Stronger (18+)

4. Paris

© VeGirl 2014

"On July the fifth, My birthday came up. It was fifty four days since Arnoud Fabret gave me that necklace that now lay around your neck."

Zoe had begged Maya for the rest of the story the next day, but now she looked startled. "He was your..."

"He was my master and the love of my life."

Zoe's eyes were wide open and Maya knew she couldn't continue the story if she was watching her like that. She got up from the breakfast table and walked up to stand in front of the window. With her back towards Zoe she continued her story.

"My older sister arrived with her husband and their daughter to celebrate my birthday. I loved little Sumi, but would soon move far away to a life where people wouldn't expect me to start a family."

As a last attempt of being a good daughter, she helped her mother preparing food and setting table out in the shade of their back yard. The cherry tree was standing there loaded with fruit and Maya picked a few and put straight in her mouth as the others looked away. Thoughts flickered to the cherry festival in April where she had danced for Arnaud. It had been arousing in a crazy way to know that his eyes were on her body the entire time. Her skin tingled at the mere thought of it.

"Take her."

She flinched as her sister put her daughter in Maya's arms while hurrying inside.

"Bonjour Sumi." Maya decided it was never too early to learn a foreign language and continued to speak French with the five month old baby.

"That is a good look for you Mayako." Maya's brother in law hinted with a teasing smile.

"Much better for my sister..." She smiled at him instead of sticking her tongue out. "I have business to attend and no time for children just yet."

"Business..." Maya's grandmother snorted. "Career is for men, women have to stay home and take care of the children. What would the world become if women took the jobs away from the men?" Her grandmother still hinted that it was Maya's turn to find a man and she suggested a couple of their closest friend's son as suitable men.

"Omedetõ gozaimasu..." A dark voice congratulated in crappy Japanese and there Arnaud stood with his head inclined in respect.

"My heart almost stopped when I realized he had come to celebrate my birthday, and I couldn't bow enough to him. I was suddenly a bundle of nervendings that all just shivered with no connection of control at all." Maya snickered at the memory. She had been a nervous wreck and at the same time she had been extatic to see him.

"My father stepped forward to welcome Arnaud to our simple home. My father bowed to the tall man that towered over him. "It is a fabulous opportunity you have given our daughter." Maya did her best imitation of her father's voice, adding a powerful Japanese accent.

"I wasn't sure what my father was talking about, and my family gathered curiously around to find out what was going on. That was when it dawned on me that Arnaud had contacted my father and said that I would be working with him." Maya took a calming breath, thinking of how she had been forced to translate between her father and Arnaud. That night she had wondered if the man had bought her.

Suddenly Maya turned back to find Zoe still watching her curiously. "My father said something like if I disappointed the man he had to send me back to Japan, but Arnaud replied that he had ways of discipline, and he sure did." Maya snickered and started to untidy the table.

Zoe was instantly on her feet. "Please Maya sit down and let me do that for you."

Maya slumped down in the leather bolstered chair, not sure how or if she wanted to continued the story. She had been amazed that not everybody noticed how completely stressed out that situation made her. Maya had translated something about training instead of discipline. Chõbatsu is a word she excluded in her transcription towards her father; punishment.

"It was the best and worst birthday I had. This was my last day in Japan and Arnaud convinced me to spend it with my family and friends. I wanted to be with him, but knew that he was to travel back to France the very next day and I would be coming with him." Maya shook her head when Zoe offered her coffe and got on her feet and made herself a cup of tea instead. Zoe watched her procedure curiously.

Somehow it was calming for Maya and she didn't notice how her movement pattern changed into the flowing motion that was her inheritance.

"Arnaud offered a ride for me to meet my friends, and I remember how afraid I was that I should somehow disappoint the man, but he reassured me that I could never do that. And then he kissed me for the first time." Maya put the things aside and sat down by the table again where she sipped the tea.

"Was it a good kiss?" Zoe smiled mischievously.

"Yes."

"That sounds so romantic." Zoe sighed with a wide smile. "I didn't know you were such a romantic."

"Yes and this is a perfect opportunity to remind you to never tell anybody what I now tell you." Maya bore her eyes into Zoe's until she shivered. "This is not to reach Linda and Jaden."

"They don't know it?" Zoe was blown away. "You lived with them for weeks."

"That doesn't mean I told them my darkest secrets. They thought I was a poor homeless girl they had to take in." Maya swept her eyes around in the crisp white apartment and noticed Zoe do the same.

"Anyway; I spent the evening listen to my friends longing for husbands and children. I had never really understood that longing and I had promised my life to a man who according to his words 'would never take me as his wife' unquote." Maya smiled and it was a little bitter.

"The next day I sat on the first flight of my life. I desperately wanted to throw myself at Arnaud's feet because that gave me some kind of calm, but there I sat with my eyes glued forward." Maya snickered at the memory. "The cabin woman addressed Arnaud and I wanted to strangle her, something he of course knew and was utterly amused by."

"There I was leaving my old life for the great adventure and all I heard was my friend wondering if he wasn't too old. He was much older than me, but that meant nothing to me. I worshiped the ground we walked on."

Zoe wanted to know everything about this man but was also curious about those friends. "Was that the last time you saw your friends?"

"No, we went back to Japan later, but that is a story for another day." Maya sipped her tea. "He told me he was thirtyfour and I was only eighteen. Later he revealed that he had been thrilled the first time he saw me, but had swore not to touch me. I of course threw myself at him," Maya smiled.

"The flight between Japan and Paris is very long, and there were several gorgeous women on that flight that wanted Arnaud's attention. I sat there wanted to strangle every one of them, but he was of course flattered. Drop dead gorgeous and with a posture that made anyone shiver." Maya smiled at the thought, but then sadness overwhelmed her and she had to refocus to snap out of it. "He was used to travel and I followed safely in his wake. Like a true gentleman he carried my bag and helped me through customs who wanted answers to so many questions that I knew nothing about. A car waited with his personal driver and Arnaud was on the phone speaking French so fast that I didn't understand a thing. I wondered what I had got myself into," Maya admitted.

"Couldn't he sense that you were stressing out?"

"Zoe, do I ever show if I'm stressing out?"

Zoe had to admit that she had never noticed such a thing.

"He was a powerful businessman and I would never try to impose on his work."

"But..."

"No but, I think this story is over. That is how I ended up in France instead of being forced to marry in Japan, living my life with husband and children."

* * * * * * * * * * *

Hello my sweet curious people,

Thank you for showing interest in my story. It is a long one, and you might not like everything that has happened in my life, but I live without regret.

Je t'aime, Mayako.

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