Chapter 1

"Meeting you was not the first day of the rest of my life, it was the first day of the best of my life."

-Steve Maraboli-

***

It was a sunny autumn day in southwestern France. The weather was yet to be too cold to explore the places without a thick winter coat, but it was cool enough to start another season of fall fashion trends. The sound of the plane was making Raphael's ears muffled, he pinched his nose and blew hard to empty the pressure on both of his ears.

Twenty minutes before their arrival, he poured the last bit of his peanut pack over his mouth and chewed on them, causing a loud noise which echoed throughout the plane board. His father, Archard who was seated beside him turned over to his side and told him to lower down his eating volume, but he shrugged him off. He thought it was not like anyone was going to pay attention to him.

He liked to do things on his own term, still, he had better manner than the bald old man who was sitting two seats behind them, he snored loudly throughout the entire flight and people were too focused with themselves to pay any attention

Taking out his water bottle he poured over some water on his mouth and wiped it with a napkin. He barely woke up from his quick nap five minutes ago and he was bored, to kill some time and entertained himself, he played around with his fingers, moving them in several ways creating different formations, it was enough to temporarily amused him. But not for long.

Soon enough, he was bored, fortunately he was seated right next to the window. Not only did he get to move around without disturbing any strangers, he also had control of wherever or not the window should be opened or closed. He liked the feeling of having that kind of control. Opening the plane window, he peeked outside and was welcomed by the bright blue sky and the view of the buildings under him.

They had looked so tiny, like a bunch of dots stacked together, he could almost draw out a pattern out of them with his fingers. Bordeaux from above was just like what he had imagined, classic. Even though he had traveled to a few countries across Europe and Asia, he had never visited the city in his own country. It was his first time flying over there and he was anticipating every second of it.

His father who noticed what his son was doing, put down the book he had been reading and turned to his son.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" He grinned. Raphael nodded his head, it was true, he liked the view from above, but he was unsure of what he would feel when they actually landed.

His mother, Darline, who had been seated across them had been sleeping during the flight with an eye cover, the only thing which had woken her up was the pilot announcement of their arrival on the speaker.  Still in a slight trance, she moved her fingers to remove her under eye -mask, and the first thing she did afterward was pulling out a brow pencil from her bag and a compact mirror to fill in her brows, followed by a slight touch of lipstick on her lips and cheek to bring back some color to her face.

She turned to find her husband and Soon talking about the scenery and smiled. It had been a while since the three of them could go on a trip together. She had a feeling it was going to be a good start.

The plane landed at Bordeaux Merignac Airport, and he stood up to take his carry on, the three headed out to pick up their belongings and they had to wait fifteen minutes before they started rolling out the suitcases. After picking up the luggage they headed to the pick-up area, Archard was seen searching around for someone and somewhere along the line of people, a man had been waiting for them on the row with the Desroches name sign on his hand.

He was slightly shorter than Raphael, a bit on the chubbier side, it was clear he had lost himself to age, appearing to be in his mid-forty. He was rocking a clean short hair and white stubble and wearing a striped burgundy shirt with khaki pants.

"Bonjour, Bienvenue en Bordeaux."

He appeared to be quite familiar with his parents, especially with his father, the two men exchanged a friendly hug, as if they were old friends. After the formality had been done, they walked toward his car in the parking area while chattering around with each other. In the middle of the group conversation the man had paid attention to Raphael.

"Your son has gotten pretty big since I came to his christening ceremony."

Raphael flashed a small smile to the man just to be polite, the man smiled back at him in return, his smile was warm and welcoming.

"It's going to be a pretty long trip from here to the vineyard but i have prepared a few comfort items in the car in case you need anything." The man arranged their luggage in his car and stacked them like lego.

Mid way through the road he learned the stranger's name was Dennis Bellavance and he was the owner of one of Bordeaux's best wine company. Being the wine fanatic his father was, he loved to travel across France and Italy and made friends with the owners of the wine companies. However, it was clear that his father had something more personal going on with Dennis.

Meanwhile Raphael decided to remain silent throughout their entire way to the vineyard, his father had been chatting with the stranger throughout their drive about things he did not understand, he pulled out his earphone from his bag and pressed the play button on his MP3 and drowned himself in the music.

At first he was feeling a bit tense sitting at someone else's car but started to relax when he saw the vineyard spreading alongside the road, the grapes looked juicy and ripe, It had entered the month of September, which called for wine harvesting season.

For Raphael, it was certainly a nice change of scenery compared to Paris, where business buildings, restaurants, and cafe dominated the city. He loved Paris with all his heart, yet he did not mind going to other sides of France.

After driving for two hours they arrived at a three story house, which could also be marked as a villa.

It was slightly smaller than his parents' mansion in Paris, the building was painted all white on the outside with black and brown accent scattered all over the place, on the top it had a pointy ebony roof. There was a vast wide garden with different kinds of flowers which were well kept and neatly arranged. Though it was fall, some flowers still bloomed beautifully

They carried out the luggage and entered the place. The inner side of the house had a faint but noticeable rose and vanilla scent.

Right when they placed their belongings on the floor to catch a breath, an older looking woman in maid outfit speed walked toward them, she looked like she just did five different chores beforehand, it was visible from her stained apron and slightly puffy hair. Beside her was a buff and a tan young man with a round hat on his head. They were introduced as the housekeeper and the gardener.

Both of them assisted their luggage but Raphael refused to had his carried by someone else, instead he told them he could carry them on his own, he ended up walking a relatively long stair to the second floor. Unlike his parents' house which had a built in elevator, the place only had stairs and the first floor had a high ceiling, one could only imagine why everyone in the house never missed their daily exercise.

Archard and Darline were guided to the guest room near the stairs while Raphael had to walk a little bit further toward the corner where he took a right turn to find the guest room. The housekeeper who had been accompanying him took out a key from her pockets and twisted it around the keyhole. The room was clean and simple. There was a wooden wardrobe for him to put his clothes, a bedside table, a drawer and a study desk in case he needed it.

 "You may want to take a rest first, feel free to look around the house and around the vineyard, I will see you at dinner" the housekeeper politely closed the door, leaving him alone. He jumped into the bed and rested his head. It was quite comfortable, he had not realized he was falling asleep so quickly. When he opened his eyes once more, it was nearly evening, he got out from the room and went to his parents' room.

At this time, he was clueless that soon he would be meeting the woman who would change his life forever.