After a month of being obsessed by thoughts of her, he went back to Paris to see her again, and she seemed even more remarkable to him the second time. She was volatile, outspoken, said what she thought, did what she wanted. She was stunned when he appeared at the café, unannounced, swept her off her feet, and kissed her. She was able to get five days off from work, and they drove around the French countryside together in a car Brandon rented. By the time they got back to Paris he knew he was in love with her. He wanted her to come to New York. He couldn’t bear the idea of being away from her for long, or tearing himself away from her again.
“And when you get tired of me,” she said soberly, “then what happens?” She knew what had happened to her own mother. She didn’t want to be at his mercy in a foreign land, and she had no intention of getting pregnant and had been careful that wouldn’t happen, which he was grateful for. He was mad about her, but he wasn’t ready for a child. She was enough of a surprise in his life, without adding more, for now.
“I’m not going to get tired of you, Fabienne,” he said gently. He couldn’t imagine it himself. How could you tire of a woman like her?
“You might,” she said.
“We’ll be married before then.” They both looked shocked at what he said. The words had leapt out of his mouth before he could stop them, and he didn’t want to.
“Are you proposing to me?”
He smiled at her question.
“Not yet, but I will. We need to figure out what to do next.” She answered the question temporarily by making love to him again, which was an adequate answer for now, and reminded him of how badly he wanted her in his life. Everything that came before her seemed colorless to him now.
“What about my acting career?” she asked him after they’d made love. He didn’t dare say, “What acting career?” She had admitted herself that her acting jobs had been few and far between, and had led nowhere so far, but she was still clinging to her dreams of stardom one day.
“We can find you an agent in New York.” With her remarkable beauty, he thought it couldn’t be hard. She needed to polish up her English first. She spoke it adequately to take orders from Americans at the restaurant, but she needed proper lessons if she wanted an acting career in the States. Her accent was charming, but her vocabulary was limited, although they did well enough with each other, and he dredged up what remained of his high school French. They managed, with bursts of laughter and kisses filling in the gaps.
By the end of Brandon’s fourth visit to Paris to see Fabienne, in the space of three months, he proposed to her, with a ring he brought with him from New York that had been his mother’s. It was a simple band with a pretty sapphire stone. He had an excuse to be in Paris, since he had business with a plastics company in France, but Fabienne was the main reason for his trips. He helped her with the visa process, and four months after they’d met, she flew to New York with him, and moved into his apartment on the Upper East Side, which was suitable for a bachelor and a little tight for both of them. There was no one to object to the speed of their relationship, or the impropriety of it, since he had no living parents. He married her at city hall a month later. He had researched and found an agent for her by then, who advised her to take English and acting lessons, and suggested she contact a modeling agency as well. She was a spectacular-looking girl, and her exuberance and energy came through her pores. She was excited after she met with the agent and had high hopes for her career.
Brandon worked hard, and often stayed late at his office. Fabienne kept busy, exploring New York, and taking the lessons the agent had suggested. She went to see as many movies as she could, to learn the language, and the moment Brandon came home at night, she lured him rapidly into bed. He didn’t have a moment’s regret over his speedy marriage to her, and he was the answer to her prayers. She was leading a comfortable life as the wife of a successful young entrepreneur who denied her nothing and was delighted to spoil her whenever he could. And she was excited at the prospect of a movie career.
He introduced her to his friends, who were dazzled by her beauty, and could see why Brandon was besotted with her. The men were envious of him, the women not so sure about her. They found her ambitious and exuberant, very outspoken, and didn’t like her sexy wardrobe. She had a preference for low-cut dresses, which shocked them at first. She found his friends bourgeois, and the women too domestic, dull, and conservative. She found them all boring. He had a limited social life, and it became more so with Fabienne on the scene. Not every well-bred hostess wanted Fabienne in their midst. She exuded raw sex and they didn’t want their husbands around her.