Page 31 of Somewhere With You
Amelie eyed the photographs. “I’m a little taken aback seeing them hanging here.” She let out a long sigh. “It seems like a lifetime ago that I took them.”
The man nodded in recognition. When a waiter passed with a tray, he grabbed two flutes of champagne and handed her one, taking the empty one from her and handing it back to the waiter. He held his glass up, and then touched the rim of hers. “To San Francisco.”
“To San Francisco,” a deep voice whispered in her ear from behind.
Amelie dropped her glass and watched in slow motion as it hit the concrete floor below, shattering upon impact. She turned. “Jack.”
The gallery owner took a step back. He glanced back and forth between the two of them then stepped aside. “Excuse me for a moment while I grab someone to clean this up.”
Amelie backed up and shifted her weight from foot to foot in an attempt to regain her balance. Jack reached for her forearm, settling her. He laughed just a little. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to startle you like that. The glass didn’t get you, did it?”
She blinked and shook her head trying to reconcile what she was seeing.
“Here. Maybe you should sit,” Jack said, leading her toward a bar stool.
Amelie bit her lip. God. He’d changed so much. His hair. It was dark, any trace of blonde now gone. And it was short. He was different… bigger than she remembered. “What are you doing here?”
Jack stood beside her and surveyed the room. “I came to see your work. And my photos.” He smiled. “Photos, which, by the way, I don’t remember signing a release for.”
She shrugged ruefully. “Sue me.”
“Believe me, I’m considering it.”
Jack reached over the bar, grabbed two glasses of champagne, and placed one in front of her. She picked it up and sipped slowly watching the crowd file past. “You look well,” she finally offered.
“I am. And I could certainly say the same about you.” His eyes travel the length of her.
She seemed to consider what to say next, but then threw her head back and laughed as though he’d just said the funniest thing she’d ever heard. “Well, that’s sort of a given, don’t you think? The last time you saw me, I was partially sedated in a psych ward.”
He stepped away from the bar and inspected the photograph hanging in front of them. He turned back to her and downed his glass of champagne. “Yeah. I’d say you’ve come a long way, kid.”
Amelie glanced at the floor and then back at him. “You wanna get out of here?”
“You’re the guest of honor. Don’t you have to stay?”
She shrugged her shoulders and nodded slightly in recognition. “Give me twenty minutes, will you?”
Jack smiled. “They’ll be the longest twenty minutes of my life.”
Amelie led Jack by the hand through the lobby of The Hotel Monteleone when he suddenly stopped and stared at his shoes.
She looked him up and down, confused. “What are you doing?”
“Where are we going?” he asked, eyeing their surroundings nervously
“Where is it you want to go?”
Jack pulled his hand away and forced his hands into his pockets. “Um… how about the bar?”
She turned back, looked in briefly, and shook her head. “It’s too crowded. And it spins. Let’s try the one on the rooftop.”
Jack put as much distance as possible between them in the elevator. He seemed to be relieved when the doors opened, and he followed her out to the rooftop. He ordered a bottle of champagne and sat facing her near the pool. “So what’s new in your life? I’d heard through the grapevine that you were living abroad but not much else…”
She sipped her champagne then nodded. “Yep. Italy. Or Rome, if you want to be exact.”
“Nice. Did you like it?”
“I loved it.” Amelie exhaled. “It was… amazing. The people, the culture… the food.”