The next morning, Nicole woke up early and hurriedly finished the present she had for Grace as a thank you gift for being with her and cheering her on, by six am, she was done, she quickly ran back to the room where Grace was just waking up, she couldn’t believe just how close she and Grace have become, when just a few short of a year ago, they were just passing stranger, she hoped in the new year which is just a month away, they will be closer, she won’t be able to bear it if she loses Grace as a friend.
“Huh, good morning Nicole, why are you standing there and looking at me as if I am your whole world?”
Grace asked getting off the bed and yawning.
“That’s because you are, if you leave me, I don’t think I can ever get over it, let’s be friends for a long, long, time, Grace,”
“Aww, of cause you are stuck with me for life,”
“That’s good to know, it’s past six already, you should take a bath, and eat breakfast fast before you leave,”
“Yes, ma’am,”
She responded getting off the bed, while she was in the shower, Nicole brought the painting in and placed it close to her luggage, it looked beautiful even to her own eyes, she has improved so much that even she was amazed by how some of her works turn out so nice and it wasn’t because of her eyes alone, millions of other eyes saw her work and admired them, they give her the push to do more and she wanted to do more, maybe she would open that gallery, after all, she just needed to stick with the plan of waiting till the end of the month, if everything goes accordingly, she would be opening by December, a nice way to end the year.
“Is that for me?”
Grace yelled when she got out of the shower, she looked so happy and excited.
“Yes, I had it made just for you,”
“Oh my God, this is beautiful Nicole, thank you, I am going to hang this in my room, it’s so good,”
“I know right, even I didn’t know it would come out this fine, I am glad you liked it, it’s a thank you gift for being here for me, you have given me so much that this doesn’t pay back half of it but still, I just wanted to say thank, Grace, you don’t know how much you helped me,”
“Aww, baby, that’s what friends are for, we are there for each other, you are the nicest person I know and I am glad I can be friends with you, thank you for this Nicole, I will value it,”
Grace responded hugging her, Nicole smiled happily, happy that Grace liked her present to her.
She decided to follow Grace to the airport even after Grace declined saying she shouldn’t bother, she still choose to, not like she had anything to do at home, okay she had to paint but that can wait.
“Your phone is ringing Nicole,”
Grace said, looking at her, she didn’t notice, she picked up the phone and the caller was someone she didn’t expect still knew her now that she wasn’t married to Rafael again, why was Lucas calling her, she only met him once when Rafael had dragged her with him to a business trip, they ended up exchanging numbers even though he was Rafael’s rival in business, Rafael liked him a lot and had a lot of respect for him according to Rafael, he was someone he learned a lot from even though Rafael was older.
“Aren’t you taking the call?”
Grace asked, Nicole looked at her, smiled before taking the call.
“Hello, Nicole, how are you doing?”
Nicole smiled again as he mentioned her real name, Rafael had called her Nicole in his presence, and well he sort of might have found out, she didn’t know though, maybe Rafael told him the truth because he has never called her Natalie, again they met only once.
“Hi, Lucas, I am fine, and you?”
“I am good, so I am opening my new hotel here in New York and was wondering if you could spare me some of your time and be present here, I would really love to see you,”
Lucas said, Nicole didn’t know how to react to the invitation, she wasn’t the party type heck, she didn’t even know the basis of attending a party but she couldn’t just turn Lucas down not when he reached out to her.
“When is this holding?”
“Next week, I forwarded the invite to you via mail,”
“Oh, okay, I will get back to you on it, thanks for inviting me,”
“It’s not a problem, thank you, and have a nice day,”
“You too,”
She responded and the call ended.
“Wow,”
She said.
“What?”
“I have to go to New York by the next week, wait let me check the date,”
She said opening her mail for the invitation.
“Oh, by Friday, wow, that means you can come with me, oh no, we are supposed to be visiting your parents,”
Nicole said turned, she didn’t want to disappoint Lucas yet she already had plans with Grace.
“What are we going to New York for?”
“A party,”
“Party? Since when do you party and who was that?”
“Lucas, a not so close friend of Rafael, he is nice and he wants me to come around, he is opening his new hotel,”
She replied.
“Wow, so New York next week, nice, I can actually just take a flight from Boston to new york if you want me to,”
“What about visiting your parents? I am sure they will be expecting you to come home already”
Nicole asked concerned, she didn’t want to steal Grace’s attention from her parent.
“Don’t worry about that Nicole, I haven’t told them I am coming home, and besides, if they miss me, they can always come to Boston, my parents were actually really happy when I told them I am spending the weekend at a friend’s house before I didn’t have any friends, so if I tell them then they won’t be against it, my mom is really very sociable and believes life shouldn’t be so serious,”
Grace responded laughing.
“That’s so cool, so we will meet up in new york next weekend, maybe I will make a stop in Boston than from there we can both head to new york together.”
“Yeah, that’s the plan,”
Grace replied Nicole texted a reply to the email that was sent that she accept the invite and they drove the rest of the way to the airport in comfortable silence, the thoughts that however ran through Nicole’s mind was if she was invited, Rafael will certainly be because Lucas knew Rafael more, so the chances of her meeting her ex-husband there were very high except he chooses not to attend, she was torn between wanting him not be in attendance for her peace sake, and wanting him to be there so that she can see him in person again, the last time she had seen in person was months ago when he had dropped the divorce bombshell, how would it be like if they met again? would he ignore her or would they say hi to each other in passing or will they pretend not to know each other? she needed a course on how to meet with your ex and not feel awkward about it, she still had the whole of the week to learn it.