The next morning, she was up early and got to the airport just in time to catch her flight to Boston, Grace was waiting for her at the airport.
"You came, you came,"
She let out in excitement when she saw her, Nicole smiled, she missed her friend for just this short week that she wasn't around, they shared a hug and Grace took her home to her apartment which was close to the Uni.
"It feels so surreal to have you here with me in Boston,"
Grace said as they lay in her bed in her apartment, she shared the apartment with two other students who were currently not around, according to Grace, they weren't really close so she didn't know much about them, the house was not big but it was the perfect student home, she never experienced this because she had gone to school from home, she wished she had the courage back then to move out and live close to campus but she had been a shy cat.
"I met Rafael,"
Nicole announced, she couldn't keep it in anymore, it's had been nagging in her mind since she landed in Boston, she was still pissed about how he acted last night.
"Wow, really, where? Wait at the party?"
"Yes, at the party, I met Aron too,"
"Oh my God, everyone must know this Lucas then,"
"Yeah, he is a huge name in the business world, I guess his friendly nature draws a lot of people to him, even though Rafael had said he was colder than him but when I met him he had been all smiles and nice, I even called Rafael out on it and he said maybe he changed as he did,"
"Wow, and Aron, what did he do there?"
"He said he was in New York for business and decided to drop by at the party for Lucas,"
Nicole explained, he could tell Grace was having her doubts again.
"He is an okay guy Grace, and he kept me company throughout the party and even took me to my hotel before going to his, he is really cool,"
"I didn't say otherwise,"
"Your face said so,"
"You already know how I feel about him, I am glad he was there so that you won't be alone but that doesn't mean I have to suddenly like him, I still maintain my opinion of him that he is just a pretender and is up to no good,"
Grace said, as a matter of fact, Nicole couldn't argue with her, she had her reasons and it was better to respect that.
"Back to Rafael, so what happened?"
"Can we not talk about him?"
"Why, did he do something wrong? Did he pretend not to know you?"
Grace asked getting off the bed.
"No, but I would have preferred if he had done that, rather than what he did,"
"What did he do? Spill girl,"
Nicole told her about everything that conspired between them at the party without leaving a single detail out.
"Wow, all I can see in this whole thing is your ex-husband is still not over you and is hella jealous, he doesn't like seeing you with another man which is why he reacted that way,"
Grace said, Nicole didn't believe that was the case, Rafael wasn't into her again, she could tell by the way he was dancing with his date, he is just pissed she moved on too.
"I don't think that's the case, Grace, he had a date too,"
"That doesn't mean they are a thing, I am telling you that Rafael still has feelings for you,"
"You are wrong for once Grace, he doesn't, he is just trying to be controlling, he said it himself that he doesn't care about me, the only reason he even talked about it was because of how it would bring attention to me,"
"That's even more green flags because why else will he be concerned,"
"Okay, let's stop talking about this Grace, I don't want to give myself false hope, I have been doing fine lately, I don't want to ruin that,"
She pleaded.
"I am sorry Nicole, you are right, we should not talk about it, there are millions of other things we can talk about like the fact that you just hit Fifteen million followers on IG,"
She said excitedly, Nicole hasn't checked her page since this week, the last time she checked it was at eleven which means she gained over four million in one week, when she had opened that page, she didn't know she would get this much attention to her work, maybe this was a sign, maybe she should do this, give the public a try, get that attention and see how far it goes.
"I know a celebrity and that's so cool, wait until they find out you own that hotel, trust me you will gain even more followers,"
Grace said she was even more excited about this whole thing.
"Should I?"
"Should you what?"
"Should I open the hotel? Rafael thinks I am doing the public display of affection thing with Aron to get a reaction from him since my not opening the hotel didn't, I want to prove him wrong,"
She said, suddenly buying the idea even more.
"Do whatever makes you happy Nicole and I will support you all the way, don't do it if you only want to prove a point to your ex-husband, do it because you are ready and that's what you want,"
Grace advised, again Nicole was thankful she had someone like Grace as a friend.
"Thank you, Grace, I will follow my heart, I am going to open it anyway, just when I am ready,"
"Good,"
"I am hungry, please feed me,"
She said changing the topic, Grace laughed as she got off the bed and followed her to the kitchen.
Nicole spent the whole of the weekend with Grace and left Boston on Monday afternoon, she wanted to stay more but then her mom called her that she needed to be back home so that they can talk about the upcoming celebration in the family, Nicole already told herself she would be involved this time, so she decided to go back home, she was turning a new age soon and she wanted the new age to be the start of a new phase in her life, chapter Twenty-six brought so much joy and then sadness to her and she wanted to do well so that chapter Twenty-seven would be a merry ride...