chapter Two
IT DIDN’T MAKE much sense as this wasn’t the first and it wouldn’t be the last time Drew brought home a guest but I still took a shower, towel dried my hair and put on a nice pair of dark blue skinny jeans and three-quarter length sleeve white peasant blouse.
Afterwards, I set down before my vanity mirror and stared at myself closely. I was a very attractive young woman but I wasn’t beautiful. My skin was olive-toned from my mother’s side of the family tree and I had intriguing hazel-green eyes everyone bragged were my best asset. High cheekbones, a patrician nose and slightly full lips finished off the facial package but I also had great hair which was dark and an abundance of silky curls unless I flat-ironed them which I did at least once a week.
I was model tall at 5’9” which was an issue because it made me realize most men were my height or slightly shorter. It was a challenge finding men to date and most of the time when I did venture out with friends, I opted for flats as opposed to the flashy Christian Louboutin or Yves Saint Laurent heels because I would be taller than most men in the bars and clubs where we hung out.
I did a quick makeup job including a bit of concealer to hide the dark circles under my eyes, dark eyeliner and mascara, a bit of blush and nude lipstick which enhanced my dramatic eyes.
Satisfied with how I looked, I walked downstairs to find both Drew and Colin outside on the patio. They spoke and smoked animatedly; perhaps I should have stayed inside but I felt like having a bit of fun so I grabbed my wine glass and joined them moments later.
“Whoa! Look who got all dolled up,” Drew teased me. “Expecting company?”
“Nope, just Caitlyn. She said she would stop by after her last meeting of the day so I suppose we could wait for her before we began dinner.”
“That’ll work.” Drew stood. “Speaking of dinner, let me go check and make sure everything is okay.”
He handed me his cigarette before he rushed back inside and I stubbed it out in the nearby ashtray. After my father died, I had started up smoking again but I was trying to keep my intake low as I was determined to quit once and for all.
I looked up and met Colin’s gorgeous blue eyes which stared back at me with an intensity I usually found uncomfortable. I smiled before I inquired, “So, are you one of Drew’s bi-friends?”
“No,” he responded as his eyes continued to bore into mine. “I love women and although I see a lot of hot men in my line of work I have never been tempted to go there. We’re just friends and he decided to invite me over. I heard you’re planning on taking a vacation to Europe.”
“Well, I’m not sure yet,” I stalled in a voice I was unprepared to hear. “Your father suggested it after everything I’ve been through with the death of my dad and…”
Usually, I was very good at small talk. Although technically, I’d never had a real job besides professional college student, I did a lot of volunteer work at the local soup kitchen and homeless shelter for battered women. It was part of my job to break down barriers and get the women to talk about their feelings and discuss why they’d stayed in impossible and detrimental situations for so long before deciding to escape.
I found the work therapeutic, mostly because my home life had been so ordinary though my real mother had died at an early age. I still felt safe in the knowledge my father and step-mother loved me very much and I was luckier than most children thrust into a situation when one parent wasn’t their blood relative. I loved Jeanette and Caitlyn as if we were full-blooded relatives, and couldn’t imagine them not being in my life.
At the same time, I still needed an outside release and a relationship would do just the trick. However, due to my father’s death, finding a man wasn’t exactly priority number one. Drew was enough for the time being but now I’d met his friend, Colin, I wondered if I didn’t need more than what I was letting on?
“You were saying,” Colin began in a soft, even toned manner. “I do believe I agree with my dad—the good doctor that he is—and you do need to get away from it all. It’s never easy losing a parent. My mother died from bone cancer a couple years ago. You might find it hard to believe but my dad was useless in the situation. He really loved her and we’d already been through the whole breast cancer scare ten years previously. We just assumed she would be all right. Life is long and if someone had told me I’d lose my mom when I needed her most, I would have said they were lying.”
I tried to smile but my expression fell short. “It’s been really hard. I was young when my mother died and Jeanette raised me so I still, technically, have a mother and my sister but…my dad was my rock. He supported me in every endeavor even when my mom felt like he was spoiling my indulgences and I should face up to reality.”
Colin ground out his cigarette before he stared into my eyes intensely yet again. “Did they ever catch the guy who did it?”
I shook my head. “The police don’t even know if it was a guy. According to them, it could have been a man or a woman and they aren’t sure because no one saw anything. We don’t even know what kind of vehicle the person was driving. My mom spent a lot of money and offered a reward but no one came forward. It’s just…an unsolved case. I suppose maybe that is why it’s been so hard on all of us because there hasn’t been any closure.”
He seemed sympathetic and offered a small smile. “Well, if you believe in karma, who ever did this will get what’s coming to them. It was a horrible crime and you wonder what kind of person could do that and continue to…walk around as if nothing happened. It’s pretty disgusting to be honest.”
Colin clapped his hands together as if to change the subject and looked me over. The way he appraised me was enough to make me blush and I just hoped my skin wasn’t the color of crimson. “Listen, I go to Europe every year, usually at the end of May. It clears my head and I love to travel. How about we go together?”
His question definitely caught me off guard. Why would he ask me when most guys his age went to Europe for one reason only: alcohol, dope and all the p-ssy they could get their hands on. Taking a chick with him would only cramp his style and although Drew and I had a “friends with benefits” arrangement, we’d also once been a couple and I wasn’t a “friends with benefits” type of woman. Our situation was unique but it would never happen with anyone else.
It had nothing to do with me being a prude and everything to do with me thinking sex was something special. I wasn’t naïve and realized having a healthy sexual attitude was only natural. It was a part of life but I was also getting my physical pleasure from someone and I didn’t intend to take on someone else with such a casual and cavalier attitude.
So many different issues arose when sex came into the equation and no matter how careful two people decided to be, there was always the possibility of pregnancy. I wasn’t the type who could ever have an abortion though I didn’t judge friends who had made that difficult choice. Their hard-earned lessons had taught me I would never sleep with anyone I couldn’t envision as the potential father of my children. Right or wrong, Drew was a good guy and I knew if we ever did have that kind of error, he would stay with me, marry me and help raise the child we’d created. I didn’t know many people who could offer that kind of assurance to me.
If looks could kill, I’m pretty sure I would have slaughtered Colin with the weathering stare that crossed my face. “I don’t think so. I specifically think this is something I have to do by myself. I am not completely inept you know and I am not your average loud American. I have visited Western Europe plenty of times and I think I can manage just fine on my own.”
He swigged from his Beck’s beer. Apparently, he wasn’t a “wine” guy either. “I think we might be having some communication issues. I meant I usually go by myself as well but I think it would be cool to go with someone else. My itinerary is always pretty detailed and I enjoy visiting. Last year, I went to my grandfather’s birthplace in County Shannon and my grandmother’s birthplace in this small town outside of Frankfurt. It was amazing.
“This year, I want to stay city bound but I plan to go to France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. Specifically, I was thinking I’d start in Paris, work my way down to Marseille and Nice, then go north to Strasbourg, take the train to Munich and go far east as Berlin, then head west to Hamburg, work my way down to Amsterdam and then to Bruges, go on to Brussels and then back to Paris for the last few days. That way we could land and depart at Charles de Gaulle and get rail passes for the rest. We’re both EU citizens so we’ll get them for a steal if we buy them early enough.”
I desperately wanted another glass of wine and wished I had grabbed the bottle of Pinot Noir before I headed out here. A little inebriation never hurt to soothe the awkward moments in a conversation with a hot guy I barely knew. “Well, looks like you have everything already planned out so why do you need me to come with you?”
“Well, for one, I don’t want to do Couchsurfers this time around. I know some great people in all the places I mentioned and we can catch up with them but I was definitely thinking Airbnb instead. Sleeping on someone’s sofa is great when you’re twenty-five but I’m almost thirty—shit, come to think of it, my birthday is late July and I will be thirty—and it would be nice to travel with someone else. Sometimes it gets lonely and you just don’t want some random person in your bed. Oh yeah, I speak Dutch and German fluently. What about you?”
“French and Patois, the official language of the Lorraine region of France—my dad never did learn to speak proper Québécois though I have been teased on occasion by some French people who say my French has a slight tinge of Québécois to it,” I explained as I leaned onto the table.
Conversation between us seemed so easy and the more we spoke, the more I was convinced this would be a great start to a wonderful adventure. Who wouldn’t want to jump on the first plane with this man who literally screamed hotness?
I adored and admired a sexy, brooding drop dead gorgeous dark-haired guy as much as the next woman but I also thought blond men could be as good looking and sexy. Colin definitely fit the picture of what every woman would swoon over as he had that mixture of Gabriel Aubry hotness mixed with a dangerous combination of Charlie Hunnam bad-boy just lurking underneath the surface. The moment his crystal blue eyes gazed into mine again as if I were the only woman in the world almost took my breath away.
And then my sister appeared with a chipper, “Hiya!” and the mood was broken.