The Unanticipated Visit| Completed

One Step At A Time

"Hey, where's my car?" Jasmine's face held bewilderment as she pointed to an empty parking space.

Nikolas's car door opened and closed as Sophie got into it. Nikolas had his hand on Jasmine 's shoulder.

"Orion took it back to your place. I told him to leave before us." Nikolas explained.

Turning Jasmine away from the spot, he guided her to the passenger seat, which he opened the door, waited for her to get in and closed it for her.

All the things they had bought to the hotel they had with them. Sophie was in the seat behind the passenger and she listened to music through her earbuds.

As they drove through the town onto the motorway, the cold air whooshed past them and small snowflakes started to fall in moderation. The sky was white and full of clouds and the fields of green pastures started to fill with snow.

In the car, the heating was to its maximum and the atmosphere was relaxed as Nikolas weaved through other motors on the motorway.

Jasmine noticed the sign that said 'Welcome to Cheltenham'. They were here, after nearly a week of being away from home.

Driving through the town, it took Nikolas a couple more minutes before he reached the flat.

After a moment, Nikolas was first to get out of the car and opened Jasmine's door for her to get out from. Before he could open Sophie's door, she had opened it herself. But Nikolas was just in time to help her up from the car.

The girls ambled into the home and it was how they had left it, pristine.

They couldn't believe that they would have to leave this behind.

"So, um get to packing?" He made it sound more of a question than a command, he knew that the girls were leaving everything they knew.

Jasmine nodded and Sophie was already on her way to her bedroom to pack some clothes.

As Sophie was packing, her phone started to buzzing, which gained her attention.

"Hello?" Sophie answered.

"Hey, it's me." He said, cheerfully.

"Oh, Leon." Sophie even looked at the caller ID to double-check.

"Do you not have my name saved on your phone?" Leon joked.

"Well, I would but then you would let it get to your head," she joked. "But in all seriousness, I didn't check the caller ID. I was busy packing."

"I can't wait till you get here. We can then go on our date and it will be absolutely... Bellissima." He daydreamed. ("Beautiful").

"I am not even there yet, le-"

"But you will be." Leon intercepted and smirked.

Sophie laughter filled the phone line and it made Leon smile, him listening to pure contentment made his heart beat a little faster.

"As I was saying," Sophie's laughter halted but the smile still lingered, "Let's take this one step at a time."

Leon rolled his eyes while smirking, "Then pack quickly and get here."

"But I am in the middle of chatting to you!" Sophie complained, jokingly.

Leon chuckled, "Then I will leave you to it and text me when you're at the airport."

With that, the call ended and Sophie started up to packing her belongings.

Nikolas had called a moving van to take their things to a storage facility. So the girls started putting things into moving boxes and suitcases the items that they deemed unnecessary for travel or the stay, they put into the moving van. Nikolas helped the people with moving the couch and packing the girls necessities sufficiently.

It was 6 pm and all the rooms were bare. Jasmine walked into the flat as the moving van drove away with the things they didn't need for the transportation.

Her arms crossed as she glanced around the front room. The tv that was once hanging on the wall had been removed, the couch that was in front of it was gone. Turning to the conjoined kitchen, the plates that were stacked in the cupboards and on the side of the sink were packed away. It reminded Jasnine of the first time she and Sophie decided to rent out the flat. For the months they stayed there, it felt like home.

She meandered into what used to be her room and the double bed was gone, the desk, her side table, her clothes gone. Jasmine thought it to be a mirage almost as if what was happening was a dream.

After scanning her room, she sat by the wall and called her family members to tell them that she was moving away from the university for a while. They understood it to be a requirement from the university and didn't know that Nikolas was back.

Sophie called her family to inform them as well and also called their boss.

"Hi, Mr Smith." Sophie greeted, "How are you and your wife?"

"Hello, I and my wife are just fine. You girls haven't been to work in a while, what's going on?" Mr Smith asked, innocent.

"Um well, I regret to tell you that I and Jasmine will not be able to work for you anymore. Something came up for us and well-" she paused.

Mr Smith replied, "Oh I am so sorry to hear. I will well and truly miss you girls. Do you need a letter of recommendation?" He wondered.

"Not currently no. And we will miss you too." Sophie smiled at the other end of the line, sadly.

Mr Smith was an old man with a very uplifting cafè, he was always concerned and worried about his employees as he felt he had a strong connection with them. He and his wife were not able to have children so his worry for others was very common for him. He had only hoped he had impacted someone's life because he always felt that every person that walked through the cafe door had an impact on him.

They said their goodbyes and the call ended.

Boxes were packed into Nikolas' SUV and the girls climbed in as they were leaving their familiar street to the airport.

Sophie asked an abrupt question, "What will happen to Jasmine's car?"

"I have someone coming to get it to take to Italy, it should get there when we do." Nikolas solved.

Sophie nodded and sat back. Jasmine sighed.

This was the start of their new normal.