The weather was warm and clammy when Liam left the cool speerail cart at the CC Paris station. He sighed and rolled his eyes when he saw that this platform was full of people from every path of life.
In this case, those people actually help Liam with his plan to mess a bit with the young lady in the cart. She had not noticed that Liam was on the same cart as her and he decided to take a step into the crowd to hide from her.
As the black-haired maiden stepped out on the platform the two girls from the second cart came up to her and the maiden stared at them in horror. Liam knew exactly how he would have felt if it were him they came up to in a place as this.
“So, Liam said you would take us to a party and introduce us to some rich boys.” The blond-haired exclaimed with fake enthusiasm and continued
“He said that he would visit you if you did”
And the look of sheer disbelief and horror he saw in the young lady's face made Liam feel all fuzzy inside and he could not help himself from grinning. He had offered the girls some money and the chance of a party if they did this for him and they jumped at the chance, money and rich boys. Liam decided to leave them and sneak off further into the crowd, the whole thing could blow up in the wrong way if she saw him there with that big grin on his face.
But he heard some protest and some more argument that Liam had said she would.
As he came out of the sea of people he was warm and sweaty, two things Liam hated to be. And to his dismay, he remembers that the inner city of CC Paris did not have any roads to travel on.
Sure, roads and cars where a luxury only a few people in the world had these days. After the great wars ended almost all the fuel was used up and that left the fuel price really high. And to maintain a working road was not that cheap either for that matter, they had to get workers to get on their lands every year and with the worker came the price of reliable security too.
As he stood in a relatively empty area of the station he decided to pick up his discom to check after some sort of transportation to the hotel and he overheard some people talk about getting something to eat before the next speed rail.
He felt his own stomach rumble and he wondered if he should get some food before going to the hotel, but as he were not familiar with eating on his own and any restaurants in CC Paris he had to check on his discom to see if there were any restaurants on the way to the hotel. As he looked at the map over Paris he saw that there were, in fact, some restaurants on the way to the hotel that looked like it were closer to the station that he first taught. So he started to walk down the cobblestone streets of CC Paris.
As Paris had not been that bombed the city core still had a lot of old buildings, unlike CC London that was newly built on the ruins of the old world. Liam could not help it and were in awe of the old buildings as he walked with his bag over the shoulder.
It felt good not being recognized every step he took but the warm sun was slowly killing his resolve to walk the way. But the beautiful buildings made it easier to take the next step, what kind of house could you find after the next block?
Something walked into him and as he looked down he saw that a little boy lay on the ground before his feats. And a woman came over shouting at Liam that he could have hurt the little boy and had to look where he walked.
“Excuse me miss, but why are you not yelling at your son instead of me?” Liam asked in confusion and looked from the women he figured were the boy's mother to the boy still laying there on the ground.
Liam gave her a smile to smooth over the whole thing. Sure, Liam could take some of the blame but the boy had clearly walked into him. The smile did nothing to defuse the situation and the women just scowled at him.
“He is just a little boy, and you walked into him so I’m yelling at you for having your head in the clouds” Answered the women and kept scowling at him. And Liam felt that his patience was running out.
“Look here miss, I’m his elder and it’s clearly your fault for not learning the boy to respect his elders. ” He said with a serious tone and hoped that the stupid fish would come to her senses and see her and the boy faults in this.
But the women just help her son up and the turned around a spat on the ground right before Liam's shoes and left. Liam just stood there like a question mark and peered after the duo. What had just happen? Where ordinary people this vulgar and extremely rude all the time, no wonder the world where tilted. He felt a pang of doubt that this trip was the right thing to do anymore. If people were treating other people like this the world was doomed from the start and why would he even want a soulmate that was a spawn of these people?
A moment later Liam staggered in on a restaurant that he decided on from checking earlier. He stood there at the door and waited impatiently, he was both warm, clammy and felt dirty. But no waiter came to show him to a table and Liam looked around but there was no kind of person in the room.
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The decor looked a bit old and used, if Liam weren't so hungry he would have left to find something better. But now he was here and super hungry so he would eat if only a waiter came. He wondered if they all had a break or if they died in the heat.
Liam bit his lip and started to get really frustrated that no one came to take care of him. This trip had not been living up to all the hype from his friends and he felt out of place in a world that seem to hate everyone.
But an open restaurant would want customers right? And letting them stand for several minutes at the door is a really crappy business practice right?
After a while, his stomach growled highly and he decided to go further in to look for someone to guide him and take his order. And he was not surprised to find two waitresses standing beside the bar and were busy with something.
He let out a loud cough to let them know that a paying customer was standing here and not getting any help. The waitress looked at him but they had a questioning look on their faces. Liam let out a sigh and waited for a bit to give them the chance to redeem themselves from this fiasco of customer service.
“Eat or drink” Asked one of the waiters and the other one continued to wipe down the bar top with a rug. Liam felt how he was starting to build up a not so healthy frustration with the normal people.
“Eat, of course, have been waiting for almost 10 minutes to get a table.” He said with a tone that made clear that he had enough shenanigans from them.
The waiter looked a bit confused and shared a look with her colleague that had paused the wiping to look at him too.
“Waiting on what?” Asked the waiter
“On a table, so I can eat” Liam exclaimed slowly so the daft waiter could understand him. What is up with normal people and why are they so out of touch with social ethics.
The waiter shrugged and then started to move to a table near the window and asked him if this were suitable for a real good sir that he was. Liam did not doubt that this was the restaurants best table and accepted it with a nod.
And after a short while, the waiter came back with a laminated piece of paper that to Liam's joy was a menu so he could order food. But nothing sounded like anything he had eaten before so he ordered the days special. To be honest, when he and his parents had eaten on restaurants they were considerably fancier and they did not even have a menu. But as his father was a bit of a snob they had their own chef that would travel with them and cook for them. And Liam had now started to feel that this was a big mistake because his grandmother had told him that if the service is bad, the chef is probably a slob too. But he needed to eat something and decided to eat the food for the adventure.
Through the window, he saw how people rushed by but he noted that most of them were children and elderly. At lunchtime shouldn't there be more people running around and why were the children not in school and why had the elderly time to loiter around.
With a shake of his head he let out a deep sigh, the food was still not here and he could not understand how normal people could live such a hateful and lazy life.
He looked down at his bracelet and wondered if he would find his soulmate, he knew that his soulmate would gain the most from getting matched with him.
But would she even comprehend what Liam was feeling and wanted to do in order to change this dysfunctional world?
Most of his relatives found their soulmates from the higher classes, it's logical that they would.
They understood each other on many levels but then there was Liam at the top, who from the lower classes could grasp the top?
He felt that he was doomed to meet a girl from the slums, a poor and lazy girl that would drive him crazy. His father had met his mother at the age of 7 on an event and they were happy, but then again they were from the same class.
A small cough took him back to the restaurant from his thoughts, it was the waiter that wanted his attention. She had and tray with the daily special and Liam stomach growled a response to the cough.
“An onion soup with a smoked duck toast” She proclaimed and started to place the two plates on the table and Liam gave her a nod. She scampered away to do stuff that waiters do when the customers didn't see them.
He eyed the soup and sighed, it looked like onion water with a layer of oil at the top. And the toast looked like it was prepared a week ago and for the first time in Liam’s life, he felt homesick. But he was hungry so he dug into the soup and tried the toast, but he could just manage a few spoons and bites. He reached for the salt and started to apply a good amount, if it only tasted salt it would not taste so bad he figured.
He won the battle and finished both the dishes and his stomach felt less empty. But it was not a good experience at all and he decided to ask at the hotel's he was gonna stay at what restaurants were good for his next meals on this trip.
The waiter understood that he was finished after multiple attempts got their attention with looks, discrete waves and in the end snapping of his fingers. But his waiter moved slowly to get over to him like he offended them both.
“Did the food taste good?” She asked and gave him a smile that let Liam knew something was wrong. He got a lump in his throat and he tried to figure out what was wrong and what he could do to fix it.
The two waiters looked at each other and Liam understood that there was a secret there and he knew that a secret often is a negative thing for those who are not in on it.
“How much should I pay” He managed to get out in a level voice and he sounded calm, but on the inside, some sort of panic was brewing. And he lifted his discom to let the girl swipe it so he could pay but she only smiled at him.
“Young sir, there seems to be a mistake.” She said slowly and she was grinning and he thought he could hear a small snicker from the bar.
“We figured that you were a beggar so we gave you last weeks food, and of course it's free of charge.”
Liam stood up in an instant and left the restaurant but those twos waves of laughter followed him out on the streets. Now he just wanted to throw up and decided to go to the hotel as fast as possible.
As he reached the hotel lobby most of his anxiety had died down, and he felt more at peace with the whole thing. But he told himself to close that restaurant with any means possible, they would pay for their crimes of making him the butt of a very bad joke. He could have died from the food and they just laughed at him.
The man standing behind the receptionist counter perked up and gave him a welcoming bright smile. And before Liam could say anything the man picked up two keys and laid them on the counter.
“Mr. Eidler, we have been waiting for you.” The man said and looked Liam over and then asked “Did you find the trip interesting and pleasant”
Now Liam knew that this man did not know anything about his trip but he could not help himself from scowling at the man who got a look of sheer panic. The man took a while to regain his composure but Liam gave him that time, it was not his fault.
“Would the young sir need anything else, like some nice company or a message maybe?” The man said as Liam took the keys from the counter. Now after this hell of a day a massage sounded like something he could need.
“Well, that offer sounds good. Just send someone up in an hour or so” Liam said and turned around to meet the piccolo that took his bag from him. And they took the elevator to the top floor to his room.
Well, the room was the wrong word for a penthouse with all the luxury a man of Liam stature would need to feel at home. The bed was screaming his name and he almost fell for its temptation but he needed to get a good long hot bath before the masseuse came.