Alex is beginning to feel at home in the south of France. He's got his dope, his own apartment, great weather and an easy job that generates some money. All is well except for the fact that Louise's personality and voluptuous body continue to confuse him.

ALEX

In the following week, Alex began to feel more and more at home. He explored his surroundings, biked to Grasse and even drove the minivan, which Louise had bought for the art gallery, to Cannes one afternoon. By the end of the week, his apartment felt like home as well. He had bought some groceries and one evening he cooked his first meal ever: pasta with tomato sauce.

He also made a start with clearing out the attic. He could tell Louise was impressed with him when she got home that first evening and he showed her how far he had got. He had taken out most small items and stored them in the basement. What remained were some tables, armchairs and a wooden chest that looked heavy.

‘I would need a hand with them,’ Alex said. ‘Perhaps I could do it with Rob this weekend.’

‘Why don’t we do it now?’ Louise asked as she looked at the wooden chest. Alex almost made a remark, but remembered just in time that he got in trouble before, so he wisely bit his tongue.

Half an hour later the attic was empty. Louise had not only helped him carry the heavy stuff down the stairs, but she had also proven to be quite bossy. Right from the start she had taken the initiative and ordered him around. At one point he had wanted to carry a table down the stairs in a certain way, but she had come around to his side and given him a push with her hip as she lifted up the table in a way that she thought was better.

Her bossiness wasn’t what confused him most though. No, it was her physical proximity which affected him in a strange way. He didn’t want to, but found that it was just bloody impossible not to notice her breasts, hips and butt. She didn’t even dress provocatively. She didn’t need to, he realized. Those curves were there anyway and he kept noticing them and it confused the hell out of him at certain moments. She wasn’t even his type of course, but the fact that he was telling himself this also told him that maybe she was.

Later though, when he was back in his apartment, he analyzed things calmly and concluded that it was probably just something he needed to get used to.

The next morning, though, they worked side by side in the basement and her proximity made him nervous again. She also seemed to be more impatient with him than the day before. He doubted that she was aware of it, though, because he got the impression that it was just part of her nature. She would tell him where to put what and when he made a mistake she would sometimes sigh and tell him, no, I told you, that one goes in the van. By the 'van', she meant the Ford Focus in which he put everything that had to go to the charity shop or the dump. She had explained to him where to find them and he planned to go there in the afternoon.

Working alongside Louise he wondered what his friends would say if they saw him here. On the one hand, they would be jealous of him; on the other hand, he didn’t exactly feel as if he were on top of the world when she was ordering him around. In his mind, he told his friends that this was just one side of Louise. Most of the time she was nice and funny and not at all bossy.

Later, when he got back from the dump, he rolled a joint and went for a hike in the hills behind the house. He found a great spot where he smoked and admired the view of the Mediterranean in the distance. All in all, he decided, he felt pretty good. The climate here was fantastic, he had all the luxury he could wish for and the work had woken up his body. For the first time in ages, he felt his muscles and he realized it wasn’t even a bad feeling.

When the sun went down he walked back to the house. Louise was in the kitchen, he saw. Although he was feeling quite high he felt sufficiently at ease with her now to go in and say hello. She seemed happy to see him and told him to sit down, because she had brought an Indian curry from Cannes and it was way too much for her to eat by herself. Join me, she said.

They chatted about their day then. She had sold a painting of a promising artist and Rob had called to say that he would be back on Saturday. She looked happy, Alex thought. Happy and very pretty too. There was nothing wrong with thinking that, right? In any case, he didn’t feel like worrying now. His thoughts were kind of floating through space, you know?

Meanwhile, the taste of the curry was amazing and something she just said was really funny. He chuckled and took another bite and then noticed that she had a puzzled look on her face.

‘Are you high again?’ she asked.

He chuckled and now she laughed too.

‘You’re a funny little guy, Alex.’

She got to her feet and filled two glasses with water from the tap. A funny little guy, Alex thought. Was that a compliment? It didn’t exactly feel like one. As he was thinking about this, Louise sat down again and he noticed how her big breasts shook a little bit underneath the white blouse. He was just wondering about their shape when she asked him what he was thinking about. He felt himself blush and mumbled something about the food.

‘You’re thinking about the curry?’ she asked.

‘Spicy,’ he said. ‘It’s spicy.’

Back in his apartment, he wondered what the hell was going on. The night before he had concluded that it was a matter of getting used to having her around him, that soon he would see her the same way he saw his parents and his friends. However, he wasn’t there yet, was he? What was wrong with him, staring at her breasts like that? Could he please start to behave himself? He loved it here, it felt like he had won the lottery, but if he didn’t get a grip soon, his stay would be over before he knew it.

As he smoked another joint and looked at the moon above the villa he wondered if his weird behavior had something to do with getting stoned every night. Should he give it up for now? Or should he smoke even more? Get zoned out completely so he would lose all interest in his surroundings? He didn’t know.

All he knew was that being around her confused him. It couldn’t be that he felt attracted to her, could it? No, she really wasn’t his type. He had never shown much of an interest in girls anyway. Most of them seemed silly and superficial, but whenever he did look at them he found the blonde and petite ones attractive--women who were very different from Louise. What was it then that made him look at her breasts or butt? Perhaps it was the fact that her curves were so present that he felt he just had to look. If that was the case, he wasn’t that much out of line, was he?

***
 

Friday morning Louise took Alex to Nice to show him the city. It was a beautiful autumn day with clear blue skies and temperatures of around twenty degrees. As always Alex was dressed casually in jeans and a sweater, but Louise looked quite striking today in a colorful, long dress that his mom might have called artistic. She also wore elegant sandals, which gave him a first glimpse of her feet and red toenails. She had pretty feet, he noticed.

Louise let him drive the Mercedes today. He had never driven one before and the fact that she trusted him with it made him feel good about himself.

On the way to Nice, they filled the time with small talk, something that Louise was good at. She told him about the track she ran a few times a week. Five kilometers through the forest, some parts going uphill. She enjoyed it immensely, she said, and then tried to convince him to join her someday. She also asked him about his friends in England and what they were like. She didn’t judge them, but seemed genuinely interested. He told her a few anecdotes that made her laugh, and when they arrived in Nice he felt they were completely relaxed and at ease with each other.

They parked the Mercedes in underground parking and continued on foot. First, she showed him the Promenade des Anglais, the boulevard between the city and the beach. She pointed out some fancy hotels and sitting on a bench, facing the Mediterranean, they ate a crepe with Nutella.

In the old town, they visited the Chagall Museum. He was not a painter Alex liked a lot, but Louise did, so he tried to be nice in his comments on paintings that were not nearly as cool as Dali’s art.

When they were back on the street Alex bought some extra t-shirts in an H&M store and Louise stopped at a shoe stop to look at high heeled shoes. Not really her style, Alex thought, but obviously she thought otherwise, because she went into the shop and asked the girl if they had the red heels she had seen in the window in size 38.

While they waited Alex looked around and decided this was not at all his kind of store. It was a small shop, more like a boutique and the prices were ridiculously high. They sold the kind of shoes that were worn by people he usually steered clear of. The fact that Louise apparently did want to be associated with them bothered him a bit. He had thought she was cooler than this.

She was looking at him now, raising her eyebrows, which invited him to comment. She probably saw the disapproval on his face, he realized.

‘This is just not my type of shop,’ he said.

She smiled and said, ‘We’re not here for you, but for me.’

‘I know, but I thought this wouldn’t be your taste either.’

‘Why not?’ she asked. ‘Because I often wear sneakers?’

He shrugged.

‘You have no idea, Alex. I love to dress up at times.’

The sales girl came back then with a box in her hands. She opened it and took out the red heels. Louise sat down and removed her sandals. Again Alex noticed the nice shape of her feet. Then she slid them into the shoes and stood up. She walked over to the mirror, not once stumbling on the heels, which must have been around four inches high. In contrary, she walked in a confident manner. Confident, and goddamned, sexy too. He saw it now. Standing in front of the mirror she commented on the shoes.

‘Imagine a different dress or skirt of course,’ she said. ‘Shorter and tight.’

To demonstrate what she meant she pulled up the wide dress to her knees and held it there with one hand, while she turned around and walked a few more steps. She didn’t do anything special, but for some reason, Alex felt his heart beat in his chest suddenly. Her calves looked strong and muscular and because they were long too, they were, quite frankly, really shapely and beautiful.

‘What do you think?’ she asked him.

He shrugged indifferently, but thought to himself that she looked absolutely spectacular in these heels.

‘I love them,’ she said, ‘but they’re half a size too big.’

She talked to the girl in French, undoubtedly asking her for a smaller size. The girl checked in the system but said they wouldn’t have them in her size until next week. Louise said that was not a problem and gave the girl her number while she took off the heels and put her sandals back on.

Their next stop was a restaurant where they had lunch. Alex ordered a hamburger, Louise a salad. While they were eating, Alex thought about Dave, with whom he often went to McDonald's for burgers. Dave wanted to come over in winter, but he would need to ask Louise if that was okay with her. Now might be the moment, he realized. They were having a very nice time here in Nice and she was clearly in a good mood. Besides, what could she have against the idea? His mate could sleep on the couch in his apartment. They wouldn’t have to bother Louise at all. So what he did was, he reminded her of the funniest anecdote about Dave that he had told her in the morning and then he asked her if she would be okay with him coming over for a visit. He asked her in a casual way, as if she were one of his mates too. Her answer surprised him.

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ she said. ‘All you two would do is smoke weed all day.’

Alex felt himself blush and began to protest, but she cut him off, saying that he could easily fly back to England for a weekend if he wanted to see his ‘pothead friend’.

He opened his mouth to try to convince her one more time, but she pointed at his hamburger and said, ‘Eat your burger before it gets cold.’

And that was that. He felt embarrassed and belittled and changed the topic by asking her when her husband was coming back.

‘Didn’t I tell you?’ she said. ‘He’ll be home tomorrow morning.’

They chatted about the upcoming weekend then. With Rob there, the dynamics around the house would be different. Louise suggested some things they could do together, like play tennis or go to their favorite restaurant in Cannes.

‘But you probably don’t want to hang out with us adults the whole time,’ she said. ‘You should try to make some new friends here.’

Wait. He understood what she meant, but he didn’t like the way she said it. Not wanting to hang out with the adults. Did she see him as a child still?

‘Who knows,’ she said, ‘perhaps you’ll find yourself a nice girlfriend even.’

The waiter came to take away their plates, but Alex could tell from her expression that she was going to ask him the love life question now. He had been there before. They were all the same, those grown-ups. Only interested in how school was going and whether or not he already had a girlfriend.

‘So how about that, Alex?’ she asked when the waiter had disappeared. ‘Tell me about the girls in your life.’

He sighed and shook his head, feeling disappointed that she proved no different from the bourgeois people after all. He told her there was no news about girls whatsoever.

‘What does that mean?’

‘That I don’t have a girlfriend.’

‘Yes, I already got that. But is there someone you like? Someone you used to like? An ex-girlfriend perhaps?’

God, how many questions was she going to fire at him? To be done with it he just said, ‘No, nothing.’

She still didn’t let it go, though.

‘How is that possible?’ she asked. ‘You’re a good looking young man and you’re nice and funny. Are you too busy with other things? Philosophy? Understanding life? Smoking pot?’

She was teasing him now, but he felt himself blush. For some reason, she always managed to rattle him. Now she was smiling at him as she placed a hand on his arm. He had taken off his sweater and was just wearing a t-shirt now. Her elegant fingers with the long, red nails rested on his skin. He felt a light electric shock go through his body.

His eyes fell on her wedding ring and a strange, unacceptable thought went through his head. Where his life was lacking love and sex, she did have someone with whom she shared her bed. Someone who was coming home tomorrow. Perhaps--no, probably--she would be making love to that man soon. A wave of sexual arousal flushed through his body, followed immediately by shame.

Thank God for the waiter who came over with the bill at that very moment. Again he was saved by the bell and because Louise got busy with paying the bill he had time to regain his balance. As they walked back to the car though he realized it was the same old story every day. One moment all was well, the next he lost himself completely. And why was that? The truth started to dawn on him: he felt a weird sexual attraction for this mature woman and the idea that she would find out was absolutely terrifying.

TO BE CONTINUED...