Page 11 of All Mixed Up

“Right?” I snickered. “Besides that, I’ve never seen anyone plow through a cheese plate like that girl.”

“And a bottle of champagne,” Leese chimed in. “Or three.”

Greer shook her head. “She really thinks it’s the bee’s knees here, doesn’t she?”

I lifted a sardonic brow as confirmation. “She and Nico are supposed to leave tomorrow, though she’s probably pleading with him for an extension as we speak. It is the fashion capital of the world.”

Leese giggled while finishing off the bottle of water she wouldn’t be able to take through security. “Does that help or hurt her cause?”

“Likely a bit of each,” Greer murmured. “Though Nico would indulge that girl a trip to the moon if she really wanted it.”

I rolled my eyes. “No couture studios on the moon.”

“But maybe some cheese? Leese looked ready to laugh but let out a long.

“No matter what, Paris has been really good for her,” I put in. “Though it’s a major metropolis of the world, the pace is more relaxed and so are the people. For people as famous and her and Milo, even New York’s not as easy for the incognito life as it once was.”

“Yaaay, paparazzi,” Leese deadpanned.

“It is much different here for celebrities, isn’t it? Quite frankly, the French don’t care. Who they are.”

“You mean how New Yorkers once didn’t?” Leese jibed.

“Right?” I looked around for a patisserie, hoping to score a croissant and coffee to jump-start me for the Metro ride back into the city. In truth, it was just my way of staying distracted from the wrenching goodbyes that loomed closer by the minute. “She was giddy, telling me that yesterday she and Nico got in a whole hour of shopping without any flashes in her face or lookie-loos in the windows.” While I triumphed inwardly—there was a pastry cart up the mezzanine a bit—I frowned on the outside. “Can you imagine that? Actually being grateful for one stress-free hour in your life? She said that aside from having to pose for a few pictures, she and Nico were really able to relax and enjoy everything about their day.”

Greer arched a brow with Daisy Buchanan grace. “Perhaps somebody else could learn from that example.”

“Perhaps with a certain new ‘friend’ she met the other night.” Leese picked up the charge before I could develop even a glare of retaliation.

“You mean the ‘friend’ who looked at her like the Big Bad Wolf staring down his wayward little forest wanderer?” Greer flattened a swooning hand to the base of her neck. “That friend?”

The Big Bad Wolf. How the hell did she nail that one out of the gate?

Somehow, I held back from blurting that. Instead, I inserted with a good-natured chuff, “All right, you two need to stop. Now.”

Leese rolled her eyes. Flipped back a long length of hair, flashing strawberry-luscious in the late afternoon light. “Who says we were talking about you?” She blinked her gray eyes like a cartoon doll. “I mean, just because Lucien Paget gave you a lust bath with his eyes two night ago…”

“And just because he’s one of the hottest bachelors in Europe right now, who looks like he could still climb on a bicycle and race up the Alps…”

I huffed as Greer rallied for the fight. The cause. Whatever the hell they’d been calling it since the-meeting-that-wouldn’t-be-forgotten with Lucien Paget.

“And just because he’s also a self-made billionaire, with a fleet of his own company’s performance cars at his beck and call at any time…”

This time, I let loose with a girl growl. “Now you’re playing below the belt.”

“Now I’m just stating facts.” She raised both hands, still flashing the big innocent eyes. “Not my issue if you have a thing for stuff that goes fast as a land rocket.”

Leese touched a thoughtful finger to her generous lips. “I wonder if he does everything fast.”

“All right. That’s it.” But the command didn’t do crap for staying my dissolve in laughter, along with the two of them, as I attempted to jab a finger toward the gate. “I see through your little ruse, but it’s not working. This still sucks.”

Greer yanked in a teary sigh. Leese’s wasn’t far behind. “You’re right,” they said in tandem, and moved reluctantly toward me for our departing hugs.

“Just get your cute little derrieres out of here,” I finally chided. “And I’ll be seeing you again soon.”

Brave smiles emanated from both as they disappeared around the corner to their plane.

I wasn’t so brave about cloaking my sadness while walking back to the Metro station.