The bellboy takes me to my room i.e. 401 and as much as I am in awe the moment I set my foot in, I don't forget to tip him generously. He keeps educating me about few of the things I'll be needing during my stay and how to access them, but I tell him I will help myself.

Drawing the thick drapes to one side of the huge glass window, I gasp at the breathtaking view I am getting from the room. The fog not only covers the city lights but also bathes the moonlight in it too and the starry wintry night mutes my roaring thoughts for some time. From the balcony, I am told by the receptionist that the view of Eiffel Tower is spectacular but I am too tired right now to even have a glimpse, probably because I am not here on a vacation but to escape.

The long flight has gifted me this terrible jet lag and throwing myself on the bouncy, extra soft bed, I still miss my own goddamn mattress. Heaven knows when the cream walls start fading out from my vision and I lose myself at the call of a much needed sleep.

✿

Waking up, I look around but I am too pale in the heart to pull myself out of bed. Sleeping till the noon, I decide it's high time I embrace some hygiene and with a quick steamy shower, I plan on calling for the room service. The thought strikes me again and again that I must get a local sim and contact my parents or at least, turn the device on and connect it to the hotel wifi, in case my parents have messaged me anything but I am being such a coward right now.

The rest of the day pretty much goes the same with me tossing and turning on the bed under the comfortable duvet, switching on and off the television, calling in room services, beating myself up and repeat all of these over again.

The next morning, I am sipping on my hot chocolate from this huge mug and staring at the foggy scenario from my glassed window. I swear, the outside world must feel the coldest I have ever experienced. The trees are leafless, their trunks of a darkish grey colour and to the farther most I can see, the snow covers the region. However, the upcoming Christmas and New Year's spirit can be felt even from up here. What I learnt from the weather reading is that today it'll be below zero and that explains the rare sunshine.

But, I make up my mind to get a new sim card in order to end the tyranny from both the sides and thus, here I am pressing the zero on the elevator. The cold crawls in even through my woollen gloves and I immediately want to hibernate again.

"Uh..hi." Awkwardly approaching the receptionist, I try to be specific. "Where can I buy a local sim card from?"

"Good morning, madam. We usually offer a complimentary sim card to the boarders after verifying a few details but this service is currently unavailable this festive season. I can recommend you to some stores nearby where you can get what you want." I nod. "Oh and also, you may want to check this out once?"

My attention is caught in the Christmas decorations but as the receptionist offers me a huge folded paper, I take it politely. It consists of a complete itinerary with a city map of what to do during the holidays in Paris. I don't plan on doing any of the things mentioned in the list, but I keep it anyway, just in case.

Walking out of the hotel, I immediately abuse the skin-tearing cold and wish I were wearing three more layers of warm clothings. My pompom beanie doesn't seem to do it's job as supposed to but there is nothing I can do until I buy that damn sim. Pushing open the door to a local departmental store nearby, I am immediately relieved by the heat inside. Ignoring the Christmas rush and the music and the staffs dressed in Santa caps, I make my way to buy a certain essentials.

With a paper bag filled with a couple of stuffs and a sim card pack in my hand, I decide to go somewhere open to be daring enough to make that call and not within the four walls of the hotel room thinking of which is already giving a panic attack. There is local park nearby and I find myself a nice, comfortable bench to sit on.

The sim card is inserted, the number is typed but the only thing keeping me away from my parents is the call button.

There are people around, happy people but I am cold to my core. Everything should have been perfect. Paris to me, should have been perfect. This day should have been perfect. Someone should have been with me waking up together in the silvery rays of the morning. We should have been roaming the streets of this city of love like lovesick tourists and when we would have gone to the Eiffel Tower, the top of the world, he were to whisper sweet nothings in my ear but that someone chose to break my heart in a million pieces than be with me.

"Make some room for the old lady, will you?" Squeaking, I turn my head to find an old French lady making her way beside me with a puppy in her arms.

Making some space, I give her a polite nod quickly averting my gaze to the phone in my hand.

"Quelle belle journée!" The lady beams in a blue warm clothes, pink cap.

"Huh?" I scoot a bit farther but she groans rolling her eyes.

"Spanish?" She asks and I wonder what part of me gives her such an impression.

"No, Indian." I reply in no time.

"Beautiful" She smiles and pats the furry life tucked in her arms.

"Nice pup" I smile tucking a strand of hair beneath my ear.

"You want to hold it?" She asks with her broken english and before I can say a word, she places the cuteness in my arms. The little life in warm cover blinks a couple of times at me before snuggling in my heat. A smile comes playing upon my lips.

"Are you going to make that phone call?" The lady asks without a warning and my eyes move towards the phone.

"I...I was not making any call." Shaking my head, I continue patting the furry head of the pup.

"These eyes have seen life, heh." She points at two of her emerald eyes. "At this age what I can suggest is..don't do anything you don't want to and if possible, try to live a little."

My lower jaw hangs open. "I'm a little lost here but what actually gave you the impression that I don't live my life?"

"You are very....uptight" She struggles to find the right word that fits. "Uh very..very closed. You need to open up, mon cher."

"I...." Why is finding a right word so difficult before the right, judgmental eyes? "I..."

"It's okay." She smiles caressing the head of the pup. "She likes you." I smile at the little life. "How are you liking our city, mon cher? Isn't our place wonderful?"

How I wish I could answer to that!

I don't want to be rude so I just nod awkwardly concentrating more on the puppy that now is finding solace in my lap.

"No" The lady smiles as if she sees something right through me. "You don't agree."

"I mean," I clear my throat. "I came here a day ago and I already have made up my mind to say goodbye. Not that-not that it's not a beautiful place but I just don't know how to find beauty in it."

"Je vois..." She murmurs. "You see, you find beauty when you see from here" she points to her heart "and not from here" her finger taps her forehead.

My shy sorrow don't let me speak up. As if, I am like a river that doesn't know where it is flowing with its terribly quiet drifting waves.

"Bastien and I met in this park fifty years ago. Ces jours mémorables! I came to this city to study language but I guess I found more than what I had asked for. I wasn't even looking for him when I found the love of my life. How does it sound?" She stares at me, smiling.

Palely, I smile with a light shrug. "...Beautiful."

"Okay now, little one..come back to mère." Clapping her hands, she gestures the pup to jump into her lap and the baby does exactly as asked.

"And, you may also want to try to loosen up a little." Her words catch me off guard but I prefer to say nothing. "If you don't want to go all...touristy right now, all you can do is first visit the Christmas market or the local shops near such market, you will get all the good vibes you need."

"I... I will think about it." I smile standing up as she decides to leave holding the pup and her walking stick. It is different properly talking to the first local of this place and the feeling is good. As she gives me a motherlike glare, I giggle and hold my hands in defence. "All right, I will visit the places you recommended for sure."

"You will love it, je promets. Everybody comes here with a beautiful story. This place does not disappoint." Her words make me think but that is not entirely true in my case.

"Not everybody. I have not come here with a story." The admission kind of saddens me.

"Then, mon cher, you may leave with one." She states as if she can already foresee things others don't.

The call can wait.

✿

My tears are right now standing outside the Coeur de Paris, an antique shop hoping the Christmas rush won't bother me here. The sound of a charming wind charm tinkles in the air as I push the door open and inside, awaits a fine woody smell much to my liking. The warm lighting and the soft red carpet beneath my feet are already giving very sophisticated vibes and I know it in my heart that I am probably going to have a nice time myself.

Needless to say, the small place is full of antique articles which reek into a smell which I quite can't put in words. Maybe this is what putting years and years of items together in one pace smells like. As I walk farther into the store, various items catch me eye. There are royal antique coins, furnitures made of divine oaks, hundred year old paintings and tapestries, chandeliers that bear pre world war histories, classic wine accessories, stone fountain and mesmerising garden pieces. The first thing I lay my hands on is a mirror which carries a detailed description for the buyer. My impressed eyes know that something like this sure will add a class and definition to any house but there is something else too in the corner aisle that appears too irresistible.

A beautiful, beautiful Japanese mermaid crafted in the 1800s. Laying fingers on it itself feels like a dream. My lips manage a content smile as I pick the article up within the palm of my hands but just like every shattered piece of my life and my forever misfortune, unknown to me how but the mermaid slips out of my hand and now it is on the floor with it's neck disconnected from the rest of the beautiful body. What the hell do I do now?

Shit.

Mentally screaming at my loser of an attitude a million tiny times, I pick the pieces up to learn the price but one look at it, I don't want to even consider the same. Also, important to mention that I just stepped out of the hotel to buy a few essentials and a sim card and so it is quite possible that I am definitely running a lot short in that aspect. Glancing around, I observe if anyone saw this little action of mine but the little staffs present in the lunch hours were busy in different other corners and did not quite notice me.

Carefully placing the mermaid just as it was, I look around one more time and try to look as natural as I best can. Wow, it has already been a day in Paris and this has become of me! Sarcastically speaking, my mother is going to be so damn proud.

"Nous nous retrouvons ici!"

At the ringing sound of the husky voice, I almost reflexively jump at the spot and turn around to find someone who lately happen to pop up at the wrong time. That egoistic idiot who called me an unlucky thing, stole my cab and oh, threw my bag out of the window. He just keeps adding more to the list.

The striking thought wrecks me internally that what if he witnessed me committing the crime and then wipe it clean? No, please.

Also, what the hell did he mean by whatever he said just now?

"Non, merci" This is the most French I can speak I swear and this is in fact, a blind shot. I don't understand what the hell he actually said but my reply no, thank you, definitely may bear an effect to it.

"Geez" He chuckled shaking his head making me extra cautious and I guard the mermaid that I placed right before I spotted him. "I have been hunting for you."

His words have my eyes widen up in the most round shapes. "Wh-what?"

"You still haven't paid me the eighteen euros for the cab fare." I frown and sigh but I also don't know what to say, so I guard the mermaid more with my body.

"Shall I take it that you are stalking me or something like that?" I make a smart comment to shoo him away, if that helps.

"I'll go with the option - something like that." He smirks.

Dipping hands in his pockets, he took a step close and I cleared my throat as he, with his perfect features stood staring at me. "You are really not planning on paying my money, are you?"

"I could if you waited back then and not flipped my bag out like trash." Rolling my eyes, I still repeated the truth in my mind that this guy looked like...damn!

Rubbing his hands together, he encourages. "Fantastic. Pay me now then."

It is possibly not the best time to have so much of discussion being glued to the same spot when I am specifically trying to run away with my little crime.

"I-I'm not carrying my wallet right now." I look around and notice one of the staffs is looking this way. Crap, this can't be good. "Listen, uh, I'm staying at Four Seasons. You come there anytime tomorrow and you'll get your money."

"Plus, your share of tipping?" This guy is ridiculous.

"Yeah my share of tipping too!" I whisper-yell.

Adding more to my ongoing nightmares, this guy is now proceeding towards the mermaid behind me and I have no idea what to do about it.

"Let me see what you were looking at. Oh...this is a nice one. I mean, not my type but..nice." He lifts the article and my head starts swimming in a pool of negativity.

Why does he have to lift it? Oh now, he is rotating it slowly to study the intricate design. No, hell no!

The nosy guy finds the price tag and his eyes swiftly reach to me. "And, you say that you are not carrying your wallet but you are checking out a thing which is priced like this? Are you kidding me?"

"Checking out does not necessarily mean I was going to buy it." Nervously, I deny the whole point.

Skeptic, he looks at me. "I don't believe this."

"Then that's your problem!" I whisper-yell again staring at the way he is loosely holding the piece. Probably, I done the most yelling today that I haven't done in the past twenty two years of my life.

"Are you trying to tell me—" And, as it was destined, the neck topples down making a glassy sound and the two of us are now currently staring at the floor, awfully quiet.

The guy slowly raises his eyes from the broken pieces on floor to me and I fake a strange confidence.

"Oh mon Dieu!" One of the shopkeepers comes running. "You broke it? Now you have to buy it!"

The shopkeeper charges at the rude, egoistic, nosy, ill-mannered stranger who frowns, hard, with no idea of what just happened.

"I did not break it!" He says dramatically. "You have—wait a second..." Th stranger now looks at me like I did something dirty to him. "When I got here first, you were the one checking this thing out and oh my God!" My eyes widen in anticipation. "You had already broken it by then! What a cunning girl you are!"

"N-no. No. No." I keep saying no.

"Shut up." The tall stranger glares. "I know this is you. That is why probably you were acting all sissy about my presence, weren't you!"

"What?" I gulp hard. "This-this guy has gone bonkers. I have no idea what he is talking about." I say to the shopkeeper and now, to the manager who has recently joined the ruckus.

"Oh really?" The guy mimics my innocence. "You had it broken even before I entered. You kept it hideously as if nothing happened and had I not kept you stuck here, you would have fled the scene, tell me is it not right?"

My lip quivers. How does he know the whole story? "You are just framing me because...."

"Because?..." He asks and I don't know what to answer to that.

"Because you are a mad fellow. Stop with your cooked up stories, all right?" My heart keeps beating in my mouth.

"All right. Fine." He nods and turns to the manager. "You, Sir, must be having cctv at this place. Let us all see the footage."

This is the part where I freeze because stupidly enough, the possibility never crossed my mind and I cannot basically change how highly strung I look right now.

"Let's do it, right?" The maniac asks me with a smirk that I know is evil.

The shopkeeper has a quick whisper with the manager who now says. "That is not possible because those are currently being repaired."

Needless to say that relief washes all over me and I turn my face to the crazy whose lower jaw is close to touching the carpet. "You mean in the entire store there is not one surveillance camera that's working? What the hell kind of store is this, man?"

"The right kind of store that believes in humanity and that...criminals like you would keep away from the place." All right, that was a touch overdramatic but whatever. Smiling at the manager, I utter while the stranger murmurs something negative about me under his breath.

"Look, this girl over here owes me eighteen euros and to stall the thing, she is now framing me baselessly. Now that I think that this maybe her profession as well. All I believe is that she can potentially be a con girl." He states, boldly.

"What?" I screech in disbelief. "You know what—actually forget it," I turn to the manager. "Mr.Manager, when this beautiful beautiful thing broke, in whose hand was the thing? Who held it?"

The manager again has a quick word with the shopkeeper and announces. "He had it."

Yes. Exactly.

"You cannot be doing this dirty trick right now." The tall guy snaps at me while I shake it off.

"That means I'm free to go, right?" I ask the manager.

"Absolutely, madame" Smiling gratefully at the manager, I start walk out of the place giving one last smile to the stranger as well.

"Hey? You are letting the actual culprit go, I'm telling you." He counters.

"Please come with us and settle the bill, sir." Hearing the manager speak to the imbecile, I'm out of the store with a laughter that is hard to suppress.

What happened just now? I don't know but that guy's face is just making it harder for me to not lose it. Sitting on the nearest bench, I burst into a chain of laughter.

Lord knows how long have I sat there laughing my heart out but God, it does feel so light. Suddenly, feeling a presence beside me on the bench, I decide to act a little normal and stop with the laughter.

Looking aside, I find the stranger to be watching me with displeasure and the wrapped article in a paper bag and even though I should be apologising to me or run away, whatever, but I lose myself in the hands of uncontrollable laughter which was not the plan. He watches me for some more time and then rolls his eyes. Sniffing hard, I try to tame and bud my laughter but the brown bag just adds more to it.

"Unbelievable" Shaking his head at me, he murmurs.

"I'm serious when I say this that I'll pay you for this." But, then I start to laugh again.

"Yeah. You look quite promising." Shrugging the thoughts, he places the paper bag on the bench between us. "You keep it."

My laughter freezes. "What? You cannot be serious to be handing this thing to me which just now costed you thirteen thousand euros."

"I can't think of a way this broken lady will be of my anybuse." Referring to the mermaid, he looks away. "You keep it."

"But I-I can't accept it." Fumbling, I look for clarifications.

"Then throw it away. I don't care. I gotta go." Smoothening his long black trench coat, he starts to walk away towards the parked car while I keep staring at him in disbelief under the sunset sky.

The orange meets the violet and everything is just beautiful when he suddenly turns around from afar and grabs my attention. "Oh by the way, it just totals to thirteen thousand and eighteen euros plus interest."