The two thanked Julie when she came to collect the keys. She had reminded them earlier about slipping them through the metal mail door, but Cay insisted he wanted to pass the keys to her as a note of appreciation for having the whole apartment for themselves.
She took the keys from Cay when Judas stepped outside before Cay, and said “Merci, come visit Lyon again sometime soon!” with a slightly hoarse voice. It was noon at that time and the sun was visible enough to give out its’ warming quality for anyone standing directly below it, a good note to start off their last day in France.
The day before a local university student handed over a flyer to Cay, the information they obtained from the reading material was about a food fair near the riverside. They immediately agreed upon visiting the fair after when they were done with their plan for the day.
The first stop was Le Sucre.
Fortunately, a bus was available at the Croix-Rousse plaza that traveled all the way down to the South tip of the delta. They arrived with their backpacks full of belongings and a hope to embrace French performance arts, even knowing that no performance would be playing on the day.
The warehouse-style building had an unpainted concrete facade with large, rectangular gaps that once suspected to be filled with decorations or windows. Construction workers were seen carrying materials meant for refurbishments into the building and people guiding cranes that were hauling hefty objects, the latter entering through the hollows of the warehouse.
There was a female security personnel passing by them but was not kind enough to offer directions around the vicinity (“Sorry, I don’t speak English.”, as she went on with her phone attached to her right year.). There was a shopping complex near Le Sucre and the river Saone flowed on the West side beside them, numerous art exhibitions that were not opened on the day could be seen through the glass walls of the newer galleries. Judas could make out a few paintings on the ground floor, most of them were models with simplistic attire painted on medium-sized oil canvases.
“I read about a performance happening tomorrow.”, said Judas as they rested beside the river.
“We should’ve stayed one more day here.”, he added.
“Not much of a choice, we’ve booked the bus and accommodation for Brussels before arriving in Rome.”, the other responded.
“How did we decide not to stay here a little longer?”
“I didn’t expect Lyon to be a beautiful city. We still haven’t seen the rest of our trip, who know we may like them even more than Lyon.”
“I doubt it.”, Judas turned his had to his right at a pace as not to offend someone.
“I can agree on you with that. Hey, are you hungry?”
“I could have some tea at the city centre.”, It was fifteen minutes to two in the afternoon.
“Let’s go then.”
The two waited at the bus stop just outside of Le Sucre and the transport arrived shortly after five minutes. Cay had an idea where to visit while they were in the centre, while Judas stared outside of the window, contemplating about the smooth and non-congested journey up North.
That was French efficiency and planning, Cay thought about the overall of the bus.
*
Suddenly overcame with a sense of loneliness, Judas thought he should speak with someone at the bar. The Orange Room was filling up with people in skimpy dresses and skin-tight long sleeves, which did not build his confidence of meeting one of them. His hoodies and sandals felt stood out in an awkward sense.
People were squeezing into the front of the bar to order drinks and occasionally fried food, and more were gathering nearby, conversing with friends or newly-acquainted females. Judas managed to talk to a person who went by the name Paul, a person slightly taller than him.
“By yourself tonight?”, Paul had to repeat several times with his left hand half-cupping into a tubular shape when he shouted because the music was transitioning to more bass-heavy.
“Yeah.”, sensing Paul had probably come by himself but with an almost similar reason, Judas felt the need to understand his acquaintance more.
“What about you?”, Paul added.
Judas said yes as well and the two talked about work and how they managed to come here, Judas concealed the fact that he had a three-person meal earlier that evening.
More people joined in, mainly males that looked below their thirties but not as young as Judas. Soon, the gathering became a normal crowd of people huddling in loud conversations no louder than the surrounding music.
It had been two hours since Judas started talking to people and his crowd was beginning to show signs of tipsiness as some of them helped brining in more drinks from the bar. Judas was still having his Bacardi rum and tonic, he preferred to stay as sober as possible before midnight. The smell of spilled alcohol had begun to arise, and the hard, stony floor has begun to feel sticky under the soles of his slippers.
He began relaxing, mostly because of the rum after five glasses, three given by an Arabic person with a few gold rings with augmented gem stones on both of his fingers (the glasses suspected to filled with double shots of run in each). The circle went on until nearly midnight and began moving to the wider space apposite to the DJ’s stage. People were dancing with some women twerking on a few male’s crotches, it was a lively scene in the club.
Josiah, a short guy within the group with jet black hair started entertaining three ladies in short skirts with his handsome looks. The rest had begun joining other smaller groups but somehow maintained a proximity with their original one, it was the bond from a few hours of drinking, swearing, and lots of laughing.
An Asian probably from an East Asian origin, not too short compared to the same race as he was, joined the half-unorganised group and began chatting with some of the guys.
“Evening, mate”, with an accent that made Judas rethink of the man’s original home country but with an impression that he was not local to England, Cay introduced himself.
Judas was still in the mood for talking and responded sounding enough amidst the building volume of the music, “Evening, are you by yourself tonight?”. A vibrant light flashed past his face.
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