Illustration by Caroline
I woke up yesterday from a late afternoon nap to my phone ringing from an out of area number. Out of area means only one thing. My mother. Calling. From Long Island. I hit the answer button and before even saying hello she launched into "I don't like what I'm reading on the world wide web!" Yes, she still calls it the world wide web and I guess she read my last blog post. I forget that she reads this stuff. "Whad'ya doin' with MF? He only upsets you. What's the matta with you? You want me to come to Paris and tawk to him?" Oh no, please don't. My mother works for the airlines and can be anywhere within 24 hours, so when she threatens to come, its well within reach of her capabilities. "Where's Sébastien?" she screeched. "Mom, I'm not going to call my new boyfriend because my ex-fiancé upset me, that's ridiculous. Plus he is in London for work, and won't be back until tonight. I think I just need to be alone right now." I said with a sigh.
I was recapping my evening to her when I got a text. It was from Sébastien telling me that he was downstairs. "I heard that you were staying in town a few extra days and I came back a little early. If you want, I'm downstairs and we can go do something. Hungry?" I'm always hungry but I just wasn't sure if I wanted to see him tonight, I felt just awful. I opened the curtains that I had kept drawn all day for a dramatic Greta Garbo touch and saw him on his purring baby blue Vespa looking at his phone, presumably waiting for my response. To my surprise, my eyes lit up at the sight of him. What was I doing? This guy is darling and expresses that he likes spending time with me. I told my Mom that he was downstairs and was debating on whether I should see him. "That's adorable. Go see him." she said bluntly. "Please? Tell him you're coming down. Its time to get outta the house. I'm pretty sure you look like shit right now, so get off the phone with me, clean up and go see the guy who doesn't keep you waiting and wants to spend time with you, my daughta who I think is pretty incredible." "Thanks Mom." I said with a smile. "You're right." "I know. Tawk to you tomorrow." she said before hanging up. I sent him a text requesting him to wait 5, well more like 10 minutes while I get ready. I had to take off the English Rose face mask that was now encrusted on my face. That always takes a few minutes because it stains my skin pink.
I was surprisingly have a good hair day, I teased it with my fingers for some Bardot volume, put on a pair of black skinny jeans that I now fit into thanks to the gym, a striped top and ballet flats and jetted downstairs. Upon opening the apartment building doors, I saw a man who face just beamed from the sight of me and I too was genuinely happy to see him and could feel all of the bullshit from the night before dissipate within seconds. "I missed you." I found myself genuinely saying after embracing each other. "Me too." We stood there smiling at each other for a few seconds. "On y va?" he asked. "Oui, On y va." I responded and jumped on the back of his bike and off we went to his flat in the 18th for dinner.
We got to his house where he had bags of groceries waiting on the kitchen table. He sat me at the kitchen table with a glass of wine, his little radio for me to play dj while made us homemade goat cheese and jambon pizza with a crust that he made from scratch right before my eyes. A stark improvement from the frustrations I was experiencing 24 hours prior. We shared our weekend's to each other, his being more interesting as he recapped how sad and a bit morbid it was to be in London after the death of Amy Winehouse was announced and me, keeping my weekend details to a minimum. After I cleaned dinner up, we nestled on the couch with our wine to watch the ultimate date movie; Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'. I woke up this morning to coffee and brioche waiting for me as he was getting ready for work and realized that this is the way its supposed to be. Easy. Dating is not supposed to give you a headache, but I guess you're really not supposed to date your ex-fiancé either...
