Chapter 37

Doris was waiting when their plane arrived and jumped up to kiss Rummy when he came through the gate. He caught her effortlessly and held her by the hips as they embraced. Finally, she slipped down and went to hug Helen.

Helen led the way to her car and they headed down the Autoroute through the stands of vines and fields of vegetables. At Heliopolis, they each took their cases and climbed to Helen's apartment.

Doris asked, "Are we upstairs?"

Helen grimaced. "No, I forgot to reserve it, and anyway, it's been rented. The season's heating up, and space is getting tight. But, I think you can have Sandy's..."

Sandy was letting himself in the door as she spoke. "Yes, they can have Sandy's place if they want it," he said, picking Doris up and kissing her as Rummy had done.

As soon as she could, Doris shed her clothes and joined the others on the still-sunny balcony.

"How about I make dinner?" Doris asked. "Have you got anything in the fridge?" She and Helen went to rummage in the kitchen for dinner fixings. Rummy and Sandy sat back in chairs with glasses of Guinness, chatting about progress of the whole affair.

Well before it was dark, they had each put on enough clothes to resist the evening coolness, and sat after dinner, talking until Rummy and Doris left for their quarters above the store.

On Friday morning, they ate breakfast at Chez August and Helen accepted Sandy's invitation to visit his 'store', as he always called it. He wanted to show Rummy the layout and, Helen assumed, brag a little. Astrid was there, in her office uniform of bikini and bra, and welcomed them with her usual élan. The men, including Jean, went out to tour the compound and discuss technical details.

"Astrid," Helen said, "you know those videos you told me about?"

"Yes, Helen?" Astrid's eyebrows went up in question.

"I got Sandy to show them to me, and we discovered there were videos of Sandy and me as well."

Astrid performed her full-body blush. Doris muttered, "Wow."

"Oh, dear," Astrid said, "I'm sorry; I thought I'd hidden them."

"You had, but we found them anyway."

Astrid reached out her hand to Helen, "It wasn't revenge, you know, they were taken automatically. And, hiding them was only turnabout. But there are only two or three of them."

"Of course. And I'm not angry, Astrid," Helen said. "I only wanted to ask if you'd made DVDs of them too?"

"Oh, yes." Astrid smiled broadly. "Jean finds them quite inspiring. So do I."

"Then you have to make copies for me."

"For both of us," Doris put in.

"I'll be glad to. It's too bad there are so few videos of you, Helen. You and Sandy seem to always be at your apartment."

Doris grabbed Helen's shoulder, turning her. "That makes me think, Helen. Why hasn't Sandy moved in with you?"

"I haven't asked him to," she replied as Astrid tried very hard to become a fly on the wall.

"For god's sake, why not? You're as close as Rummy and me. I know you love him; anyway, Rummy's told me you said so, and I can see it."

Helen thought about it briefly. "I just haven't gotten there, yet, Doris." She looked at her friend. "Sometimes I think it would be a good idea; then I pull back."

"Scared?"

"Aren't we all? I mean when you do that, when you let a man into your home, it can be hard to change your mind."

"You sound like Henry Higgins: 'Let a woman in my life?'. But, you know, there's another side to it."

"What's that?"

Astrid spoke up, "I know what that is. Living with your family, or living alone."

Helen looked at both the women. "Yes, I suppose that is it. Or something very like it." She went to the big window that overlooked the yard where the men appeared to be vigorously discussing something of earthshaking importance — probably football. "I've almost gotten used to being lonely. Almost. I might need to give that up."

"It's up to you. Just don't miss your chance. Anyway, half his clothes are there already," Doris said. She went on, "Now that we've got the important things — the videos — settled, tell me about your meeting with the foundation in Orange."

Helen told them about her meeting, and about a conversation she had had since then. "I heard from a contact in Montpellier that there's a possibility of a subsidy for such a facility on a location here in Herault. I know they're hot for Orange or Provençe, but I pointed out that Montpellier and Beziers are on the TGV and there's even an airport at Vias that's bigger than anything near Orange, I think. Anyway, the airport at Montpellier is pretty big, too. I'm hoping they'll find that helpful, though really, all I want to do right now is win the competition. I don't really care where they build it."

Jean, Sandy and Rummy came clattering back into the room, having solved whatever problem had occupied them. Jean went around behind the counter and leaned against the wall next to Astrid, their arms touching. She looked fondly at him.

Helen watched the two of them for a long moment; then, raised her voice. "All right, we need to get back and collect Johannes. He'll be here any minute."

The four of them walked quickly back to the gatehouse just in time to find Johannes's car pulling into the outside parking lot. They ran over and climbed in, passing him through the gate and to a space near Helen's apartment.

As they got out of the car, Helen handed her key to Doris. "Please, all of you. Go upstairs and get comfortable. I need to talk with Sandy a moment; we'll be along in a few minutes."

As the others went off, Sandy turned to Helen with a question in his eyes. She turned, took his hand, and led him to a bench at the side of the marina.

"Sandy..." She hesitated; then plowed ahead. "Sandy, do you want to live with me? Move in with me?"

"Yes, of course. But, are you ready for that? What brought this on?"

"I don't really know if I'm ready. But, something Doris — and Astrid — said just now made me think. I don't want to take the chance of losing you for not trying. But, I don't really know if I'm ready."

"Do you want to try it for a while? One day at a time sort of thing?"

Helen sort of smiled. "I guess I am a recovering loner, Sandy. Can we do that? No questions asked?"

"Fine." He reached over and gently touched her cheek.