She dialed his number and waited for him to take the call. If he doesn’t then she will text him, it was up to him to show up or not.
“Hello? Nicole?”
Wow, he didn’t delete her number at least.
“Hi, Rafael, yes, it’s Nicole, happy holidays,”
She said in greeting.
“Thank you, so what’s up?”
“Hmm, I don’t know if your girlfriend told you, but I called before,”
“Girlfriend? Who?”
“Your girlfriend, Josie, I called before and she was the one that took your call, sometime last week, well I don’t know if she told you what I told her,”
“I don’t recur, maybe she forgot, what’s it about?”
“It’s about the hotel,”
“The hotel? I already told you it’s yours, I am not taking it back,”
He said firmly.
“I am not asking to take it back, I am trying to tell you that I plan on opening up for business by Friday and I would like for you to be there,”
“Huh, does it matter if I come? Just do your thing, I am busy so I have to go now,”
“Can you at least think about it? It would really be nice if you come around,”
“I don’t need to, just do your thing Nicole, and good luck with it,”
“Thank you but still I want you to be there,”
She said almost sounded like she was pleading with him.
“Okay bye,”
He said and ended the call, Nicole stared at her phone, she let out a breath to calm herself, she shouldn’t expect anything less from Rafael, the man was making it obvious that he didn’t want to have anything to do with her but she hoped he would out whatever hate he developed for her aside and attend, it would mean a lot to her if he does, he didn’t come to her birthday party, to be fair he wasn’t invited but at least, he knew it was her birthday, there was no way he didn’t know yet he couldn’t even call to say happy birthday, that suck as hell, and it would suck even more if he doesn’t show up, which is why she extended the invitation, she hoped this time though that he will show up, to be sure that he won’t forget, she emailed him the invitation and also decided that she will send him a reminder a day to when it will take place.
Christmas was so much more than Nicole had imagined it would be, Grace came around a day to Christmas and she introduced her to her sister and they became besties immediately, together, the three of them went to see Grace’s parents on Christmas Eve, it was fun watching Grace with her parents, and it was clear that her parents miss their only child, she felt the love and bond between the three of them, before she would have been jealous but now, she wasn’t, she had that with her parents too, and that was the best gift she got for Christmas, being able to celebrate with her family and also with her twin who had made it easy for the both of them to come back to how they used to be, it didn’t really take long, for them to reconnect, in fact, it was easy, now it was as if they never fought.
She spent the whole day with her family, they started the day by gifting each other things, she got a friendship bracelet from Grace and a twin bond necklace from Natalie, they had one before but along the line they both misplaced theirs, then her parents gifted all three of them movie tickets and told them to go out, and that’s how they ended up at a Cinema in Miami on Christmas evening, after that they went to eat at one of the fancy restaurant in Miami, she had so much fun on Christmas day that she didn’t even have time to feel lonely or sad, she also got a present from Aron, from her brand and also some of her fans gifted her stuff which were sent to their house through delivery service, then the morning after Christmas, she dragged her sisters both Grace and Natalie to the orhanage nearest to their mansion, she had a yearly routine of visiting them during the Christmas holidays, this time she didn’t go alone, and according to Grace and Natalie they would go with her every other year, in all she had fun that she almost forgot that she had work waiting to happen.
The days went by and before she knew it, it was D-Day, she woke up that Friday morning feeling anxious, after today, she would be the owner of a running hotel and she didn’t know how well to process the information, she still hasn’t visited the hotel and had decided to get dressed there.
“Are you ready to leave?”
Natalie asked walking into her room, her sister has been supportive in every way, and of course, the public already knew they were on good terms again, she got only positive responses from people and she was happy about it, photos of them in Miami had hit the internet and she had expected different reactions as that was the first time they were both pictured together in public aside from their birthday, it was amazing how there were so many nice things being said about them when a few months ago it had been horrible. her parents, Grace and Aron did a lot too, she felt loved by then and she was grateful for everything.
“Yes, I am, let’s go,”
She said as she got off and took her bag, the dress she was wearing already arrived at the hotel, they are using the auditorium as the venue for the launching, she didn’t have a lot of people to invite but her family did so she knew a lot of people would turn up today, she did invite Rafael’s friend Caleb and he gave her his words that he would be there, she hoped his friend will too, she had every intention of giving him full credit.