One Way Ticket to Paris: An emotional, feel-good romantic comedy

by Emma Robinson

  It was still early and she wasn’t ready for breakfast yet, so she wandered outside. The air smelled new as she left the hotel. Hand in hand, a young couple passed and smiled at her. A hangover was rumbling threateningly somewhere at the back of her head. Maybe she should head back inside and get some coffee. She really wanted to find Shannon and apologise for last night. By the time she’d seen her text, it had been too late to call her back. Far better to wait till the morning and apologise in person.

  In the breakfast room, she could see Shannon with a large group who must be the sales team. She waved at Laura and then found a seat off to the side, not wanting to interrupt Shannon while she was working.

  A kind waiter brought over a small cafetière of coffee and filled her cup before placing it on the table. She smiled at him. ‘Don’t go too far. I’ll be needing another one of those very soon.’

  Was it only yesterday morning that she was dropping the kids off to school? And only the night before that that she had conceived this whole plan? What had she been thinking? The whole dramatic plan seemed ridiculous now. She wanted to cancel everything, go back home and pretend that none of it had happened. But it was too late. Luke would be on his way. Well, if he had decided to come, that was. There was no guarantee.

  She was just going to have to face up to it. Tell him that she had changed. That she had been wrong. She was going to have to be honest. But how honest should she be?

  Shannon strode over from the other side of the restaurant and slipped into the chair opposite. ‘How are you feeling this morning?’

  Kate screwed up her eyes. ‘A little bit delicate.’ She reached over and squeezed Shannon’s arm. ‘I am so sorry I flounced off like that.’

  Shannon patted her hand. ‘Hey, please don’t apologise. I was out of order. It’s not my place to tell you what to do. I have zero experience with parenting.’

  Kate felt a twinge of shame. In light of what she now knew about Shannon, she really shouldn’t have thrown that one at her last night. Alcohol hadn’t used to make her such a bitch. ‘I don’t think you need parenting experience to be able to tell when your friend has lost her way.’

  Shannon poured herself a black coffee from Kate’s cafetière. ‘Is that how you feel?’

  Kate started to pull pieces from the brioche roll on her plate. ‘I don’t know how it happened. When did I become this person? I don’t even recognise myself.’

  Shannon blew on her coffee, sipped it, grimaced and put it down. ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself. It sounds like having a baby can be pretty all-consuming.’

  Kate nodded. ‘Yeah it is. But it can be great, too. Honestly. I don’t want to put you off. I was very drunk last night. Clearly, I can’t hold my drink these days, either.’

  ‘Tell me about it.’ Shannon rolled her eyes and then winked. They were going to be okay.

  ‘I’m so sorry about what I said about…’ Kate stopped. She had a sudden memory of her text message to Melissa last night. She felt the colour drain from her face. ‘Oh, God.’

  ‘What’s the matter? Are you going to be sick? Let me tell you, you’d be in good company this morning and I didn’t even drink last night.’

  Kate put her hands up to her burning face. ‘I sent a message to Melissa last night.’

  Shannon sniffed at her coffee and put it down again. She took a piece of bread from Kate’s plate. ‘Is that the Bake Sale Mother? What the hell did you message her for?’

  Kate spoke through her fingers. ‘I didn’t. She sent me another message about the bake sale. And I let her have it, both barrels. I’m so embarrassed. How will I face her?’

  Shannon shook her head. ‘Here you go again. Why do you care so much what people think? I thought we were going back to confident, pre-baby Kate?’

  ‘I know, I know. You’re right. But I was actually pretty rude to her.’ Pretty rude was an understatement. Poor Melissa had got the full force of Kate’s post-dinner wrath.

  Shannon frowned. ‘Does this woman hound everyone as much as she does you about the damn bake sale?’

  Kate shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Maybe not. I’m not sure.’

  Shannon put the nibbled piece of bread onto the side plate in front of her. She looked a little green. Kate remembered how that felt. ‘Have you considered that this woman might actually want to be your friend?’

  Her friend? Melissa? Did that woman even have friends? She did persist in inviting Kate to her house, but Kate had assumed that it was just so she could show off about her daughter’s table manners and the fact that she put each toy away in the cupboard before she got out a new one. Unlike Alice and Thomas, whose playtime aftermath made a hurricane look half-hearted. ‘I hadn’t considered that.’

  Shannon picked up Kate’s orange juice, smelled it and then put it down again. ‘Maybe Super Mother is a little bit lost in Mama-land too?’

  Melissa had mentioned once that they had only moved to the area a year before because of her husband’s job. Kate couldn’t remember what he did, but it was something very important connected with the European Parliament. He travelled to Brussels a lot. Which is why he had wanted to live close to the Eurostar. Was Melissa lonely?

  ‘Maybe you’re right. I’ll invite her to come over more – it’ll be my penance for being so rude to her. And on the subject of friendship, have you spoken to Laura about Paolo this morning? I’m just wondering where she ended up last night.’

  Shannon smiled and leaned forwards. ‘Well. I did see the two of them in the corridor late last night and they looked pretty friendly. I had a quick chat with her about it this morning and I have a feeling that things might turn out just great. Speaking of which, I really need to go and wander around with the sales guys, check no one goes into meltdown before their meetings, while trying to also avoid Robert.’ She pulled a face. ‘Once they go in, I’ll be free. Can we catch up then? I really need to talk to you about something.’

  ‘Of course. You go. I need to do a quick bit of gift shopping, so just call me when you’re done.’

  Back in her room, Kate began to repack her case. It was very strange, only having her own things to worry about. No searching under the bed for a favourite toy or forgotten shoe. Life was a lot faster without the kids in tow, that was for sure.

  She tried to call Luke again. Still no answer. Why wasn’t he picking up? She had a fluttering feeling in her chest. If something had happened to one of the children while she was not there, she would never forgive herself. She started to repack more quickly. Maybe she could get an earlier train home? But, if Luke did come out here, she would be leaving him standing at the Eiffel Tower waiting for her. She needed to see this through.

  She zipped around the case and did a final check of the room, even though she knew she had everything. She would put the case into the storage room downstairs, check out and then meet up with Shannon. Hopefully, she wanted to tell Kate that she’d decided to keep the baby. For all her protestations, Kate knew her best friend really would make a great mum.

  After that, it would be time to face the music. The Eiffel Tower. Two p.m.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Shannon

  Being a professional woman meant putting on a work face and doing your job, even when you felt like you were dying inside. Shannon had stayed here last night so that she could be on hand in the morning to make sure that everyone had what they needed for the presentations after breakfast. And that’s what she was going to do. What she was not going to do, was speak to Robert more than was strictly necessary.

  Robert himself could have done with some tips about being professional this morning. When he had seen her arrive to breakfast, he had stood to speak with her, but she had only needed one glance to convey to him that it really wouldn’t be a good idea. After that, he’d had a face like thunder.

  Gabriella had made it down to breakfast and was sitting with Sylvie, nibbling on a fruit plate. Shannon felt sorry for her; she hadn’t realised how much Gabriella must still be hurting about
her break up with Paolo. But, when relationships didn’t work out, you should be a grown up about it and move on. Shannon needed to get a move on herself. When should she tell Robert that she would be leaving straight after breakfast?

  Fabienne arrived in plenty of time for the first meetings, elegant and efficient as always. Shannon kissed her on both cheeks. ‘Thank you so much for coming here and taking over. I’ll go back to the office and cover things there.’

  Fabienne nodded. ‘No problem, it’s nice to get out for a change. But I still don’t understand why you wanted to swap.’

  For the first time ever, Shannon got to play the pregnancy card. ‘I’m just tired. I need to get off my feet.’

  Fabienne nodded and rubbed Shannon’s arm. ‘It’s going to get much worse. You might want to buy some flat shoes.’ She clapped her hands twice. ‘Off you go then. Oh, I forgot. Someone came to the office today looking for you.’

  ‘Really?’ Shannon shivered. No one came in person any more without an appointment. Or at least a call or email first.

  ‘Yes. She said she was a friend of yours and she was in Paris so she wanted to meet up. An American. Blonde hair. She said her name was Faye.’

  Shannon froze for a moment. If Faye had been to the office already, she was getting closer. ‘What did you tell her?’

  Fabienne frowned. ‘I told her you were here at the sales meeting, of course.’

  Shannon took a deep breath. ‘Did you tell her where the meeting was? The name of the hotel?’

  Fabienne was looking at her as if she needed psychiatric help. ‘Of course.’

  As soon as she had given Fabienne the agenda and all the other paperwork she needed for this morning, Shannon called Kate. ‘Where are you? I need to see you. I’ll come to you.’

  * * *

  Shannon was greeted in song by one of the fishmongers as she walked along Rue Montorgueil. Buckets of fresh flowers lined the sidewalk and the smell of fresh salmon mingled with the stronger scents of flowers, fruits and ripe cheese. At a stall selling spiced bread, a shopkeeper was setting up a chess board, and he called out to Shannon to invite her to play. She smiled and shook her head. No time for games today.

  Kate was in the queue at La Maison Stohrer. Shannon spied her through its elaborately carved storefront and Kate smiled and pointed out a gigantic display of cream puffs, arranged to look like a nun. Only in Paris.

  ‘What did you get?’ Shannon asked when Kate emerged from the crowd.

  ‘Rum baba, of course. Why else would I queue so long? Although I was supposed to be looking for gifts for the children. What’s going on? Has something happened?’

  ‘Shall we get a drink? There’s a nice bistro just up here.’ Shannon wanted to wait until they were sitting down. If Kate had tripped at the pregnancy news, she might full on faint at what was coming.

  As soon as they had a drink in front of them, Kate asked again. ‘Okay, we’re all settled. What did you want to talk about? Is it the baby? Have you spoken to Robert?’

  Shannon picked up her glass of water – God, she needed something stronger – sipped and then stared into it, holding the glass with both hands. Might as well dive straight in. ‘I’ve done this before. Pregnancy. It’s not my first time.’

  Kate was silent for a few moments, then she leaned forward and placed a hand over Shannon’s. ‘You mean you had a termination? Shannon, that’s not…’

  But Shannon was shaking her head. ‘Not a termination. No.’

  Kate kept her hand on Shannon’s but her forehead creased. ‘I don’t understand.’

  Shannon took in a deep breath, patted the hand of Kate’s that was over hers and then sat back in her seat. ‘Eighteen years ago, I had a baby. A little girl.’

  Kate opened her mouth and closed it again. Opened it. Closed it. Made a strange sound.

  Shannon smiled. ‘Yeah, tough to get your head round, huh? I was nineteen. Well, twenty by the time the baby was born. The father was married. They adopted the baby. I went back home and told no one.’ She paused and looked deeply into Kate’s eyes. ‘No one.’

  But Kate was still getting her head around the first part. ‘You were nineteen? He was married? How old was he, for goodness sake? And what the hell was he doing sleeping with a nineteen-year-old girl?’

  Shannon could see how it might sound creepy. ‘He was twenty-eight. His name was – is – Adam. He ran a bar off-campus. I had a fake ID – from my older sister. I told him I was twenty-two and in my last year of college. He told me he was single.’

  Kate shook her head slowly. ‘How did you get together?’

  Shannon shrugged. ‘How do these things ever start? We were drinking late at the bar; we drank there a lot, so I knew Adam to talk to. My friend hooked up with some guy, so Adam offered to walk me back to campus. It happened a couple of other times and then… one night… y’know. That’s not the important part. The important part was six weeks later, when I realised he’d left me with a little gift.’

  Kate opened her mouth and shut it again. She seemed to be deciding which of her queries was more important to ask, like a game of twenty questions. ‘And no one else knew?’

  Shannon shook her head. ‘No one.’

  ‘But your family? How did they not know?’

  Shannon looked back into her water and swirled the ice cube around the glass. ‘My college was a long way from home. I didn’t have a noticeable bump until I was six months pregnant, so I just didn’t go home for the last three months. Everyone at college was wearing sloppy sweaters and baggy pants, so it was very easy to hide a pregnancy. I just went to lessons and straight back to my room; told everyone I was studying hard because my dad had promised me my own car if I did well in my end of year assessments.’

  ‘Wow.’ Kate’s eyes were wide. ‘I looked like a war tank from six months. I would barely have been able to hide my bump under a four-man tent.’

  Shannon wrinkled her nose. ‘Yeah well, I wasn’t eating particularly well and I was sick a lot.’ Until she’d said that, Shannon had forgotten how sick she’d been the first time round. There had been days when she’d had to eat five ginger snaps before she could even get her head off the pillow. She’d started to leave two packets by the side of her bed. There had been no doting partner to get them for her.

  ‘So? What happened?’

  Shannon sighed. ‘I told Adam I was pregnant. There was a part of me that thought… Oh, I don’t know what I thought… It was ridiculous. What does anyone know at nineteen, right? That’s when I found out he was married.’

  Of course, Adam hadn’t been going to leave his wife for a young girl he’d slept with twice. He’d said he loved his wife. They were ‘just going through a difficult time.’ Turned out his wife couldn’t have children and was struggling big-time; had pushed him away. He’d cried when Shannon had told him she was pregnant. If only it was Jessie, he’d said. It had been ice through Shannon’s heart.

  Kate put her head on one side. Her eyes were full of sympathy. ‘And then his wife found out?’

  When Jessie had found out what was going on – and had calmed down again – she’d been the one with the idea. The plan. Shannon nodded. ‘Yeah. Adam told Jessie what had happened and she suggested that they would raise the baby. Adam would be on the birth certificate anyway and, after it was born, Jessie would adopt it. I could just finish college and go back home. No one would ever need to know.’ Shannon took a large gulp of her water.

  ‘And that’s what happened? You told no one else?’

  Shannon nodded. ‘I went to stay with them for the last three weeks of the pregnancy. Adam and Jessie. They were very kind.’

  Kate pursed her lips and breathed out slowly. ‘Oh, Shannon. That must have been so hard for you. And for Jessie.’ She didn’t mention any sympathy for Adam. He probably didn’t deserve it.

  ‘They were both there when I gave birth. I asked the nurse to give the baby straight to Jessie. I didn’t want…’ Shannon’s throat was on fire and the backs of
her eyes were stinging. ‘I didn’t want to see the baby.’

  Kate’s hands went to her face. ‘Oh, Shannon.’

  Shannon nodded. ‘I know, right? Unnatural? What mother doesn’t want to see her own child?’

  ‘No. I didn’t mean… I just… Oh, Shannon.’ Kate leaned forward to put her arms around her, but Shannon backed off.

  ‘Don’t feel sorry for me, Kate. I couldn’t bear it. I don’t deserve it.’

  ‘But you were nineteen, Shannon. Not much more than a child yourself. If you couldn’t tell your family, then…’

  Shannon put her hand to her forehead and started to rub it. ‘From the moment I realised I was pregnant, life was all such a blur. I nearly walked out of college and went home a few times, to tell my parents everything. But I was so scared of how they would react. I was the first person in my family to go to college. My dad worked extra shifts to help with my tuition. It was real American Dream stuff. They were so proud of me. How could I tell them that I had ruined everything? That all their hard work and sacrifice had been for nothing? That I was just another knocked-up teenager.

  ‘For months after the birth, I wondered if I had made a mistake. More than once, I thought about turning up at Adam and Jessie’s house, asking to take her back. But then I saw them at the park together.’ Shannon’s throat was so tight she could barely squeeze the words out. She needed to finish. To explain. She forced down another gulp of water and looked into Kate’s kind, non-judgemental eyes. ‘They looked so happy, Kate. Jessie looked so happy. Pushing a beautiful pram, beaming at strangers who stopped to admire the baby inside. Her baby. She looked like… like a real mother. How could I compete with that?’