Thomas and Laura were living in a beautiful apartment in the seventh arrondissement of Paris, just blocks from the Eiffel Tower. It was a rental, they hadn't bought it yet, that would be a decision for later, if they grew to really love the city that much. Maybe when Mr. Andrews retired they would decided they wanted to return to Atlanta. I'm sure Laura doesn't remember Atlanta much anymore, she was only 6 when they moved, but both Mr. and Mrs. Andrew grew up there, or at least that's how Thomas tells it. I think he resents them for the move sometimes too.

Dinner was more of a party than just a meal, it seemed Mrs. Andrews had latched on to the ways of her new friends, the other Madams and Mademoiselles of the building, who spent most of their time at home, lobbying people to their husbands' causes with flattery, charcuterie boards, and surprisingly expensive vintages.

I got to meet some of these women and even in their old age, they looked as good as celebrities like Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter. I decided this meant they had money, enough to take care of themselves and live long, beautiful lives.

The drinking was legal, the cheese was sharp and sometimes gooey, and the Boeuf Bourguignon made by Miss Delphine, their housekeeper, was amazing. With 12 people crowded around a table that was a bit too small, all the younger people had silently decided to sit close and let the real adults have some space. Once they had taken their seats, they probably weren't getting up for hours, was what Laura told me later. The ladies took turns hosting dinner parties every week and Mrs. Andrews had taken someone else's turn to host because we were going to be here and felt bad bringing extra guests to another's party.

The conversation at the table was great, but between the older ladies, it was mostly in French so I only caught bits and pieces. When they asked direct questions I could answer where I was from and say I was a family friend on a work trip and the guys were my colleagues, but that was the most talking I did with them.

On the younger end of the table, Thomas was talking up a storm with the guys. I don't know if he has very many guy friends here, and even if he does, that bad French accent was genuinely how he speaks French so he probably has a hard time communicating unless they speak English. They talked everything from pop culture to what it was they guys did to get into Youtube. Laura just seemed a bit infatuated with Jake. She always had a thing for dyed hair and piercings to her mother's dismay. If she knew Colby had tattoos she probably would have been all over him.

When we finished our meals, Thomas and the guys headed out to the rooftop garden on top of the building because it's the only place Thomas is really allowed to smoke. His mom refuses to allow it in the apartment, though she would never say no to her friends, she doesn't want to watch her son smoke. Laura and I went to her room and she seemed very excited.

Laura's room was pink and cheery just like her personality. She was a warm person who had set her sights on being my friend the moment she saw me at a gala event that brought together the families of demonologists from all over for a weekend in Rome once a year when we were kids. She is dear to me, has been for a long time and I missed her, probably just as much as she keeps telling me she missed me.

"Tell me everything!" she demanded as soon as the door closed.

"About the demons or Jake?" She had a love struck look in her eyes but she got that way every time we talked about demonology too, so I was genuinely lost.

"Everything! Duh! From the start! How the hell did you get caught up in all of this again?!"

Here we go...

"Well mom needed help with money for Molly's school so I dropped out. It saved us some money and got a job to help pay for the rest. I wanted to do some film work too because I couldn't go to school for it anymore, so I was editing videos for 50 bucks a per hour of footage and then I found their job posting. They needed a cameraman to come to Europe with them and film at three different locations, 1200 per location, the shoot should take about a week. I thought it would be fun, but then weird and really bad shit started happening. I could keep it under control long enough for them to finish the shoot but I was really scared by the time we finished so I called Uncle Leo. I didn't tell him but I got burned too."

I showed her the mark on my wrist.

"Oh my god, Lia! What the fuck?"

She still curses like a sailor, she'd probably never talk like this in front of the guys, but dang she can still curse up a storm when we're alone.

I laughed as she examined my wrist.

"I'm fine," I insisted, still laughing, "It doesn't hurt anymore and I soaked it in holy water, put some ointment, though I'm not sure how much that will actually help against a demonic burn, got blessed by a priest and have been carrying around the priest's blessed rosary. You remember Daniel, right? I think you met once way back when.

"Danny, did he live near you?"

"Yeah, 5ish years older, used to have bed head and ashy brown hair?" I stood up from the edge of Laura's bed, and stuck out my hand above my head, "About this tall, walks like this?" I swung my shoulders around a bunch while I walked, "Thought a whole lot of himself?"

"With the glasses!" Laura laughed, "They broke when you fell out of that pine tree in your backyard on top of him!"

She had fallen to lay on her back on her bed, holding her stomach with laughter.

"He was cute." she smiled.

"Well, you're too late, he's a priest now." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Awwww, boo!" she pouted, "What a waste! He could have just been a theology teacher!"

We continued to laugh and talk until I felt a buzz in my pocket. Pulling my phone out, I saw a text from Sam.

"Hey, Laura, I'm not sure what's up, but Sam says we should come up to the roof?" I cocked my head to the side with a questioning glance in her direction.

"Oh, that's right! The view is amazing!" her eyes lit up as she grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the apartment behind her, yelling something to her mom in French along the way.

When we arrived, I stepped out the door to the roof top and paused in silent astonishment for a moment. People always said the best thing to do in Paris was see and climb the Eiffel Tower, but seeing it lit up in all its glory on the Parisian skyline was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.

"Wow..." I finally verbalized the wonder and slowly proceeded closer to the edge, standing right beside Thomas who was still smoking and making small talk with the guys.

"Lili!" I felt him throw an arm around my shoulders.

"Hey, stupid," I laughed and patted the hand resting on my left shoulder, "this is really something, huh? You get to see this every day?"

I looked at him with a raised brow. I was very jealous. The most beautiful views I had consisted of the sun set over the reservoir where the water would reflect the colors of the sky in winter when the top froze over. It was gorgeous, but this view was completely out of its league.

"Yeah, I do. Now, I gotta ask you a question," he smirked, pulling the cigarette down from between his lips.

"Shoot." I grinned with a scrunched up nose.

"Which one is it?"

"Huh?" I wasn't sure what he was asking, "Are we talking about-"

"Your 'friends'" he did air quotes and made a slight head nod towards the guys, "Which one of them are you interested in? That's the only way I ever thought I'd see you get involved with all this again."

"So they told you what happened in Scotland?" I frowned and looked away from him back towards the tower.

I got my answer when I felt my wrist pulled up to be inspected. Shivers running down my spine as his thumb ran over the burn.

"It still hurts a bit, so please-"

I was cut off when a handkerchief and a small flask miraculously appeared from the breast pocket of his jacket.

"What are you-"

"Shush, don't make such a fuss when people are trying to help you." he doused the handkerchief in Holy water and tied it around my wrist, "That should help."

"Thank you, but I-"

"Pleases, thank yous, and apologies with buts don't count," he wagged a finger in front of my face and I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, thank you."

"Sure thing," he gave a quick look to the guys and narrowed his eyes when he saw a blushy Laura making nice with Jake, but when he looked back he said, "So it's not that one. You like the blond, the brunette, or man bun?"

"Sam, Colby, or Corey, you mean?"

"Same thing!"

I bust out laughing, "None! I can honestly tell you that I have not had time to form a crush on any of them. Besides, I think most, if not all of them are already seeing someone and I'm not opening that Pandora's box. Besides, who needs love anyway when you have passion."

"Passion, eh?" he got a goofy look on his face, "So you have at least been thinking about passionate, steamy-"

I clapped a hand over his mouth.

"No! If you say another word, I'll kill you! I meant passion for what you do!"

"And who!" he looked at me suggestively, "I thought there were no secrets between friends, Lili."

I glared at him and just walked away from the conversation.

"Ooo," he called, "even better, point them out!"

I just kept walking.

I stopped at the other end of the small garden beside Colby who was laughing while watching Jake and Laura. Jake was being shy like he apparently always is with knew people and Laura was being shy like I've never seen her.

"Hey, Lia," Colby waved as I leaned against the railing looking off at the tower in the distance.

"Hey," I smiled.

"What was all that about?" he motioned over to Thomas who was making gestures at Colby and mouthing 'that one?'

I flipped Thomas off.

"Ignore him, for the sake of your own sanity," I sighed and put my head down on my arms on the rail.

"You know a lot of people, huh?"

"Well, I did have a whole life of my own before I started working for you guys. These are just the people who know about the demonic stuff. I have a whole lot of other people in my life that you don't know too." I laughed.

"Yeah," Colby looked off at the tower, shoving his phone in his back pocket, then pulling his hands into his sweatshirt sleeves, "I guess it's pretty easy to forget that other people don't just exist in your life."

"There's a word for that," I said, "I don't remember what it is, but there's a word for realizing that other people all have their own individual lives that you will never know everything about."

"Really?"

"Yeah, there are a lot of words for obscure things," I smiled.

"Like what?"

"Petrichor is a fun one."

"That's not really a word!" he was laughing

"Yes it is!" I argued, "Its the earthy smell that lingers in the air after it rains. Metanoia is another one too."

"That sounds like latin."

"Well a lot of English words can be broken down to find their root in Latin. English itself is 1/3 French, 1/3 latin, and 1/3 Germanic with some Celtic influences in there too."

"Yeah, I didn't really pay a lot of attention in school."

I laughed, I think I laugh a lot more than I usually do around these guys.

"What language did you take in high school?"

"Spanish, but I don't remember any of it."

"I took French and have French speaking friends so I got to use it, so I still know it, but not super well. They have some funny phrases too."

"Like...?"

"Dés vu, it means 'seen as soon as' or 'seen from this point forward' directly, but indirectly it means the awareness that what you are living right now will become a memory."

"Interesting. How do you feel about this memory we are making?"

"I'm having a lot of fun with all of you. I'm really happy that I got to see Laura and Thomas after so long. Most of all though, I'm just so full of anticipation for tomorrow and figuring out what the hell is going on."

"Ooo, breaking out the big words!"

"You're one to talk," I shoved his shoulder playfully and he laughed.

"I surrender, I surrender, don't kill me!"

"Your turn," I smiled, "How do you feel about all this?"

"Similar, honestly. I'm really glad we all got to meet you, because you gave us a lot of opportunities that we would not have otherwise had and now we're meeting a bunch of people all over the place and seeing even more of Europe than we thought we'd get to see."

"Well, I hope you're at least having a goodish time." I looked back at the tower sparkling in the distance.

"More than goodish. This has been about as amazing as Elton's trips."

"Oh, the TFIL guy? Where did you go with him? I only really heard about the pranks he pulled on you."

"We went to Egypt, Dubai, Australia, New Zealand, and more that I'm probably forgetting right now."

"That sounds amazing, I haven't been to any of those places. Rome is the farthest I've gone."

"Well Rome is pretty cool, I never got to see it, so I'm glad I'll get to now."

"Me too, it's a beautiful place," I started to think aloud, "Maybe I can convince you guys to go to the Bay of Naples before we go home."

"What's there?"

"Pompeii and Herculaneum. Two cities destroy two millennia ago when Mount Vesuvius erupted. The ruins are still there and you can tour them. My mom also really loved the Capri and Sorrento. It's about two hours south of Rome and the Vatican."

"Woah... That could be epic..."

"I know right! I-" I turned to look at him when a low rumbling noise startled me and I looked to see the dark clouds approaching.

"Maybe we should go inside." Laura seemed a bit nervous.

"Yeah, Let's-" Sam started to say when a thunder shook my eardrums.

I stiffened and looked up into a set of eyes.

"Co... de-de foudre..."

"What?" Colby put a hand on my shoulder to guide me along to the door and out of the now drizzling rain.

"Coup de foudre," I clenched my fists, but then my eyes softened, "it's another one of those funny words. It's French for clap of thunder, but it signifies love at first sight."

"That's cool," Colby seemed a bit awkward.

"Lili, let's go inside," I felt Thomas grab my hand and drag me inside.

"Okay," I let him drag me and once we made it back to the apartment, he waited for everyone to enter before holding me outside for a chat.

"Lia, is something wrong?" he pat my head like he used to when we were little kids, when he thought I needed comforting.

"N-no why do you ask?"

"You look like a deer in headlights and you're pale. Did that guy say something to you? I'll kill him!"

"No!" I grabbed his shirt before he could try to go pummel Colby for something he hadn't even done.

"Lia-"

"I'm okay," I smiled, "Let's go inside."

"Okay." he draped his jacket around me and we went inside. I tried to protest, but it was a bigger fight than it was worth and I was cold anyway.

"Oh Tommy..." I sighed as I closed the door to the bathroom behind me, leaving everyone else in the living room, "I wish you learned french too. Maybe then you would know why starring into your eyes like that on a clap of thunder resonated so deeply in me."