Julie was sitting outside at a café in Paris. She had a cappuccino and a bagel while she enjoyed the warm weather and the chatter of the people around her. Since she lives in Paris this small café just two minutes away from her apartment has become one of her favorite spots to have breakfast.
Julie often comes here to prepare her classes as a private English teacher. She was born in a small town near London and studied English literature. For five years now she lives in different countries, learns the languages and the culture of those places while she gives English lessons to other people.
She manly lived in Spain and Italy. She probably spent in each country around two years because she really enjoys the culture and how relaxed and outgoing the people there are. In between she traveled to other countries around the world. Three years ago, she traveled for six month through South America and just recently she lived in Tokyo for some time. She also made small vacations in many other countries like Australia, South Korea and Israel.
Julie was happy that she could see so much of the world at such a young age. It was always her dream to travel around the world since she was little.
A month ago, she decided that it was time for a new destination and she choose France. What can she say. She just has a thing for the Mediterranean countries and she was interested in learning the French language.
When she arrived, she applied for French classes and also looked for people who were interested in learning English. That is what she always did when she came to another country. She needed to make some money after all.
Julie managed to get a tiny apartment in the center of Paris and living here was so far like a dream.
She had also made some friends in her French classes and she befriended her next-door neighbor Pierre who was a great help to her when she just arrived in Paris. He also introduced her to his three best friends and they immediately welcomed her warmly into their close cycle. She was fast forming a friendship with the two girls of the group Camille and Jade and they would often go out together.
Over the years living on her own she did become pretty good at connecting with new people. She remembers how shy she was in school. Back then she would have never thought that one day she would be this social.
Julie enjoys living her independent life and if it was up to her, it could go on like this forever. Since she was young, she always knew that she will live her life like that. Working in an office for some company was never an option for her. She wanted to be free and be her own boss. This way she can go wherever she wants and do however she feels like without being tied to anything.
Julie was working for half an hour on the content of today's class. When she was satisfied, she exhaled loudly and closed her laptop. Just when she wanted to leave a guy caught her attention. Actually, there were two guys but one of them stared at her intently and Julie couldn't look away.
Usually, she would avoid those kinds of situation where she makes eye contact with a guy because it could be seen as flirting or being interested.
Currently she wasn't interested in dating or a relationship at all.
She had tried to go on dates in the past but she always felt kind of pressured because the guys wanted too much, too fast and she just wasn't that much into them.
Beside that she wasn't really into hook-ups and she could only imagine a relationship with someone she was deeply in love with. Sadly, that never happened before.
As a teenage girl she was hopeful that she would soon meet someone she likes. When this didn't happen, she thought being a university student would be the perfect time to get a boyfriend. But this also just remained wishful thinking. She traveled the world and had countless dates but never did any guy make her heart beat faster.
Over the years she kind of lost hope and thought that she would never like anyone. Now she is 26 years old and still single. But nonetheless she couldn't complain she had a great life. She just decided to not force anything and focus on herself.
'Why is this guy looking at me like this?', she thought. Just in that moment the man started to walk towards her. 'Oh my god, he is coming here. I made to much eye contact damn it'. When he was right in front of her Julie breath hitched and she was still starring at his dark brown eyes. This guy had the most mesmerizing eyes she has ever seen and she couldn't make herself look away from them.
Only his voice took her out of this trance.
...
Gianni was walking through the streets of Paris on his mission to get some food before going back to the hotel to get his long-awaited sleep. He was up the whole night going from club to club with his best friend Matteo.
And it was actually Matteo's idea to go on a short trip to Paris. They came here from Italy for a three-day trip to have fun in Paris' night life. But it was hard for Gianni to keep up with Matteo since this guy has such an abundance of energy. Gianni stayed the entire night with his friend who was drinking and dancing like their was no tomorrow.
Gianni is a pretty outgoing guy but last night he thought going with Matteo on trips like this more often might literally kill him. 'It's insane how this guy is almost 30 but still has the energy of a 17-year-old,' he thought.
Matteo didn't stop at all until they threw them out of the club at 6 in the morning. After that they went for a few drinks with some girls they met.
They girls even asked them if they wanted to go with them to their hotel room. Matteo was willing but since Gianni didn't like the idea of hooking up with some random girl he just met, Matteo stayed behind in solidarity.
After all Matteo was here with the purpose to distract Gianni from a heartbreak. His girlfriend of three years left him two months ago for another guy and since then Gianni was not the same anymore. The pain of just being left like that without any kind of warning was just to much for him to handle and now he spends most of his time feeling sorry for himself.
Matteo couldn't bear to see his friend like this anymore so the plan was to come to France for the week they both were free from work and distract Gianni at least for a few days. He planned a trip to Paris and later that week they wanted to go to the Cote d'Azur. He was hopeful that it would take Gianni's mind off for a while if he surrounds him with parties and beautiful women.
But Gianni is totally different from Matteo. He can not just hook up with a girl to forget about Sabrina his ex-girlfriend. It would just be a solution for one night anyway and as soon as it would be over it would probably make him feel even worse.
Luckily tomorrow they would leave Paris and Gianni was looking forward laying on the beach at the Cote d'Azur. He wanted to relax and going with Matteo from club to club was actually more stressful than fun.
Gianni and Matteo found a nice café they sat down outside an ordered croissants with chocolate and cream. They refused the coffee the waitress offered them since after that they planned to go back to their hotel room to get some well deserved sleep.
Matteo was looking for a bathroom when Gianni felt bored and looked at the people around him. The café was crowded but a girl with honey-blond hair who was doing something on her laptop caught his attention. He was looking at her side profile and he noticed her beautiful upturned nose, full lips and shining complexion. He knew it was inappropriate to stare that long but he couldn't bring himself to look away.
When Matteo came back from the bathroom, he was still stealing glances at her. He couldn't help it. Her concentrated gaze on her laptop and her appearance were just too captivating to look anywhere else.
Matteo was following Gianni's eyes until he saw what his friend was looking at or better who he was looking at. "Did a girl get your attention after all. Maybe it was not such a bad idea to come here," he said with a smug smile.
"I never said it was a bad idea," Gianni replied.
"But you didn't think you would meet a girl here. Why don't you talk to here. Nothing is gonna happen, if you just sit here and stare."
Gianni rolled his eyes annoyed. "What am I supposed to say. Besides I still smell of alcohol. She's gonna think I'm some idiot."
"Stop complicating things and just talk to her. She is looking our way. That is your chance." Matteo nudged Gianni's shoulder slightly.
When Gianni looked back and his eyes locked on the dark-blue eyes of that girl his heart skipped a beat. He never felt like this before just by looking at someone and his feet moved on his own and led him to the girl who was sitting alone in a café in Paris.
Matteo smiled triumphantly when he saw his friend standing up. He already thought he had to play the wing man like he used to when they were younger.
When Gianni was standing in front of her, he noticed that he didn't think about what he could say. She stared at him expectantly and he started to panic. 'Come on Gianni. Don't screw this up! Think of something to say! THINK!'.