this now? Charlotte, are you freaking kidding me?”
“Lexi has apparently been
in love
with Nicolas Boucher since she was a teenager,” I explained to Fiona.
“Oh my God, Char, I’m hyperventilating over here,” Lexi continued, her cheeks blushing crimson. “What was he like? Was he just as hot in person as he is on the screen? Are you going to see him again?”
Fiona placed her hand over Lexi’s knuckles, which had turned white from gripping the table so hard. “Lexi, seriously, he’s still just a
person
, like you and me. He puts his pants on one leg at a time—”
“Honey,” Lexi interrupted, “in my little fantasy, Nicolas Boucher wouldn’t be wearing
any
pants.”
Fiona giggled then turned to me. “So, Char, the real question is, what did Nicolas ask you once you climbed in the car?”
Lexi’s huge amber eyes drooped in disappointment.
“Don’t give me that puppy dog look,” I said to her with a laugh. “All right, if you must know, Nicolas is actually
more
handsome in person than on screen. When I got in the car, all I could think about was—”
Lexi, who’d been downing her cocktail so quickly you’d think her mouth was on fire, gripped my wrist. “The
piano
scene.”
Fiona and I burst into laughter while Lexi lowered her voice. “Okay, I’m going to make a confession. After I saw that movie, I couldn’t stop thinking about that crazy piano sex scene. And later that night, when Dylan and I were in bed together, I accidentally called him
Nicolas.
”
Fiona gasped, covering her hand with her mouth. “Lexi, that’s taking it a little far—even for you.”
Lexi threw back the rest of her cocktail. “Dylan wouldn’t talk to me for a whole week. He thought I was cheating on him with someonenamed Nicolas. And to be honest, ever since I saw that film a few weeks ago, I
feel
like I’ve been cheating on him because I cannot stop thinking about that damn piano scene.”
“Well, you’re only human,” I said. “I probably shouldn’t say this, being newly married and all… but it was an
incredibly
hot scene.”
Lexi raised her glass. “Cheers to that.”
We all clinked glasses, then finished our first round of cocktails before signaling for the server. It was going to be a long night.
“Besides your little bedroom slip, how are things going between you and Dylan?” Fiona asked.
“It’s been
interesting,
to say the least,” Lexi said. “Basically, we have really amazing sex, but the reason the sex with Dylan is—and always has been—so damn hot is because it’s always make-up sex. We fight about
everything
. And even though he’s a man, and we all know that men can be infuriating, it’s not always his fault. I know this might surprise you ladies, but I’ve been known to be a little explosive when I’m angry, and unfortunately Dylan’s the same way.”
I didn’t have any trouble believing that Lexi and Dylan could be explosive and dramatic. The first time I’d met Dylan was on New Year’s Eve at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, inside the fancy suite that Lexi had told me her parents paid for. What I didn’t know at the time was that Lexi’s parents died in a car accident when she was young, and she’s suffered from major periods of depression ever since. The next morning, Dylan was gone and Lexi was locked in the bathroom sobbing.
“Do you think there’s any hope that things will change?” I asked Lexi.
“I thought everything would magically improve when we moved in together.” Lexi took a long sip of her pink cocktail. “Wishful thinking. Besides the sex, it’s been a nightmare.”
Fiona placed a hand on Lexi’s shoulder. “If it makes you feel any better, Marc’s mother, the dreaded Madame Rousseau, is coming to stay with us for
twelve days.
”
“Twelve days?” I gasped. In addition to being Marc’s uptight mother, Madame Rousseau was our advisor at the Sorbonne the year before, and to put it in Fiona’s typical words, she was a sodding old
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