Somewhere Else

Novel In Progress/#3

Saturday, July 3, 1971. 12:15 a.m. Paris, France

She had left the door unlocked because she knew he’d come back. He always did, no matter how much they fought, and sometimes they fought for days on end. Not today. Only two fights that day, separated by hours of silence. Or was it yesterday? She checked her watch. It was just after midnight, so it had been yesterday. The watch was a Patek Philippe the Count had tossed at her as casually as he would have tossed a cigarette. Not that it mattered. One day led into the next, and the next… no goals, no one to answer to. She loved it that way. He didn’t. His true colors had come out in the last few months. He was a Navy brat and an admiral’s son at that, to the core: discipline and duty.

He’d become so dissatisfied lately. Bored, restless, constantly growling. They had groused and fought from the time they met—malice heaped on malice, each addition normalizing the last. But lately, the fights had taken on an extra edge. There was a sense of menace about them.