I sighed, shaking my head at these two. It was like being with two kids.
"I'll go," I muttered, a giddy feeling at the pit of my stomach. He asked me out on a date, a freaking date. I felt like a lovesick teenager.
Wait, lovesick?
"What?" they said at the same time, looking at me.
"Huh?" I looked up, lost in my own thoughts.
"You can't go out on a date with him!" snapped Adrian.
Darius smacked the back of his head. "Too bad."
"What am I supposed to do?" asked Adrian as Darius started walking and pulling me along.
"Jump off the tower."
CHAPTER THIRTYTHREE
"Where are we going?" I finally asked as the taxi pulled to a stop. Darius decided this would be faster than the limo and would fit through wherever we're going.
"To eat"
"But where?" I asked as I got out. It didn't look like a posh place to eat at all so I was anticipating where we were going. Was it a secret restaurant, or was it disguised? All I could see were tall buildings.
He paid the taxi driver and beckoned for me to follow him.
"Is it a far walk?" I asked as we crossed the road. He laughed, shaking his head. Good, because I had more exercise than I needed this year in the past few days. The taxi ride was incredibly short so I was really confused what can be found here in the quieter streets of France.
"Ready?" Darius stopped walking suddenly that I ended up colliding into him when he turned around.
I rubbed my head, looking up at him. "Yea, I guess," I said, not liking the look in his eyes. What did he plan after all? Please don't tell me he was going to make me eat snails again.
"Do I need to close my eyes or something?" I asked when we continued to stand there. He furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side, looking confused.
"Why?" he asked.
I shook my head. Of course, Darius didn't know the art of surprises. Well, at least I didn’t have to close my eyes or wear a blindfold and then get a shitty surprise at the end. James was perfect at failing in surprises.
"Never mind. Let's go," I said. He smiled, turning around and placing a hand on my back to guide me forward.
"Turn left."
I didn't let my hopes up. James always managed to do it and then took me to McDonald’s or somewhere stupid. His idea of the perfect 'date' was cheap and quick and I wasn't someone who ate fast food on a regular basis. And so when I turned around the corner, I was surprised.
It was safe to say my jaw dropped as I looked at the lane that seemed to go on for a solid kilometre.
My first thought was, Do I have to walk that? But then I looked at all the multicoloured carts, some owners wearing traditional flag colours while the others were dressed up and then there were just normal ones in a chef suit.
I looked at Darius who seemed pretty happy with his choice, and I would be, too, if you just got a reaction like that.
"Wow," was all I could say as the aisle was lit up by lanterns that were hanging between the apartments.
"Every single type of street food you can find in France is in this lane," he said.
"Even snails?" I asked.
"No. Those can be found in the bushes."
We walked up to the first cart where a young woman was standing and smiling. There was an assortment of crepes being made by another man and the smell was sweet and intoxicating.
And just like that, the journey began from one cart to another. I made sure I only sampled each offering and tried not to devour it or there was no way I was going to finish this aisle.
It seemed the foods mostly associated with France that everyone knew about was at the start of the lane: crepes, baguettes, snails that I avoided, frog legs which I also skipped. And then as we got further away, there were more foods such as 'French kebabs', roasted cashews, panini and everything.
"I don't think I can eat anymore," I groaned as I looked at the quiche in my hand.
Darius laughed. "You didn't even eat much."
"But the smells filled me up," I said. After all the oil and grease came the sweets and then more hot food and that itself made me no longer hungry.
"Can we take that to go?" asked Darius. The man nodded, grabbing a white box and placing some in. Darius took the box and we walked slowly to the next one.
I stopped half way, realising something. "We didn't pay them!" I dug into my pocket, only to realise it wasn't my jacket and my wallet wasn't there.
Darius laughed, shaking his head and spinning me back around. "I already took care of that."
"You did?"
There was a phone in the pocket and remembered there was another one in my back pocket.
"Oh wait," I said, stopping again. I dug it out and held it for him. "Your phone. You left it back home ."
Calling it home felt different now. For some reason, it didn't sound weird when I said it. It felt more natural.
"I still don't get why you need three."