“Is there another game you would ever play?”
“Non.”
“And you never watch TV aside from the news?”
“I do when I’m sick.”
“How often do you get sick?”
“Once every three to five years.”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t suppose we’ll be bonding over any sort of binge-watch then.”
He glances over at me, the touch of vulnerability evident in his gaze. “Is that what we’re supposed to be doing?”
His question is serious. As na?ve as it is for a man his age. Over the last week together, I’ve learned that much like his brothers, the man truly doesn’t at all run in any circle, or include any norms of his life that would indicate standard ‘American’ living. Though he went to school abroad, he was raised in the States for a long period of time, but it doesn’t seem to have rubbed off on him in the McRib way, which is crazy ironic for a man with his finger on the pulse of current events. A man who is so in tune with the world yet so far removed from it in a personal sense. One, he’s very much a hermit and a creature of habit. His touch of OCD making his routines hard to deter from. Two, he lectured me endlessly when I told him I was craving said McRib. In fact, he went full-on French snob. I barely got away with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and now have to hide my junk food.
The man’s indulgences include expensive coffee beans, his food must be nothing less than fine dining standards, and his wine choices—though delicious—are very, very, expensive. And every one of his suits is designer and tailored, that much I knew, but I have yet to see a repeat in the two months he’s taken me hostage. While his tastes maybe a little over the top, I don’t at all fault him for spending his money on the finer things because he didn’t grow up in a house like the one we’re occupying, he grew up enduring a ‘wrong side of the tracks’ type of lifestyle answering to an alcoholic aunt who considered cockroaches a part of the family while trying to play father to his little brother.
He hasn’t lived a charmed life, and I’m happy that he gets to not only experience these things but demands them for his daily life. If he’s selfish about anything, it’s these little indulgences that bring him joy. He’s complicated, yet simple. And he doesn’t seem to require the stimulation of the average man. He seems to consider most things an experience, not music, but a single song, not food, but a feast, not wine but a tasting. And sex, that he takes even more seriously. For him, it’s an art form, and one he’s mastered beautifully.
“What?” he asks, flicking his gaze to mine while contemplating his first move.
“I don’t hate you anymore.” I don’t miss the slight lift of his lips. “You smile, but I really did hate you, Tobias.”
“I know,” his smile only grows.
“You love my opposition.”
“You’re the only woman in the world who’s good at making me really angry.”
“I’ll take that as my first compliment, and that’s quite a lot of honesty there, Sir, are you drunk?”
His lips lift even higher. “Maybe a little.”
I narrow my eyes. “I knew you polished that half a bottle off while I was in the shower. I hadn’t imagined seeing it. Stingy.”
“Sorry,” he says unapologetically.
It’s so insincere, I laugh. “Oh, I can tell just how sorry you are, thief.”
He makes his first move.
“Nous entra?nons-nous ce soir?” Are we practicing tonight? I ask when I push a pawn into play.
“Peut-être.” Maybe.
“Où vas-tu m’emmener?” Where will you take me? I ask, licking my lips clean and savoring every drop.
“J’étais en train de penser à te pencher sur ce canapé.” I was thinking I would bend you over that couch. “But if you keep looking at me like that, we won’t make it that far.”
I roll my eyes. “Je voulais dire en France, pervers. Où m’emmènerais-tu en premier?” I meant in France, you pervert. Where would you take me first?”
“Easy,” he says, frowning at the board, “The Eiffel Tower.”
“En fran?ais, s’il te pla?t.” In French, please. “And that’s the last thing I expected you to say.”
“Why? Isn’t that what all those traveling to France dream of seeing first? Who am I to deny you?” He reads my deflated posture. “You had something more personal in mind?”