Paris With Dad's Best Friend - Flora Ferrari

Chapter One

Sara

“Sit down for a minute, will you?” Dad says.

That’s how I know it’s not good. Warily, I take a seat in front of him, frowning as he moves to sit beside me. Whatever news he has to tell me, suddenly I have a pit in my stomach telling me that I really don’t want to hear it at all. “What’s going on?” I ask.

“It’s about Larissa and David’s wedding,” he says, raising a hand in objection before I can open my mouth in surprise. “Just wait. I know you’ve been looking forward to it for a long time, but I’m afraid there’s been a change in plans. There’s just no way around it.”

I can feel my heart plummeting down into that pit in my stomach. What Dad says is true – I really have been looking forward to this trip for a long time. Larissa used to live next door to us when I was growing up, and she was just the right age as a teenager to babysit me whenever my Dad went out. We ended up getting really close, especially since Dad has always been a workaholic. When we found out she was getting married – in Paris, of all places – we knew right away that we would be booking our flight to join them.

Now it’s the day before our trip, my suitcases are all packed and ready to go – and there’s been a change in plans. I stare at Dad, utterly speechless. Is he really telling me that we can’t go after all?

Then another thought crosses my mind, that there might be something wrong with Larissa herself. “What’s happened?” I blurt out. “Is Larissa okay?”

“Oh, she’s fine, she’s fine,” Dad waves a hand dismissively. “Or at least, as far as I’ve heard. No, it’s work. I’ve been called into the LA office. I’m going to have to fly out there tonight, and I won’t be back until the end of the week. I’m sorry, darling, I know you were looking forward to going together.”

Now I really am speechless. No, scratch that I can find words. They just aren’t pleasant ones. “Are you serious?” I say, leaping to my feet. “I’m already packed. We’ve been planning this for months. Larissa’s expecting us to be at her wedding. Dad, this was supposed to be my last big trip before college. I can’t believe you’re cancelling it!”

“Sit down,” Dad says wearily. “I’m not cancelling anything.”

I’m so intrigued by his words, and the hope in them that I might still be going, that I actually do as I’m told and sit down. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve organized a chaperone,” Dad says, looking extremely pleased with himself. “I couldn’t have you going out there on your own, and the room and the flights are already booked and paid for. All I had to do was change the name on the bookings, so you’re still going as we planned. It just won’t be with me.”

A chaperone? I frown again as I try to figure out what that means. One of my dowdy old aunts, maybe, who will spend the whole trip cooing over how much I’ve grown since Christmas and trying to give me presents that would be suited to a much younger girl. They don’t quite get the fact that I’m eighteen now. They still think of me as that little girl that they remember from years ago. That won’t be much fun at all.

“Well?” I ask impatiently, seeing that Dad has a smug look on his face and is clearly waiting for me to ask so that he can show off. “Who is it?”

“Mark,” Dad says, with a wide smile. “I called him up this morning, and he’s been able to rearrange his schedule.”

Mark. Okay, well, that is completely unexpected.

This time I really, genuinely, have nothing to say. Mark, Dad’s best friend, someone I’ve seen more times than I can count, who’s always been there while I was growing up. Over the past few years we’ve seen him less and less, as his life has become busier and so has ours. But still, the name alone is enough to send a shiver through me.

Because, after all, I’ve had a crush on Mark since I can remember. Ever since I started to notice boys I knew that he was attractive, and when I was a teen I started to fall hopelessly in love with him. Even though there’s been some distance between us lately, I haven’t left those feelings behind.

“Okay,”