When Neela and her pals weren't lounging on balconies sipping bubbly and catching a breeze, it was more than likely they were busy trying to earn living.

It was hard to imagine the 'workaday life' in a city as romanticized as Paris, but outside of guidebooks, stationary and throw pillows, it was all about earnin' those euros.

For Tiff, she had worked her way up from thinking about euros to thinking about her next big designer footwear purchase, or that next weekend trip to a sunny destination.

For the moment, she was leading a horde of business chic minions from the stately boardroom of the company where she worked; she was also spouting off instructions in rapid-fire French, her American accent neatly camouflaged.

The minions gobbled up her cold instructions, and without any room for clarifying questions, she left them in the dust of her patent-leather Louboutins.

She turned a corner of offices that got progressively smaller, each step leading her further away from natural light. She wound up in an open concept bullpen, where design and development geeks made a living.

One of these minions was no minion at all, with his volumized hair and fashionable scarf adding glitz and glamour to an otherwise humdrum setting. It was, and could only be, Dante.

Tiff approached him and watched as he put the finishing touches on the design for a women's hair dye package.

"Nice," Tiff said nodding.

"Bottle blonde has never been classier," he replied, his eyes still focused and in full concentration.

"Ready for lunch?" she said casually.

He abandoned his focus and jumped out of his chair. "God yes!"

***

Sunlight poured into the Jardin Du Palais Royal, a small rectangular park enclosed by the walls of the palace. The tree-lined perimeter surrounded a weathered fountain, where Natalie Portman had once splashed around for a lucrative fragrance campaign.

There were no fountain-divers today, just groups of co-workers who'd arranged their chairs in exclusive circles of gossip.

Tiff and Dante sat among them, shaded by a leafy tree.

"Just try to be supportive when she comes," Dante said, as he prepared to dig into his baguette sandwich.

Tiff plastered on a smile. "When am I not supportive?"

Dante snorted and was about to say more but he stopped himself when he noticed Neela jogging up to them.

"You didn't save me seat?" she said frowning.

"You're late," Tiff stated.

"Seven minutes!"

Dante took a moment to size her up; worn T-shirt and jeans, a dusty pair of Keds. "Why are you even late at all? You even don't have a real boss, your job isn't even real...should I go on?"

Neela gasped. "The gig economy is very real!"

"Good thing you're marrying rich," he muttered before taking a big bite of his sandwich.

"Ha ha," Neela said quietly as she unwrapped her chocolate croissant.

"You're having a croissant for lunch?" Tiff said, as she pulled out a salad featuring dark leafy greens.

Neela shrugged. "My day started late." She inhaled the first bite and sighed happily. "Any promising updates on the search?"

Dante shook his head. "It didn't go viral."

"Really?" Neela was somehow surprised. "Did you post it during a high traffic time?"

He smirked. "Are you just making up metrics out of your ass? I told you it would be hard if we used a new anonymous account, and we didn't really have an option since you're already engaged and don't exactly wanna be broadcasting a search for a man. New accounts lack the follower base we need, I told you that!"

"Right..." Tiff mused. "Because that's the issue." She methodically stabbed individual ingredients to form the next bite of her salad.

"I even posted the composite sketch on Insta," he said. "But still no traction."

"I didn't see that post," Tiff said.

"It's on our finsta that we use for creeping," he explained, and she nodded in understanding. "We have some more followers there, but weirdly not a single response came through..."

Tiff rolled her eyes. "It's definitely a shocker that your drawing of a mutated frog man didn't get any results!"

"How dare you," he said coldly.

The two of them laughed as Neela watched her ridiculous quest unravel before her eyes. "It was dumb wasn't it..." Neela said. "It was a dumb idea."

"It doesn't matter what it was," Tiff said. "The important thing is, you're doing the smart thing now by letting it go."

"You are?" Dante said. He turned to Tiff. "She is?"

Tiff held up her hands. "I mean the numbers are the numbers..."

"I know," he admitted, "but it's only been a few days; give it time!"

Neela narrowed her eyes. "Are you just saying that because you're enjoying watching me go on this embarrassing wild goose chase?"

"If that's all it was," he started, "then yes, I would want you to continue for my personal enjoyment." Tiff elbowed him. "But...that's not all it is. I'm a big believer in making sure people end up with the right people. Or person." He looked off in some sort of reminiscence. "I mean...what else is there?"

Neela emotionally binge-ate the rest of her chocolate croissant within seconds. "Mmhmm." She swallowed hard. "Yup. That's all I ever believed from the beginning, because the opposite was all I didn't want. Like I grew up in an arranged marriage house, a house that was completely devoid of affection. I didn't even know what real affection was until I read about it in books or saw it in movies. Which turned the whole experience of growing up into this massively uncomfortable paradox."

"I can kind of understand that," Tiff acknowledged, in a tone that was gentler than usual, completely earnest in fact.

"As soon as I got out of that house," Neela said, "all that mattered was finding love." She lifted her shoulders in determination. "The finding it, the experiencing it, the feeling it every day...all to make sure I didn't end up in a bickering house like the one I grew up in. But where did I end up?" She shook her head. "An apartment in Paris where bickering happens pretty damn often."

"But there's nothing wrong with that," Tiff countered. "Bickering and being annoyed will be a part of every relationship you ever have. Anything more is just hoping for a fantasy."

"But that's my point!" Neela exclaimed. "Everything I thought I was running away from...it wasn't even that crazy. Running a household, raising kids, arguing from time to time. Maybe that's just life. And it's not like Luc is an arranged marriage offer. We have a real relationship, one that includes affection and even romance when it's good; so who am I to complain? Or to go around searching for a stranger? This is dumb!"

"Then it's settled," Tiff declared.

"It absolutely is not," Dante said. "Neela, I know you, and you are someone who believes that the entire point of being alive is to feel the maximum love that you could possibly be capable of feeling. So what is all this bullshit about accepting whatever you have?" He crossed his arms in defiance. "Huh?"

"Not everyone gets to feel that," Tiff said, her quiet voice recalling an uninvited memory.

Neela nodded. "It's true. And most people don't even realize they don't get to feel that. And they're fine; they're happy! They have all they need! I would love to be that person..."

"But you're not person," Dante said. "And so, I officially think you should wait a little longer to see what destiny has in store. Whether it's in the form of a Twitter DM from Antonio, or a public sighting based on the composite sketch..." he ignored Tiff's snort, "...what's the harm in waiting to see what unfolds? It's not like you're getting married tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" Neela's eyes went wide. "As if! I haven't even told my parents..."

Dante slapped her on the back. "See? We've got plenty of time."

Neela let out a breath, and with it she released a big pile of stress. "Okay. Yeah, that sounds good." She smiled. "Now please, tell me something else. Tell me what's new with you guys, because I don't wanna be that insufferable friend who always thinks it's all about her."

"Too late," Dante said with a smirk. Neela kicked him in the shin. "Ow! Okay; I've got something." He leaned in. "Tiff saw Xavier again last night..."

Tiff frowned. "Hey, that's my news. You can't just take my news."

Neela grinned. "Who cares whose it is, it's news! And it's great! So are you guys officially a thing now?"

Tiff shook her head. "Nope."

"Why not?"

She sighed. "Okay; here's what happened..."

Tiff went on to describe a pivotal conversation in excellent detail. It was almost the same as having been there...

An impressive amount of fab fashion was crammed into Tiff's candlelit bedroom. Fashion that was hanging from a door, strewn over a chair, and scattered about in the form of must-have heels.

In bed, Xavier was in the middle of forming a human 'cuddle' pretzel with a semi-compliant Tiff. He was barely out of his early twenties and had sandy hair that matched his desert eyes. Those eyes were now focused on drinking in every inch of Tiff.

"Since the dawn of time there has never been another creature more beautiful than you," he said softly, every word spoken in dreamy French.

Tiff immediately burst into laughter. It was not the reaction he'd been hoping for.

"I am not exaggerating," he said, slightly wounded but insistent. "You do not know how incredible your beauty truly is."

Tiff's smile was a sly one. "I mean...I sort of know."

He took that as a sign to twist the cuddle pretzel into a new formation.

"What are you doing in two weeks?" he asked.

She pretended to think. "Hmm...maybe you?"

He laughed. "My brother is getting married in Antibes. Join me..."

Neela and Dante's reaction to Tiff's vivid tale was two pairs of bugged out eyes and two mouths gaping open.

"Oh my god," Neela uttered.

"What?" Tiff said. "I'm obviously not going."

Dante dropped his sandwich into his lap, completely oblivious to the crumbs that now adorned his shirt. "YOU'RE NOT GOING TO A FREE WEEKEND IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE?!" He took a calming breath to get a hold of himself. "Antibes is what Cannes used to be. Charming, scenic, and mostly unspoiled by celebrity STDs. How could you not?"

Neela reached over to wipe the crumbs off his shirt. "Seriously you have to go; it sounds perfect."

Tiff shrugged. "Then it's somebody else's perfect because I'm not going."

"But it's just a quick weekend!" Dante insisted.

"No, it's a family wedding. And three hookups plus bathroom sex does not equal being someone's date at a family wedding." From Tiff's perspective it was an open and shut case, and the verdict was 'nothing resembling a real relationship must occur, punishable by death.'

"Why are you minimizing the hookups?" Neela questioned. "Weren't they sleepovers?"

"So what?"

"Multiple sleepovers are basically a committed relationship," Neela declared.

"Oh...okay." Tiff seemed confused but it was all a ruse as she zeroed in for the kill. "See it's weird...I thought a committed relationship was being engaged and not searching for strange men on the métro."

Dante gasped on Neela's behalf. "Savage girl, savage..."

"And it's strange man not strange men," Neela muttered.

"Fine," said Tiff, "I take it back. But I'm still not going on that trip with Xav. Something's wrong with him."

Dante was immediately enthralled. "Like what? Crooked dick? Explosive hemorrhoids? Dandruff?"

Tiff needed a second to recover from the assorted imagery. "I mean... he does have a bit of dandruff, but it only shows up when he's wearing a dark shirt, so it's okay."

"You are a generous and forgiving queen," Dante said, lowering his head in a bow.

"And anyway..." Tiff said, "the dick makes up for the dandruff."

Dante clapped his hands. "Now we're talking!" He paused. "So what's the problem?"

She did a quick scan of the broody French men in the vicinity before lowering her voice to a whisper: "He's just not...French enough, and it's kinda weirding me out. Like French men are supposed to be aloof, confusing, masochistic...I mean at least to a point."

Neela nodded in agreement. "It's part of their twisted allure."

"Right?" Tiff said, looking more and more concerned. "He hasn't even been that way once!"

"Maybe he's just nice," Neela offered. "Like a Care Bear!"

Dante gave Tiff a knowing look. "Or maybe he's just not Clément."

It was clear that Dante had dug into an old wound, as Tiff immediately packed up the rest of her salad. She stood up and checked her watch. "We should get back to work."

Dante knew it was not the time to make a joke to smooth things over, so he wrapped up the rest of his sandwich in silence before glancing back at Neela. "Are you leaving too?"

Neela shook her head. "I think I'll stay for a bit. I hope you guys have a really good afternoon!" It was clear from Tiff's expression that an afternoon of good vibrations was probably not in the cards. Neela could only give Dante a sympathetic wave as they walked away.

As they disappeared out of view, Neela was more confused than ever about what a real relationship was actually supposed to be. The good-for-now ones, the long-term ones, the can't-live-without-you ones...which one would actually be enough for her? This happiness conundrum reminded her of a Don Draper quote from Mad Men: "What is happiness? It's a moment before you need more happiness."

Gee, thanks Don.