"Daddy!" Mason screams. He jumps off the chair and into Nate's arms, who looks just as excited.
"Hey, son." He says. "I missed you."
"I missed you too." Mason pouts as he snuggles into his dad's embrace.
Zach looks at the scene unfolding in front of him, a little awed. Meanwhile, Dani returns with a plate of food and a glass of juice in his hand from the breakfast buffet, and sets in on the table.
"But I think mommy missed you more." Mason continues.
Nate visibly stiffens. Dani comes and stands next to me, and I look up at him.
"Trust Mason to keep quiet." He mutters.
"I think it's a good thing." I say.
Dani says something else, but I'm so concentrated on Mason and Nate, I don't hear him.
"Why's that?" Nate's asking Mason.
"Because she cried all night." Mason exasperates. "It was awful."
I bite my lip. Now even I feel bad. All this time, I wanted to be on Gabriella's side, just because she needed someone there for her, even if it was just a friend.
I can't imagine what Gabriella must be going through. To lose your boyfriend like that, twice, and then your parents because of him?
It was easy to tell her not to talk to him ever again, but not so easy to step in Gabriella's shoes. Anyone else would have run from it all.
Nate must feel like such a prick.
Which he is - no offense. But I guess the fact that he wants to propose to her and stay makes it better. A little.
He's willing to fix things. Again.
Dani sits down next to me and pushes his glass towards me. "Orange juice." He says. "You don't like coffee."
"For me?" I ask, a little stunned thay he remembered. He nods.
"Gee, thanks." I say, picking up the glass.
When I'm done, I stand up, ready to leave.
"You're not having anything to eat?" Asks Dani.
"Nah, I'm not hungry. I'm going to go talk to Gabriella."
Hearing her name, Nate's head whips in my direction.
"What are you going to say to her?" He asks.
"I'm going to tell her to forget you and move on." I shrug. His face morphs into shock, and I can't help laughing and patting his shoulder. "Don't worry." I say.
I walk out into the lobby and take the lift to the top floor. Her door isn't locked, and I knock twice before entering.
"Gabriella?" I call.
"Hey, Val." Her voice is both quiet and rough. She's sitting on the carpet with her legs crossed, her hair a mess and bags under her eyes.
"Ready to leave?" I ask, walking up to her and joining her on the carpet. God knows why she was sitting there, but I wasn't about to ask.
"Yeah." She says, wiping her cheek with the back of her sleeve.
She wasn't making this any easier.
"You know..." I start. "Nate's heading back to Madrid."
"Let him."
There's that vague reply again. I let out a breath of air and start drawing incomprehensible patterns on the carpet. "Too bad." I shrug.
Gabriella looks me curiously, then turns her eyes to the carpet again. "If you're here to tell me I should get back--"
"No, not at all." I say. "It's just... Mason's gonna really miss him you know? Three weeks is a lot of time."
Gabriella's shoulders fall. "What do you want me to do, Val?" She says dejectedly. "I'm so bloody tired of all this. Mason deserves better, he really does. But I can't."
I tuck my hair neatly behind my ear and lean forward. "Gabriella, what's really bothering you?"
It takes her a few minutes to reply. "The fact that I don't know whether to cry or to be angry." She says. "This... it's been going on for a long time. I feel like I've lost myself in thus relationship. I love him, I really do, but I need some time to myself."
"So you're not very mad at him?"
"Fuming." She replies.
Alright. I didn't think I would scoop to this, but...
"You know, he bought you an engagement ring."
Her eyes widen a little. "What?"
"Yeah." I nod. "He spent a lot of time looking for it, searching for the perfect one which would make you happy. You know what that means, right?"
She looks up at me, waiting for an answer. "It means he's ready to try. He wants to listen to you, Gabriella. Tell him what you told me."
Her eyes are beginning to water. "Not just yet." She says.
"Okay." I say. "I'll tell him. And he'll respect that."
I start getting up. We were already late, and I still hadn't finished packing up the last of my stuff.
"But don't keep him away from his child." I say.
When she doesn't reply, I turn around and walk towards the door.
Just as I'm about to close it, I hear her voice. "Tell him he can come." She says. "But if he so much as tries to call my name, I'll rip his fucķing tongue out."
There was the Gabriella I knew.
I close the door with a smile on my face.
Things were finally looking up.
Well, sort of.
It takes me fifteen minutes to stuff everything in my bag as unneatly as I can - I don't even try - and get the receptionist to call the driver from the hotel's service. Two cars, I decide, because right now, putting Gabriella and Nate in the same enclosed vehicle was a murder just waiting to happen.
By the time they arrive, everyone's downstairs in the lobby with the exception of Gabriella and her brother.
"Random question," says Dani, when I join him on one of the sofas. "How long does it take to get to your house?"
"From here?" I ask. He nods.
"Well, it'll take around three hours to get to my house. Adding twenty minutes to that will give you the time it'll take to get to your apartment."
He leans his head back. "Math hurts my brain. And I can already imagine the back pain from the car." He leans forward pushing his arms back, checking his reflexes.
He acted like he was forty sometimes. And other times, like a kid.
"Is everything... there?"
"What do you mean?"
"All my old stuff. Well, most of it anyways. Is it still there?"
I shrug. Amelia had done most of the cleaning up. "Maybe some of your paintings."
On the other side, Nate was playing with Mason. It was one of their usual 'how many colours can I see?' thing. At first, it was because Mason couldn't differentiate between colours, leading to his parents thinking he was color blind or something.
But the poor kid was only two. He probably didn't know their names.
So this is how the game started. Then, it turned into a way to pass time.
I check one of the clocks hanging above the reception. There were four, standard Newyork time, London time, Dubai time and Beijing time.
"It's getting late." I say, forcing myself up from the cosiness of the couch.
I was about to go check on Gabriella, but then saw her exiting the elevator with Zach.
She stops when she sees us, her eyes particularly narrowing in on Nate and Mason.
"Dani, help me with the bags?" I say. Normally, I wouldn't have said anything but this is beginning to get awkward.
"Sure."
But a guy in a uniform comes up to us almost immediately. "I got it." He says.
Dani and I share a look before deciding to follow the guy anyways.
He loads up the bags in the back of one of the cars, and meanwhile, everybody else makes their way to the front entrance.
"I'll take that one." Says Nate quietly, pointing at the car on the right. "Dani, you wanna come with? And Mason, he--"
"No." Says Gabriella firmly, crossing her arms. "Mason's coming with me."
"But I already said he's-"
"Guys." Dani sighs, breaking them apart. "Let the kid decide."
Mason has begun wriggling in Nate's arms. Nate puts him on the ground gently, and stands between both him parents, looking confused as hell.
"Who do you wanna go with, Mason?" Asks Dani impatiently. "Your mom or your dad?"
Honestly, I can't blame Dani. For being impatient, I mean. This whole thing would blow over in a couple of days, we both know it.
Now it's just a matter of realization.
Mason suddenly looks at me. "Cia." He says, pointing his little finger at me.
I freeze. Oh, dear God.
Nate crosses his arms and frowns.
"He'd rather choose Valencia over us." He mutters.
"He's bloody three." Says Dani. He makes sure Mason doesnt hear though, then picks him up and hands it to me.
Both Gabriella and Nate stare at me.
Zach chuckles. "Now I guess it's a matter of whom Valencia wants to go with."