Hidden in Paris Read Online Free Page A

months, and they never talked about the future. She had never broached the subject of the future, never planned one.
    The evening her life changed forever they were, in fact, having what she believed to be their last week together. Johnny was moving to France to become a partner in his older brother’s import firm in Paris. Sitting across from him over greasy Eggplant Parmigiana, Annie was as heartbroken as she appeared nonchalant.
    Johnny poured wine into her glass and handed it to her, waited for her to take a sip. “So?” he said, a half smile on his lips, “you want to get married?” She swallowed the wine and coughed, “Do you mean in general? I guess one day, with the right man, at the right time.”
    “No, not in general. I mean the two of us. This week.”
    Yes, her stomach dropped indeed. Sank down to her ankles, as a matter of fact. She felt her cheeks burn crimson, as sweat sprang from every pore of her skin. Her shaken response came from the heart. “
Me
?”
    Johnny laughed at that one.
    In the Italian restaurant, life moved at a different speed now. Johnny took her hand, placed something in it, and closed her fingers over it. What did she hope to find when she opened her hand?
    “Is this some kind of sick joke?” she said, trying to contain the head-to-toe trembling.
    She opened her hand. In her palm was a thin gold band.
    Across from the table that was now the center of the universe, Johnny looked at her, a bemused expression on his face. “So, what’s it gonna be?” he said, tilting his head like a cocker spaniel. “Wanna get hitched and move to Paris with me?”
    “I... I will have to get back to you on that,” Annie answered, her throat already constricted.
    “All right, go ahead,” he said. And a second later, “so?”
    She laughed, and the same time tried very hard not to cry. If this was a practical joke, she was a dead woman on campus. But she could not hold the tears. “You’re not serious.”
    He had taken her hand, and slowly, incredibly, placed the ring on her finger. “Very serious. Come on, just say yes, don’t leave me hanging like this.”
    And then came the single word that changed her entire life.
    “Yes,” she sobbed.
    They were married a week later so that they could move to France as Mr. and Mrs. Roland. No big wedding, and she couldn’t have cared less. The opportunity to work with his brother as soon as he graduated had to be grabbed. Johnny had learned French for years in preparation but Annie knew not a word of French except for
bonbon
and
voulayvouparlay
. Her parents disliked the France idea just as much as the Johnny idea. Her mom, especially, was frantic.
    “You hardly know him!”
    “Well, does one say no to winning the lottery?”
    “You did not think this through. You’re willingly putting your hand down the meat grinder, that’s what you’re doing!”
    “Oh come on mom, the French can’t be that bad.”
    “I’m not talking about the French, dammit! This...adventurer...your education!”
    This was the first time she had ever heard her mother curse.
    It turned out that her mom and dad, who got most of their exercise from arguing about virtually everything, united beautifully in disliking Johnny. They insisted Johnny was self-involved, unreliable, and immature. Annie wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that Johnny was too handsome, and that a man who surpasses his wife in beauty has to be immediately suspicious. She wondered if she did not think that herself.
    It was a whirlwind time of which she had little recollection. A promising (and expensive) education ended abruptly. She met Johnny’s parents for the first time the day of the civil wedding. Tearful goodbyes followed at the airport.
    And overnight, or almost, she was a married woman living in Paris. Her sheltered and, up until now, mostly academic life transformed immediately into chaos, confusion, and very hard work. She had to learn an entirely alien language in a particularly