I slowly drifted into reality from a dream that was already fragmenting. It was more like a nightmare from the pieces I could remember: I was being chased by many people. Flashes of gunfire erupted behind me every time I looked back to see if they were gaining on me. There was a low rumble but it was delayed several seconds from the flashes so gunfire seemed like the wrong description. I knew I could outrun them but then a moped pulled up to my right and paralleled me. There were two forms on it. One was driving and the other was aiming something at me. I remembered thinking, 'Fuck, I'm toast." Several flashes blinded me and I had to slow down. The moped slowed too and the foot-chasers behind me closed the gap. In a panic, I sped up again but the moped stayed right there. More flashes erupted, followed by crashes but I wasn't looking. I turned left down an alley. The moped was caught off guard and it flew on straight past the alley. I was alone and I slowed my pace. Way up ahead at the end of the alley, Alexis was waving for me to come. She was yelling, "Hurry. You have to see this." There was total blackness behind her so I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to see. She yelled, "Hurry," again and grabbed my arm.
I was completely awake now but a little confused. Alexis was standing on the floor on my side of the bed. Her hand was gripping my arm pulling at me. "What? What's wrong?" I mumbled.
"Nothing's wrong. You have to see this. It's incredible." A bright flash lit up the bedroom like a flare and was gone an instant later. Seconds later was a sudden crack and a rumbling. I recognized the sensory inputs immediately as a thunder-storm. Alexis and I both loved thunder-storms and I was instantly on the move toward the open balcony doors with Alexis still holding my arm. It was raining lightly but we went right to the filigreed railing to watch an amazing display of continuous cloud to cloud lightning with occasional bolts down to the harbor which were followed seconds later by the same crash and rumble from my dream.
Alexis looked from the sky to me and grinned broadly. "It's beautiful isn't it?" she said. I vigorously nodded and then bent to kiss her. She cuddled in close to me and I draped an arm around her shoulders. We were both wet from the light rain but it was a warm rain and we stayed right there for a half-hour until there were long pauses between flashes and the rumbling was barely loud enough to hear.
The morning woody that was present when I bounded from the bed was gone now. We carefully made our way across the marble floors to the bathroom. Our wet feet made for slippery going. Until the hot water in the shower hit us we hadn't even realized that we were chilled from the rain. After a few minutes of passionate embrace we assumed our shower-sex position on the marble floor and rocked ourselves to mutual orgasms. Then we washed and rinsed the other along with some playful teasing of the other's sex. Alexis wiped the fogged mirror enough so she could assess the damage to her hair. I playfully stood behind her and vigorously ran my fingers through her curls. She didn't resist and when I was done she said, "Well, that didn't help any," and then giggled as she tried to push her hair into place with her fingers.
"Don't worry Babe. We are scheduled for a couple's massage at eight. Get your hair done after. I have a jet waiting to take us to our next destination." I knew she was waiting for me to tell her what the destination was but I immediately started brushing my teeth. I watched her reaction in the fog streaked mirror.
She just stared back at my reflection and as I finished, she said, "Well, are you going to tell me where?"
I took a sip of water off the faucet and spit it in the sink. She was glaring at my reflection when I lifted my head. I grinned at her and said, "It's a surprise."
She placed her hands on her hips and said, "At least give me a hint."
I thought for a moment and then said, "Summer Lovers."
She cocked her head at me and said, "That's the clue? How about another clue?"
"After we get on the jet." I bent down and kissed her on the lips. She half-heartedly kissed me back. She was concentrating on the clue.
We dressed and went out in search of breakfast. It was early but the sun was out after the rain cleared out. The cobblestone sidewalks and roadways were still wet but they would be dry in no time. We walked hand in hand around the Park at the Casino Square to the Café du Paris.
After a light breakfast we sat and drank a second cup of coffee. It was delicious. I asked the waiter what kind of coffee beans they used and he wrote it down for me. We wandered down the nearly vacant sidewalks to Le Metropole Shopping Center. The individual stores weren't open yet so we window shopped at Gucci, Hugo Boss, Armani and all the other high end stores I'd ever heard of and many more I'd never heard of. The mall was easily the most grandiose architecture I'd ever seen. We wandered for an hour and thank God, we didn't get to go in a single store. We headed back to our Hotel for our appointment at the Hotel Spa.
