Antoine heard his mother's call to him, her sing-song voice echoing in the hallway below.
'You will ring your uncle and tell him that you'll take the holiday job, won't you?'
'I have done that already!' he replied. going to the top of the stairs and meeting her look as she gazed up at him. His choice of career, in accountancy, would see him start a new full-time job in Bordeaux in two months, and after the insanely long summer holidays all workers took in France. He would be joining their ranks soon but for the next few weeks he had time to himself and would gain some experience.
'Good,' she smiled up at him. 'You've done so well and made your father and I very proud of you.' Elise smiled at her firstborn, a handsome young man who was studious and who could count his friends on the fingers of one hand. He had yet to become involved with any girl on a steady basis and she had often fretted about his easy-going ways with them. He must have broken a few hearts by ending a relationship far too quickly, but he never spoke of what played out in that part of his life.
His uncle, Louis Durand, her brother, was an opinionated but clever man and far too quick with his biting wit or use of his critical voice. He would either be of help to Antoine or push him back into his shell. Worldliness was not yet a part of her son's character set, even at twenty-four years of age. He took too much on trust.
At least there would be a counterpoint to Louis' ways. His wife, Margaux, was a homelier and kindly sort and she had said goodbye to her son and daughter. They now worked here, in Paris. For her to have a young man in the house would soften the blow of not having one of her offspring working in their father's wine business. She'd not heard the precise reason for Antoine choosing to go to Bordeaux for his first step in a chosen career, but she would learn of it in time, no doubt.
'Well, I'll see you later!' Elise called out.
'That's fine, mother. I'm meeting up with some people from Uni for lunch Then I'm buying some clothes for my work. Uncle Louis said that I'd get variety, but it also means attending to chores at their place...to 'offset' the cost of me living there!'
He wondered what would be left over from the pittance that he would be paid.
'Trust him!' Elise called back on a flare of anger, as she came into view once more. 'You're not earning so much that you could afford to pay board and lodging as well!'
'Don't fret, mother. I know Uncle Louis from the last time I was there.' He would say nothing of how Margaux had mediated between him and Louis two years ago. Nor would he disclose the bond that had developed between them. It might even become stronger now that his older cousins were no longer about and they had more time together. He had kept a picture of Margaux on his iPhone as a vivid reminder of the woman and her captivating ways and smile, her face framed by a mop of frizzy blonde hair that made her look younger.
How crazy to think that he kept looking for her in the girlfriends that he'd had as if she was an ideal that others had to be judged by. He would soon know if his image of her would again match the reality.
♥
Margaux met him at the station; her nervy, wondering look soon dispelled by the kisses to her cheeks that Antoine offered; the clutch of her hands to his shirt letting him know what it meant to have him by her side once more.
'It's been so long since I saw that look in your eyes upon me, ' she smiled, her lips trembling as she gazed at him. The young man before her could never, quite, keep his interest in her from being seen in his eyes.
'The last six months have been agony for me too, but I had to make it through the exams. I called to hear your voice, and to let you know where my thoughts were.'
'It's not the same...'
They rushed to the city centre car park and fell upon each other and exchanged fiery and deepening kisses when they reached the seclusion of her car. They had thought to end it but the drug had become too strong to give up.
'I stayed true to you, thought only of you,' he kissed, her scent intoxicating and the press of her lips to his mouth like a drug that would enslave him all over again.
'I would have understood if you hadn't done that. It was crazy and wonderful what we found together..' She looked across the space between them as she started the car. 'I had to do what your uncle asked of me, darling, and remain the dutiful wife through everything.' She leaned across the space between them to kiss him again and felt Antoine's hand stroke the soft skin on the inside of her thigh before it moved to press soft flesh under her summer dress. 'Don't...not yet. You know what happens when you do that to me.'
Antoine nodded and chose not to speak as she manoeuvred the car out of the parking garage and began to drive assuredly through the city's traffic. He had sat back as Margaux negotiated every twist in the ramp leading down to the car park's exit.
'I'm with you again,' Antoine smiled and he took to remembering how it had begun between them.
♥
During that summer, two years ago, he had been invited along with his parents to spend a few days in the home of Louis and Margaux. That stay turned from a few days into weeks. He worked as an odd-job guy, sweeping out the buildings where the wine presses were housed and any other work that Louis, or the foreman, instructed him to attend to. The pay was lousy, but it all helped, and what was there to spend it on anyway?
Itinerant workers were company and they'd hang out at the end of the day and play games. Most of them were hooked up and into each other. There was no one spare for him to take up with.
The hard physical work toned him; shaped and firmed his body, and he wasn't cooped up all day in some office looking out of the window and wondering what was going on in the world outside.
Aunt Margaux wasn't seen about much during the day as she had her work in the vineyard's office. She was a buyer of the bottles and corks, along with arranging the printing of labels and stock taking. There were occasions when he would see her in the garden, the sun in her blonde hair. She would be seen wearing a pair of shorts that flattered her slender legs, a cotton cami-top revealing the firmness of pert breasts and toned, tanned, arms. On other occasions, he would glimpse her by the swimming pool as he tended to the grass cutting; but as the summer days grew longer, and hotter, the need for that lessened.
The sight of her, at times, made him regret that there were no girls, or young women, amongst the group of workers to distract him from aberrant thoughts...of him going with her, all thoughts of Margaux being his aunt dispelled by the sight of a vibrant woman in her bikini, sunning herself by the pool. It was a sight that aroused in him and he often felt the gnaw of longing for her, the press of his hardening prick in his shorts.
At supper, they would talk of inconsequential things and Louis would direct proceedings, even when guests were around or came to stay. Then, her attention would be diverted away from him and she would offer soft words of apology that they had no time to themselves to talk or work together, a concern that he had not heard Margaux express before.
To wake in the course of the night, and to find that he had been dreaming of her had its destructive effects upon him until Louis announced that he had been called away to some EU event or other, that he was to attend a conference that meant he would be gone for two, maybe three days.
He exulted at the news and could not believe what he was hearing when Louis said that he would rely on him to help Margaux in every way necessary, in administrative tasks, while he was gone.
'Really?' he had blurted out. 'Are you sure?'
