1. Impossibly beautiful
"He experienced the singular pleasure of watching people he loved fall in love with other people he loved”
Hanya Yanagihara
Hi there!
Fair warning, this is a slow-burn romance, with quite a few curses.
This is a follow-up of 1)Lost and Found, 2)Never beore and 3)Witchy woman, although you can read it as standalone, you will understand the story line and the characters if you read it first.
I hope you will love this merry gang of misfits, and this love story, as much as I do.
F.
LOUIS
“It's bullshit to think of friendship and romance as being different. They're not. They're just variations of the same love. Variations of the same desire to be close.
Rachel Cohn”
It will never cease to amaze me how some changes that you will consider tremendous, when looking back, can sneak up on you. An event or two, some small coincidences here and there, you see things evolving, and when you reflect a few months later, your life is completely different.
There I was, still living in the town I was born in, still with the same best friend, Sam, when one accident, in no way personal to me, other than happening to someone I liked a lot, triggered a series of dominos falling, until my own life was forever altered.
Said accident happened to the very popular old hippie in town: Carol. She ran a quirky little place called Le Café, in the center of Collioure, and we all loved her, and her shop: a place where you could, in one go, have a coffee with a pastry, read a book with a cat on your lap, and come home with a new crystal or other spiritual artefact. What her niece, she told me, calls ‘Spiri-wiri’ stuff.
When I was a kid, my father was a carpenter, working on old buildings, structures and furniture, and he took me with him often. It was wonderful, being with him and hearing me explaining with his usual passion about different kinds of wood, why the structure of this old barn was fascinating. Even if I didn't understand everything, I kept this way of looking at old buildings and structures, and I still do, even now. And as a fireman, I saw too many constructions crumble, so it became a second nature to watch walls and ceilings for a sign of weakness. Which prompted me to advise Carol on making repairs in her shop, some old beams looked like they were about to give up.
A criminal asshole, pretending to repair her building, stole the antique wood structure on her shop’s ceiling. Difficult story to explain, and even harder to believe, I know, but there you go. And when his own construction gave up, it did on poor Carol's head.
It led to a whole procedure : Carol was in a coma, and her niece, Jaimie, came to town to be close to her and take care of everything. Sam and I were close to the case, both in our capacity as firemen and in Sam’s, as an insurance agent. By a crazy coincidence Carol's insurance agent, at that.
And if you want another crazy coincidence, Thomas, our antique guy and friend of three years, had a thing with Jaimie in their youth. He was even friends with her whole gang.
Still following me?
Jaimie came into town with her own friends, the very one Carol was speaking about whenever she was mentioning the Scoobygang. She spoke of her niece a lot, but from the affection she used speaking about the others, it was obvious she adopted them all.
Let me start with this. You know, these sitcoms where, when you think of it, all actors seem to be hired because they’re all impossibly beautiful?
Well, I'll give you the Scoobygang.
Jaimie, quite small, soulful brown eyes and the brightest and kindest smile. A strength of character that impresses us all.
Nathan, gymnast, model, broad, blue eyes, and one down to earth great guy, and two beautiful ladies. Penny, a small lithe woman, generous and sweet…
And Alexis.
Alexis is, according to Nathan, the blond version of Jessica Rabbit, give or take. First time I laid my eyes on her, I felt like the wolf in these Tex Avery cartoons. I didn’t have to roll my tongue back into my mouth, but by god she is stunning. Her green eyes, the way she looks directly at you, the firm hand she gives you to shake, and this smile of hers… What the books would describe as a lazy smile, it starts with the hooks of her mouth, before she starts to grin and it lightens her whole face. Wauw. Just… wauw. And a sharp mind like you wouldn't believe.
Our involvement in Carol's case, and Thomas being the common link between the two groups, we all quickly liked each other and became friends within weeks.
So now, we are, in fact, what Nathan calls The Real Scoobygang: Louis and I joined Thomas, Jaimie, Nathan, Al and Pen. Then Thomas’ kid sister came along: Emma. Wonderful young woman, as nuts as we all are, so, there you go, the OG gang is now an eight headed Scoobygang.
There are a few particularities to our group.
The first is that we're all incredibly cuddly. I'm not a cold man by any means, and Sam is quite the huggy bear, but these people are die hard huggers. It amazed us, at the beginning, the free “love you” and hugs all the time, Nathan walking by and kissing one girl's head, hugging Thomas when he arrived or left…Thomas got quickly used again to their way of being, and Sam and I got immediately sucked in too. This is a group of friends where “love you"s and tears are shared without absolutely no hindrance, and it took an astonishingly short time for them to feel like family.
Nathan, Al and Pen still live in Paris, but they come here often, and we spend a lot of time all together. It helps that Jaimie is as welcoming and motherly as Carol is, and that she insisted after one or two invitations that Sam and I would stay and sleep at her place. There's nothing better, after an evening of indulgence, to wake up all together too.
Though Thomas and Jaimie are the only couple among us, and even though we all love each other a lot, there is an extra bond between some boy-girl duos.
Al and I spend hours discussing books, music, history. Boy, our talks... Her cleverness, her sharp wit and her endless curiosity about any subject fascinate me. We debate, even, passionately, when we fully disagree. But we never argue. And a second after a shouting rally about one's point of view, we sit close to each other, reading together like nothing happened.
I'm starting to get the feeling that Emma and Nathan are developing their own brand of closeness: I catch glances I never caught before between them, and I'm not sure if the rest notices. The girls are quite protective of Nathan: because of his good looks, and his relative fame, he's used to girls drooling all over him, and so, is usually quite distant with women. But Emma never looked at him that way and they became good friends very quickly. Only, now..? I don't know…
Sam seems to have developed his own brand of affection for sweet Penny. He hoovers over her with a protective look I've never seen on his face before, and we know each other for many, many years.
Sometimes, I'm starting to wonder if our eight headed monster will not end in six couples, plus Al and me.
Did you even feel like you were living with two contrary emotions in you?
I think I could be the poster child for that. On one side, I am always, always, painfully aware of how beautiful, and sexy Al is. And there is definitely an attraction there. It's not that I'm lusting after her like, well, like the wolf I just mentioned, but if she touches my arm, hugs me, or looks directly in my eyes with these green lasers of hers, I melt. I can't help it. I feel all kinds of tingly butterflies, and this sort of… longing I guess? An afterthought of “If only”
And I feel that our friendship is from that special brand of man and woman friendship where there is this hint of possibility, somewhere in the background. I'm sure some of you will understand. It's not absolutely flirty, but there is … something.
But on the other side, the friendship is real.
I, for one, admire Alexis immensely. First, for her intelligence. I mean, the woman studied physiotherapy, then journalism, and is now a successful writer in a magazine addressing all kinds of subjects. And that, I think, is what makes Alexy tick. And what makes her so special: her endless curiosity. She approaches all subjects with an open mind, an infinite thirst for knowledge, and a compassion that never ceases to awe me.
Well, as you can see, don't start me on the subject: I'm getting lyrical and I can go on for a long, long while, about this very special lady.
I've known her for a few months now, and my affection is only growing for her.
A few months ago, I was leading a perfectly happy life, single, yes, but with a rewarding job, two good friends, a bi-monthly dinner and shoot the shit evening with them, and I thought I missed nothing.
Only now, every single time the gang is complete, I feel my heart burst with happiness, and I feel like my life has a meaning it didn't have before. Then, Al goes back home, and there is a large, black hole in me, trying more and more to suck the happiness from me. And it's getting harder and harder to fight it.
