Love At Last

APART

Furious and disappointed, I decided not to return to the hotel Cayden booked for us. I told the driver to take me ‘just anywhere’. I asked him to show me around New York; I wanted to seize the opportunity to feed my eyes knowing I wasn’t going to spend forever in that city.

Feeling the cool breeze that graced my skin through the car windows helped me a lot to calm down and think less about what happened. I tried my very best not to feel regrets of any sort as it wouldn’t be too good for us both.

“Any good and cheap restaurants you have in mind? I need to get food,” I asked the driver, breaking the long silence.

“I could take you to one I love to visit if you wish, Madame,” he replied politely.

“Thank you so much,” I rested my head on the chair and closed my eyes.

With my bag placed on my lap, I felt my phone buzz. As usual, it was Cayden calling. I avoided his calls like a plague and this time wasn’t going to be different. After calling for the umpteenth time, I put my phone in silent mode out of annoyance.

I went back to feeling the cool breeze as I dumped the phone in my purse. At the time, I wanted to rid myself of all possible unnecessary thoughts that could bug me. I asked the driver to take me to the restaurant he proposed earlier.

On getting to the restaurant, I ordered the food to be put in a ‘take-away’ pack – which was going to be my dinner. While waiting for my order, I sat down and had a cheap bottle of red wine – I wasn’t going to spend flamboyantly, I had a family to manage. Savoring the sweet flavor of the wine attracted positive thoughts to mind – thoughts of nana and my baby boy, Jacek. Before I realized what was going on, I found myself grinning ear to ear and chuckling all by myself. It felt really good to have positive thoughts come to mind at that time.

Few minutes later, I left the restaurant and asked the driver to help me look into cheap motels I could spend the night. Obviously, I wasn’t going to go running back to Cayden who served me a real dose of embarrassment on a platter. The driver proved to be God-sent to me that night as he helped me a great deal.

I eventually checked into a cheap motel the driver helped me find. It was not in any way comparable to the extravagancy I enjoyed in Cayden’s company, but in the very least, I had my peace of mind and rest.

I got the keys from the receptionist I saw at the entrance of the building and made my way to my room – room 15. On getting into the room, I threw my bag to the bed and laid down flat on it as I let out a deep sigh of relief. I was too fatigued physically and otherwise to even think of checking out the room first, as that was the normal thing to do in a new place.

I took out my phone and pressed the ‘power-button’. What my eyes saw drove me to utter astonishment – thirty-three missed calls from Cayden! In stared at the screen for a moment and instead of yielding to the thoughts of returning his calls, I switched off my phone completely and threw it to a corner.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

I then took out the food I bought from the restaurant; I was famished. I had turkey chili – brown rice topped with turkey chili, pepperjack cheese and pico di gallo – for dinner; it was specially recommended to me as it was on sales at the time. I made sure to savor every bite I took and actually enjoyed it.

*CAYDEN’S POV*

I knew Lily was obviously mad at me but ‘where could she have run off to by this time and is not even picking her calls?’ I thought.

I drove through the city in search of Lily, all to naught. I called her phone so many times but she didn’t pick and that got me really worried. I wasn’t going to bring someone new to my city and get the person missing. Without any particular place in mind, I rummaged through the whole city.

“Where could she have gone?” I was so worried about her, I couldn’t think straight. I picked up my phone and dialed her number for the umpteenth time and this time, my call wasn’t just ignored, her phone was switched off!

I hit my legs against the brakes of my car abruptly, causing the tyres to screech. This time, I completely lost it. Her phone being off meant I couldn’t track her device even if that was the last thing I ended up doing.

I didn’t stop dialing her number, I was too anxious to do so. I kept dialing her number, hoping it’d eventually be turned on, but my efforts all came to naught.

“Lily where on earth are you?” I cried out as I bowed my head against my steering wheel. “I just hope you’re safe Lily, I really do,” I recited continuously. I sincerely hoped she hadn’t gotten into any form of trouble as I doubted she knew her way around New York.

Eventually, after series of thoughts, I concluded that getting overly frustrated and anxious wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I turned on the car and drove back to the hotel, hoping to see Lily there.

My hopes were shattered to pieces in no time – I got back to the hotel and there was still no trace of Lily around. I dashed back downstairs to inquire of the receptionist.

“The lady that came with me earlier, the petite beautiful light-skinned lady…,” I tried to describe Lily the best way I could.

“Your fiancée?” the receptionist asked. ‘My fiancée?’ I was shocked she actually called Lily my fiancée.

“Yes!” I affirmed without thinking twice or correcting her notion.

“No I haven’t,” she shook her head.

“Okay, thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome sir,” she said with a smile.