Me and Gustave (cont'd)

"You know, Gustave, the Circle of Knowledge Bookstore is having a big sale," I suggested a little while later. "Maybe we can go in there and look around."
"I'm really kind of tired," he replied, "I was on my feet all day at Yves' shop. Being the special merchant is not the fun and games it appears to be."

"Hey, they're talking about those relics I found in Egypt."

"I know, c'est tres interessante."

"Mes parents, my parents were both professors at the Sorbonne. My father was a Dutch national, my mother was French. I was an only child. When they retired, they came to Champs Les Sims where they raised me. When I was a teenager, their Cessna plane crashed in the Swiss Alps when they were on vacation. Their bodies were never found."

My French isn't great but it's passable. "Oh, c'est terrible!" I exclaimed.

"Que sera, sera," he sighed. "It is what it is. I learnt to live with it, I had no choice. I was alone in the world. Then Jolene sort of made herself my protector --"

"Ah, so that's it. You're afraid to leave the cocoon, take chances, take risks."

Gustave laughed. "And here you are, you take risks for a living." He then took a deep breath and asked a question I didn't expect. "Why do you do this work?"

"Because I like it."

"Days at a time in dusty underground tombs."

"Because I love it."

"You should be at home going to parties and planning your wedding."

"I've never been a party person. They never made me comfortable."

"I bet you have suitors lined up at your door."

"None that I'm interested in."

He later revealed that he had an extensive collection of postage stamps from all over the world, and I offered to give him a few of my Sunset Valley stamps, the ones with Victor Goth and Chester Landgraab on them. He seemed excited about that.
"You know the Admiral had a chateau here."

I gently needled him. "I know, I was in it. You sent me into his library. Did you forget already?"

He had a worried look on his face. "You've made me talk about my childhood," he then said, "but I have not heard one word about yours."

"There isn't much to talk about," I told him, "my story has been all over the gossip magazines. I was an enfant terrible."

"You?"

"Oui, c'est vrai. My early childhood was normal -- if you consider learning that you were able to talk to ghosts normal -- but when I became a teenager I started acting out. Skipping school, drinking, breaking curfew -- you name it, I was doing it. Eventually, though, I figured out that I had to stop doing what I was doing or I was going to end up in a very bad place. So just before graduation I straightened myself up and then when I was in the midst of deciding what I wanted to do, I signed up with MorcuCorp --"

"Hence, the adventures."

"What are you thinking about?" He had a blank expression on his face. Gustave sure is hard to read sometimes.

"A lot of things, actuellement." He let out a deep breath. "You, my parents --"

"Me?"

"I like you, a whole lot. I might even say that I care for you. But I am afraid that I am not good enough for you. You deserve someone who can do much more for you than I ever could."