"My first boyfriend, actually. He was my high school love."

"I see." His voice turned cold. "Why did you break up if you guys were in love?"

"Oh Zane." I shook my head at his obvious jealousy though it made me feel warm inside. "We broke up because I got pregnant and he didn't want to help me look after the baby."

"What?" He looked furious.

"Sorry, that was a bad joke." I touched his shoulder. "He went to Princeton in New Jersey and I went to UM. Geography made it hard for us to keep dating."

"You could have tried long distance."

"We could have, but we didn't."

"I guess the love wasn't that strong then." He looked into my eyes searchingly.

"He was my high school boyfriend, Zane. Our love was juvenile and nothing more than a crush. I mean I was devastated when we broke up and I cried for a week straight but as soon as I got to Miami and starting make new friends and hanging out I forgot about him." I laughed. "And now, I can barely even picture his face."

"I guess it's easy for you to get over guys huh?" Zane's face was cold and I sighed. He really was a big baby sometimes.

"Zane Beaumont, are you really going to give me a hard time about my high school boyfriend? Especially after I forgave you for not telling me that you slept with Angelique."

"I didn't love Angelique; that was just s.e.x." He frowned at me and his voice was matter-of-fact.

"That doesn't make it better." I glared at him. "In fact, that's worse."

"How is it worse?" He glared back at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Are you kidding me? It is ..."

"We are here. Hotel Opera Pelris." The taxi-driver interrupted our conversation as he parked. "That will be 60 Euros please."

"Here we go." Zane opened his wallet and handed the man some notes. "Keep the change."

"Merci." The taxi driver gave us his first smile of the day as he glanced at the notes and hopped out of the car in order to open the door for us.

"I guess money talks everywhere." I whispered to Zane and he laughed.

We walked into the hotel and I looked around in surprise at how normal it seemed. I had expected Zane was going to go all out and take us to some 5-star glittery hotel, but this was far from 5-star.

Zane walked up to the front desk and a man jumped up. "Bonjour and welcome to Opera Pelris."

"This is Opera Pelris?" Zane's voice was gruff and the man's face paled a little as he nodded. "This is the Opera Pelris where all the biggest stars in Europe stay?" Zane's voice rose. "This is the hotel of choice of all the aristocracy?"

"Yes, monsieur, this is Opera Pelris, one of the finest hotels in Paris." The man gulped and looked down at the desk in front of him. It seemed to me that even he had a problem saying that mistruth.

"Is this a joke?" Zane's voice grew louder and the man looked like he was about to faint. "This doesn't look like the photos on your website."

"Non, monsieur. Checking in?" The man averted his gaze and looked down.

"Where is the Seine?" Zane frowned and his voice was spiky. "Where are the crystal chandeliers in the lobby? In fact, where is the grand lobby with the doorman?"

"I, uh, I'm not sure I understand you, sir. My English is not that good." The thin man swallowed and looked at me with a wide smile. "Madam, welcome to Paris."

"Thanks." I nodded and smiled back weakly. I felt bad for the man; Zane looked like he was about to blow a gasket. I laughed at the a.n.a.logy I had made and bit my lip as Zane turned around and glared at me.

"I want to see your manager." Zane glared at the man. "This was a case of fraud. I am not staying here."

"Come on Zane. It'll be okay." I touched his shoulder. "I just want to go lie down for a bit."

"Oh?" His eyes darkened as he stared and me and sighed. "We'll take the room for now. But we may be checking out tomorrow." He turned back around and glared at the man. "You better give us your best room."

"We only have one room left monsieur." The man swallowed, but smiled at me gratefully.

"Well, then you better hope that it meets my satisfaction." Zane looked around the drab entryway we were in and sighed. "Sorry." He mouthed at me.

"It's okay." I squeezed his arm and smiled. We were in Paris, that was all I needed. It didn't have to be perfect. We didn't have to have a room at the Ritz. We didn't have to hobn.o.b with the stars. I kept my mouth shut but I was a little worried we would be sleeping with the rats instead.

"I love you." He leaned over and kissed my cheek. "You're such a sweetheart."

"Hey, I like hotels with character." I put my arm around my waist. "I'm just happy to be here with you."

"Madam, you will love it here." The man smiled at me again. "We also have breakfast in the restaurant from 7 a.m. - 10 a.m."

"Is room service open before and after then?" Zane interrupted.

"Well, we don't have room service."

"Are you joking?" Zane's voice rose and I pinched him.

"Be nice." My face flushed in embarra.s.sment. "He's just the front desk clerk Zane."

"Just give me my keys." Zane muttered and the man quickly gave us a key attached to a piece of wood.

"This is the key for your door. You're on the second floor. A wonderful room. The elevator is just up the stairs and to the right." The man beamed. "Have a nice stay."

"Who helps us with our bags?" Zane looked around and sighed as he picked up our suitcases. "I guess that was a lie as well." He muttered to no one in particular.

"I can help." I reached over to take my case and he shook his head.

"No, I've got them." I watched as he struggled with both cases and just sighed. Let him be the big macho man, I wasn't going to fight him just so I could give him some help. I walked up the red-carpeted stairs and to the elevator. It was an old-fashioned elevator and I had to manually open the door. As I looked inside I realized there was no way that Zane, myself and the suitcases were going to fit in. In fact there was no way that anyone would fit in with either case. I took a deep breath before stepping back and allowing Zane to see inside the interior of the elevator. I was scared that he was going to completely lose it but he just muttered something under his breath when he realized that it was too small to be of any use.

"So, I guess I'll just carry these up the stairs." He sighed and I gave him a wide smile.

"You can do it, Superman."

"Not helping, Lucky."

"Sorry."

"You can make it up to me." He gave me a lascivious stare and then started up the stairs with the suitcases. I wanted to tell him to take one at a time, but I didn't think he was in the mood for any suggestions. Thankfully, the second floor wasn't too far of a hike and we made it there before Zane let go of the cases and called it a night.

"Let me get the door." I grabbed the key from him and fumbled with the lock.

Finally I opened the door and walked into the room. I looked around the room in dismay. It was small and cramped and the king-sized bed was made up of twin beds pushed together. I plastered a smile on my face so Zane wouldn't see how disappointed I was. I walked over to the windows and opened them widely, hoping to catch a glance of the Eiffel Tower, but all I saw was some scaffolding on the building directly across from us. I turned back around to check out the bathroom, maybe there would be an old antique claw-footed bathtub that I could soak in and relax. I opened the door to the bathroom and there was no bathtub at all, just a shower and a sink.

"What the f.u.c.k is this s.h.i.thole?" Zane dropped the suitcases on the floor and cursed under his breath. "I'm sorry, Lucky."

"It's okay." I stood in the bathroom wondering how I was going to tell him that there was no toilet. "Let's just relax, yeah?" I turned around quickly and grabbed the remote control and turned the TV on. I smiled when I saw Sheldon from Big Bang Theory on the screen. "Yay, they have American TV." I grinned at him, but my smile became frozen as they started speaking in another language. I kept the smile plastered on my face and sat on the hard bed while flicking through the channels. I got all the way through 105 channels before realizing that there was nothing in English. I looked up and saw Zane staring at me and the TV screen with a smirk on his face.

"What's so funny?"

"Your look of disappointment when you realized that there was nothing for you to watch on TV."

"Oh, oops, sorry." I stood up and walked over to give him a hug. "I'm just glad to be here with you."

"At least we have that." He kissed my forehead. "Now excuse me a second, I just need to go to the bathroom."

"Um, about that." I grabbed ahold of him. "I think we have to use a public toilet."

"What?" He shouted, his face growing angry again. "I am not paying $400 a night to use a public restroom."

"This place is $400 a night?" My eyes almost popped out of their sockets. There was no way this place was worth even $40 a night.

"Are you sure about the toilet?" Zane walked to the bathroom, opened a door and cursed. "Okay, let's see if it is somewhere else." I tried not to look at him like he was crazy, but the room was so dreadfully small, there wasn't even a place to hide a toilet.

Zane walked to the corner of the room and opened a door to what I thought I thought was the closet. "What the f.u.c.k?" Zane cursed again as he looked in front of the open door.

I walked over to him to see what had gotten him so worked up. My face paled as I stared at the toilet. It was a normal looking toilet, but it took up the whole "room." There was no way someone could sit on the toilet and close the door; it was literally impossible.

"Oh, that's a tight s.p.a.ce."

We both stood there staring at each other for a couple of seconds before we both started laughing. Our laughter was so loud that I thought someone would think we were dying of a laughing attack. I doubled over from laughing so hard and Zane grabbed hold of me to keep me from falling over. "My stomach hurts." I took a breath and clutched onto his arm.

"I'm about to p.i.s.s my pants." Zane gave me a wry smile. "Literally."

"Well then you better go to the toilet." I pointed to the door and he shuddered.

"Okay." He took two steps and I heard him unzip his pants, and then I heard the sound of his wee as it hit the toilet bowl.

I cringed when I realized that every noise someone made while on the toilet would be heard by everyone in the room. I quickly walked back to the bed and laid flat on my back, deep in thought. What was I going to do when I needed to go to the bathroom? There was no way I wanted him to hear me on the toilet, not for number 1 or 2. Number 1 was bad enough, but I knew I would die of shame if he heard me go number 2. There were some things that should just never be shared.

"That's better." Zane plopped down on the bed next to me and I frowned.

"You didn't wash your hands."

"What?" He looked confused.

"You didn't wash your hands and you were just holding your Johnson."

"My Johnson?" He jumped up and walked to the bathroom. "I'd rather we call him Zane Jr."

"I'd rather we didn't call him anything at all, actually." I stared at Zane as he made his way back to the bed. His hair was growing longer and I could see the facial hair growing on his neck and face. He looked handsome, and manly. I wanted to feel the rough of his stubble against the softness of my skin.

"Are you sure about that?" He laid down flat on his stomach and leaned on his arms while staring at me.

"Sure about what?" His eyes and lips had mesmerized me and I wasn't sure what he was talking about.

"You know what." He laughed and all of a sudden I was taken back to the first day I saw him come into the diner. It had been a Friday about 7 p.m. It had been pretty slow and Maria and I'd been dancing around behind the counter. She had been trying to teach me the basic salsa steps and I had been concentrating so hard that I hadn't even noticed some customers had entered the restaurant.

"Sorry to bother you two dancing queens, but do you think we can get a table?" His voice had been deep and firm, but his tone had been full of laughter.

I looked up, ready to apologize, but the words had stuck in my throat as I gazed into his deep blue eyes. He had stared back at me, and we had what I had thought was an instant connection. I had given him a sweet smile and was about to lead him to a table when I noticed the gorgeous blonde behind him. She stood there snarling at me and then studied her fingernails, and I had felt about six inches tall.

"I'm sorry, sir. This way." I had grabbed the menus and berated myself mentally for thinking that we had had a connection. There was no way a man like him would be interested in a waitress like me.

"I thought I had walked into a dance cla.s.s and not a diner." His eyes teased me as he took the menus and I blushed.

"Sorry about that." I muttered again and he winked at me.

"Do you guys only have burgers?" The blonde had looked at me in disgust. "What is this place, Zane? I thought we were going to Ruth's Chris."

"They didn't have any reservations, Emily." He had reached over and caressed her hand. "A burger won't kill you just this once."

"I guess so, Zane." She had tinkled and tightened her fingers in his. I had stood there staring at them for a moment when Zane had looked up at me and smiled. A real, wide, genuine smile, and I had been captivated by him. It wasn't just that he had been the most gorgeous man I had ever seen but there was a glint in his eyes that had lit a part of me on fire.

"Are you okay, Lucky?" Zane's expression was worried as he looked at me searchingly.

I nodded slowly. "I was just thinking about the first time we met."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, your expression just now reminded me of that day." I smiled gently and ran my fingers along his jaw line. "You were so arrogant and hot, I didn't know what to think about you."

"I'm just glad you thought about me period." He stared into my eyes. "To think we may never have met if I had never gone in that diner that night."

"We would have met." I leaned forward and kissed him. "We're soul mates. Soul mates always meet up at some point in their lives."

"You're just a regular old romantic sap aren't you Lucky?" He kissed me back gently. "Can I hear your song for me now?"

"It's bad." I shook my head. "I don't want to say it now."

"Why not?"

"Yours was so beautiful and mine...well, mine is just really bad and goofy."

"Nothing about you is goofy."

"Have you seen me at the gym?" I giggled. "Trust me, if you saw me try to use some of those weight machines, you would think I was the goofiest person that you ever met."