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Cosima remembered her first day in Paris like a dream. The memories came to her hazy and out of order, sped up and slowed down; as frozen moments in time and rushes of sounds and colours, places and faces.
Delphine had been unconscious when the plane landed, her body angled towards Cosima and her head resting on Cosima’s shoulder. Delphine, Cosima had learned that day, was a nervous flier. Delphine’s stomach had been too full of butterflies to eat before they left their apartment, and her nerves hadn’t let her consume anything later. Mercifully, the combination of her empty stomach and the three bottles of complimentary airplane wine she knocked back once the in-flight service had started put Delphine to sleep two hours into the flight, and that was how she stayed until they landed.
Cosima wasn’t tired when the plane touched ground, but she wasn’t properly awake either. She was in a strange middling state of consciousness where her body was excited and raring to go, but her mind was just a little bit slower processing things than usual, making everything a bit hazy at the edges, like with every moment that passed and every step she took she was experiencing déjà vu.
Delphine, who was now well rested, led Cosima through the airport with a large, excited smile on her face. As they made their way through the crowd, Delphine murmured polite “Merci’s” at people who were courteous or helpful and muttered curses at those who got in their way or were rude, both under her breath and to their faces. Cosima watched it all in a daze of horror, amusement and arousal, and wondered who the force of nature leading her through the throngs of people was. She wondered if being in Paris would bring this side of Delphine out more, because Cosima sort of liked it.
Despite the mass of people around them when they made it outside of the airport, Delphine somehow managed to secure a cab. Cosima stepped back from the curb when the driver got out of the car to help load their luggage, content to watch as Delphine and the driver conversed in rapid-fire French. Delphine had been teaching her French, and she had thought that she was capable of rudimentary communication, but as she listened to Delphine and the driver, Cosima realized she was only capable of conversing in French at a considerably slowed down speed. She realized that Delphine must have essentially been speaking cave-woman French to her for the past year. She realized that at the conversational speed Delphine was speaking now, it was useless for her to try and piece together what they were talking about.
Once they were settled in the cab and on the move, Delphine’s hand had snaked over into Cosima’s lap and she twined their fingers with a grin. Cosima had smiled back at her and Delphine had leaned in, kissing Cosima quickly before she fell back against the seat and lazily tilted her head towards the brunette.
Delphine started talking then, something about going to the hotel first so that they could drop off their luggage before getting metro passes and heading out into the city to explore. Delphine’s free hand, the one whose fingers weren’t still entwined with Cosima’s, moved constantly, gesturing excitedly as she talked about the places she wanted to take Cosima. Cosima heard her, her brain retained the information that Delphine had been giving her, but when she thought back on the cab ride, the only thing she clearly remembered was Delphine, radiant in the mid-morning light, her hair glowing, her lips curved up happily, as she looked over at Cosima with hazel eyes that positively sparkled.
The hotel was cool inside, and glistened. There were people around but not a huge crowd and Delphine got them checked in fairly quickly. Delphine had told her the room would be classically European with some modern flare. When they reached it, Cosima realized that Delphine’s description translated to ‘small but air-conditioned’. The big bed was sturdy however, Cosima discovered after she collapsed on it after entering the room, and she remembered looking over at Delphine and smiling as she anticipated spending some quality time on the bed later with the blonde.
Delphine joined her on the bed a couple minutes after Cosima fell onto it, and as sunlight streamed in through the open window, warming their skin with smoky beams of light, they lay together, kissing and touching, murmuring things into each other’s ears and skin, burying their faces in against each other as they smiled and laughed.
Delphine’s hand found its way under Cosima’s shirt and her fingers began to trace lazy patterns on Cosima’s stomach while her lips pressed kisses to Cosima’s neck and jaw. Cosima’s eyes closed and she lay back on the mattress with a deep content sigh. Delphine had pulled back from her then, and with a look of grave concern on her face, she had said, “You’re not falling asleep on me, are you?” And Cosima had blinked up at her sleepily and murmured, “No,” in a completely unconvincing manner before her eyes fluttered closed again.
Delphine was still and quiet for a few seconds after Cosima had spoken, and Cosima had actually begun to fall asleep, but before she could full drift off, Delphine’s hands on were on her, and the blonde started to laugh as she began tickling Cosima, the sound becoming louder and more jubilant the more Cosima squirmed and tried to get away from her.
In the aftermath of Delphine’s plan to wake Cosima up, Cosima grabbed hold of one of the large, fluffy pillows at the head of the bed and proceeded to throw it at Delphine. One soft blow was not enough to satisfy her however, so she took hold of the pillow again and then used it hit the blonde in the head a few times. After being blitzed a half dozen times, Delphine lifted a hand up to defend herself and managed to wrestle the pillow away from Cosima. This battle for control led to them rolling around together on the bed, which then led them kissing and touching some more, but eventually Delphine dragged herself away from Cosima and declared that it was time for them to commence adventuring.
They avoided the most touristy areas of the city. Delphine hadn’t grown up in the city of Paris, but she’d gone to school in the city, so her favorite parts of it weren’t the ones a tour bus was likely to take people to – except for Montmartre, which Delphine insisted was worth fighting through the crowds to see, though they didn’t end up having to do too much of that since the places Delphine wanted to show her in Montmartre weren’t the parts the tourists were particularly interested in.
They went to a bookstore that dated back to the 18th century. It had been years since Delphine had been there, but the old man who owned the store remembered her – which didn’t surprise Cosima in the least – and they greeted each other with kisses on the cheek. Delphine introduced Cosima as her girlfriend, which made Cosima embarrassingly happy, and they had coffee with the owner before losing themselves in exploration of the old store for a while. Cosima ended up walking out of the store with an extremely well-persevered copy of “The Biological Time Bomb” by Gordon Rattray Taylor. Delphine left with a bag full of records. Cosima found that hilarious.
They strolled up and down the streets of Le Marais, ducking into brightly coloured stores with interesting displays in the windows. They ate crepes along the side of a cobblestone alley, and made up stories about the people that walked by. The stories that Delphine came up with were always very heart-breaking and poetic, and often involved being in the rain, while Cosima’s stories were outlandish tales of mystery and misadventure. At one point when Cosima predicted that a particularly sullen looking teenage girl who passed would discover that she was the heir to century’s old European monarchy, Delphine called into the question the plausibility of her scenario. Cosima’s response was, “Dude, I’m a clone.” Delphine nodded seriously, and then laughed, before suggesting that African violet would be a nice colour for the girl’s coronation dress.
As the sun set, they strolled along the Seine, arm in arm. They passed the section of the Pont de l'Archevêché bridge where thousands of ribbons and padlocks glittered in light of the fading sun. Delphine explained that the brightly-coloured mosaic was a testimony to love. She said that lovers from all over the world had come to the bridge to add padlocks with their names engraved onto it, wanting to be part of the monument to love. She explained that once the padlocks where attached to the railings, that the lovers would then loss the keys into the Seine as a declaration of their undying love for each other. “Romantic, no?” Delphine asked when she was finished her story. “Oui,” Cosima said, her eyes scanning the sea of padlocks wistfully. “I wish we had a padlock,” she murmured. Delphine grinned at her then and began to rummage through her pursue. A few moments later she pulled out a padlock which she proudly held up before Cosima. Their names were already engraved on it. “Do you want to throw the key?” Delphine asked, and Cosima nodded, too choked with emotion to speak. She gazed at Delphine with infinite affection for a few seconds, and then she drew the blonde down into a deep, lingering kiss. When they parted, Delphine grinned at her like Cosima had just handed her the world, and they turned back to the railing and attached the lock together.
Cosima slept, her head resting on Delphine’s shoulder during the cab ride back to their hotel. When they arrived she managed to make it up to their room by resting about 85% of her body weight on Delphine, and then she fell onto the bed and promptly back asleep when they made it to their room. When she woke up Delphine was freshly showered, perfectly coiffed, and smiling at her like she was precious baby woodland creature, and Cosima frowned at her and groaned which only made the blonde chuckle. Delphine insisted Cosima would feel better once she had a shower. Cosima insisted that she would feel better once she had more sleep. Delphine won the battle, and Cosima grudgingly got up and made her way into the washroom. When she emerged fifteen minutes later bright-eyed and refreshed, Delphine was charmingly obnoxious about being right. Cosima warned her that if she kept up the obnoxious behavior she was going to have to teach Delphine a lesson. Delphine kept up the obnoxious behavior. They ended up making out for half an hour and were nearly late for their dinner reservation.
They had Moroccan food for dinner at 1000 & 1 Signes on rue Rodier. Upon arriving at the restaurant Cosima had questioned Delphine’s tour guide skills, utterly confused as to why her girlfriend hadn’t take her to a French restaurant on her first night ever in France. Delphine had just smiled enigmatically, and murmured, “You’ll see,” and once the food arrived, Cosima had seen. The food was delicious, the wine was cheap … ish, and when they left the restaurant they were unsteady on their feet but smiling.
Cosima remembered nothing about the drive from rue Rodier to rue Oberkampf but points of light glittering in the expanse of darkness beyond the interior of the cab, and Delphine’s hands and lips, the blonde’s fingers twining with her own and tracing patterns on her skin as her lips trailed kisses along Cosima’s jaw and down her neck.
They ended up at a lovely belle époque bar called Au Cafe de Paris that didn’t look like much from the outside but which contained a beautifully frescoed ballroom inside. They had a couple of drinks at the bar, and then made their way to the theatre where they had more drinks and sat shoulder to shoulder, whispering to each other as they listened to a pop-folk band perform.
They stumbled out into the street again sometime after 1:00 am, Delphine leading the way and Cosima following, though she wasn’t entirely sure that Delphine was sober enough to find her nose with her finger, let alone lead them back to the hotel. Her concerns turned out to be warranted when Delphine suddenly paused in the middle of the sidewalk and spun around in a circle a couple of time, looking utterly bewildered before she turned to Cosima with a sheepish expression and said, “Perhaps maybe we should take a cab.”
When they got back to the hotel, instead of going inside, Delphine dragged Cosima down the street to a small park with some benches. Smiling conspiratorially Delphine leaned in and kissed Cosima on the cheek before murmuring, “I have a surprise for you.” Cosima looked around the dark, deserted park and murmured, “If it’s outdoor sex, I’d rather not. I was really looking forward to trying out that bed.” Delphine had laughed at that and then tapped Cosima on the nose before saying that she was silly. Cosima thought – not for the first time – that Delphine was adorable when she was drunk.
Cosima’s actual surprise was a joint that Delphine fished out of her purse when she was through assaulting Cosima’s nose. The only time that Delphine had left Cosima’s side that was night was when she went to the washroom at Au Cafe de Paris. She had been gone for fifteen minutes tops, but apparently fifteen minutes had been long enough for her to pee and purchase illegal narcotics. Cosima appreciated her efficiency. “Beautiful angel of heart,” Cosima had breathed out, slipping the joint from Delphine’s fingers into her own before she leaned forward and kissed Delphine soundly. “Come on baby, light my fire,” Cosima breathed out when she pulled back from Delphine, and Delphine grinned at her and shook her head before she started to root around inside of her pursue again. A few moments later she found her lighter and pulled it out. She danced it cutely in front of Cosima’s eyes for a moment, and then very suavely, very debonair, she cupped her hand about the lighter and lit it. “Cormier, Delphine Cormier,” Cosima breathed out as Delphine’s hand protected the flame. “The girls in the movies are never so cheeky,” Delphine observed as Cosima leaned in and lit the joint. “The girls in the movies never do what I’m going to do to you later,” Cosima responded a moment later, smiling crookedly as she exhaled a cloud of smoke. “Oh,” Delphine breathed out, and then she leaned back and smiled.
Cosima couldn’t remember walking back to the hotel or riding the elevator up to their room. She couldn’t even remember what happened to her clothes. But she remembered Delphine lying naked in the center of the large bed in their small room. She remembered Delphine smiling as she crawled onto the mattress and then onto the blonde, and she remembered the way Delphine had laughed when she nipped at the blonde’s torso with her teeth and the way she had gasped and then sighed when Cosima’s lips wrapped around her nipple. She remembered gripping at her own thighs, her heels bumping against the small of Delphine’s back as the blonde’s grinded against her, tendrils of curly blonde hair brushing against her cheeks as Delphine kissed her like it was their last night on Earth. She remembered straddling Delphine’s ass as the blonde lay face down on the mattress, panting; her hair in disarray as she tried to catch her breath while Cosima’s fingers trailed over her back, alternating between gliding up and down her spine and tracing connecting lines between the freckles that dotted her back.
They ordered ice-cream. It got messy. They had fun cleaning each other up. Somehow some chocolate sauce got into Delphine’s belly-button and when Cosima pressed her mouth to Delphine’s skin to clean it up, Delphine had laughed and kicked her feet in the air like a two year old getting their stomach blown on. There might have been strawberries, or perhaps Delphine just tasted like them. Cosima couldn’t be certain. She was fairly certain it didn’t matter. Eventually exhaustion got the better of them and fell asleep, Cosima laying half on top of Delphine, their legs tangled together as their chests rose and fell in time.
“Are you okay?” Delphine asked, the sound of her voice drawing Cosima out of the daze she had been.
They were on a train heading for the suburbs of Paris, to Delphine’s parents, to the Cormier’s. When they woke up in the morning, evidence of the fun night they had had together was all around their hotel room, but they were too hung over to reminisce – or try for a morning performance of the sexual acrobatics they had gotten up to hours before.
Breakfast had been a relatively silent affair with lots of coffee and greasy food from a restaurant at the corner of the street their hotel was located on, but by the time they made it to the train station they were both feeling mostly human again and as the ride went on they fully recovered.
“Yeah,” Cosima murmured, smiling gently as she turned away from the window she had been gazing out of to face Delphine. “I mean, other than the fact that I’m an hour away from meeting your parents,” she continued, and Delphine smiled at her before turning serious as she took Cosima’s hands into her own.
“They’re not scary, I promise you,” she breathed out, stroking Cosima’s hand soothingly.
“I can’t be who they were expecting you to bring home,” Cosima said softly, nervously, looking up at Delphine through her eyelashes as she revealed the fear that had been tying her stomach up in knots on and off since they had decided to travel to Paris.
“You are brilliant, compassionate, charming, and you are good to me. So good,” Delphine breathed out, lifting Cosima’s hand up so that she could press her lips against the back of it. “They don’t care that you’re a woman,” she went on reassuringly, lowering Cosima’s hand. “They won’t admit it, but I think they’re happy to have the gay in the family,” Delphine continued.
Cosima’s eyebrows knitted a little at Delphine’s phrasing, but she let it go without comment. The truth was she didn’t really want the blonde to stop make little mistakes like that. She found Delphine’s little slipups entirely too adorable.
“I’ve told you. They are very open. Very … liberal?” Delphine said, looking to Cosima to see if she’d used the right phrase. “Maman … my mom,” she explained, when Cosima’s eyebrows scrunched up a little in confusion. “She thinks it’s very urbane to have the gay child. Since Etienne, the son of one of her friends came out, maman has been constantly bemoaning that she gave birth to four boring … how you …” Delphine began before remembering how much Cosima had laughed the last time the words ‘how you say’ had tumbled out of her mouth. “What is--” Delphine continued, changing her phrasing before she paused and her eyebrows scrunched up as searched her brain for an English word equivalent to what her mother had said. “Breeders,” she settled upon, and the smile that touched Cosima’s lips upon hearing it let her know she’d picked the right word.
“No?” Cosima asked.
“Oui,” Delphine replied.
“So you’re like, her trophy gay?” she asked, clearly amused.
Delphine nodded, and then shrugged. “I suppose.”
“And your dad … I mean, ton père?” Cosima asked smiling proudly at her use of French. “He feels the same?”
“Oui,” Delphine sighed, sounding a little despondent which confused Cosima, until she continued. “He keeps talking to me about Catherine Deneuve and Jeanne Moreau,” Delphine revealed, making a face. “I think we are going to have to sit through a film with a classic film actress so he can nudge me with his elbow and wink at me. He thinks we are buddies now because we are both in the same club.”
“The same club?” Cosima asked.
“Oui, the ‘naked girls are good, we like naked girls’ club,” Delphine replied and Cosima laughed.
“They’re not gonna ask embarrassing ‘cool parent’ questions about our sex life are they?” Cosima asked, suddenly worried.
She did things to Delphine that no one who had once fed the blonde mushed pears should ever know about.
“No, maman does not want to know and she will not let papa ask,” Delphine responded with a smile. “She keeps him in line, like me with you,” she added mischievously.
“Is that so?” Cosima asked arching a dark eyebrow at Delphine. “I’m a bad element, am I?”
“Trouble through and through,” Delphine agreed nodding very seriously.
“Well,” Cosima said thoughtfully, “I suppose I should try and get some of this wickedness out of my system before meeting your parents. I mean, even if it’s a lie, I want to make a good first impression,” she continued eyeing Delphine in a way that made the blonde rather apprehensive.
“Cosima,” Delphine said carefully.
Cosima smiled.
“You know it was a joke. I make those sometimes. You’re a very good gir…” Delphine began, but before she could finish her apology Cosima had reached out and begun to tickle her.
“Wicked creature,” Delphine wheezed, glaring at Cosima when the brunette finally relented and drew her hands away.
“I’m only as bad as you let me be,” Cosima replied sassily.
Delphine’s lips curved up despite herself.
“After I talk to maman you will be such a civilized individual,” Delphine replied.
“After you … wait, so you’re gonna ask your mom how to keep your woman in line?” Cosima inquired, eyes dancing with mirth. “You are such a badass,” she breathed out, reaching out to cup Delphine’s head in her hands before she pulled her in for a kiss.
“You say it like a joke,” Delphine murmured when they parted. “But you just wait. After I ask maman …” she continued, trailing off with a smile when Cosima started to laugh. “Come,” Delphine breathed out gently when Cosima’s laughter began to abate, gesturing towards herself.
Cosima smiled and lifted up the armrest that lay between them and then contently snuggled against Delphine’s side.
“What are you listening to?” Cosima asked, picking up one of the ear buds that Delphine had been listening to for most of the train ride. “More French rap?” she asked teasingly, and Delphine stuck out her tongue at her.
“French rap is not inherently funny,” Delphine said seriously a moment later, glaring down at the top of Cosima’s head.
“My laughter would suggest otherwise,” Cosima replied as she laughed.
Delphine tried to take back her ear bud, but Cosima held onto it.
“Aw, don’t be sore,” Cosima breathed out, smiling her most winsome smile. “Let me listen.”
“Fine,” Delphine muttered sounding like the most hard-knocked woman in the world. “But you better not be an ingrate,” she warned.
Cosima’s lips turned up a little, but she managed to keep most of her amusement out of her voice when she said, “I, Cosima H. Niehaus, swear on the life and health of my laptop that I shall not be an ingrate.”
“H?” Delphine questioned.
It was strange of Cosima not to say her middle name during a declaration like that, even a mocking one, and she suspected that there was a story there, a story that she wanted to hear.
“It’s my middle initial,” Cosima replied.
“Yes, you said that,” Delphine said, smiling. “What does it stand for?”
Cosima was silent for a few moments, and Delphine started to plot ways to needle Cosima into answering her, but before she could put any of her plots into action, Cosima looked away from Delphine and muttered, “Hero.”
“Hero?” Delphine asked, utterly amused.
Cosima glowered and slipped the bud into her ear.
“My father’s an English professor, okay?” she muttered eventually. “Unsurprisingly he has a total Shakespeare boner and he absolutely loves Much Ado About Nothing. He had Beatrice and Margaret to choose from, so of course he went with Hero,” Cosima related sulkily. “This is the story of how I came to suffer,” she finished, sighing deeply.
“It’s nice, really,” Delphine offered politely, managing to keep all trace of a smile off of her lips and out of her voice though she suspected some of her amusement showed in her hazel eyes.
“Stop it,” Cosima replied not fooled at all by Delphine. “You know it’s terrible. The only positive thing I can say about it, is thank God his favorite Shakespeare play wasn’t King Lear because even though he would have had perfectly decent names like Regan and Cordelia to choose from, he probably would have named me Goneril.”
Delphine laughed at that, and eventually Cosima cracked a smile. When she did, Delphine dipped her head down and smothered Cosima’s face with kisses which made the brunette laugh, and then Delphine tightened her arm around Cosima and drew her in close.
“Are you ready to hear the best French music?” Delphine asked, lifting up her iPod. “You must be ready because it’s very good and will knock you over if you do not brace yourself.”
“And that’s what my dad would call ‘hyperbole’,” Cosima breathed out. “But by all means, blow me away. My body is ready,” she continued, wrapping her arm around Delphine’s waist, squeezing tightly.
Delphine grinned at her and then started up the iPod and Cosima sighed and relaxed against her side, utterly and completely content.
Cosima remembered her first day in Paris like a dream, and as Delphine’s fingers played with the hair at the nap of her neck while the movement of the train rocked them gently, Cosima thought that her second day might pass in the same fashion. Actually, she thought with a smile, the whole week would probably disappear in a fog of laughter, Delphine, wine, Delphine, shopping, Delphine, exploration, and Delphine. It seemed fitting really, Cosima thought as she nestled further into Delphine, burying her face in her neck. Delphine was her dream, so how could being in the city of love with her not be?
The End