Aiden sighed as they neared his car in the parking lot. He wasn’t sure this was a good idea, and he was positive he wasn’t in the right frame of mind for social interactions. But he had practically tackled Jason and then said he would go, so he would. Maybe he could make it quick so he could head to his apartment and wallow in misery without anyone around. Jason’s enthusiasm made that difficult, though. Aiden unlocked his car and Jason hopped right in. Aiden had to chuckle as Jason started playing the part of a GPS unit. Turn here, turn right in two blocks, and finally ‘you have arrived’… it really was amusing.
Jason hopped out and said, “I really hope you like this, it’s one of my favorite places in town.”
“I’m really surprised–I expected a sleek, modern place like most of the others, not a five story building from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. I can’t wait to see what it looks like inside.”
As they walked in the entrance to Chocolat et Café Chez Moi a small bell on the door jingled, and Aiden had to wait for his eyes to adjust. The interior was like a cozy English pub had been combined with an old library or bookstore. There were comfortable looking sofas and chairs scattered about, along with tables ranging from two seaters to fantastic looking library tables that could probably seat twelve. And most of all, it was calm and quiet. No loud music or noisy conversations, just a low murmur that was very relaxing.
Jason took the lead and chose a small square table for them and sat down, motioning Aiden to sit across from him.
“What do you think?” Jason asked with a smile. “Not what you were expecting, is it?”
“No, it’s nothing like I anticipated, but I love it. Now I can’t wait to try their chocolate you kept going on and on about,” Aiden said with a smirk.
“Be careful what you ask for,” Jason said as a waiter came their way.
“Bienvenue, Jason!”
“Bonjour Philippe, comment vas-tu?”
“Je vais bien, merci. Que puis-je vous apporter aujourd’hui?”
“Deux échantillons de chocolat chaud de Paris, s’il vous plaît.”
[Welcome, Jason!]
[Good afternoon Philippe, how are you?]
I[ am doing well, thank you. What can I bring for the two of you today?]
[Two samples of the hot chocolate of Paris, please.]
Aiden looked at Jason in shock as the waiter left to fill their order.
“I have taken several years of French and followed that fairly well, but you sound like a native speaker–how?”
Jason smiled and said, “Mum grew up in London and papa grew up in Brussels. When they got married and wanted to start a family they wanted to make sure any children were fluent in the languages they spoke. From the time I was born mum spoke to me only in English and papa only spoke French and Dutch to me, so I really am a native speaker in three languages. I don’t get much of a chance to speak Dutch, but I do find many opportunities to speak French. Maybe we could try speaking in French to each other sometimes.”
Just then Philippe arrived with our order. Aiden wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but this wasn’t it–it was miles better. Philippe set down an incredible looking brass tray with two demitasse cups of their chocolate sample, along with small bowls of both white and brown sugar crystals, a bowl of whipped cream, and French sablé cookies, all served on simple but beautiful white porcelain. “Enjoy, gentlemen,” Philippe said as he left.
Jason motioned for Aiden to start. After his first sip (and his eyes had relocated from the back of his head) Aiden shook his head with a smile and said, “That is fantastic. I am no longer doubting you and can understand how you consider this a cure-all. Thank you for bringing me here and for sharing one of your favorite places with me.”
They sat in companionable silence sipping their chocolate and nibbling on the surprisingly light and delicate cookies.
Once they were finished with their sample, Jason spoke. “So Aiden, since I was so right about this place, would you trust me to order a couple more samples for you to try?” Once Aiden nodded yes, Jason asked if there was anything he didn’t eat, couldn’t eat, or hated. Aiden shook his head no and Jason proceeded to order the Mexican and Italian samples. When they arrived, Aiden was very surprised to see the Italian chocolate served with a spoon as it was that thick.
Aiden liked the Italian chocolate that was almost like eating warm chocolate ganache, but he LOVED the Mexican hot chocolate with the infusion of cinnamon, vanilla, chipotle, and cayenne for heat. After they finished their samples, Jason looked at Aiden and nodded to a corner with a pair of overstuffed armchairs, a small side table between them, and they moved over to them.
Without being asked, Philippe brought them glasses of water and then left. Jason looked at him and Aiden was sure questions were coming… and he wasn’t sure he was ready to answer them.
“Would you like to talk about what spooked you so badly at the zoo?” Jason asked gently.
“You don’t really want to hear me talk about things in my past, so why don’t we…”
Jason interrupted and said, “Aiden, it isn’t a matter of do I want to listen to you talk about your past, it is simply that if you decide you wish to talk about it, I will listen. I do think it sounds like it would do you good, though.”
Aiden looked at Jason for a long time, thinking. He finally decided to do something he hadn’t done in years… he decided to try trusting someone again.
Aiden took a deep breath, gathered his courage, and began speaking. “I grew up in a very rural area. The town I grew up in was only 10,000 people, and that was half the population of the entire county. I grew up very sheltered and was a very quiet bookworm. When I visited colleges it was eye-opening and they all seemed so much more interesting, so cosmopolitan. So very different from what I was used to. I am going to just hit the high points, but maybe some day I will tell you the whole story. There was a huge common room in the student center with a grand piano there for anyone to play. One day there was a guy sitting and playing as I sat there behind his back, just enjoying the music. He started playing ‘Scarborough Fair’ and I started singing the lyrics without thinking about it. He struck up a conversation and we exchanged phone numbers. We went on several dates, and it started getting fairly serious. I was a VERY nervous virgin the first time we made love. From then on, though, Reynaud seemed to change… he became controlling and jealous, and started isolating me from my friends. It was so subtle at first I didn’t really realize what was going on–that he was almost completely controlling me. Skip forward to graduation and I decided to come here for my master’s degree, and he flipped out. He realized he was going to lose his obedient little fuck-boy and servant. I was adamant, and he said a lot of things designed to hurt me as much as possible–probably to weaken my resolve so he could convince me to stay. I had hoped to never see him again after that… which is why today was so devastating. I saw him at the zoo, with a new guy on his arm. For a moment I actually thought about trying to find a way to warn the new guy, until I heard them talking. They were looking for a new conquest–together. Apparently the guy on Reynaud’s arm was his long-term lover and had been in on all the torment I was put through. Apparently that is what excited them both the most sexually, the torment of others. Then, as you know, I literally ran from the son of a bitch, right into you.”
All through this, Aiden had that same haunted expression from the zoo on his face, then he looked up at Jason and saw the tears streaming down his face. Aiden was shocked that someone would cry for the things that he had endured.
Aiden looked a little longer and said. “My therapist is going to be very proud of me… this is the first time I have opened up to anyone but her about the self-centered, manipulative, son of a bitch.”
Jason decided to try and help with the somber mood and said,” You know, Aiden, it isn’t good to hold your feelings in… tell me how you really feel about the smarmy bastard.”
Unfortunately Aiden had just taken a sip of water and he ended up spraying it everywhere. Once he recovered he looked at Jason and simply said, “Thank you.”
Aiden and Jason began hanging out together, usually at Chocolat et Café Chez Moi. Aiden had found out that it was open most of the day… breakfast time, brunch on the weekends, lunch, afternoon treats, and a small bar in the evenings that served the most incredible house made cognac and chocolate liqueur. The wonderful thing was the atmosphere never changed from the calm, warm, cozy feeling he experienced that first day.
One day, Aiden screwed up his courage and looked at Jason.
“I’ve got a four day weekend coming up the end of the month and I’m going into the city on the train, leaving Thursday night and returning very early Tuesday morning. I was wondering if you would like to come with me. The only problem is that the cheap hotel room I have reserved only has one bed and I know that you are too tall for the loveseat. Do you think you could swing a hotel room too? The rest of what I had planned shouldn’t be very expensive.” While Aiden had grown to trust Jason, he really wasn’t ready to share a bed, even though it would have been platonically.
Jason looked at him and asked a question he hadn’t expected. “Can you cancel your reservation without any penalties?”
Aiden thought about it, and said, “Yes, I booked it that way just in case I got sick or something. Why?”
“My parents have a 4 bedroom apartment in the city they use when they have to go in for business three or four times a month and they aren’t using it that weekend. What do you think?”
“Sound’s great–I’ll show you what I have come up with to do on the train. It should make the ride pass by a little quicker.”
Thursday rolled around and they met up at the train station and commandeered a couple of seats with a table between them so Aiden could spread his materials out. Jason was impressed with how thoroughly the trip had been planned. It included museums, galleries, some of the city parks, a few of the good delis, and the option to see something on Broadway if they could find cheap tickets. Otherwise it was wandering through different areas of the city and just having fun.
Monday night Aiden looked at Jason and said, “I can’t believe how much fun we had this weekend. While I would have enjoyed it by myself, it was so much better with a friend to share it with. Thank you for coming with me, and for the loan of your paren’t apartment.”
“You’re welcome, and I had a blast too. I’ll have to try and come up with some things to do on our next trip since this one was such fun,” Jason said.
The next morning they were at the train station much, much too early and dozed off and on throughout the trip back. As they gathered their bags for their arrival and double-checked they hadn’t left anything, Josh looked at Aiden after they had gotten down to the platform with a pensive look on his face as he whispered to himself, “I’m so glad you ran into me,” before they glanced back at the train.
