Ch 994 - Confusion

Although a sea of people surrounded Debbie, she never felt more alone. She stood beneath the Eiffel Tower, confused and betrayed.

Thinking of getting back together, she thought. How could he say that?

Up until now, Alex respected her wishes. If she asked him to stay away, he did. When she asked him to treat her like a business partner, he complied. But renting the apartment at the top of the Eiffel Tower? He took it too far.

I'm so confused. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel. He's my best friend. I care about him more than anyone else in the world, but I can't keep running back to him. I told him I needed space and time to reflect. Instead, he whisked me away to Paris, she thought.

Debbie couldn't lie. Over the last few days, the two became closer than she had initially anticipated. Admittedly, she had grown more opposed to taking a break from their relationship. Alex's gentle nature and thoughtfulness had persuaded her to look at him in a different light. Now she worried that it was all a farce, an act that he put on just to win her over.

Was that what the whole trip was, just a ploy to get closer to me? She thought. Did he ever listen to a word I said? This is awful.

She almost broke down in tears, but then, she heard a familiar voice call out from behind her.

"Debbie! Debbie, wait!" Alex shouted. He chased after her, reaching out to her as if his life depended on it.

The sight of Alex only infuriated Debbie. She held out her hand as if she were telling him to stop. "Don't come any closer! I want nothing to do with you!"

Alex's shoulders slumped down. "Debbie, please! I'm so sorry!"

She shook her head. "No, Alex. You can't come out here and save the day. Not this time. I already told you. I don't want you here. Stay away from me."

Alex swallowed the lump in his throat. "Please hear me out. It was a misunderstanding."

A red heat rose to Debbie's cheeks. "What didn't you understand, Alex? The part where I told you I wanted to take a break, or the part where I told you I wanted to keep things professional? Maybe I wasn't clear about wanting to take time for myself. I know I told you several times, but maybe it didn't sink in. Maybe I needed to get it tattooed across my forehead."

As the woman seethed with anger, Alex bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut. "Let's just talk it over, Debbie. Let's not make a scene."

Debbie scoffed. "Oh, you don't want to make a scene?" She raised her voice and flailed her arms. "Well, too bad! You already made a scene."

Alex tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

In a fit of rage, Debbie stomped her foot. "You rented out the apartment at the top of the Eiffel Tower. That's the biggest scene that anyone could make. How am I supposed to react to that? Just nod, smile, and go along with it like I always do?"

Alex stepped forward, trying to break through to her. "I misread the situation."

Debbie's eyes narrowed. "I thought I made the situation very clear. This was a business trip."

Again, he stepped closer. "We were having such a good time, Debbie.

Before he could get any closer, Debbie shook her head. A frown formed across her lips. "Don't. Leave me alone."

As her eyes welled up with tears, she darted through the crowd, getting as far away from Alex as she could.

Confused and upset, Alex chased after her. "Debbie! Come on. Don't run away. Wait! Don't go!"

He tried to catch up with her, but the sea of people that surrounded him made it impossible.

Debbie had gotten too far away.

She ran further down the street, avoiding cars and pedestrians. After a few wobbly steps, she came to a stop. She bent down and cried. "I feel so used. So, so used."

She looked around, standing in the middle of a foreign country, where she didn't know anyone other than Alex Ambrose. She wiped the tears from her eyes. "I have to get back to the hotel room."

She pulled out her phone to call an Uber, but when she did, she was reminded of the time Dangles kidnapped her outside of Enrichment. She shoved her phone back into her purse. "I'd rather call a taxi."

A black car with a white "TAXI" sign on its roof crossed her path. She whistled.

Being that she was a lonely, beautiful woman in Paris, it wasn't surprising that a taxi picked her up in no time.

She stepped into the back of the car. "Hi, I don't speak French.

An old man with a thick French accent drove the vehicle. "No worries. I can speak English. Where are you going, gorgeous?"

Debbie sniffled as she wiped her nose. "The Millesime Hotel, please."

As the driver put his foot on the gas, he looked at Debbie through the rearview mirror. "I know it's none of my business, but is everything alright, Miss?"

Debbie's lip trembled as he asked. She could barely hold it together. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just boy trouble."

The driver shook his head. "Any man who makes a woman like you upset is a fool."

Debbie offered the man a shy smile.

He sighed. "What did he do to make you so upset?"

Debbie wistfully stared out of the window. "He rented out the apartment at the top of the Eiffel Tower."

The driver furrowed his brow. "And that made you upset?"

Debbie rested her cheek on her hand. "Yes. He's my ex. We came here on business, but things got a little complicated, and he thought we were getting back together."

The driver's expression softened. "And what did you think?"

Debbie pursed her lips. "I have no idea."

The driver nodded. "That's an awfully large gesture, the apartment at the Eiffel Tower. I don't think my wife would know how to react if I rented out the apartment at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and we've been together for twenty years."

Debbie drew in a deep breath. "Really?"

The old man's eyes lit up. "Really. We met in a cafe in Montmartre. She was my waitress. I had never seen someone with such beautiful eyes."

Debbie smirked. Oddly enough, hearing about the driver's love story distracted her from her heartbreak. "That's so sweet."

With a flick of his turn signal, the driver whizzed through the streets. "She was shy, almost as if she was afraid to talk to me, but I was bold enough to ask her out. I waited there until her shift was done. Then, we went to Saint Martin's Canal to skip stones. Turns out, she grew up a street away from me. It was almost like fate. I knew she was the only woman I would ever love"

Debbie took a deep breath. "I used to feel like that about Alex. He would talk about me like you talk about your wife. It shot a nervous, excited feeling through me every time."

The old man raised an eyebrow. "What changed?"

Debbie bit her lip. "Things got complicated. Life got complicated."

The driver nodded. "Life tends to do that very often, my dear, but we have to learn to weather the storms. That's the only way to survive. If you love this man, you'll figure out a way."

Debbie glanced down at her feet. "I, uh, I just thought we were going to be together forever."

The driver slow down and pulled up to the front of the hotel. "Well, nothing says you won't be. Just give it time."

Debbie offered the man a curt nod. She handed him Euros. "Thank you, sir. Here, keep the change."

The old man graciously grabbed the heap of cash. "Merci, and best of luck to you, Miss."

When she returned to her hotel, she collapsed on the bed, sobbing. "What's wrong with me? Why did I let myself flirt with him? Why couldn't I hold back for a little while longer?"

She checked the time on her phone, and when she did, she saw that, at some point during the day, she had set the picture of herself with the American flag bear as her lock screen. She spiraled when she saw the photo, crying harder than she had before. "Why did I do that? Now every time I look at my phone, I'm going to think of Alex." Her bottom lip trembled as tears stained her cheeks. "Oh, Alex!"

She bit her lip. "That conversation in the cab didn't make anything more clear for me. I thought that we would have a perfect story like that old man does. We had a fairytale romance. Where did everything go so wrong?"

Debbie recalled everything that led to this moment, from Alex's proposal to visit France to the Eiffel Tower apartment disaster.

She stretched her head. "Well, I think it all started when he decided to cheat on me with Kylie Naysmith. That wasn't too good, and now this trip. It all happened way too soon. It felt like we were forced together."

She remembered the turbulent plane ride in which the two were forced to sit together, and she couldn't forget how the hotel only had one room for the two to share.

Debbie shot up as she had a sudden realization. "Did he plan for all of that to happen just so that he could get close to me? Ugh!" She slumped over. "I was an idiot to believe this was all about real estate. Was this his plan from the very beginning? He'd fly me to France and sweep me off my feet. And look at me! I willingly fell into the trap."

An unsure feeling settled in her stomach. "But I don't know. I can't say that I don't have feelings for him. It felt so good to be with him these last few days. It felt like everything went back to normal, back to how it was before the super soldier attacks. Which, if I'm being honest with myself, is what I truly want. I want to go back to the way things were before."

She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "But it'll never go back to the way it was before. I don't know what to do with myself.

With an unsure look in her eye, Debbie stared at her phone. "There's only one person I trust to give me advice."

She picked up the cell and scrolled through her contacts. "I know this didn't work out too well the last time, but I don't know what else to do."