Dancing in the Gray (5 page)

“Is there a specific one in mind?”
Ashley immediately sounded excited.

“It’s too soon to tell. But, you and
Jeremy will be the first to know.”

Elise’s hotel phone rang.

“Hold on, Ash. Let me get
that.”

It was the concierge letting her know
that her car service was here for her.

“Hey Ash, I need to go. My car service
is here. I love you so much! Thanks for the package.”

“Love you too, Leesie. You are so
welcome. Have fun!”

Elise hung up the phone and raced down
to the lobby to meet her car driver. The car service pulled up to
the event, and Elise’s heart was racing. She was very excited to
see if Trey would show up.

“Pouvez-vous venir me chercher ici à 1 heures
précises?
S’il vous plait.” Elise asked the
car service to meet her back here at 1 am sharp.

“Oui madame.”

She exited the car and made her way to
a grassy area where she sat down and started putting on her roller
skates. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people there.
The people from the roller skating association were passing out
t-shirts that the participants could wear. Some of the roller
skaters were dressed in costumes, others were there in mascot
uniforms probably promoting or marketing a local product or
business. There were tons of police officers on roller skates as
well as medical personnel in case one of the skaters was
injured.

Once Elise had her skates on, she put
her espadrilles in her backpack and threw her backpack around her
shoulders. She stood up slowly since she hadn’t been on roller
skates in a very long time. She tip toed across the grassy area
onto some concrete and tested her skating ability. There were a few
wobbles and near wipeouts, but after a few minutes she had the hang
of it again. She laughed loudly with excitement. She hoped Trey
would make it but even if he didn’t, she knew she would have a
great time. She skated up and down the curved area of the Raoul
Dautry that was closed off to traffic. She looked for Trey but
didn’t find him.

One of the event organizers called out
over a loudspeaker or bull horn to let the skaters know that they
were about to begin their route. The police officers on motorcycles
began lining up to lead the skaters through the route. Elise took
one last look at the crowd to see if she could find
Trey.

Nope. He wasn’t there.

~

It was around 9:30 pm and everyone was
leaving the restaurant heading back to the hotel. Le Jules Verne
was built into the Eiffel Tower, and it had one of the most
spectacular views of the city. The cuisine was excellent and
aesthetically beautiful.

Trey was happy for Will and Jessie who
were both so in love with each other. Everyone toasted the couple
with such loving words and well wishes. All Trey could say was that
he hoped one day he could find the kind of love that Will and
Jessie had. He really meant that. He was surrounded by couples that
had relationships that were inspiring, and he hoped one day he
would have someone to share his life with.

He sat there through the entire meal
absent minded staring outside the window wondering where she was.
He never got a chance to call her personally and decline her
invitations since Will came into his room this morning interrupting
him. He was swept up in the whirlwind of the wedding events and
spending time with his family that before he knew it, he was back
at his hotel changing for dinner.

Will nearly convinced him that he
should go to the concert with her, but Trey talked himself out of
it. He intended on remaining focused on his political campaign. But
now, here he was, underneath the Eiffel Tower waiting for the
convoy to take them back to their hotel desperately wishing he was
with her.

“Trey! Are you coming?” Will called out
to him. Everyone had made their way into their vehicles while Trey
stood there looking up at the Eiffel Tower.

“Yeah.” Trey walked to the SUV. He was
riding with Will and Jessie and their security team. There were
French police escorting their entourage back to the hotel. Jessie
and Will were sitting in the third row seat while Will’s detail,
Charles, and Trey rode in the second row. Ronald was sitting up
front with the driver, who was the detail provided by the American
Embassy.

Trey sat their silently looking out the
window.

“Trey, go to the concert with her,
dude.” Will’s comment broke the silence in the vehicle.

Jessie jumped into the conversation,
“With who?”

“Trey met a lady on the plane on the
way up here, and she invited him to do some stuff with her in
Paris. She has awesome seats to the sold out Foo Fighter’s concert
tomorrow night.”

Trey turned his head back to look at
Will.

“Why don’t you want to go?” Jessie
asked.

“He does.” Will answered for him. “But
Trey doesn’t think that he can have a relationship and a career. I
tried to explain that they weren’t mutually exclusive, but he
wouldn’t listen. Plus, it’s not like he had to marry her just
because he went to a concert with her.”

“Will’s right. I would love to go with
her, but I think I messed up, anyway. One of the things she invited
me to is happening tonight. I stood her up, so I doubt very
seriously that she will want to see me tomorrow night at the
concert.”

“What event was happening tonight?”
Jessie asked.

“Some roller skating thing.” Trey
wasn’t sure what it was. All the information was in the envelope in
his room.

“That’s the Pari Roller group, sir.
They start out the night just a few blocks from here. The French
police provide security for them and lead their skaters through the
city.” The Embassy driver knew what Trey was referring
to.

“Can you take us there?” Will asked the
driver.

“Yes, sir.”

“No. What are you doing?” Trey looked
back at Will.

“Didn’t you just say you wanted to go
with her?” Will was looking at him expectantly.

“Yes, but…” Trey was trying to finish
his sentence but he couldn’t. He couldn’t think of a reason why he
didn’t want to see her.

“But, nothing. Please take us there.”
Will addressed the driver.

Trey started getting nervous as the
driver was taking them to the event departure location. It took a
while to get through the city traffic. When they showed up at the
spot where the skaters meet, they were already gone. Trey tried not
to show it, but he was really upset.

“It looks like they have already left,
sir. Did you want to go to the midway point where they stop for a
few minutes to let the skaters rest?” The Embassy official was
looking at Trey through the rearview mirror.

~

Elise was having a great time. The only
thing that would have made it better was if Trey was here with her.
The trip had taken her all around Paris and near the Seine River.
The group leader just announced that the group reached the halfway
point, and they would be pausing for a while for everyone to rest
and get hydrated.

As the herd of skaters came to a halt
around the Place d’Italie roundabout, Elise noticed a gentleman in
a suit standing on the side of the road looking through the crowd.
It was Trey. She was so excited to see him. She started to make her
way through the crowd to get his attention.

“TREY!” Elise yelled his name, and he
must have heard her because he was now looking in her general
direction. She was waving her arms and finally he made eye contact
with her. She smiled and continued to skate towards his direction.
As she got closer to him, she was more focused on Trey and not the
crowd of skaters. That’s when she got sideswiped by a gentleman on
rollerblades that was travelling quickly, even though the group was
stopping. Elise fell down right in front of Trey. She threw her
arms out in front of her to break her fall, but ended up hitting
the ground pretty hard.

“Elise!” Trey ran up to her and picked
her up off the ground carrying her to the grassy part of the
roundabout where a lot of skaters were sitting down resting. He got
to his knees and placed her down on the grass carefully.

Two gentlemen in yellow shirts rushed
to Trey’s side obviously witnessing the fall.

“Madame vous allez bien? Est tout ce mal?”
One of the gentlemen bent down and asked if she
was ok.

“Je vais bien. Je pense que je viens de grater mon genou et
de palmier.”
Elise explained that she was
only scraped on her knee and palm.

“Elise, are you hurt?” Trey looked
concerned.

She smiled up at him. “I’m fine. My
pride is probably hurt the most.”

Trey wrapped his hands around the back
of her lower thigh and calf examining her knee closely. She was
scraped pretty badly and was bleeding a little. “Let me see your
hand.” He asked gently.

Elise swallowed hard and lifted her
right hand turning it over so he could see her palm. “You’ll need
some bandages on these. Are the gentlemen in the yellow
medics?”

“Yes.” She nodded her head.

Trey looked over his shoulder at one of
the gentlemen and said, “Bandage?”

Elise smiled. He was lucky bandage was
the French word for bandage.

Combien? The gentleman asked
Trey.

Trey looked back at Elise. She
continued the conversation holding up two fingers. “Deux s’il vous
plait.”

The gentleman handed Trey two bandages
and a couple of antibacterial wipes. Trey went to work opening the
wipes. He looked up at Elise and told her, “This might sting a
little.”

How cute! Elise couldn’t help but
laugh. “I think I can take it.”

Trey smiled that sexy half smile from
the plane right back up at her, and Elise nearly passed out. He was
so handsome.

He gently dabbed the wipe across her
tender knee removing a little dirt and gravel that was lodged in
there. He then covered her knee up with the first bandage and
started working on her hand. Her hand looked so tiny being held by
his. He took his time with her palm making sure all the scrapes
were clean before putting the other bandage on it.

He looked up at her when he was done.
“Are you sure you didn’t sprain anything or hurt anything
else?”

“I’m ok. Much better now.” Yes, she was
flirting with him. Fun Elise could win a gold medal in
flirting.

Trey smiled and shook his head. “Do you
have any shoes?”

“Yes. They’re in my backpack.” Elise
lifted her right hand to her shoulder to try to grab her backpack
and inadvertently winced when the strap rubbed against her
palm.

“I’ve got it.” Trey slid his hands in
between Elise’s shoulders and the straps of her bag, slowly sliding
them down her arms. Holy shit! Mr. Second Base had some flirty
moves of his own. Elise instantly felt the need for one of the fans
that southern ladies use in church.

He carefully removed her backpack and
opened it, retrieving her shoes. He unlaced and removed her skates,
took off her socks, and slipped on her espadrilles. He stood up and
offered her a hand to get up. Elise gladly took his hand and with
little to no effort, he lifted her into a standing position. He
wrapped his arm around her waist, “Try to see if you can put some
pressure on it. I don’t want your knee to buckle and send you back
to the ground.”

Elise took a step. Her knee hurt a
little bit, but she could definitely walk. She thought about faking
it for a second, just so he would keep his arm around her. “I think
I’ll survive.” She smiled up at him. “Thank you.” Trey grabbed her
skates off the ground and grabbed her backpack. “You look very
handsome in that suit. Where are you coming from?”

A shy boyish grin crossed his face, and
it looked like he was avoiding eye contact. Was he blushing from
the compliment? “My brother’s rehearsal dinner. It was at Le Jules
Verne.”

“Very nice. Was that your first time
there?” They started walking towards the sidewalk of the
roundabout.

“Yes, it was. It had a beautiful
view.”

Elise nodded her head up and down,
“That, it does.” She was tired of the small talk. Fun Elise gets to
the point. “What made you decide to come out here?”

Trey was definitely caught off guard.
“Well, I uhm,” he cleared his throat and shrugged his shoulders, “I
wanted to see you.”

Elise liked that answer. “I hoped you
would come. I was kinda sad when I didn’t see you at the departure
location. But, I’m glad you’re here now.”

“Me, too.” He looked super nervous. It
was totally cute. “I’ll just come clean with you. I was very
flattered when I saw the envelope in my laptop bag. At first, I
wasn’t going to join you.” He looked over at her like he was making
sure she wasn’t wielding sharp objects at him. Elise just continued
smiling and listening. “But, as the day went on I kept thinking
about you more and more. And, while I was in the world famous Le
Jules Verne with my family, instead of enjoying the view and the
food, I just kept wondering where you were. So, I came to find
you.”