Written in the Stars

Chapter 4: A Tea Party

I called everyone.

Well, almost everyone, but no one picked.

I called Camilla, I called Rachel, I called a couple of my long-distance friends who I knew from university, but none of them picked.

The car ride home from the office was silent. I had no words, no thoughts, no tears. This was one of the deepest betrayals I had ever experienced. To lose my job? Just like that?

I was so lost in my train of thought, I didn’t realise that the car had stopped just in front of the house.

Back to this empty, loveless house. I was led out the car by Nico, and I spent a moment gazing at the 3 story Luxury penthouse. It was such a beautiful house, there was a massive rooftop pool behind and vast gardens decorated with flowers and trees. I had also heard from a maid that there were stables with horses just a few feet away from the house, but I hadn’t been there yet.

As beautiful as this house looked, it held so much ugliness inside. I didn’t even realise I was crying until Nico offered me another handkerchief, which I accepted reluctantly, and walked into my home.

Nico escorted me to my room to help drop my office bag, which he had carried out of the office for me during the fight.

“I’m sorry you’re going through this, Leila. I’ll leave you to be now, but give me a call if you need anything.” He said as he started walking out.

“Nico, can you stay?” I asked, my voice was timid and frail from all the crying, and my heart was pounding. “I can’t be alone right now, please.”

Nico looked apprehensive. “You can sit on the couch, we can leave the door open. I just need some form of company right now. Please, just for a little while,” I reassured him.

“Sure Leila, no problem,” he left the door slightly ajar, and sat down on the couch, and then ordered for the maids to bring us tea and biscuits.

“What kind of American orders for tea and biscuits, Nico?”

“Hey, the British like it for a reason. Don’t shoot it unless you try it,” pointing a warning finger at me.

The tea and biscuits were brought in on a round food trolley covered with a lovely pink table cloth, and some simple wooden chairs to eat at the table.

I chuckled under my breath at how extra Nico can be.

“I just said stay, Nico, not organise a tea party.”

“It’s just refreshments. You’ve been crying all day and I’ve been blocking slaps all day-”

“Hey!”

“Too soon? My point still stands though,” he grins and pours a cup of tea for me.

We sat down at the table and had a lovely tea party. Nico made me smile and laugh again easily, just almost forgetting all my troubles. And after a lot of conversation, I felt my eyes getting heavy ,so I laid my head down on the table and started dozing off.

A few minutes later, I felt strong arms picking me up from the tea table, and putting me down onto my bed gently. Then, I felt a soft forehead kiss and I opened my eyes to barely see Nico’s blue eyes looking down on me before I drifted off to sleep again.

~

I woke up suddenly, the way mothers do, with a deep gasp and clutching my chest and pearls.

I chuckled at myself and decided to have a warm shower and pamper myself.

Just as I stood up to initiate my plans, a paper bag caught the corner of my eye from my bedside table.

It was a brown paper bag of fast food from Burger King with a little pink sticky note attached to it. I immediately knew who it was from without even reading the note. Nico was on a mission to prove to me why Burger King is better than McDonald’s after our long argument about it the other day.

All will be right in your world if you just admit Burger King is better.

Your Bodyguard Bestfriend.

-N

That kept me cheerful for the rest of the evening. After a long bath with lit candles and soft music, I felt more relaxed and decided to take a walk around the house.

The house was quiet as usual, apart from low chatter from the maids downstairs in the kitchen. My room was on the first floor of the house, along with 2 other empty rooms, a cinema and a lounge room. All the rooms were large, but mine seemed to be the largest of the three. I had never really been upstairs which is where I assumed my husband’s room was. I walked up the stairs which winds upward in a helical pattern, each glossy soft maple step fanning out into a triangle with exacting precision, complemented by a glass railing with a white frame to match the White wisp walls.

The second floor was pretty similar to the first, with light tiled floors and four rooms. The first room was a bachelor pad, with dark walls, snack machines and a whole gaming set-up. The gaming set-up consisted of cool ergonomic gaming chairs, a 63 inch desk with green and red LED lights, and an ultra-wide multi-monitor pc.

Safe to say he likes gaming huh?

I wandered my way to the next room, and pushed the door open, ignoring the bold red “KEEP OUT” sign hanging on it. The room was extremely dark, so I felt the wall for a switch that allowed light to flood into the room when I clicked it on. It was a study room with a sizable dark brown table that was drowned in papers and stationary. As for the walls, there were no walls, just books. His library was impressive, well organised in very tall shelves that scaled from the floor to the ceiling, and encapsulated the room. I walked around the room, admiring the wide range of books he had. From fiction to nonfiction, romance to thrillers, children’s books, business manuals and journals, some even published himself. But the cherry on the cake was the tall ladder that would allow me to see the books on the top shelves.

I dropped the glass of wine I had almost forgotten I had been holding in my hand, on the carpeted floor of the study. I grabbed each side of the metal trestle ladder and shook it a bit to make sure it was sturdy before starting my climb.

I had 2 books in my left arm and a book in my right hand and armpit each, when my phone suddenly rang, making me jump, and books fell from my height creating a thud sound on the ground.

“s**t,” I cursed.

I quickly rushed down the ladder, while attempting to silence my phone, it was Camilla calling me back. I was reaching for the books, when I heard a door opening a few feet away from the room.

“Who’s there?” I heard a deep barely familiar voice call out into the hall.

Oh s**t.