Parallel Lives Pt. 03

Chantal, in the throes of her orgasm looked down upon Johnny and felt him suddenly stiffen, both without and within her, as he joined her in a shared moment of enraptured ecstasy. She felt his penis twitching and pulsing inside her as he erupted and filled the condom that enveloped it. The sight of his face looking up at her as he came inside her prolonged her orgasm and caused her for a moment to feel as though she was surfing a never-ending tidal bore of pure naked pleasure.

With his brief moment of release at an end, Johnny looked up in wonderment as Chantal rode out what remained of her orgasm. The fact that his orgasm was so relatively brief and was over and done with before hers had come to an end caused him to feel a little envious for a moment, but that was soon tempered by the warm feeling of pride he felt knowing that he was responsible for causing her to enjoy such a prolonged moment of rapture.

As they both came to a halt, temporarily exhausted but enveloped in a warm sense of blissful afterglow, they looked into each other's eyes and affirmed their love for each other - it wasn't the outcome of Sophia Verbier's visit to London that either of them had anticipated, but never before had either of them been as sure of anything in their lives.

From that moment on, they knew they were destined to be together.

Au Revoir, Mais Pas Adieu

Johnny awoke in bed beside Chantal feeling exhausted after a second straight night of sex, but despite that he felt unbelievably happy to have spent it with someone who was as different to Sophia Verbier as it was possible to be. She was still asleep beside him, an expression of blissful slumber on her pretty face, and the sight of her sent a wave of wonderful satisfaction through his body. He knew that he had satisfied her, and that simple thought made him swell with masculine pride. If she had been satisfied with his performance during that amazing night of sex, he was every bit as satisfied with hers.

But there was a dark cloud looming over them as the sun began to creep in through the curtains - in just a couple of hours Chantal would be leaving, back to California to serve out her period of notice after having tendered her resignation the night before. It was possible that Verbier, no doubt nursing the mother of all hangovers after Chantal had spiked her drinks all evening, had already opened up the email her personal stylist had sent her the previous evening.

It was just as Johnny processed that thought that Chantal's phone rang on her bedside table. He had to give a wry smile when he heard the song she'd chosen as her boss's ringtone - "Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead" from The Wizard of Oz. Chantal murmured and picked up the phone.

"Bonjour, Madame," she answered, which was immediately followed by what can best be described as a lengthy stream of colourful expletives at the other end of the line.

Sophia Verbier was evidently not best pleased to be waking up with a pounding head in an empty bed, and with her personal stylist having suddenly quit her job.

Just wait until all those #MeToo allegations come flooding in! Johnny thought wryly to himself, which would undoubtedly be the icing on the cake of what would turn out hopefully to be a pretty shitty day for the billionairess media mogul.

What followed over the next five or so minutes was a furious exchange of words, liberally infused with expletives at both ends of the line, as Verbier laid into Chantal with both barrels. Chantal gave as good as she got, spelling out plenty of home truths about the way she felt about Verbier's nymphomaniac ways and the way she used young men like Johnny. He had to admit, the way she stood up to the billionairess seriously impressed him.

"Tu es un grosse vache, Madame!" she bellowed down the phone before abruptly ending the call and throwing the phone onto her bedside table, cracking its screen instantly. "Bitch!" she added with a snarl.

"Your boss?" Johnny ventured with a smirk, even though he knew full well with whom it was she'd spent the past few minutes verbally sparring with.

"My ex-boss," Chantal corrected him.

Just then, he noticed a tear welling up in her eye, before it trickled down her left cheek. Instantly his masculine instinct to console and comfort her kicked in, and he took her in his arms. She sobbed for a few moments before being able to collect herself.

"Well, at least I won't have to work a day longer for her," she continued tearfully. "I've been fired - for basically stealing you from her."

"You're right, Chantal," Johnny answered her. "She is a grosse vache, whatever that is! I'm assuming it's definitely not a compliment!"

"A fat cow," Chantal translated. "Well, as from this moment I am sans emploi. And you know what, Johnny? I'm actually glad to not have to work for that appalling bitch anymore."

"But what if she makes it difficult for you to find work as someone else's personal stylist?" Johnny cautioned.

"Perhaps it is time I did something else," she mused aloud. "Something that does not involve quite as much travelling. Something a bit more settled. I am sure I can find something - even if I do not get a good reference, people out there in the fashion world know what I can do."

"Yeah, I guess," Johnny chuckled. "If you can make that "grosse vache" look stylish you could make anyone look stylish!"

* * * * * *

Facing Sophia Verbier later that morning was not something that Johnny relished. At least Chantal was to be spared the woman's ire, seeing as she wanted nothing more to do with the employee whom she regarded as having basically "stolen" him from her. But to Johnny's surprise Verbier was pretty forgiving towards him, blaming Chantal for leading him astray and all but raping him. He thought for a moment of telling her that he didn't really need leading, and he definitely wasn't un-consenting in any way, but decided not to, and instead he concentrated on finishing the job he'd originally been tasked with by his own employer, and made sure she and the rest of her entourage, minus one now ex-employee, returned to Biggin Hill airport and back onto her private jet.

As for her now former personal stylist, an uncertain future awaited, and Chantal's immediate task was to get back to California and tie up her affairs there before, presumably, returning to Paris and start looking for another job.

As the private Boeing 777 taxied away from its stand on the tarmac of Biggin Hill airport with Verbier and the remainder of her entourage on board, Johnny breathed a deep sigh of relief.

* * * * * *

"So, that's that then," Johnny said to Chantal later that day as they reunited in her room as she was packing up her luggage and preparing to leave. "I expect I'll have to start looking for another job myself soon."

"What makes you say that?" Chantal enquired as she zipped up her case. "You did everything required of you - and much more besides. Your bosses cannot fire you for doing your job."

"Well, it's more if what you posted online last night goes viral," Johnny answered. "I mean, it's going to really look bad for us if the woman we've just been bought out by ends up being tainted as a sexual predator! We'll be lucky if the whole Verbier Media empire doesn't crumble, taking all of us with it!"

"Oh, Johnny - I shouldn't worry too much about that," Chantal did her best to assure him. "She'll probably be asked by the board to quietly "retire" and let someone else take over from her. And if, and it's a big if, she ends up going to prison or anything, I expect that the corporation would simply be renamed or something. The Verbier Corporation is much, much bigger than just Sophia Verbier."

"I hope you're right, Chantal," he sighed as he sat on the bed.

"Trust me," she said as she sat beside him and put her arm around him. "It will all work out okay in the end."

"Have you managed to book a flight back to California?" he asked her.

He didn't want her to go, but he knew that she had to return to the states to tie up her affairs there.

"I have," she replied with a sigh. "Though I have to go via Atlanta and get on another plane there to Los Angeles."

"And what about after that?" he asked her.

"Back to Paris," she shrugged in reply. "Back to where I started. But I can assure you, Johnny, for us it may be au revoir, but this is definitely not adieu - we shall be together again, we will only be parted temporarily."

Just then, a spark of resolve ignited inside him.

"Move in with me," he proposed. "I'm serious, Chantal - as soon as you're done in America, come back here and move in with me."

"Oh, Monsieur Johnny, if only it was that simple," Chantal responded with a sigh. "I would love to move in with you, but we've only known each other a day. I love you, Johnny, but it's just too soon to be moving in together. I do want to be in a relationship with you, but I have to think of my career too. You do understand that, right?"

As much as he would have wanted her to stay with him, he had to admit that he didn't want to come between her and her dream career, and she was right that it was too soon to think about cohabiting. It would be a much wiser thing to get to know each other properly before entertaining the idea of moving in together. At least she had given him the assurance that she thought of him as being more than just a one-night stand, and seemed genuinely sincere about wanting a proper relationship.

"Well, you can't blame a boy for trying," he answered her with a theatrical shrug.

"Oh, you are so sweet," Chantal chuckled.

The bedside phone rang - it was the reception desk, informing her that the taxi she'd ordered had arrived. Johnny, in a sudden pique of chivalry, offered to carry her bags down to reception, but his offer had to be politely declined - after all, this hotel had staff for that kind of thing, and lo and behold, a young bellgirl turned up with a trolley to take all of Chantal's luggage for her.

"So, this is it, I guess," Johnny said as he held Chantal's hands before the taxi's open door.

"This is it," she confirmed. "Au revoir, mon amour, mais pas adieu."

He stood and looked her in the eye, and smiled - he was no expert linguist and by his own admission his command of Chantal's mother tongue was extremely limited, but he knew what she had told him - "goodbye, my love, but not farewell". Yes, they would be going their separate ways, but it would only be temporarily. She would be back, and they would be together again. And that thought in his mind made their parting just a little easier to bear. He leaned in and kissed her, and when their lips parted several long moments later, he looked her in the eyes and smiled.

"Go on, get outta here," he said with a lopsided grin. "I wouldn't want you to miss your flight!"

Chantal returned his kiss with one of her own, and then with evident reluctance she boarded the taxi. Johnny closed the passenger door.

"I will be back, Johnny," she promised out of the open window with utter sincerity. "That is my solemn vow."

"I know you will," he answered her, and leaned in through the window for one final kiss goodbye. "And I'll be waiting for you."

He felt a swirling maelstrom of emotions as the black cab pulled away out into the traffic, and his heart yearned to be with her as she looked back at him. It was at that very moment that a notification popped up on his phone.

BREAKING NEWS: Media tycoon Sophia Verbier faces allegation of sexual assault after leaked footage shows her appearing to grope a male waiter."

What Future Lies Ahead

"So, I guess that's mission accomplished, Johnny," Louise Martinsen said with no small sense of relief once he'd returned to the office later that afternoon. "I'd say that calls for a celebratory drink or two, don't you?"

"You go ahead and have one, Mrs. M," he answered with a sigh. "I'm not really in the mood."

"What? Why?" his boss responded, with genuine concern in her voice. "Is something wrong, Johnny? Whatever's eating you, just tell me, okay?"

"It's... well, let's just say that things might've got a bit complicated," he answered her cagily. "It's about Mrs. Verbier. More specifically, her personal stylist - a Frenchwoman named Chantal."

"What about her?" Martinsen enquired.

"Well, to cut a long story short, I'm in love with her," he answered. "And she's definitely in love with me."

"Oh! Well that's wonderful!" his boss enthused gleefully. "Now that definitely calls for a glass of bubbly!"

"It gets a bit more complicated I'm afraid," Johnny answered with a sigh. "I don't suppose you've had a chance to check out the news this morning, have you?"

"Too much of a sore head from last night!" Martinsen chuckled.

"Well, you remember that incident with the waiter last night?" he continued. "When he screamed at her for groping him?"

"Just barely! I'm afraid I'd had quite a bit to drink by then!" his boss replied amusedly.

"Yeah, well you see, Chantal recorded it on her phone," Johnny informed her. "And then immediately posted the footage online."

"You mean she... oh, good lord, Johnny! She... has it...?"

"Gone viral?" Johnny answered Martinsen's stuttering response. "If the notification on my phone is anything to go by, I'd say it definitely has."

Just then, Martinsen's phone rang - it was Dame McAllan.

"Louise, I suggest you put the news on," the company chairwoman said gravely.

Martinsen, feeling a genuine sense of foreboding did just that.

"The global CEO of the Verbier Media Corporation has not yet responded to the leaked video that apparently shows her groping a young man at last night's champagne reception for the relaunch of Wharfside Productions, as it is understood that she is currently mid-air on her way to a global media conference in Chicago," the newsreader spoke with her usual steady and informative delivery. "But already several other young men have come forward with allegations of their own, in what is sure to become the latest #MeToo scandal."

"Ohhh... bugger!" Martinsen groaned, as soon as the implications of any forthcoming scandal became apparent in her mind. "This does rather complicate matters."

Johnny went on to fully debrief his boss about everything that had happened during Verbier's visit, from the less salacious details such as the football match and the hastily arranged visit to Stonehenge, to the more lurid details of how she had used him as her sexual plaything in her suite.

"If it wasn't for all that however," Johnny pointed out. "I wouldn't have met Chantal. In fact, she kind of saved me from having to spend a second night of having that fat bitch riding me like a rocking horse. I mean, you saw for yourself how drunk she was getting last night, right? Well, that was Chantal's doing - she'd been secretly spiking Verbier's champagne with vodka all evening. So by the time the evening shindig was winding down she was barely conscious, and definitely in no fit state for any bedroom shenanigans."

"So, what? You took her back to her suite?" Martinsen ventured.

"And dumped her on the bed," Johnny confirmed. "And then, well, Chantal invited me to her room and one thing led to another, and..."

"I think I can guess the rest, Johnny," his boss interrupted with a chuckle. "So, you're a young man in love, huh? Well, congratulations - she's a very lucky woman."

"Well, somewhat less lucky, since after last night she's now unemployed," Johnny replied. "After apparently "stealing" me from her last night, Verbier fired her this morning. I mean, Chantal had already emailed her resignation, citing the way she takes advantage of young men like me, but I guess Verbier either never read it, or decided in a furious rage to sack her first. Either way, it means poor Chantal's out of a job."

"Probably for the best, if Verbier's anything like that vile Weinstein woman," Martinsen answered with a shrug.

"But where does this leave us?" he asked his boss. "I mean, the ink's barely dry on the contract, and already we might be being dragged into the latest sexual assault scandal!"

"Hmm, I can see what you mean," Martinsen answered thoughtfully. "But I wouldn't worry about it too much. Sure, the Verbier Corporation is now our parent company, but other than that we're independent enough from them. And besides, if the shit really does hit the fan, Dame McAllan was wise enough to negotiate an exit clause. Don't worry, Johnny, you and I and everybody here will be quite safe."

"I hope you're right, Mrs. M," Johnny answered her. "I really hope you're right."

* * * * * *

Thank you for reading -- I hope you enjoyed it! Watch this space for the epilogues where we catch up with Rupert and Kevin, Claire and Kat, and of course Johnny, a few months on from where we last left them.

In the meantime, Peace and Love.