Seeking Sabina (Completed)

Chapter XX: Innocence Surrendered

At 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon Paris time, Timothy was inside a fancy restaurant at La Defense, a major business district just west of the city of Paris. He was about to do the contract signing with the Dubois and Blanc chief executive officer and he was really itching to finish these all so he could go home to Sabina.

With Margaret acting as his assistant, the signing went smoothly and conflict-free. The siblings both felt fulfilled and proud with what they have accomplished.

This trip had been very productive for the Sebastian Builders and Timothy was really pleased with the result although this didn't help with the ache of missing his girlfriend.

All throughout the early dinner, the group talked about the future projects of the French company in the Philippines and Timothy was really impressed with their ideas. For him, this was really a big leap for the company and it's employees.

The other group had already left, when the two started to clear up the papers. They sort all the papers lying on top of the table, carefully filing each on their respective folders.

"Good job, Maggie!" The young man pulled his sister into a light hug. "Never thought that we two could pull this off, hassle free." He uttered proudly.

The bubbly model elbowed her brother playfully. "You underestimated me too much, Tim. Being friends with Sabina has advantages, you know." She smiled genuinely, thinking how Sabina used to yap about her office hours during their coffee dates.

The thought of his girlfriend made Timothy reached for his mobile phone automatically. He wanted to share the good news with her even though he knew that he wouldn't receive any response from her.

He found a single message in his message inbox and like a miracle it was from the woman who kept him wide-awake at night. This was the first time she sent him a message since his arrival here in Paris so the lone message made him excited and scared at the same time.

With shaking hands and drumming heart, he opened the message. His spirit soared high above upon reading what Sabina had written.

[I missed you, mahal. I wish I could spend the holidays with you, after all, this is our first Christmas together but Paris is too far away and I can't spend another minute with that witch friend of yours. Another thing is, I don't have the heart to ruin your mother's Christmas so just hurry home, please. I'll just celebrate Christmas when you get back. I love you!]

He was teary-eyed from bliss when he finished reading the whole message, an extremely wide grin appeared in his face and it almost lit the whole place.

"Mahal." He whispered, he could almost hear his girlfriend's husky childlike voice saying the word and it sent him to Shangri-La.

"Mahal." He whispered again.

In their over a quarter of a year relationship, this was the first time Sabina called him mahal, he understood that the petite woman found using term of endearment too cheesy so they just settled calling each other their nick names, Tim and Sab.

Noticing her brother's sudden silence, the model raised her gaze and found her sibling grinning stupidly. "Hey! What's wrong with you?" She asked, his disturbing expression made Margaret anxious.

Had he finally cracked? She wondered.

"We need to go home right away!" He exclaimed.

"What time is the earliest flight tomorrow?" Timothy continued while Margaret was a little worried that his face might split into two because of his huge smile.