Nicki felt her heat rate quicken as a message notification with his name on it appeared on her phone. She was half way through packing for her weekend away as she would be leaving in the morning and this was the last thing she was expecting. Curiosity ate away at her as she momentarily ignored the notification and focussed on packing, but the moment she was done she was quick to open it, after having thought through every possible scenario in her head.
Aubrey:
I know you've been invited, I saw your name on the guestlist and I think this may be the perfect time for us to talk. Meet me in Houston.
To her surprise the message wasn't as bad as she expected - but then again what could she expect. It had been a few weeks and they still hadn't exchanged any words, however the possibility of being in each other's presence again gave them the opportunity to do so.
She typed a response to the message, and only found herself deleting it moments later. She didn't quite know what she wanted to say to him yet, and for now she decided to leave it at that...
By the time her alarm woke her up the following morning, the text was a distant memory. She breezed through her morning routine and called her uber once she was ready to be on her way. On arrival to the airport she convened with the rest of her colleagues after checking in and shortly after that they were all on their way to Houston.
"Are you gonna talk to him?" Brooke asked as they followed their chauffeur to the car.
Nicki shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know if I want to," she said softly. "I still have feelings and I don't know if I wanna try to be platonic yet,"
"Well there's always the chance he feels the same. I mean maybe after this weekend you'll like Houston better that you thought you would," She said and Nicki gave her a side eye.
"First of all, that won't happen. And secondly, Ivan is not having me leave, he's made that very clear," she said with a chuckle.
"That's very true," Brooke replied. "You never know though, be open to the idea and see how it goes," she suggested just as her fiance took her hand into his and placed a kiss on it.
"You're right. I'll have an open mind," she said and she thought back to the text she had received the night before, but didn't get to dwell on it too long before Jen walked over and linked arms with her...
Nicki walked over to the full length mirror and carefully pulled on the white mock neck jumper that she had paired with a pair of black skinny jeans. Her hair remained in the natural waviness it had been in before and she had applied some light makeup to her face. She took a seat on the bed and pulled on her black Gucci boots before finally making sure she had everything. Once she was content she picked up her tan trench coat and was on her way down to the lobby to meet everyone else.
The offices themselves weren't too far from where they were staying and the tour was fairly quick being that they were slightly smaller than the offices they were used to.
"What do you think?" Ivan asked as Nicki trailed at the back of the group taking in the decor.
"Their design is a lot prettier than ours," she commented.
"Really?" He asked and she nodded. "Why do you say that, we did try to keep the design as close to the OG as possible but we wanted it to have it's own twist,"
"It has less going on. I love that it's minimal and it just overall contributes to a calm atmosphere." She looked up at him and he nodded as he took a look around.
"Noted."
She chuckled as they approached the meeting room that they all got settled in, and took seats around the table. Ivan took his usual place at the front of the room and now asked for the opinion of the rest of the board members on their new offices.
