Trevor rolled onto his side after his eyes opened. Chelsea was already awake and looking across the gap between the twin-sized beds. Her smile was a reflection of his own, and as their gaze lingered in the silence, his smile and its reflection grew wider.

"Maybe the next room... we get one bed?" Chelsea said with a wide grin.

*****

Under the afternoon sun Trevor sketched the cathedral from the park on the west side of the River Orb at the foot of the old bridge. Hiseyes took in equal amounts of his subject and the young woman that sad a footaway.

Chelsea sadin a pair of cut-off denim shorts and a sleeveless black top with a floralpattern and wrote in her journal with an occasional pause every so often to attempt to see his work before it was complete. Neither spoke as they went about their own work. The silence was comfortable. They could enjoy each others' company without words.

Trevor paused for a moment, his eyes moving from his sketch pad to the scenery then back again. He added a few lines and shadows then turned the pad towards Chelsea.

"That is really good," she said as she looked at the drawing. "I'm serious, that is amazing."

"Thanks," Trevor replied. "Will I get to see what you've been working on?"

"I suppose. I have a little more to add to it, but maybe you can read it tonight."

"I was just thinking, we didn't make it to Paris. You said you wanted to go and we... Well, I guess I sort of messed up the plans."

"That's okay. I've enjoyed just staying here."

A hard-core tourist may have wrapped up a stay in Béziers in a couple days if the city was even on their list of places to see. They would be drawn away by the lure of the big tourist stops in France; Marseille, Nice, Paris. Quitecertainly, they wouldn't return days later and stay for a second visit. For Trevor and Chelsea, the small city offered a quiet and relaxing place to enjoy their time together.

"You aren't disappointed? All the sights, and romance, and..."

"Honestly, I couldn't ask for anything better than this. There's plenty of romance here. It's not the place that makes the romance, it's the person you're with," she replied as she leaned towards him for a kiss. "And, if you think about it, we've seen a lot of sights."

"Like this stunning cathedral and old bridge," Trevor added with an infomercial inspired sweeping hand gesture.

Chelsea smiled and said, "Just sitting here, watching you draw, just being here with you and not feeling like we have to be somewhere for a tour in five minutes. It's been perfect. If you want to go up to Paris we can go, but, I'm just as happy to stay here."

Trevor took Chelsea's hand and closed the space between them. He kissed her for a moment then contemplated for a while, "We only have a couple more days before we have to be in Barcelona for the flight home. I think we should leave Paris for another trip, maybe this summer."

"Are there any beaches in Paris?"

"No, I don't think so. It's a little in-land; maybe there's something on the river. I really don't know."

"Okay. I was just remembering that you were hoping to get me topless in a thong on a beach. I just have to consider your motives."

"Oh, that's right. Maybe we'll have to cut that visit short, maybe a day at most, then find a beach," Trevor said with a twisted grin.

"Do you think we should go back to Barcelona tomorrow? Maybe leave after lunch. We would get there before dinner. I'm sure there's a lot of places you might like to do more sketches, and I can sit and write, maybe on the beach."

"Topless?" Trevor asked with a smile.

"If you want to be topless, that's fine with me, but I'll be wearing my bikini. Both parts of it."

"You can't blame a guy for asking," Trevor said as he closed his sketch book and stuffed it in his backpack. "Do you want to hang out here some more or walk back?"

"Let's walk. We came down the hill from that side, North of the cathedral, let's walk back up through that area," Chelsea said as she pointed towards the buildings on the slope south of the cathedral.

"Sure. We could go up those stairs by that church... Saint J-something."

"Oh, speaking of stairs, let's go up the ones at the end of Allées Paul Riquet, you know, the ones we passed along the road after we took the bikes back to the shop."

"Is it strange that we're excited about finding stairs to go UP?" Trevor said as he slipped his arms through the straps of his pack.

Trevor took her hand and walked beside Chelsea across the 12th century bridge towards the city's historic center. They made their way through the streets and back up the hill. The staircase up to St. Jacques proved elusive, even for Trevor's advanced navigation skills. They continued up the curved roadway and eventually found the stairs that zig-zag up to the south end of the allesse.

*****

Chelsea slipped into the window seat and gave a gentle wave to the city as the train slowly rolled away from the station. Trevor noticed a tear escaping the corner of her eye as he took the seat next to her.

"Sad to leave?" he asked.

"Yeah," She replied as she turned towards him. "It's not just leaving here. It just sort of hit me; we only have a couple more days. Then..."

Trevor said as he took her hand in his. "We have a couple nights in Barcelona. We focus on that and worry about Monday morning on Monday morning."