The plane touched down, and Rina stretched her limbs out, grateful to be back home. Although, she loved her job with Pages of Claire, it still felt great being back in her own terrain, where she had grown to know and love. Igor waved her in the distance and she wheeled her suitcase over from the private landing, smiling at him. She took off her sunglasses as she got closer to him, and Igor retrieved the suitcase from her.
Rina couldn’t help it as she gazed around, looking for Zayn anywhere in the small crowd. When she didn’t find him, there was a sudden pain in her chest. It was funny, because during the flight, she had psyched herself into believing that she wouldn’t be hurt if she didn’t see him around, but there she was, nursing a bruised heart.
Shrugging it off, Rina followed Igor out of the airport into the car parked out front. She sat at the back, peering her eyes at the insides of the BMW while Igor got behind the wheel and pulled out onto the road. “Did Zayn get a new car?” She asked, her fingers grazing the fine seats.
“It’s for you, ma’am,” Igor answered casually like he was talking about a box of Christmas presents.
Rina blinked sharply. “What? I have a car.”
“Mr. Graham said it was your engagement gift. He was going to give you himself, but had to go into the office before your flight landed.”
For some reason, Rina thought that wasn’t true. Since he left Hong Kong, Zayn’s response to her messages had slowed down considerably, almost like he was angry about something she did. And Rina tried to ask him at some point, her fingers hovering over the keypad of her phone. But on second thought, she’d changed her mind, leaving it to time and chance. Perhaps, he was tired of being with her. Or had he gotten back together with Jada?
She knew Zayn wasn’t that kind of person, but her mind was all over the place, and she didn’t know what explanation to give for his sudden silence.
“Does he usually do this? Randomly gift his woman cars.”
Igor angled his head, as if deep in thought, then shook his head a moment later. “He has never been engaged, so I’m not sure of the right answer to that.”
“Of course.” Rina rolled her eyes and settled into the seat. She had a new car another new car. Although her former life provided her with all of those privileges, she’d had to leave it all behind with Kayla and Finn saga. Getting everything back at that moment was a high for her, and Rina was pleased that it was happening at that moment.
When they arrived at the villa, Rina met Susan waiting out front with a huge smile on her face. She took Rina into her arms at once, patting her on the back gently just like her mother would. It took Rina back to the days when the thunder would make her run to the safety of the arms of her mother, staying there until it passed away. These days, she was too far away to make that trip each time something unpleasant happened and Rina’d had to make do with putting up a strong front and letting it roll off her back.
But maybe she didn’t have to do that anymore.
“You must be famished,” Susan gushed as she ushered her inside, with Igor taking her bag upstairs. “I will get your food out in a minute, but I just want to say how pleased I am that you are getting married to Zayn. I know he might not be the best at expressing himself emotionally, and all of this is happening because of whatever is going on, but I know this is for the best. I can feel it.”
Rina didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just let out a smile, hoping it would suffice. Exhaustion ate away at her bones due to the overnight shooting they had to do before she made the trip back and all she wanted to do was soak her bones in a tub filled with warm water, armed with a bottle of rose wine. After that, she would select one of her favorite TV shows and sleep off in the middle of the plot. It was the perfect night for her, and she couldn’t wait for it to get started.
“How was your journey?” Susan continued, taking the smile as a nudging. She sauntered into the kitchen while Rina plopped down on the dining chair, getting her wipes from her bag to clean her hands before the meal. She heard Susan say something else from the kitchen, but her voice sounded too muffled to make out the words. She reappeared a while later, easily balancing a serving dish in one hand. The scent hit Rina immediately, even before the cover got taken off.
Lasagna.
Her stomach rumbled, as if awakening to the call of the food, and Susan chuckled. “I was asking if you had fun working for Claire. She’s such a sweet lady.”
“Do you know her personally?” Rina asked as she helped herself with a healthy serving.
“Not exactly, but she’s friends with Zayn. When she’s in the country, they meet to talk about partnerships and business, so automatically, I became accustomed to being in the same room with her. She never fretted about it.”
It looked like the only person who had no previous knowledge about Zayn’s friendship with Claire was Rina, but since she had put that behind her during her stay in Hong Kong, she decided not to revisit it, moving the topic further instead.
“Any juicy gossip that happened during the week? One that didn’t make it to my feed on my socials. I barely even had the time to scroll through the pages.”
Susan didn’t even think about it for too long. “Joel Osteen is getting married,” she announced.
“To who? That’s…sudden.”
“Her name is Mandy.”
“Model?”
“Actress.”