Hotel Vendome

He asked her to redecorate a lovely small suite of rooms on the fifth floor for his daughter. He knew it would be a shock to Heloise to be moved out of his apartment, but she needed that too. And he needed a place to be with Natalie. He was paving the way for the life he wanted to share with her, and Natalie realized immediately that that was what he was doing. Things were different this time, in a good way. She felt loved and respected.

“How do you think she’ll feel about it?”

“Upset, scared, angry, happy maybe. All the things people feel when they’re growing up.” He asked Natalie to make the rooms beautiful, as only she could, and to spare no expense. He wanted it to be a surprise for Heloise when she came home, so Natalie had two months to do it. It wasn’t a lot of time, but he knew how capable she was.

She got started immediately, and by Thanksgiving it was almost ready. She promised him the suite would be finished in two more weeks. It was young and stylish and very chic and just the right place for a young woman who had lived in Paris for six months. Hugues had decided not to disturb her old room for the moment, and he would let her move into her new apartment when she felt ready, which seemed wise to Natalie too.

She put the last touches on it three days before Heloise was due home. He wasn’t sure what kind of shape she’d be in when she got there. She had called him in tears two weeks before; she and Francois had broken up. She said they had been fighting for months, and he was angry that she was leaving, and she had discovered that he was cheating on her with another intern at the hotel. It was over, and she was staying with a friend. She was leaving her IKEA furniture in the apartment, and she was upset about the break-up. Hugues was sorry for her, but in some ways he was relieved. It was a tie she no longer had to keep her there.

And he had been working on a homecoming party for her in the ballroom. Jennifer was organizing most of it, and Sally the catering manager was doing the rest. They were having the party the day after she got home. And she was planning to go skiing with friends the day after Christmas. She was going to start working for him officially after New Year’s. She wanted to have some fun first. She had worked hard at the George V.

Everyone in the hotel was busy before she arrived. Her new apartment was ready. The party for her was all planned. The hotel was full. Natalie was incredibly busy, and Hugues was fielding the usual problems. A drunken guest had fallen down a small flight of stairs and was threatening to sue them. There had been some food theft in the kitchen, and they had to fire three key employees at a busy time of year. And in spite of how busy they were, Hugues and Natalie were happy and peaceful. She was nervous about Heloise’s return, but she had the sense now that Hugues was going to handle it in the best way possible for all of them. She had waited a long time for this, and she trusted him now to finally do it. They’d been happy again since September, after their agonizing summer. And Jennifer was happy to see them back together. Hugues was a different man, and a better one, once Natalie came back. And a lot nicer to deal with than he had been all summer. He was himself again, only better. And Natalie was totally at home in the hotel and stayed in his apartment on most nights.

When Hugues picked Heloise up at the airport, he took the hotel’s van with him for her bags. She had been gone for sixteen months, and it looked more like sixteen years when he saw how much she had brought home with her. She had eight suitcases and several boxes, full of things she had bought at the flea market in Paris. And she threw herself into his arms the moment she saw him. She looked very sophisticated in a black Balenciaga coat she had bought just before she left, with his permission, and high-heeled boots, and her long red hair was tucked into a knitted cap. She looked very stylish, and she chatted animatedly all the way to the hotel. She didn’t mention Francois, and her father could see that she felt better. She’d obviously been ready to give that up, and they had talked anyway about breaking up when she left. But he had chosen an unpleasant way to do it.