Chicken Skin – Chapter III

At last, Antoine hung up. Christine had waited patiently, sunk into the armchair that she hadn’t left. Antoine’s phone conversation had seemed to her to last forever. She had waited though, simply, reassured by the authority Antoine put in asking her to stay. She had thought he had something important to tell her, and the circumstances reasonably allow her to think that it was more about a further commitment into their relation than anything else. By the by she wasn’t wrong.

Antoine came and sat himself down again into the armchair he had occupied before he took his place behind his desk, to read carefully the mail the secretary had brought to him.

He had never asked Christine any question about her life outside of their relation. However that day, he asked her if she had a boyfriend. As she didn’t want to lie to him, Christine answered positively. Antoine received her reply stoically. Christine was gazing at his face and she couldn’t determine if that news pleased him, or on the contrary, upset him.

Antoine went on and underlined they hadn’t yet been alone in a place where they surely wouldn’t be disturbed.

Christine dived into the gap he had just opened. Antoine’s words seemed to allow projects that she secretly, although timidly, dreamed to become reality.

Antoine finally asked Christine if she would accept one evening to have supper with him in a restaurant and to spend the night at a hotel.

Christine, who didn’t want Antoine to become aware of the deep joy his proposal made her feel, even answered a bit coldly.

She indisputably accepted his offer. She was wondering what he was going to profess to his wife.

Just as if Antoine had perceived her inner questioning, he added that he would tell at home that a business travel was taking him away for two days, and thus they would have at their disposal a whole night together.

They just agreed they would meet in a Parisian restaurant, the following Thursday evening.

Antoine let Christine get back to her study where she spent the rest of the day, without taking into account the short break she made to have lunch, working on the complicated case of a new product Antoine was planning to launch. She was feeling more light-hearted than ever that day.

As Christine was living alone, this short trip would be easy to organize for her. She would tell her friend Benjamin that she was going to stay, in Rouen, at her parents’ for a few days, just before taking the last oral that was scheduled the Monday of the following week.

That was Tuesday, she had that appointment with Antoine on Thursday evening. It was a real romantic appointment this time, not one of those furtive coitus practiced on your feet in a doorway, one of those clandestine “get closer together” taken in the excitation provoked by the fear of being discovered.

Actually Christine was far more ill at ease because of the situation than Antoine. She was fervently wishing that the situation would move on to a real steady relationship, going through, as it was necessary, a more acceptable modus vivendi.

She was aware that a man like Antoine, who needed a personal balance, was not going to change point blank his lifestyle and leave his wife and their son for her.

She thought she would be able to gently take him to that point though and Antoine’s invitation was his first real step in that direction.