Drunk in Paris

I left Merv’s hotel at eleven o’clock, he had been crying over his wife again and let me leave early. Quite relieved I had dashed out into the night without a second thought. This was Paris, and at night it came alive. The neon signs and dazzling lights of the shops and restaurants lit the sky into a midnight blue and as I walked down the street to my own hotel the buzz of he crowd and traffic serenaded my journey.
I suddenly heard the loud jangling of my phone, my heart stopped. If it was Merv changing his mind and wanting me to come back I’d just die.
I pulled it free from the confides of my purse and connected it to my ear, ready to shout at the presumed man down the other end.
“Hello?” I answered quite snottily.
“Bonjour!”
It wasn’t a desperate cockney accent, it was American, it was Billie Joe.
“Bonjour Monsieur, Comment êtes-vous?” I smiled as my pace slowed down amongst the crowd. Quite relieved I hadn’t looked at caller ID as I probably wouldn't have answered out of complete fear.
“Err…Oui.”
I chuckled, “Hello Billie.”
“Hello Ava, you don’t know how happy I am that you started speaking English, I’m hopeless at French.”
I grinned wider, if it were possible, “How are you?” I asked this time in English.
“I’m good, you’ll be happy to know I’m not lost.”
“That’s good.”
“I was just wondering if you had finished work yet?”
I swallowed, “My client let me off for the night, so yeah.”
“Does that mean you are free to come for a drink?”
I grinned again, thanking fate for Merv’s wife struggles. “Yeah sure where are you?”
“Err…right that’s a problem…” I heard him move from the phone.
“Okay the menu says…34 Rue Man boof.”
I chuckled, “Man boof? Okay that doesn’t help...”
I heard voices in the background…
“Oh yeah good point…hang on Ava…I’ll get the waiter to read it to you…”
“Billie…”
Suddenly the phone crackled and I found myself hearing the voice of some French guy, “Err…Allo…Monsieur Armstrong ez at, 34 Rue Marboeuf at err, Man Ray bar.”
I smiled, “Merci, monsieur.”
The phone shuffled again, “Hello Ava? Get that?”
“Yes thanks Billie, although you could have just said the name of the bar.”
He giggled down the phone, “Oh yeah, oh well, I made a friend.”
I chuckled, “It’s nice to know you’d go that extra mile if need be.”
“I’ll see you soon then yeah?”
“Oui, un minute” I smiled.
“Ava…”
“Yeah?”
“You have a hot French voice.”
I giggled as he said goodbye and put the phone down. I’ve never known anybody to make me smile this much before.

I arrived at the Man Ray in about 20 minutes. I spotted it at the end of the street and as I walked I suddenly became quite nervous. What if he re-laid those alluring green eyes of his on me and decided that I wasn’t what he remembered? What if he had all his friends with him? I did hear voices in the background of that phone call. Oh Jesus I hadn’t thought this through, what if they were all weirdos?
My brain didn’t have time to argue with my feet and soon enough a bouncer had smiled at me and opened the glass doors to the bar.
A young female waitress approached me pouting.
“Allo, can I ‘elp you?” she asked, smiling a slightly sickly toothy grin.
I scanned the bar to see him with no prevail.
“Yes, thank you, I’m supposed to be meeting Mr. Armstrong here and…”
“Oh…” she frowned suddenly looking me up and down, “Could you please jus’ wait ere’ a moment.”
I frowned back at her as she disappeared further down the bar. How awkward, I was left like a lemon, I bet he’s gone, I bet he’s just buggered off, what an absoulte snotty waitress, that's the french for you…
OH.WOW.
The waitress had brought him through and he grinned, clad only in his black shirt and jeans, my heart racing as he approached me with that shirt slightly un-done.
“Hey Ava, come on we’re back here.”
I nodded at the waitress as Billie ushered me in front of him, I tingled as I felt his hand guide my back through the tables of the bar.
How can someone I hardly know make me tingle in such a fashion, I had it bad with this guy, I’d much rather be following him then leading the way.
He guided me through the back of the bar.
“There’s only four of us tonight, everyone has opted for an early night tonight.” He whispered down my ear creating ice glaciers on my neck with his breath, only four? Jesus how many people would I have to meet eventually?
We turned the corner and I saw three guys, all dressed slightly similar, sat around a big wooden table. The room looked like the deck of a ship; they all smiled at me as I turned the corner.

“Guys this is Ava, the reason why I am not still lost walking around Paris.”
They all waved and smiled at me,
“This is Mike, Tre and Dan” Billie pointed at each man before ushering me to sit while he brought another chair next to me.
They all stared at me with small smiles,
The blonde guy nearest to me, Mike, was the first to speak, “So, Ava, you’re English then?”
I nodded, “Yeah, err, I’m over here working this week.” I must have been topic of conversation before I arrived, how embarassing.
“Sorry…err, Ava do you want a drink?” Billie asked as I turned to see a male waiter behind me, the man I assumed I had spoken to on the phone. He nodded at me while he waited for Billie to order.
“Err, yeah I’ll just have white wine please.”
“That and the same again then, thanks” Billie asked the waiter before everyone turned to me again.
“So…are you all in the band then?” I asked
“Yeah I’m the bassist, Tre plays drums but Dan is just a random…”
“Hey!” Dan shot, smacking him playfully.
“I’m a roadie!” The black haired guy spat at me in his defence.
“One of our roadies…they like help out with equipment and stuff on tour.” Mike helpfully added upon seeing my face.
I nodded, “Oh right, I’m sorry I must look so ignorant, I really don’t know that much about music.”
“Well I’m glad you know about Paris otherwise we would have lost our front man.” Mike chuckled back. He was a nice guy, I was slightly confused weren’t rock stars meant to be arrogant and unfriendly bastards?
The drummer, Tre, the man to Mike’s right was flicking through a French/English dictionary and suddenly looked up.
“Can you speak French then Ava?”
“A little.” I smiled.
Tre formed a wicked grin across his face, and I turned to Billie Joe, who shook his head,
“Ignore him.” He whispered as Tre smacked his lips together, ready to make an announcement.
“err…Vous avez un derrière agreeable”.
I burst out laughing as the others looked on in confusion and slight disgust.
“What did you say?” Dan asked
Tre tapped the side of his nose as I controlled my breathing to answer him,
“Merci beaucoup, si vous vous leveriez et le tournant par-dessus je pourrais payer la note le vôtre?”
Tre frowned at me and began to quickly flick through his book,
“Aw what did you say?” he pouted like a kid.
“What was that?” Billie asked me grinning.
“Tre said that I had a very nice behind so I said, thank you very much if you could bend over I could check out yours.”
They all started chuckling and Tre flew up from his seat,
“She was joking Tre, we’ve seen your ass enough for this lifetime.” Mike smiled pulling him down by the hem on his shirt.
“I’ll show you later Ava.” He whispered as our drinks arrived.

“So how long are you here?” I asked sipping from my wine.
“Three days” Billie smiled quite sadly.
“Then were are you going?”
“Barcelona” Mike added, “then back to the US.”
My heart thudded, it was looking like I wasn’t going to see Billie Joe again after tonight...

“…but I wanted some coffee!”
“So you milked a dog?”
I was laughing so hard I thought my insides would burst across the table, we had been sitting here for over two hours now, the four of them telling me stories that were getting more and more surreal.
“How on earth do you milk a dog? That’s just…just…”
“Weird.” Billie chuckled, “he tells that story to everyone, it’s just ridiculous now.”
Tre pouted and set down his empty glass, “Everyone loves the dog milking story.”

I chuckled as I finished off my own drink, placing the glass on the table below me.
“With that dog story I think that signals the perfect time for me to leave.”
I smiled as I rose from my seat, Billie standing up along with me.
“I owe you about 50 euros…” I began rustling in my purse when Billie shot a hand across mine. I froze at the touch of his delicate palms, staring at his hand across my own before meeting his warm crinkling eyes.
“Ava I invited you out, I insist that you put your money away…”
“Oh but I…”
“Ava…” I smiled and clamped my purse shut.
“Thank You.” I chuckled before turning to Mike, Dan and Tre.
“It was nice meeting you.”
“You too Ava.” Mike smiled standing up and kissing my cheek, Dan also rose from his chair and did the same.
“You should give me some French lessons sometime.” He chuckled as I turned to the drummer.
“Goodnight Tre”
“Goodnight darlin’ I’m sure we’ll see each other soon.”
I nodded at him and turned to leave the room, Billie following me, I sure hoped I did see them soon.
I quickly strode through the bar, smiling as I felt Billie’s hand resting on my back, stopping and turning to him only when we are outside.

He ran a hand through his hair, failing to look at me in the eye.
“I…I had a really nice time tonight Ava.”
“Me too.” I smiled, feeling an inching of dread creeping closer and closer, we were going to part from each other pretty soon.
“You know…” he began, “It doesn’t have to end now…”
My stomach lurched at his words, smiling at him, do I dare?
Myabe it was the wine having it's effect but my mouth opened and the words blurted out...
“Ever seen The Seine at two o’clock in the morning?”
He grinned back at me, “No, can’t say I have.”
“Me neither.” I grinned wider, shrugging my shoulders.
“Lets’ go then.” He laughed taking up my hand and leading me down the street, I chuckled trying to pull him back.
“Er…Billie, Billie!”
“What?” he asked turning to me.
“The Seine is the other way…”