The girl in the Louvre

"Sure, I don't have any school tomorrow anyway," said Zhi Rou stifling a yawn. She didn't really notice how tired she still was until her mom mentioned it. The seats on the plane were too uncomfortable to get a good nights sleep on and so she spent most of the flight semiconscious.

When their car finally stopped in their garage they both got out and Zhi Rou walk around the back to grab her suitcase from the trunk while her mom when and unlocked the door. Lugging it behind her she staggered into the house. Wiping the sweat off her brow she carried it into her room.

"What would you like to eat?" asked Zhi Rous mom from the kitchen. "beef and broccoli fine? I'm too tired from work today to cook anything hard"

"Yeah sure, thank you," replied Zhi Rou from her room. Grabbing her clothes she walked over to the washroom to take a shower. By the time she was out the table was set and her mom was placing the dinner on the table. "Dads not coming home?"

"He has overtime at the company," said her mom while pursing her lips.

Sensibly not saying anything Zhi Rou quickly kept her head down and ate her dinner with her mom. When they were finished she thanked her mom for the wonderful meal and then got up and started bringing the dishes to the sink.

It was getting really late by the time that she finished the dishes and her father still hadn't returned. Glancing lightly at the door she decided to ignore it and went to kiss her mother goodnight. As she slipped into her covers she couldn't help but think of Julian. What was he doing right now? was he thinking of her? Remembering her promise to call him when she returned to China she reached over to her bedside table and grabbed her phone. Going to the chat where he sent her the photos from the Louvre she pressed call. Her eyes sparkled as she thought about what to say to him while putting in her earbuds.

"Ring... Ring... Ring..." On the other side of the phone, there was nothing but silence. Zhi Rous eyes faded a bit as she was disappointed. Trying again and getting the same voicemail she decided to call him in the morning.

Taking out her earbuds and putting her phone back she curled up on her bed for warmth and slowly drifted off.

***

Not realizing that his wife had just called him, Julian was laying back on the seat of a private jet looking over some files that his moms' secretaries had sent him.

From the time that he accepted the proposal and went back to his hotel, it had only been six hours. It had been enough time though, to be picked up by his moms' car and driven to the airport where he was ushered onto a private plane and given a tablet and laptop full of information that he was supposed to sort out for his mom.

This was the first test given by his mother to him. If he couldn't even complete something this simple he would be kicked off the flight, Grace Jones style.

After reading through dozens of documents for hours he finally selected three from them.

Gesturing at the man next to him to come over he showed him the documents. "Here, this one is the best company to use, this is the second best, and the third one is trying to scam us. I don't think that my mother would take kindly to someone trying to double-cross her, would she?"

Looking carefully at the documents that Julian had shown him, the man nodded and said, "I will call the president to tell her. You should rest, you have meetings as soon as we get to Vancouver."

Nodding, Jullian got up out of his chair and went to the private room near the middle of the plane to go to bed.

Even before his head hit the pillow he had fallen asleep. He woke up at six am, Paris time, and had only gotten thirty minutes of sleep before he was once again woken up to go get on a plane. After that, he had to study several companies and decide which ones were the best for his mothers' planes. By the time that he finally got to go to sleep, he was already mentally and physically exhausted.