Royally Kissed | ✓

38; the missing gift

Picking up her black leather handbag, she strode out of her room and was soon heading to Manor Hotel to visit Owen.

He'd called her last night to have breakfast with him at the hotel today as if it was to kick off the 'thing', whatever it was they had now. But she soon found herself smiling, her eyes moving past the blurry images of the world outside the window of the car.

The journey to the hotel lulled her into the backseat with a cozy silence. Crisp snowflakes were sprinkling down all throughout the city that the windows turned into foggy mirrors of Christmas lights, ice-coated twigs, joyous laughter, and strangers covered in fur of the early morning cold, passing by each other.

Strangers. Why does that word sound so familiarly sad and happy at the same time?

Her mind wandered off.

How long had it been since the last time she visited Jude and Robin? Once, right before her birthday, she swung by the hospital in an attempt to invite him and her daughter, only to find out that it was Jude's last day there.

Cain had told her that she could just visit him at their apartment anytime she wanted−apparently, Jude refused the invitation because he didn't feel like he could anyway. She took a mental note to pencil him in on her schedule−amidst the clutter of college and training.

Minutes before arriving, Paige placed the black beret atop her head and craned her neck to stare at the three golden buildings looming ahead. For some reason, she couldn't stop the corners of her mouth curving up into a wide smile.

"Good morning, Ms Paige," one bellman greeted the second she arrived.

"Hello," she replied brightly, clasping her handbag against her abdomen that she'd hoped didn't appear too stiff. "Thank you for your hard work, sir. You have a good one."

"Oh," the employee was rather stunned at this, if his eyes blinking minutely would be a good indication. Paige quirked up her lips in amusement at the fact that the guy possibly didn't expect that, "of course, Miss. And you are most welcome."

She nodded before proceeding further onto the red carpet.

The guests lounging at the main lobby simultaneously turned to her when they noticed her arrival and she had to stop the heat that promptly spread across her cheeks. It was bad enough that the area seemed like a football field before she could reach where the elevators were.

It wasn't long before she decided that it was one of the cons, or pros, of living her life the way it was now. She had a bodyguard shadowing behind her, and her face had been to many places across the country that it was nearly impossible for her not to be recognized now.

Even in the university, pretty much everyone had treated her differently. Where before she was a nobody, now she was the center of attention−the anxiety that came with it was something she had yet to overcome. Paige was a wallflower and she liked it that way. But with the set of things now, that would be nearly impossible.

Malcolm sidestepped her to push the button himself, his reflexes so fast it was as if he felt her discomfort. She gave him a lopsided smile and let out a breath when the marathon was all over.

"I don't understand why you still have to go up with me," she said, her question ricocheting off the walls since there was just the two of them inside the lift. "I have hands. I can push the buttons myself just fine."

Malcolm, behind his full-black glasses, allowed a fleeting smirk. "Unless you detest me in a way people do for Nickelback, then you'd be damn sure I will be around for a very long time, Miss."