Danielle Steel - Hotel Vendome

“See you tonight,” he promised and waved as she drove away, and he felt as though a piece of him were going with her, the best part, his heart. And there was room in it, he knew now, for both Natalie and his daughter. There was no conflict there. He loved them both, it was just that simple.

He walked around the corner to the front entrance then and said good morning to the doorman, who looked mildly surprised to see him since he hadn’t seen Hugues go out, but he was too busy to think about why that was. And a moment later Hugues strode into his office with a peaceful, happy expression and smiled at his assistant.

“Good morning, Jennifer,” he said, and walked into his private office. She picked up the phone immediately and ordered his usual cappuccino, and she brought it in to him when it arrived five minutes later.

“Did you sleep well?” It was a question she asked him often at the start of their day.

“Actually, I did. I tried out the new suite last night, just to make sure it’s all in order for the senator on Wednesday.”

“How was it?” Jennifer asked with interest.

“Absolutely perfect. You should go up and look at it later.” He knew she hadn’t had time to the day before, after the final installation. “Natalie did a fantastic job. By the way, I want her to start on the three other suites we discussed, right after Christmas. Just wait till Heloise sees this one.” It had a younger feel to it than the previous decor, although the changes were very subtle and in no way shocking. And Jennifer wasn’t surprised by his decision to let Natalie redo the other suites. She had expected that, for a variety of reasons. And just for a flash of an instant, she wondered if he had spent the night in it alone or with the woman who had decorated for him. She almost hoped that was the case but rapidly decided it was none of her business. All she hoped was that he was happy, and he looked it, more than he normally did on a Tuesday morning.

He called Natalie after he checked his messages and drank his coffee. He was sitting at his desk, thinking about her, and decided to call her. She sounded as happy as he was when she answered and saw his number appear on her phone.

“I’m crazy about you, Natalie,” he confirmed to her, and the best part was that loving her was not crazy at all. It made perfect sense to them both.

“Me too. I can’t wait to see you tonight.”

“We can always sneak back upstairs this afternoon if you want to. The senator isn’t arriving till tomorrow.” They both laughed at the suggestion and knew that for now they were safer at her place, until they were ready to share their secret with the world. But he wanted to tell Heloise before he did that. It was a respect he felt he owed her, and Natalie agreed. They had talked about it the night before in the bathtub. Hugues said he was going to tell her about them over Christmas, which sounded right to her too, and not over the phone. She was coming home in four weeks, and they could be discreet for that long. And it was kind of fun keeping their relationship a secret. “By the way, I want you to do the other three big suites. We can talk about it when you have time.”

“Thank you,” she said, smiling. She was happy about doing the other rooms, but she was much more excited about him and everything that had happened the night before.

“See you later.” After that, his day took off. He was busy until nine o’clock that night, and as soon as he could get away, he took a cab downtown to Natalie’s apartment. She was wearing a pretty sweater and jeans, and before he could even open the champagne, they were in bed, exploring everything they had started to learn about each other the night before. They couldn’t get enough of each other. And it was nice to be away from the hotel where they didn’t have to worry about being discovered.

He lay in bed afterward and looked at her with love and wonder. “How did I get lucky enough to finally find you?” he said, and meant it.

“I feel exactly the same way. I feel like I wasted all those stupid years before you came along.” She kissed him, and he smiled at her.

“They weren’t wasted. They were the price we both had to pay to deserve each other. And I don’t care how long it took, or how solitary it was, you were worth the wait, Natalie. I’d have crawled around the world on my knees to find you.” She smiled at the romantic words and put her lips to his again.

“Welcome home, Hugues,” she said softly, and he held her close and knew he was.

THE DAY OF Heloise’s return from Switzerland for Christmas vacation, the whole hotel was buzzing with excitement. The pastry chef baked her favorite chocolate cake for her, Ernesta made sure the maids thoroughly cleaned her room, Jan sent up flowers just the way she liked them, and all the Christmas decorations were set up in the lobby. Hugues was so pleased that she was coming home. He could hardly wait to see her. It had been almost four months, the longest he had ever been away from her in her lifetime. And he went to the airport in the Rolls to meet her.

He and Natalie had talked about it the night before, and she admitted that she was nervous about meeting his daughter. What if Heloise didn’t like her? Hugues said that was absurd, of course she would, although he didn’t want to tell her the night she arrived, but wanted to give her a few days to settle in. So much had happened. He and Natalie had spent every night together for the past four weeks, and they were going to miss each other for the two weeks that Heloise was home. She had three weeks’ vacation, and Hugues had been upset to hear that she was planning to spend the third week skiing in Gstaad with her French boyfriend. His parents had a house there. Hugues had tried to object, and Heloise had brushed him off and said that all her friends were going. But he was grateful for every moment of the two weeks he was going to spend with her. He expected it to be just like old times when she was home. And somewhere in those two weeks, he was going to tell her about Natalie and his plans for them to meet each other.

Her plane arrived from Switzerland half an hour early, but Hugues was already there, and she hugged him so tight he could hardly breathe. She looked different to him, more grown up, suddenly more subtly European, and she had cut her hair a little shorter, which made her look more sophisticated too. Her first big romance with the French boy had somehow altered her. She had left a girl and returned a woman.

She chattered excitedly about hotel school all the way to the city, and an astonishingly large number of the hotel’s employees were waiting for them in the lobby when they arrived. It looked like a family scene, with the Christmas decorations around them. They hugged her and smiled at her, pounded her back and spun her around. Jan was there with an armload of long-stem pink roses for her. Jennifer came out of the office just to hug her. No VIP had ever gotten as warm or lavish a reception from the hotel. Three bellmen rode the elevator upstairs with them to assist with her single bag. And she looked ecstatic when she walked into their apartment and hugged her father again. And he looked every bit as happy as she did.

“Everything looks so wonderful!” she said, as she looked around and saw flowers everywhere, and the rooms were immaculately clean. “And so do you,” she said, beaming at him. He had never looked better to her in her life. “I missed you sooooo much!”

“Don’t even talk to me about that,” he said with an exaggerated, pained expression to cover his feelings. “I felt like part of me was missing, like my liver and my heart and both legs, for four months.” And then he remembered. “And wait till you see nine-twelve. It’s been completely redone.” He had told her it was in progress but wanted to save its completion as a surprise.

“Does it look great?” She seemed excited, and he took the key out of his pocket and grinned at her.

“Come and look. Someone’s checking in tonight, but it’s empty right now.” He took her by the hand, and they ran down the service stairway to the ninth floor, and he let her in. Hugues let Heloise go first, and he heard her literally gasp as she saw what had been done.

“Ohmigod, Papa! It’s fabulous! It’s soooo terrific, and just what we needed. It looks young and happy and elegant, and the new paintings are fantastic. And I like the lamps and the rugs.” She ran from the living room into the bedroom and liked it even more. “The decorator must be amazing. She did a gorgeous job.” He had mentioned Natalie to her in the past four months but had been careful not to do so too much, so he didn’t arouse her suspicions that there was something going on between them. And he had been artful about it, because he saw no hint of a question in her eyes. All she saw was the decor. “I love it, I just love it,” she said as she sat down on the couch and looked around some more. And as he did, she loved all the little touches and accessories Natalie had added, and the things she had brought from other rooms that suddenly looked so much better here.

“And she came in under budget. I just gave her the other three big suites to do. And she’s been tweaking some of the other rooms.”

“She’s very, very good,” Heloise said admiringly. “I’d like to meet her sometime. Is she young? There’s a really nice fresh feeling to what she does, while staying in the whole tone of the hotel,” which was old-world elegance with a new touch.

“She’s young to me. Not to you,” Hugues said, referring to Natalie’s age. “I think she’s thirty-nine.” He knew exactly how old she was but didn’t want to look too sure, or appear to know too much. It would have been the perfect opportunity to tell her he was dating Natalie, and in love with her, but he didn’t want to tell her so soon and risk upsetting her on her first night home. He wasn’t sure. So he didn’t say a word, except about Natalie’s decorating and her age.

“I’ll bet she’s cool,” Heloise volunteered.

“She is,” he said quietly, and then Heloise wanted to go back upstairs. They had room service in their apartment that night, and she told him everything about the school, and François, the boy she was going out with.

“Are you in love with him?” her father asked her nervously, afraid of what he’d hear.

“Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t want to get distracted from school and screw it up. It’s pretty hard. But we’re both applying for internships next summer for our hospitality year. We’re applying to the Ritz, the George V, and the Plaza Athénée.” Hugues looked crestfallen the moment she said it.

“I thought you were going to do your internship year here with me,” he reminded her.

“I can do both,” Heloise said sensibly. “I can do six months in Paris, and the rest with you. That way I’d be home by Christmas next year.” But he had been expecting her return six months earlier, in June. It meant she would be gone for another year, and the last four months had already felt like an eternity to him. But not to her. It was obvious that she was having a ball in Lausanne, with François, the school, and all her new friends there. She said there were going to be ten of them staying at François’s parents’ chalet in Gstaad over New Year’s. They were very successful and owned a hotel in the South of France. So they had that in common and a lot more. It was her first affair, and whether she admitted it or not, her father could see that she was in love.

She went downstairs after that to visit her old friends all over the hotel. She knew all of the night staff, stopped to visit the phone operators and the front desk, and kissed the concierge on duty before she came back upstairs again. Hugues was talking to Natalie when she came in. And once Heloise was in the room, he said good night and hung up.

“Who was that?” Heloise asked with a smile. To her father, she was still a child, whether or not she really was. And it was difficult to explain to a child that he was in love with Natalie. Saying it made him feel uncomfortable and disloyal to her somehow. He knew that that was foolish, but that was how it felt.

“Actually, it was Natalie Peterson, the interior designer who did nine-twelve. I told her how much you love what she did. She says she’d love to meet you. Maybe in a couple of days.”

“Sure.” Although she’d noticed it, Heloise didn’t comment on the fact that he had called her at ten o’clock at night. Heloise assumed they’d probably gotten to be friends while she did the work. “That would be fun,” Heloise said with a smile, and went to their kitchen to help herself to some wine. Her father noticed it and was surprised. That seemed grown-up to him too, although he had always let her drink wine at table if she wanted to, which she rarely did. He hoped she wasn’t drinking to excess with her friends at school. There was so little he could control now, or even influence, from so far away, which was the plight of all parents in his shoes. Once they grew up, they were on their own, with all their good and bad decisions and consequences thereof. All you could do was hope that what they did wasn’t too high risk and the consequences weren’t dire.