Then at lunchtime we went to the same mountain restaurant as the day before, and when we walked in there she was! Sitting at a table with three other ...irls, Henri and another guy. She saw me straight away and looked at me, ready to smile...I went over, a huge silly grin on my face. “Hello,” I said, in French automatically, “I was hoping to find you.”Chloé was smiling back at me, looking as gorgeous and alive as I’d remembered. “I was hoping to find you too.”God! There was no space at the table. "I need to talk to Debbie ... maybe Bill and Sandy too."There wasn't a hint of negotiating room in her voice, so I did what was expected of me and agreed.As we entered the house, I was immediately reminded of that special day when Diane and I reunited in Louisville. My three young children were sitting side-by-side on the sofa and I recalled my thinking they were like three little birds on a branch. Here they were again, years later, all three on the sofa and although they were much bigger. Fast-forward to today. While Ashley had no problem calling herself your girlfriend, you've seen no action in the past week outside of a good-night kiss, that - while nice - left you wanting more.Today, however, you have a good feeling. Ashley came over just to hang out and play video games. She is sporting a typical lazy-college-girl outfit; very short shorts and one of those slim, female-fitting band t-shirts. Girls put way too much hype on getting all dolled-up, as this simple get-up had you. This new kind of silence was not comfortable. It had grown malignant, twisting in my stomach like a tumor.Any claim that the opportunity to talk had never come up would have been a lie. We both might have used sex to avoid discussing things, but there were still quiet moments where I could have raised the subject.The truth was, I was a coward. I didn’t want to bring up the thought of what might be next because I was enraptured with the pleasure of the present and dreaded that the merest word.