Chapter Text
Paris is supposedly ‘the city of love’ , and ‘the fashion capital.’ Jackie Taylor seems to disprove both of those theories when she steps off the plane in a mismatched sweater vest and skirt, and completely on her own.
She’s freshly 24, and she’s been studying art in England for three years now, although the education she’s been getting there didn’t seem all that informative on the aspects she was interested in. So, she made the decision to use her saved up money to go to Paris for the summer before her final year in college.
Her parents were of course hesitant about the entire thing, they never really were too excited about their only daughter being interested in art of all things. But by the time she hit her 20’s, and hadn’t been in a relationship since Junior year of highschool, her parents decided this might’ve been her only hope to find someone. Although it isn’t necessarily Jackie’s intention, she’s not opposed to the idea. Love is the least of her worries when her nerves are through the roof about this stupid trip. The whole reason she’s going is to get a better understanding of different forms of art, and this is supposedly the best place to be for that.
She pulls her phone out, already, she’s lost. Most of the street-names aren’t in English, and of fucking course she doesn’t know a lick of French, despite having learned it for three years in school. She can barely understand the accent considering she was born and raised in England. She taps through a few icons on her screen until her thumb lands on Google Maps, and her eyes scan the screen; the various different coloured lines and tiny icons indicating what’s what. She’s completely fucked, she thinks. The only thing that’s sailed smoothly for her so far was getting out of the airport and finding her hotel.
She hadn’t necessarily found an apartment to stay in yet. That, and she has a portfolio assignment she needs to complete for college over the summer. First on the list, some stupid critical essay about a chosen art piece. It sounds extremely boring, but Jackie thinks she might as well get the boring parts out of the way first. So, she’s frantically searching the streets for an art museum. Come on, it’s Paris, how hard is it to find a museum?
She follows the directions on the map to The Louvre; a basic choice, but she decides she hasn’t been here long enough to choose somewhere else. Besides, she feels like this is somewhere she has to visit while she’s here.
Upon arriving outside the museum, she takes a quick glance at her phone, seeing a couple of messages from her friends. Some friends she’d made from the three years she lived in America; aged twelve to fifteen, and then her parents had decided that Britain was just ‘better,’ and they packed their things and went back to England. Annoyingly, because Jackie had made good friends in the small town they’d stayed in.
Two unread messages from Lottie.
One unread message from Nat.
One unread message from Taissa.
9+ unread messages from ‘ Wiskayok’s sexiest’.
Jackie smiles a little. When she moved back to England, they swore to keep in touch. She honestly expected that to last a month, or so. But it’s been years since they last saw each-other, and they still talk almost everyday. She takes a quick look at what they’ve sent her as she steps into the museum;
June 3rd, 1:20am
Nat: listen 2 this. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2JHSSsWJbHdBSkGoqjTp8C?si=Vzn1lUeETyesUxheHr4Zmw&pi=e-O1WUcoV9S3KV
June 3rd, 6:02pm
Lottie: You’ll never guess what just happened..
Lottie: Call me when you’ve settled into your hotel!! It’s urgeennttt!!
June 3rd - Today, 11:03am
Taissa: How was your flight?
June 3rd - Today, 11:39am
Wiskayok’s sexiest:
Van: GUYS GUYS GUYS
Taissa: What?
Van: LOTTIE AND NAT??????????? WHAT IS GOING ON.
Lottie: Nothing happened omg
Nat: What?
Van: Oh nothing ??? What’s THIS ???
*One Image Attachment*
Taissa: Oh God
Lottie: VAN??
Nat: Man I was helping her with something
Van: helping her unzip her dress in a club bathroom???
Nat: Yep
Van: BULLSHIT!!
Lottie: The zip was stuck and I had to pee:(
Taissa: So you just invited her into the bathroom for the entire time you were in there?
Van: Which just so happened to be ten minutes
Laura Lee: Oh good heavens..
Jackie rolls her eyes, she thinks she’s seen enough of that, so she throws her phone back into her bag and continues into the museum. It’s not as crowded as she imagined it to be, at least certain sections of it. It’s 11am, so most people would be out eating their lunch, she supposes. Her eyes scan a wall, lined with paintings, but none of them seem to catch her eye.
What does catch her eye, however, is the brunette standing in front of a painting. She’s dressed in a flannel and denim shorts. Well, she didn’t say love was completely off the table, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try. Jackie can’t see her face from here, so how much harm could it be to get a closer look, too?
She casually makes her way over to the same art piece, not even taking notice of the title, or the image at all for that matter. Her eyes immediately dart towards the girl, who’s apparently trying her best to ignore Jackie. Jackie takes a quick look at the painting, and clears her throat. “It’s nice.”
The girl glances at her, her big, brown eyes widened a little, and her eyebrows slowly knit together. She glances around before her eyes settle back onto Jackie, “Me?” She asks, pointing to herself.
Jackie blinks, a little lost. “Um. The painting.”
The girl continues to stare, like she isn’t following. Then she nods a little, a small ‘oh’ escaping her lips before she speaks again, “No, I meant.. Are you .. talking to me?”
The girl has a subtle French accent, surprisingly. When Jackie approached her she honestly didn’t expect that. For a second she forgot she was even in France, but she maintains her smile. “Yeah.”
The girl takes a look at the painting again, and then at Jackie, nodding, “Uhm.. I suppose it is.”
God, Jackie feels like crawling into a hole and dying right now. Why is this so fucking awkward?
“..You come here often..?” Jackie asks, breaking the painfully long silence.
The brunette narrows her eyes, hesitant to answer, “..Sure.”
“Right. Um. I’m Jackie, by the way.” She says, waiting a little too long for the other girl to respond.
“Shauna.”
Shauna? That really didn’t sound like a French name, in Jackie’s opinion. But she bites back any comments she has about it, and smiles. “Oh, that’s a pretty name.”
“Thanks.” Shauna mumbles, eyes fixating back on the art piece, and she noticeably swallows before saying anything else. “You’re not from here, are you?”
“I just moved here, actually. Temporarily.” Jackie says, and a lame attempt at continuing the conversation, “I’m staying in a hotel down the street.. I didn’t really plan out where I’d live before I got here, so..”
Shauna stares again, before nodding slowly. “Oh.”
“..So, I’m guessing you’re from here?” Jackie asks, swaying on her feet awkwardly.
“No.” Shauna replies, blatant and short. Clearly uninterested, but Jackie doesn’t take the hint.
“Oh, where are you from, then? You look- er, sound.. French. I mean your French seems to be good.”
Shauna sighs, glancing down at the floor, “Ontario.”
“Canada?” Jackie says, wide eyed, “You’re Canadian? But you sound so-“
“They speak Canadian-French, in some parts.” Shauna cuts her off, irritated, “And I moved here when I was young, so it wasn’t that hard to pick up on.” Jackie takes that as her queue to shut up.
Another uncomfortably thick silence passes before Jackie opens her mouth to speak, but she gets cut off again.
“Look, it was er.. Nice to meet you.” Shauna mutters, glancing over at Jackie. Jackie’s heart drops a bit, Great, I’ve just fumbled a cute girl, she thinks. “English isn’t really..” Shauna continues, shrugging her shoulders, “I only know a bit.”
“Oh.” Jackie says quietly, watching her carefully, like she’s analysing the details of her face before she leaves. “Yeah- No- I get it.”
Shauna forces a short smile, murmuring awkwardly, “Enjoy the art.”
Jackie wants to say more, she needs to say more, what kind of idiot would she be if she just let this girl walk away? She knows nothing about her, but she’s so drawn to her, and she wants to know her. But nothing comes out when she tries to speak, her voice catching in her throat as the girl turns and walks away.
“Fuck.” She murmurs to herself, her fists clenched tightly. She lets out an irritated sigh before looking at the painting in front of her, the one the girl had been looking at beforehand. Jean-Honoré Fragonard Le Verrou (The Bolt), c. 1777. Jackie stares at the name, before her eyes flick up to the actual painting. It shows two people in a bedroom, standing by a bed, and the man appears to be reaching for some lock on the door. Jackie pulls a face at the sight. What a load of bullshit, it’s clearly depicting a man locking the woman up to keep for himself. At least that's what Jackie’s first thought is. She pulls her phone out and raises it to snap a picture, deciding to use that as an option for her essay later.
The rest of her wander around the museum is mostly spent with her mindlessly staring at the works along the walls, before her stomach tells her she should leave to go grab lunch, and that she’s decidedly done enough art-searching for the day.
When she gets back to the hotel later that night, she immediately pulls out her laptop to start working on her essay. But her mind is plagued with thoughts of the museum, more specifically, that girl. Shauna. Jackie feels like an idiot smiling to herself about some girl who seemed so deeply uninterested in speaking to her. She gets about one paragraph into her essay before she gets distracted and opens up her web browser. She also tries to push the thoughts of that girl down, deciding she has more important things to do than writing and daydreaming - which is finding a place to live.
She honestly keeps forgetting about the whole apartment thing, and she knows she can’t just hang around a hotel for the rest of the summer, so she finds listings for people looking for a roommate. She’s never lived alone before, embarrassingly. Before this, she had only ever lived with her parents, and shared a dorm with a friend for college. So, she doesn’t really plan on living by herself anytime soon.
She eventually finds a website for roommate listings in Paris, switches the site language translation to English, and begins scanning the options;
Jamie Bower (22), apartment located on Avenue Rapp - looking for a roommate (preferably a girl), good looking, within my age range. Clean. Single, maybe. Preferably must have a car because mine broke down. Must pay 70% rent since I own the place. Rent is €2375.
Jackie scoffs as she reads that one, the guy might as well put the advert up on tinder.
Christopher Casserly (25), apartment located on Rue des Barres - Looking for someone clean. Curfew is 9pm. No bringing guys/girls home. No animals. No meat in the house, I’m a vegetarian. No foolish decor, I like my apartment tidy. Don’t question any weird activity or smells. Rent is €1700. DM for further details.
Now, that guy just sounds like someone waiting to have a documentary made about him, so Jackie scrolls onto the next. Her body freezes when she reads the next name.
Shauna Shipman (23), apartment located in Aubervilliers - Anyone who isn’t a weirdo, would prefer to live with a woman. You’d have a separate bedroom, spacious enough with a view of the street. Apartment complex is pet friendly but I’d rather not have a large animal in my apartment, something small is fine. Utilities are typically €100 a month, we split. Rent is €1400 a month, we also split. Dm me for more information.
Jackie finds herself immediately putting a request in the second her eyes reach the last line. Not only is it affordable for her, but it’s also quite literally the girl of her dreams. It has to be her. There’s no profile picture, but she hopes it isn’t just a coincidence, this has to be fate, right?
She opens up the chat with her, typing in a quick response to the ad;
Jackie: Hey:) Saw your advertisement for the roommate thing, wondering if it’s still open?
It takes a good few minutes before a response comes in, and that goes the same with most of her responses after the first. Jackie just assumes the girl is translating all her replies since she mentioned ‘not being the best at English’, which she now thinks may pose a problem for living together.
Shauna: Yes, it is.
Jackie: Oh, cool, is there like an interview process or whatever I need to go under?
Shauna: No. The ad has honestly been up for months now. As long as you’re not some creep you can take it.
Jackie: Wait for real? You’re not gonna do a background check or anything?
Shauna: Are you that English girl?
Jackie flushes a bit as she reads the text, her nails curling into the sides of her legs and she curses under her breath. Is that really all she was remembered for?
Jackie: From the museum? Um. Yeah.
Shauna: Haha. That’s okay, you don’t seem too frightening. Didn’t you say you needed a place to live anyway, at the museum?
She remembers, Jackie thinks, a small smile on her lips.
Jackie: Yeah, I do. Just for the summer.
Shauna: You can come check the place out if you want, the spot is yours if you want it.
Jackie: Omg great!! Thank you!! I can come by tomorrow, or whatever suits?
Shauna: Sounds good.
Jackie: Okay, see you then!
All she gets in response next is a thumbs up emoji, but she’s not going to complain now when she might have just secured a place to live for the summer, with a cute French girl.