“And I’ve been driving you crazy too, getting poisoned by a doorknob,” she said wth a laugh. She had gotten over the shock and felt fine again. She had read up on the Novichok nerve agents, and related poisons, while she was in the hospital. “Do you know that one of the guys who invented them actually poisoned himself by mistake and died from it? It took five years for it to kill him, but it did. That stuff is nothing to mess around with. The first thing it did was confuse me so much I couldn’t think straight.”

Mike kissed her neck and then held her. “That’s what happens to me when I’m anywhere near you. I can’t think straight,” he said, and she laughed.

“You’re just a sex addict,” she teased him, and he looked at her.

“Is that a compliment or a complaint?” he asked her.

“A compliment of course. You’ve turned me into one too.”

“That’s the best news of all. And you’ve made my life more glamorous. I spend my weekends in Paris now. Me, a poor boy from Boston.” But he wasn’t that anymore, and he was way more sophisticated than that. Enough so to fit perfectly into her life. He had his own field of expertise. “Theo, do you ever think of moving your business back to the States?” He had been thinking about that a lot lately, about how they could be together more, and even live in the same city.

“Never,” she said simply. “This works. I have access to great talent for my business. People with terrific experience. I love living here. This really works well for me, and for the business. And I have Matthieu’s business to take care of now too, even though I don’t work on it full time. If I moved Theo.com to New York, I’d be on a plane every five minutes to deal with his business. It’s hard enough having both offices in two separate locations in the same city, let alone three thousand miles apart.”

“I didn’t think of that,” he said, obviously disappointed. But so far, in a short time, long distance was working for them, although they both knew it might not forever. Theo didn’t want to think about that now. This was only the beginning of something very beautiful, for both of them.

After they left her office, she took him to Berthillon to buy ice cream, and he agreed that it was the best ice cream he’d ever eaten. She liked walking down the street with him and feeling like a couple.

They had dinner at home that night, and on Saturday they made a reservation at an Italian restaurant she knew he’d like that served homemade pasta and delicious food prepared by the grandmother in the kitchen. It had a family atmosphere. And she was right, he loved it.