Paris

Ch 8 - Do With It What You Will

She continued to ignore me, and yet I never gave up.

I've never made this much effort to keep anyone in my life before, and yet here I was, calling her for the millionth time. As routine would have it, the phone rang, before taking me through to voicemail. The first few times, I would leave a voicemail.

But now I just didn't bother myself.

I'm not sure why I kept calling even when she clearly didn't want to talk to me, but I guess the fact that she hadn't blocked me was a sign for me. I wanted to show her that while I don't understand her reasoning, I refuse to give up on her.

"Is she still not picking up your phone calls?" Nate asked me.

He's the only person who knows about my short-lived friendship with London, and only because I needed to talk to someone who wasn't Lana or Ingrid. We first made peace before he allowed me to vent.

I shook my head. "Maybe I should give up."

"That's the last thing you should do. I have known you for more than half our lives, and I've never seen you pay this much attention to a woman before. She's special Cuba. I don't know if she's the kind of special that's soul mate special, but she's still worth you keeping her in your life. You said it yourself; there's a reason why she refuses to see you, and until you know what that reason is, you don't give up on her. Even then, you might not need to. Just be patient. It's going to pay off one of these days," he said, handing me a root beer.

I've been clean for three months now, and when I came back from Paris, Nate and I talked things out. He's been clean since he lost his wife, so I figured that he's the kind of person I should be keeping close to me, something Lana agrees with.

It's just a bonus that he's my best friend.

He told me all about his time away. He basically went soul searching and decided that the kind of lifestyle Emile and I lived was not for him. Now that I was almost killed, I fully understand what he's talking about.

We're too grown for that kind of life.

Speaking of Emile, he's still partying up a storm. They didn't find anything to pin on him, so he just went back to the lifestyle. He's tried to get me there a couple of times, but I've just not felt like going back.

He and Nate don't even talk at all.

"I forget how wise you've become," I commented, making him laugh.

"You should try taking some time away too," he suggested.

"Not any time soon though. I need to figure out this financial crisis that I'm about to face," I replied.

He raised an eyebrow. "Financial crisis?"

"Uh, yeah. The company is still doing fine, but my personal finances are facing some threat," I informed.

"How? Didn't your grandfather leave everything to you?" he questioned.

"You would think so, but I don't actually know. Francois is yet to send me the will, but it's this way because apparently my grandfather wanted to wait for a period of time before I find out anything. Francois called last night to say that he should be flying here one of these days, so we'll have to wait and see," I responded.

"That's very weird. Do you think your grandfather has some sort of surprise in store for you?" he asked.

"Oh, I know he does. There's no way his will reading would've taken this long if things weren't about to get complicated. I just hope that it's something I can handle," I pointed out.