June 4 – June 13, 2007

June 4

She had never been on a plane for more than three hours before. She had barely ever been away from the Northeast part of the United States before. Here she was, boarding a plane at nine o’clock in the evening, Jim’s hand reassuringly holding hers, ready to not only take her first trip in years away from the Northeast, but to cross the Atlantic Ocean and go to the city that she had dreamed of traveling to since she was a girl.

She felt like Kelly, really. The way that they had the plane scheduled was that the passengers would sleep through the flight. They would arrive in Europe at around 4 AM their time, late morning Paris time. Pam couldn’t figure out how she was going to get a single wink of sleep. She was too excited. Every word that came out of her mouth to Jim was either a variation of: “Oh my god”, “so do you think”, “Paris” and “wow”.

He teased her about slipping her drugs mid-flight. She had always thought of herself as a nervous flyer, and he did have the sleeping pills if she needed them. However, there was something that told him, no matter how many patches of turbulence they might hit; there was no way she was going to think twice about those pills that were located in their carry-on luggage.

June 5

He roused her awake as the plane started to make it’s descent into Charles de Gaulle airport. He was amazed that she had fallen asleep. Somewhere in the middle of watching “The Last Mimzy” she had completely passed out. She had been asleep for about three hours and as soon as he gently nudged at her arm, her eyes flew open.

“Are we here?” she asked excitedly, looking around as if she hadn’t just been asleep. Her eyes were still tired; she looked like she definitely needed more than just three hours of sleep.

“We’re getting there,” he replied with a smile as his hand found the top of her knee.

**

He wasn’t one to call for a taxi or driver beforehand. Really, he wasn’t. It was just that he had been to Paris in the past and the airport was damn near impossible to figure out. He had gone through a taxi company to arrange someone to meet them at their gate and take them to where they were staying in the middle of Paris.

As soon as Pam set foot outside of the airport, she looked around eagerly.

“This doesn’t look like Paris,” she said with a bit of apprehension in her voice. Jim chuckled at her as he pulled his suitcase behind him.

“The Paris that you’re thinking of is still about a half hour to an hour drive away,” he said with a smile as he exchanged a couple of brief words with the driver that he had hired back in New York.

“What?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be there soon enough,” he said as he ushered her into the backseat of the car.

**

She kept dozing off as they drove along the highway into Paris.

“Wake me up when you see something that I’ll recognize,” she said quietly before she slumped against his shoulder.

“What makes you think I don’t want to sleep too?” he asked with a yawn.

“You slept more than I did,” she replied quietly. “And you’re significantly less excited than I am.” She yawned and fell asleep for the next fifteen minutes until he nudged her awake.

“Oh damn, you just missed it,” he said as her eyes fluttered open.

“What? What did I miss?” she asked urgently, her eyes immediately at the window of the vehicle. She practically crawled across his lap to get a view out of the window. She stretched across his lap and her fingers gripped the leather against the door. He put an arm around her back.

“Okay,” he said quietly, “wait for it…wait for it…” the car drove a couple more blocks. “There.” She gasped sharply at her first view of the Eiffel Tower.

“I can’t believe it,” she whispered against the glass of the window.

“What?” he asked as she pulled away.

“I’m here,” she replied, the lids of her eyes starting to tear.

**

The taxi pulled up along a side street right off the main road that ran along the Seine.

“We’re here,” the driver said in a thick accent as he turned off the vehicle and immediately stepped outside to get the bags from the trunk.

“This is our hotel?” Pam asked, looking up at a rather non-hotel looking building.

“Oh no, Pam,” Jim replied, “this is better than a hotel.”

“What…is it?” she asked suspiciously.

“This is an apartment,” he replied.

“What?” she asked.

“I rented an apartment for a couple weeks,” he replied with a shrug. “The company actually owns it, and a few others. They lease it out to anyone who wants to stay in it.” Her mouth simply dropped open, unable to comprehend the entire situation. “You want to go see your home for the next week and a half?” She nodded dumbly as Jim picked up their bags and the driver drove off.

She walked around the living room. It wasn’t a huge apartment. Certainly, it was bigger than her apartment in the city and she was certain that the cost to rent the place for two weeks was probably the price of an entire month’s rent for her.

“Do you like it?” Jim asked as he walked out of the bathroom, drying his hands on his jeans.

“I…I…” she ran her hand along the back of the antique couch in the living room. “Speechless…”

“Wait ‘til you see the view,” he said with a wink as he rushed to the other side of the room and started to draw back the curtains. “Actually…close your eyes.” She bit her lower lip and nodded, closing her eyes at his command. He threw back the heavy curtains and the room was immediately flooded with light. “Okay…” he reached out for her hands and pulled her over to the large window. He stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Can I open my eyes?” she asked with a quick breath.

“Go ahead,” he replied. Her eyes fluttered open and she gasped, grabbing Jim’s hands with her own and leaning forward just a little. In front of her eyes was a magnificent view of the Seine River, picturesque Parisian buildings lined each side and arched bridges stretched along the river for as far as she could see.

“Do you know what you’re looking at?” Jim asked as her head turned to the right.

“No,” she replied as she shook her head. He broke a hand away from hers and pointed at a large building almost out of sight from the window.

“That,” he said as he pointed, “is the Louvre.” Her hand quickly flew to her mouth and she quickly turned around, her eyes filled with tears of happiness. She didn’t even say anything; she simply threw her arms around Jim’s neck and pressed her mouth firmly against his. At this point, she almost didn’t even care about the museum anymore. She was so happy that she was here and she was so happy that she was with him.

June 6

She barely even knew what jet-lag was, but apparently, according to Jim, she didn’t succumb to it. She slept heavily through the night, cradled to sleep in Jim’s warm arms and the sounds of the city.

She was the first awake in the morning, nine o’clock. She showered, she dressed in the best “Parisian” outfit that she had brought that she would still be comfortable wearing all day. She rummaged through the bag of baked goods that Jim had bought from a bakery down the street the previous evening when she had completely crashed and picked out a buttery croissant to eat for her breakfast. Then she ran back into the bedroom and tackled the sleeping Jim in bed. She felt like she was a kid again and it was Christmas morning.

**

“Where do you want to go?” Jim asked as they stepped outside.

“The Louvre,” she replied.

“Of course, the Louvre,” he said with a nod. “You don’t want to spend the day just walking around?”

“No, Louvre,” she said quickly.

“Wha…”

“Louvre!” she countered.

“I guess that there is no ifs ands or buts around this one,” he said with a grin as he wrapped an arm around her waist. “We are going to the Louvre.”

June 9

They spent three days, at Pam’s request, touring every hallway, ever room, ever little nook and cranny accessible to the public inside of the Louvre. Jim had never actually expected that she would spend three days inside of the museum – looking at the most famous works of art in the world, but it worked well. The first two days they spent inside of the museum it was raining and he didn’t really want to go walking around Paris when it was gloomy and wet. He was quite happy that Pam wanted to stay inside.

The third day at the museum, they finished their tour of the museum with a walk through several rooms filled with archaeological antiquities and one last look at some of DaVinci’s greatest masterpieces. The two spent the rest of the day walking around the gardens and parks surrounding the building.

Jim could not remember a time that he had ever seen Pam as happy as she was in those three days and he felt so happy that he had been the one to provide it all to her.

**

He brushed the curls from her face as he watched her still asleep early in the morning on the ninth. Sunlight was streaming in between the cracks in the curtains and he knew that today would be the perfect day to take her to Versailles. With any luck, the fountains would be running.

“Pam,” he whispered against her ear. “Paaaam…” She groaned and rolled over towards him and pushed her hands against his chest and she stretched awake.

“Mm?” her eyes opened sleepily.

“Morning,” he said.

“Morning,” she said with a sleepy smile. “I had the most wonderful dream that we were in Paris…oh wait. We are.” She giggled quietly and he shook his head at her – she had been saying the phrase since their first night there.

“Where do you want to go today?” he asked, and quickly continued before she could interject, “Keeping in mind! We have already seen the entire Louvre.”

“I think that I’m going to sleep all day,” she said with a happy sigh. “Actually, no, I’m going to sleep the rest of my time here. I’ve seen everything I want to see.”

“You sure about that?” he asked.

“No.”

“I was thinking that we could go to Versailles,” he said as his fingers danced along the skin on her cheek, her jaw and her neck.

“Versailles…” she said, searching her mind. “Where is that?”

“It’s a little out of the city,” he said, “we’ll have to take the RER there.”

“What’s the RER?” she asked.

“It’s one of the metro lines,” he replied quietly.

“How do you know all of this?” she asked.

“I’ve seen it all before already,” he replied.

“So you’re just dragging me around to all of your favorite places?” she asked as she curled up against his chest and ran her fingers through the hair on his chest.

“In a way, yes,” he replied thoughtfully. “But I think you would love Versailles.”

“Why?”

“It’s a massive palace,” he replied. “With tons and tons of fountains and gardens.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said, “you could bring some of your art things with you and you could spend the day drawing…”

“And you would like that?” she asked raising her eyebrow.

“I can entertain myself,” he replied with a smile. “Come on. You’ll love it.”

“Promise?” she asked.

“Of course,” he replied.

**

They slept in a little more. It was a Saturday, after all. Pam dressed in her favorite springy dress and Jim packed her sketchbook, charcoals and his camera in his messenger bag. He would stop on the way to their final destination and pick up some food for their lunch. They would have a picnic sometime that afternoon.

They boarded the RER going to Versailles around eleven thirty in the morning. Pam sat next to the window and watched as they left the area of Paris that she so frequently associated with being “Paris” and they traveled through the areas of the outskirts until finally they arrived at the end of the line.

“So Halpert, where is Versailles?” she asked as they stepped outside of the train station and started to walk along the street.

“You’ll see it soon enough,” he replied coolly as they walked at a steady pace along the sidewalks.

As they got closer and the palace came into view, Pam immediately gasped and grabbed Jim’s arm.

“Jim! I know this place!” she exclaimed.

“Of course you do,” he said with a small laugh.

“Why didn’t I know this was Versailles?” she asked as they approached the large gates leading up towards the palace.

“I don’t know,” he said with a smile and a shrug. They followed a steady stream of visitors up towards the main part of the palace, and stopped short of another gateway.

“Why are we stopping?” Pam asked expectantly.

“We are stopping because you have a few choices here,” he replied. “If we go in over there” he pointed towards a doorway, “we can go see the most famous parts of the palace – the Hall of Mirrors, Marie Antoinette’s bedroom, and so forth. However, I happen to think that this area is very overrated and rather uncomfortable when there are this many people there.” Pam nodded. “On the other hand, we can go through those doors over there and see some of the more exclusive parts of the palace like the servants’ and queen’s quarters, lesser known areas of the palace.”

“Okay…” Pam said continuing to nod.

“Or, finally, we can go straight through this archway here and go straight to the gardens,” he said pointing towards what appeared to be a clearing.

“Where do you want to go?” Pam asked.

“I’m perfectly happy spending the day in the gardens,” he said with a smile.

“Then we shall go to the gardens,” she said with a nod.

“Wow…” Pam gasped as she looked out over the massive lawn that stretched out in front of them: the fountains, the ponds, the impressive sculptures. Jim was pleased that the fountains were running, which only made everything look even more impressive.

“You like it?” he asked.

“I don’t even know what to say,” she replied as she looked around.

“You want to go exploring?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she replied a happy sparkle in her eyes.

She practically leapt ahead of Jim, and quickly skipped down the stairs that led down into the gardens.

“When you see someplace you want to sit and hang out, or if you want to eat anytime soon, let me know,” he said as he watched her walk briskly down the main path.

“This way!” she called as she quickly ducked down a side path to explore some of the hidden gardens and fountains tucked in amongst the trees.

**

They stayed at the palace until people started to leave around five or six in the evening. Pam had filled up the first few pages of her sketchbook with images of fountains and orange groves.

“Are we going to go anywhere special tonight?” she asked as she leaned against Jim’s shoulder on the RER back into Paris.

“Do you want to go somewhere special tonight?” he asked as his arm went around her shoulders.

“Maybe,” she replied quietly. “I had no idea that we would actually spend the entire day in there.”

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she replied, “but I’m really glad that we did.”

“You liked them, huh?” he asked.

“I loved them,” she replied. “And all of those fountains! Those were insane!”

“I know!”

“It’s baffling to think that all of that belonged to one person at one point in history,” she said shaking her head.

“Kind of makes you realize why the French got so pissed at the royal family, huh?” Jim said with a smile. Pam nodded.

June 10

She spent that Sunday drawing like she had on the Saturday. Jim insisted that the two of them go to Père Lachaise cemetery. Pam had teased him the entire way there – teasing him about taking her to a cemetery, teased him about the very notion of stopping at a cemetery as a major attraction.

As soon as the two of them stepped into the cemetery however, Pam’s arms wrapped protectively around her sketchbook and box of charcoals, she realized what a great opportunity this could prove to be. It wasn’t very often that she drew dark art. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the idea of it – all of the dark art that she had seen over the years she had loved. She was just never able to find the beauty in the depressing images that passed by her daily and she had certainly never visited a cemetery that looked quite like this.

It was like walking through a city, really; a very quiet, somber city. Some of the mausoleums were the size of a small vacation home. Every once in a while, she and Jim would pass by a particularly elaborate mausoleum or grave and she would look at the name. Many names she recognized – Chopin and Oscar Wilde, for example.

They spent a lot of the day walking through the cemetery, admiring the elaborate graves and memorials but nothing really, really caught Pam’s attention until they reached a clearing and she looked off to a far corner shaded by trees.

“What’s over there?” she asked, pointing towards some large statues that she couldn’t quite make out, but she thought they looked a little like ghosts. Jim opened up the map in his hands that he had purchased from a vendor just outside of the cemetery gates and examined it.

“I don’t know, where are we?” he asked as he rotated the paper around in his hands a few times, trying to find where they were.

“I think…” she looked over to the map. “Maybe here?” She pointed to a spot near a corner.

“Maybe…” he said. “Let’s just go figure it out ourselves.” She smiled and took his hand in hers and happily walked towards the large statues.

“Wow…” they both said gasping up at the ghastly statues.

“Auschwitz,” Jim said quietly.

“I need to draw it,” Pam said suddenly, quickly walking around to Jim’s back and rifling through it for her sketchbook and charcoals.

“Seriously?” he asked as he looked up at the statue, unable to tear his eyes away. It was like the haggard skeletons were staring into his soul.

“Seriously,” she replied as she quickly walked over to a bench and opened her sketchbook in her lap.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you draw anything like this before,” he said as he followed her.

“I haven’t,” she said quietly.

“It’s kind of…grim,” he said with a furrow in his brow.

“Haunting,” she said quietly as her black charcoals scratched the surface of the paper in her lap.

“I’m uh…” he looked up and looked around. “I’m going to walk around a little bit more.”

“Okay,” she said with a nod.

“Are you going to be here?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“I’ll be back in like, twenty minutes,” he said as he stood up.

“I’ll be here,” she said with a smile.

**

That night he took her to what she considered to have been the fanciest restaurant she had ever been to in her life. There was no English menu and she was thankful that Jim knew a little bit of French because if he hadn’t, there was no way she could have ordered. He didn’t let her look at the prices, no matter how much she begged to see how much he was paying – she didn’t want him to spend this much on her.

He ordered a bottle of red wine for their dinner – he wouldn’t tell her the price, but by the taste of it, she figured it was probably a lot. He ordered them a cheesy vegetable appetizer that she certainly couldn’t pronounce, let alone figure out what was in it. He ordered her a chicken dish for her dinner that she was absolutely blown away by and after she was finished she didn’t know how she was ever going to face the food that she cooked for herself in her tiny kitchen ever again. He even ordered dessert for the two of them. He ordered her crème brulée and he ordered himself cream puffs, which he generously shared with her.

After their dinner, they walked back to their apartment, even though Pam wasn’t quite sure if she would even be able to walk after all of the food the two of them had consumed for dinner.

“Where do you want to go tomorrow?” he asked as he laced his fingers through hers and ran his hand against the concrete barrier between them and the river.

“I don’t know,” she replied dreamily.

“Does that mean I get to choose again?” he asked.

“Sure,” she replied.

“I want to go to the Musée de l’Eroticisme,” he replied with a devilish smile. She slowed their pace and she looked up at him quizzically.

“I understand ‘musée’,” she replied. “Museum…but the rest…” Her eyes were filled with questioning and he laughed a little.

“The museum of…”

“Erotic?” she asked, biting her bottom lip in confusion. He laughed, almost giggled, actually.

“There’s a museum of eroticism in the Red Light district,” he said with a wry smile.

“What?” she asked, an inevitable smile on her face. “You want to take me to an Erotic Museum.”

“Come on,” he replied. “I really wanted to go last time I was here but uh…someone didn’t want to go.”

“Really?” she asked, fully stopping now.

“Really!” he exclaimed.

“I don’t know…” she said, smile on her face.

“Come on,” he said. “If you don’t like it then…we can go to the Louvre again.”

“Really?” she asked, her eyebrow arched.

“Sure,” he replied. “Because believe me, I’ve read reviews about this place, and I don’t think there’s any reason that you won’t like it.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” she said as she rolled her eyes and the two of them started walking again.

“So can we go?” he asked.

“I don’t care,” she replied, “sure.”

June 11

Sex shops, sex theaters, porn stores, anything that you could imagine having to do with sex lined both sides of the street.

“I can’t believe that you talked me into this,” Pam said shaking her head as Jim pulled her into the Musée de l’Eroticisme. She couldn’t help but feel the crass, sex-frenzied teenager that was inside of her start to giggle with delight the second the two of them stepped inside of the museum that was completely devoted to sex.

She stood behind Jim as he purchased their tickets, giggling and trying not to giggle as she looked around at all of the sex memorabilia that filled the room they were in.

“Are all seven floors like this?” she asked, whispering into his ear.

“Are you embarrassed?” he asked as he turned around and shook his head at her. She giggled again and he couldn’t help but laugh at her.

They rounded the corner and were immediately immersed in a world of sex. There were paintings on the walls, there were trinkets and toys arranged and displayed in cases.

“They really don’t waste any time getting to the sex, do they?” Pam asked, trying to keep a straight face and take the museum seriously. She turned around to a television screen. “Oh my god!”

“What?” Jim asked, turning to see what she was looking at.

“I think it’s the world’s oldest porn,” she said, trying to hold back her laughter.

“I never even knew they had porn this old…” Jim said with a thoughtful nod, trying to hold back laughter of his own.

They made it through the first floor, stifled giggles, pointed fingers every once in a while and embarrassed glances at one another and others that were there as well. When they walked up to the second floor, the giggles came again. More sex toys, more sexual art, anything that one could possibly imagine dealing with the subject matter of sex was in this building.

A couple more floors up, however, the mood changed. It was as if one had to make it through all of the memorabilia to get to the actual history. Higher up in the building, the museum explained the history of prostitution in the area, the history of sex in the area and how this area of Paris came to be the way that it was. The giggles and embarrassed glances started to cease as they made their way up to the very top.

“This was a pretty cool place,” Pam said with a nod as they made their way back down the stairs.

“Told you,” Jim said with a smug look on his face, he looked down at the plan of the museum in his hands. “Wait! We haven’t seen it all yet!”

“Really?” she asked sarcastically. “I think that we’ve seen more than I ever thought I’d see in my entire life.” He laughed at her.

“No, there’s a basement,” he said. “Care to visit the 20th century now that we’ve visited all the rest?”

“Might as well,” she said with a shrug as they stepped down onto the ground floor and then made their way down into the basement.

The basement was different than the rest had been. It was flashier, it was more…pornographic. Certainly, the rest of the museum had not been for the typical family audience, but there was something about the basement…it was more Playboy or Hustler where as the rest of the museum had felt more like actual art.

It was small, there wasn’t a whole lot down there, and the two of them made their way around fairly quickly before Jim stopped Pam in the middle of the room.

“Look at those,” he said pointing to the left.

“What?” she asked looking at what, at first glance seemed to be just a normal sitting area, upon closer inspection… “Are those…sex chairs?”

“I don’t know what else they would be,” he said with a wrinkle in his nose. She stifled her giggle at first, but it bubbled up inside of her until it came out as loud laughter.

“Oh my god!” she said, covering her mouth to quiet herself.

“Hey, hey Pam,” he said as he nudged her arm. “You uh…you want to take a ride of one of those?” He raised his eyebrows suggestively a couple of times, only making her break down into laughter even more.

“No, no I can’t say I do,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.

They both walked towards the stairs and sighed, smiling at one another contentedly.

“You ready to go?” she asked.

“Are you?”

“I think so,” she said with a nod. The two of them walked up the stairs, hand in hand.

“So how did you like it?” he asked as the two of them stepped outside once again.

“I don’t think we need to go to the Louvre again,” she replied.

“Good,” he said with a nod. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

June 12

He rolled over onto her hair and quickly picked his head up and ran the back of his hand against his mouth, hoping he hadn’t drooled on her. Not that she would probably care all that much. He had never seen her as happy as she had been in the past week – ever. As their last day in France started to roll around, he wondered if he’d ever see her this happy again.

Her head rolled over and she stared him contentedly in the eyes.

“Morning, Halpert,” she said with a lazy smile.

“How long have you been awake?” he asked.

“About a half hour,” she replied. “I’ve been savoring the feel of the French bed.”

“You still have one more night,” he said and she groaned softly.

“No,” she said closing her eyes tightly and shaking her head. “Can’t we just move here? We can live in this apartment here and you can work in the advertising business here in Paris and I can be one of those street artists!” He laughed softly.

“I don’t think either you or I know enough French to justify living in Paris at the moment,” he said with a smile.

“I can learn!” she exclaimed. “Bonjour! Au revoir! Je m’appelle Pam! Je voudrais un sandwich du fromage!”

“Wow,” Jim said with a nod, “we are certainly set if we ever need cheese sandwiches.”

“They are your favorite,” she said as she poked his nose.

“True,” he said. “But I think that our friends in the United States would miss us.” She moaned and rolled back and forth quickly.

“I don’t want to leave,” she said with a pout.

“Aw, but we have to!” he said with a sad smile, she sighed heavily and kissed him quickly. “However, we do still have one more day left.”

“True, we do,” she said.

“So what do you want to do?” he asked.

“Can we go have a picnic by the Eiffel Tower for lunch?” she asked.

“Absolutely.”

“Can we go to Notre Dame?”

“You want to go visit Quasimodo?” he asked with a smile.

“Absolutely!”

“Absolutely we can go,” he said with a nod.

“And…can we ride in one of those river boats that I’ve seen all week long?” she asked.

“Certainly,” he replied. “Do you want to do anything else? Any other museums?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Will we really have time with everything else that we have on the agenda for the day?”

“Probably not, actually,” he said thoughtfully. “I can certainly take you to another really nice restaurant for dinner though.”

“You certainly could,” she said, “but I kind of feel bad about how much money you’ve spent already.”

“You have no idea how much I’ve spent,” he said quickly.

“This is true,” she said with a nod.

“Maybe I won a sweepstakes that you don’t know about,” he said as he wrapped an arm around her.

“I don’t think you did,” she said narrowing her eyes.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said as he quickly ducked in and kissed her lips.

“But…” he kissed her again.

“Do you always ask how much your presents cost?” he teased as he kissed her again.

“No but…” another quick kiss.

“Shhh,” he put his finger up against her mouth and she quickly nipped at his fingertip. “Oh, I see how it is…” he quickly nipped his teeth against the tip of her nose. Her jaw dropped slightly and her mouth formed a small ‘o’.

“So it’s a fight, huh?” she asked as she quickly rolled her hips over his and pinned his shoulders to the bed.

“Is this how we’re going to spend the morning?” he asked as he raised an eyebrow suggestively.

“When in Paris…” she replied as she quickly buried her head against his neck and started nibbling at his collarbone in the sexiest way that she possibly could.

**

They didn’t emerge from the apartment until nearly noon that day. Pam immediately requested that they get food and then walk to the Eiffel Tower – she was absolutely starved for food.

They made their way down some side streets until they were able to find a small grocery store where they bought some fruit, cheese, and several drinks as well. As they neared the tower, they searched up and down the streets for a bakery – finally finding one that was sending the intoxicating scent of fresh bread and sweets out into the street.

“There,” Pam said, immediately pointing towards the building at the corner. They walked into the small patisserie and Pam marveled at all of the goodies lining the walls and the cakes and tarts in chilled cases.

“What do you want?” Jim asked, turning to her as her eyes hungrily devoured everything within sight.

“Definitely a loaf of bread,” she replied, pointing to the long baguettes behind the cash register. “And…” her eyes scanned the cakes and pies in front of her. She turned to Jim with a pained expression on her face.

“What?” he asked, imitating her slight pout.

“It’s too hard!” she exclaimed.

“That’s what she said!” he quickly interjected and she stifled a giggle, nearly snorting at him.

“Seriously!” she exclaimed. “I mean…” her eyes quickly darted back and forth. “Just pick something!” She quickly turned her back and closed her eyes. She started to nervously tap her foot as she heard Jim say a few things in French that she couldn’t comprehend, but she was certain that she heard the word ‘chocolate’ somewhere in the jumble of words.

“Ready?” he asked, pressing his hand against the blade of her shoulder.

“What did you get?” she asked eagerly.

“You’ll have to wait,” he replied with a smile as he led her out of the small shop.

**

The two of them spent two hours slowly eating their lunch in the sun and just over to the side of one of the most famous monuments in the world. They enjoyed watching the people pass by them as they lazily ate and they enjoyed pretending like they were a French couple, openly sharing a kiss every now and again when there weren’t too many people nearby.

“Are you ready for le pièce de résistance?” Jim asked as he reached into the bag at their feet and pulled out a white box from the bakery.

“Oh, look at you Mr. Fancy French Talker,” Pam replied, her eyes twinkling.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes,” she said with a wide smile.

“Okay…” he opened up the small box in his hand to reveal a small chocolate cake composed of layers of mousse and a hard chocolate top.

“Wow,” she said, her eyes wide.

“Do I know how to pick dessert or do I know how to pick dessert?” he asked.

“You know how to pick dessert,” she replied. “I have to share this, don’t I?”

“Yeah, you do,” he said with a smile.

**

They rounded out their day with a visit to Notre Dame, exploring the area inside of the church free of charge to the public. They walked around the church afterwards, enjoying the architecture of the structure and admiring the gardens that surrounding it as well. After visiting the church, they finished the day with a Seine boat tour that took them down the river so they could admire all of the sights and major attractions of Paris – all while sitting down.

The boat dropped them off close to the apartment. The sun had set and Pam was already feeling quite sleepy.

“So…are you ready to go pack?” Jim asked, his arm linked around Pam’s waist.

“Do we have to?” she asked, looking sleepily into his eyes.

“I think so,” he replied. “There will be a car here at ten tomorrow morning to pick us up.”

“Ten?” she asked.

“Ten,” he replied. She sighed heavily and rest her head on his shoulder before they went to cross the street.

“I’m going to miss this city,” she said quietly.

“I’m going to miss you being in this city,” he said with a smile.

“What?” she asked.

“You’re so happy here,” he replied. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you as happy as you have been in the past week and a half.” She smiled bashfully.

“Well, you have to understand that no one has ever taken me on a trip like this,” she said. “Ever.” He nodded thoughtfully.

They arrived at the front door of the building the apartment was located and Jim fumbled for his keys.

“Jim?” she asked as he searched through his pocket.

“Yeah?” he asked as he turned the key in the lock. She opened her mouth as he pushed open the door, but nothing came out. “Pam?”

“No…” she said as she shook her head. “Nothing, I just…I love you, is all.” He smiled.

“I love you too,” he said as he pulled her into his arm and planted a firm kiss on her lips before the door shut behind them.

**

She was sleeping by the time he finished up his packing. He threw the suitcase up onto the window sill and pulled the last few things of theirs from the closet. He reached his hand into a silk lined pocket of the suitcase and pulled out a small velvet box and opened it.

He had bought the ring a couple of weeks before leaving from New York on the vacation. He hadn’t told anyone that he had harbored the idea of proposing to her. He hadn’t even dropped any hints to her that it could be coming. He had been searching for the perfect place, the perfect moment to ask her and he was certain that he would find that moment in Paris – it was the most romantic city in the world, after all. While sitting by the Eiffel Tower that day, he had thought maybe – maybe – but it just wasn’t quite right. Earlier the previous week he had considered proposing to her in the atrium of the Louvre – after all, that seemed to be one of her favorite locations in Paris. He had even considered taking her up to Sacre Coeur in Montmartre and asking her there. None of the locations were right though. None of them felt right.

He looked over at her sleeping in the bed of the rented room and smiled. His finger ran over the diamond ring. It was modest – he knew that he certainly could have afforded something bigger, more elaborate, but this ring…it was Pam. It was small and he was certain that she would love it – if he could ever bring himself to give it to her.

His finger jostled the ring from its secure position and it suddenly skirted onto the floor, skipping along the hardwood floors. Jim quickly dove for it, covering it with both of his hands before it fell into a crack or into a far corner where he wouldn’t be able to reach it. Unfortunately, the sudden thud of his body against the floor and the tinkle of the jewelry against the floor woke Pam. She sat up abruptly and looked down to see Jim on the floor, looking like he was in the middle of a game of baseball and had just slid into home base.

“Jim?” she asked sleepily. “What are you doing?” His mind raced, not here, not here, not now…

“Sorry, I just dropped a couple of Euros…” he said quickly.

“Oh…” she said nodding and falling back into the pillows. “Well, come to bed soon, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be in there with you in just a second,” he said as his hand curled around the ring. He heard a yawn come from the bed and soon her breathing returned to the slow pace that it always was when she was in a deep sleep.

He quickly tucked the ring back into its box and slipped it back into the silk pocket of his suitcase.

“Soon,” he told himself.