SECRETS OF THE PAST
Chapter Eight
The Look of Love
Jack was having a hard time
finding Monique. He didn't know where to start looking for her.
Jack called his dad.
"Hello?" Angelina
answered.
"Hi, Mom. Is Dad home?"
Jack asked her.
"Yes. Hold on."
Angelina took the phone to Frank.
"Hey, Frank. It's
Jack." Angelina passed the phone. Frank grabbed it from her.
"Hey, Jack. What's up?"
He was glad to hear from him.
"Hi, Dad. I wanted to ask
you a question." He felt weird asking his dad.
"What about?" It
sounded serious to him.
"It's about Monique
Dubois," Jack said.
"Monique?" Frank hadn't
heard that name in a long time.
"Yeah. Dad, she claimed you
conned her out of fourteen hundred dollars. Is that right?" Jack asked
him.
"Yeah, Jack. It's
true." He remembered that night.
"How could you, Dad? She
seems like a nice lady!" Jack retorted.
"I don't know what I was
thinking, Jack," Frank said.
"Do you know where I can
find her, Dad?" He waited while his dad thought about it.
"Um…try Le Lamiae's. She
always liked that place," he said, remembering certain things.
"All right, Dad.
Thanks." Jack wrote it down.
"No problem, Jack. Take
care," Frank said.
"You, too, Dad." He
hung up.
*****
Jack found Monique at the place
his father had told him about.
"Monique?" He tapped
her on the shoulder.
"Hey, Jack." She was
surprised to see him.
"I was wondering if I could
ask you out on a date." He sat down with her at the bar.
"All right." She got up
and left with him.
They went to the hotel room that
he had rented for the night.
"Monique, do you have
anything suitable to wear to a party?" he asked her.
"Sure, but if you want to
buy me an outfit of your choosing, go ahead." She would let him do
anything he wanted.
"All right." Jack and
Monique went to a French clothing store, and he chose a dress that fit
perfectly and made Monique's body stand out more.
*****
When they reached the address
Rose had given him, he acted like a gentleman. He held the door open for
Monique. Monique looked beautiful and sexy. He wondered if she was going to
charge him for the date.
He knocked on the door.
"Hello. Come in." Rose
answered the door. Jack was dressed in his pilot uniform, because he knew he
could get free stuff that way if they chose to go out to dinner. Then, they
wouldn't have to pay.
Rose looked at Monique, envious
that Jack had an older woman.
"Monique, Jack, make
yourselves comfortable. I will be right back." She went to look in the
mirror to see if she looked all right.
Rose had already set the table,
and Jason sat in the living room with Jack and Monique.
"I know you, don't I?"
Jason noticed that she looked very familiar.
"Jason Radcliff?"
Monique hardly noticed him. "I haven't seen you since you were this
high." She pointed just above her hip. "You were my newspaper boy,
right?" Monique was astonished to meet him again.
"Yeah, Monique, I was. I
remember that now." Jason had always loved Monique when she was younger.
"Well, dinner's ready,"
Rose announced.
Monique and Jack sat together.
Jason and Rose sat side by side.
They chatted through dinner about
old times and about how Jack and Rose had first met. Monique laughed at some of
the pranks Jack had pulled on Rose. Like the time when he had told her that her
cat had died, and when she went to go look at it, it came jumping at her, scaring
the hell out of her. Rose did not laugh at that one.
Jason and Rose had met in Law
101. He had helped her with her notes, and had seen that she was struggling
with her studying.
Jack looked at Rose, unable to
look away. Monique saw, and grabbed his hand to put in her lap. They still were
attracted to each other. There was no doubt of that.
Rose saw that Monique was
controlling Jack from her. She knew that he still loved her with all his heart.
But in order to keep away, he needed distraction.
Monique pushed Jack's hand up her
thigh underneath the table. He noticed what she was doing. He glanced at her.
She was sexy in that dress. He wanted to rip it off her.
Jason, Rose, Jack, and Monique
went to sit by the fire. After dinner, they decided to chat a little more.
"So, what are you doing in
France, Rose?" he asked, breaking out of his trance.
"Jason invited me here after
finals. I decided to take him up on his offer," Rose said. She missed
Jack.
"Oh." He looked over at
Monique.
"And you?" Rose asked
him.
"I am here because my flight
was canceled. You see, I was supposed to go to Florida. At the last minute,
they changed it to here." Jack put his hand through his hair.
Rose wanted to reach out and
touch his beautiful golden locks. She stopped herself.
The attraction between them was
at the boiling point. If Monique and Jason went away, they would do the deed in
a mad, hot passion.
When it was time to go, Jack got
Monique's coat, and when he touched her skin, Rose saw the look she had seen
the last night they were together.
The look of love.