Ch3 -My Sweet Nightmare

   I had almost tripped over my shoes and into a deep puddle in the street. It had been raining all day long. I was on my way to work when I found a note in my little office. It was from Peter asking me to go meet him at the café for lunch when he got out on break. I rolled my eyes. I had only been here for about three weeks and the man asks me to lunch. I thought people were supposed to get to know each other first before they start asking things of them.
   I hurried into the café and closed the door tightly behind me. The place smelled of warm bread and chocolate. The cooks yelled out orders in the back kitchen and the waitresses scurried to serve their customers. Of course every place in town must have been this way because of the rain. Everyone was stuck inside the buildings because of it. I looked around for Peter to find him sitting in the back corner of the café. He saw me and waved me over to him. I walked back to him and slumped down into the seat and rubbed my arms trying to stay warm from the cold rain that had my purple dress sticking to my body.

   Peter laughed, "There's this invention called an umbrella. Have you heard of it?" I rolled my eyes at him and tried hard not to crack a smile at his sarcastic charm.
"If you have not noticed yet, I am not much of the prissy type," I whispered so nobody could hear. "But, if it makes you quiet down then I'll get one."

   "Ahh so you do have a fierce side to you mademoiselle Romano. I would have never known," he smirked and winked. I would have loved to smack that stupid smirk off his face but, not in public as to make a scene.
"So, why have you asked me to meet you here?" I asked.

   "Well, if you really want to know… I want to get to know you. You do work for my mother you know and might I add that you are cunningly beautiful who wouldn't want to get to know you."
  I turned my head and looked down onto the floor so that he couldn't see the blush in my face. I push a strand of hair back from my face. 'God, why now when I just started out?' I thought. Peter was a very handsome man and he was very successful as well. No doubt he would make a potential lover, maybe even a husband… Not for me though. At least not until I could make all my dreams come true first. That's what really mattered most. Plus, I was really afraid to fall in love. Too many times I have seen my sister with other men just as handsome. They had flaws though which included too much drinking or smoking and soon my sister got into the habit of it a couple of times too.
   "I appreciate the compliment Monsieur but, to be honest and before you get ahead of yourself, I am in no way ready to start anything with anyone right at this moment. I just started out on my own, finally away from home and I have big dreams," I explained to him nicely as to not hurt his feelings. Though I knew how to let the truth out without fear, I wasn't shallow like people in the past made me out to be. His eyes held happiness in them and then disappointment. He hung his head a little and said, "I apologize, Mademoiselle, for my absurd behavior. I-"
Before he could say anymore, I had my hand raised showing that I did not want to hear anymore. I smiled at him with reassurance that I was not mad at all.

   "Now," I said folding my arms on the table, "tell me about the school where you teach." He smiled and went on telling me about how he was actually a college professor not really a school teacher. He worked there on the weekdays and worked in the library on the weekends. Most of the time he is at the library he's more likely doing 'homework,' grading papers or organizing a lesson for the next week. Then he went on to telling me about his life story and how they had come to Paris. The Beaumonts used to live in the country side of England and how they owned a farm. Peter told me about the hot days helping his father with the chores and how the crops seemed to always die during the winter.
   When he was growing up, his best friend was a brown throughoubred mare named Shelly. He took care of Shelly and every day they rode upon the land that his family owned. When he was about sixteen, they sold Shelly for money for his father because his father had gotten sick. Two years after that, when he was eighteen, his father died. Peter decided to take it upon himself to move out of the place they stayed and went to have a better and easier life. That's when he decided to teach and eventually had enough money to buy a place to stay and open a business for his mother. His family was always good in the literature department so him and his mother started the library and have been there ever since. It seemed to me more of a rags to riches kind of story that turned out with a happy ending.
   His story gave me confidence. I started to believe more and more each day that I can somehow in some way make my family proud of my in everything I did. That I can perfect in the arts just like they did but, at this moment in time, I was just a library girl living and breathing on dreams waiting to come true.
   The rain had started to clear up as Peter walked me back to the library. The air was cold and smelled of rain. We walked past the Opera Populaire and I couldn't help but gaze at all its splendor.  Just then we heard a booming sound from inside it. I jumped at the sound and Peter laughed a little. I covered my ears and looked at him quizzically. He looked back at the opera house, put a his left hand on his hip and sighed as if the noise was going stop only for him. He shook his head and ushered me on down the road.

"What was that awful noise?" I asked as we walked through the doors of the library. I could still hear the noise from outside only it was muffled by the walls.
"Oh that is the opera diva," Peter said putting the emphasis on 'diva.' "Her name is Carlotta and she is the star of every show we've seen. If you ask me, I think her voice sounds horrid. Believe me when I say this though, you do not want to meet her." His mother laughed a little and went back to writing.


   Later that night I dreamed a lovely nightmare. As twisted as it sounds that is exactly what it was. I was in a very large place which seemed like a mansion. I did not know this place.  It was not familiar to me. I walked among its halls wearing a smoky grey, strapless dress. I was surprised to see that I wore such a revealing wardrobe for the corset made my cleavage pop out of it a little. As I walked, I felt a presence that I could not see. He spoke to me of sweet things through the walls. I was falling hopelessly for this invisible being.
   I started to walk down the stairs of a big entry way. The floors were checkered black and white. The staircase floors were pearl white with golden railing and a red carpet ran over the top leading down it. I started to walk down the staircase when he called my name. I woke straight up in my bed and looked around the darkened room. I leaned over to light my candle on my nightstand. When I looked around the room I saw nothing. I put the candle back where it was and laid my head down again. Despite my fear or the dark and knowing that the light would soon go out, I closed my eyes and fell back to sleep.