Even the surely painful, vice-like grip of my right hand attempting to hold on to Camille’s delicate, yet unusually sweaty, left is not enough to keep her within my grasp. The celebratory crowd lurches us in diverging directions through unrelenting waves down the cobblestone central avenue of Marseilles. 

“Hold on to me!” Camille screams out. 

“I’ll never let you go!” I call back, unable to catch her hand before it slips beyond my reach.