Chapter 6

We languished over breakfast, something I don’t do very often, and as we talked and laughed together, he began to grow on me. Finally, he asked, “What do you say we go to the Louvre this afternoon?”

I looked at the clock on his microwave. It was already eleven. “Wow, it’s that late already? How late did we sleep?”

“You got up at nine. I got up—the first time—at seven.”

“It’s already almost afternoon. The museum is full of hordes of tourists by now. If you want to see the Mona Lisa—which isn’t as large as everyone thinks it is—you can’t even get close enough to admire it with all the Japanese tourists standing in front of it taking pictures.”

“The Egyptian exhibit—my favorite—does not draw as many tourists.”

“Yes, that’s my favorite, too. One of my most favorite, anyway. Okay, let’s go. But I must get a look at my most favorite, the Venus de Milo.”

“If you insist. There will be many tourists there. And it doesn’t hold a candle to what I was gazing at last night.”