*THE HOLLEN SERIES 04*
????????????EPISODE 03????????????
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*?? RICHES AND ROYALTY ??*
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Emily’s POV
“Are you shitting me?” Gen rhetorically asked as she threw herself face-down in my be-d, in my hotel room, worn out from exhaustion.
“I can’t believe Sebastian is a prince,” I finally spoke while staring at my reflection from a wine gl@$$. I poured myself another drink.
I was having one hell of a day. First, I had to put an abrupt end to my hotel project, then I found out my ex-boyfriend was the Prince of Conovia and I was summoned by him and his father on the rights of the land.
I down three gl@$$es of wine. One after the other.
“At least share with me as well! I’m having a bad day too!” Gen called and snatched the bottle out my hand.
“No! Give it here Gen! Give it here!” I squealed and a competition to tug-of-war broke out.
A sudden knock came at the door, putting an end to the battle of the wine. I got off the be-d, straightened my clothes and opened the door slightly to reveal one of the hotel’s receptionist.
“I’m sorry to disturb, Miss. Hollen, but there’s someone here to see you.”
“Who?” I wasn’t expecting any visitors.
“You would have to see for yourself ma’am.”
I heaved a sigh and looked down at myself. I still looked lit from this morning. I followed her into the lobby and my bott-om jaw dropped when I saw who it was.
What is he doing here?
How he knew where to find me?
And I thought he said he had to be at a meeting.
I composed myself like if he had no effect on me what so ever.
“Sebastian,” I began.
Two men, dressed in black, stood with folded arms behind him so he approached me.
“Emily.” He stood directly in front of me, so close that I could feel his breaths fanning the tip of my nose.
I took one step back. “How can I help you?”
“Let’s have dinner tonight so I could explain some things to you and I could apologize for treating you like an object earlier today.”
Little bu-tterflies formed in my stomach.
“You’re asking me out on a date?” I asked.
“No! It..um.. doesn’t nee-d a title. Let’s just look at it as two friends having a meal after nearly ten years.”
The bu-tterflies faded away. My face fell and there was a pang at my beating heart. “Okay. I accept.”
“Great. Be ready at eight.”
I watched as he walked away. It was just something that satisfied yet taunt me to watch his figure.
“Em, what did he say?”
I leaped out from my trance and narrowed my eyes at my best friend.
“He wants to do dinner,” I answered and a smile crept on to my li-ps.
“Dinner sounds amazing. Let’s pick out an outfit. Where are you having dinner with him? A restaurant or at the Palace? What are you gonna wear? Red or white or both?”
Gen was asking questions after questions and I ignored every single one of them.
I went back to my hotel room and stopped Gen at the door. “Gen, you know we’re not roommates, right? And you’ve got your own hotel room, across from mine?”
“Yeah I know.. but I want to see you get dress Emily.”
“No. I can handle getting myself ready. You, just go back to your room and cool out.”
She lowered her head and step out of the door. I closed the door quietly after her and went into the closet.
__________________
At Seven, I got out of the shower, towel-off my tan skin and bl-ow dried my hair. I applied lotion and before putting on my un-derwear.
I debated on whether I should wear a white dress or the black one. Black was my signature color, something I think I took from my mother.
And white… well it complimented my skin tone.
I tried them both.
At the end, I settled for the black dress.
While I was adding my finishing touches, the phone rang. I picked up the receiver.
“Good evening Miss. Hollen, your…”
“I’ll be right down.. I’m almost out the door,” I spoke to the receptionist with knowing what it was she wanted to say.
“Certainly ma’am.”
I hung up and busily spayed on my perfume. I rushed out the door next and bu-mped into Gen.
“Jesus! Gen! Why are you standing outside my door?”
“Because I wanted to wish you good luck before you leave and I wanted to give you this.” She put a br@celet with a gem in the center of it onto my wrist. “For good luck,” she finished.
“Thanks Gen.” I pulled her in for a ti-ght hu-g. “You’re such an amazing person and friend.”
“Go get him tiger.”
We shared a laugh before I went towards the elevator.
_____________
A limousine awaited at the hotel’s entrance. I got in and sat down, expecting to see Sebastian but the seats were empty.
Where’s him?
I dare didn’t bother to disturb the driver with any of my questions. The limo pulled off the entrance and smoothly drove onwards.
I gazed at my wrist watch, it showed 8:15 P. M. Fifteen minutes later, the driving came to a halt.
The door opened and I got out.
The wind instantly met my skin, the stars were voided from the night sky by thick clouds and the moon looked like it nee-ded charging.
Nontheless, I was looking forward to seeing his face. I walked down a paved path and walked into a unique building that resembled a private restaurant.
“Miss. Hollen, I presume,” a waiter with a cheerful smile greeted me as I entered.
“Yes,” I answered short.
“Right this way.” He led me to the only table and of course, Sebastian was there, reading from a menu. His eyes traveled to me as I sat down opposite from him.
“Hi.”
“Hi,” he answered before setting the menu on the table. “You look beautiful.”
“Thank you, and you look handsome.”
It was true. The Sebastian back at highschool compared to the Sebastian sitting across from me, I would take the current version any day. He appeared more muscular, more manly, more handsome and more of everything in the right proportion.
“How have you been Emily?”
I smiled. “You mean over the last ten years.. or?”
“If that’s where you wish to start.”
“I’ve been great Sebastian. I graduated top of my cl@$$es and I took over my family’s business of world wide hotels. I’ve been doing that ever since.”
“Amazing. And how’s your brother?”
“Which one?”
“The one who almost killed me over nothing.”
I laughed awkwardly as the flashbacks came. Evan pounded Sebastian silly when he saw me crying in the halls.
“I’m so sorry about that Sebastian. Evan had always been over protective of us and he got…..”
“Hey, it’s okay. I guess I deserved that for being such an idiot and I was an even bigger idiot when I let you go.”
I couldn’t believe he just said that. My smile brightened and so did his.
“Excuse me Sir, Ma’am, are you ready to order?” the waiter interrupted kindly.
Sebastian and I ordered and continued our conversation.
“So tell me, why you hid who you really were?” I asked.
“In truth, I didn’t know who I was. Mother took me away when I was only three and moved to America for a normal life. I guess things were ha-rd for her too and she didn’t want me to have to go throu-ghsomething like that but when she died, it rose a red flag. Father eventually found me and took me back here right after highschool.”
“So how do you feel about being a Prince now?”
“Actually, I’m about to take the reigns from my father and become King.”
My eyes wide-ned. “Congratulations. When will you be King though?”
“As soon as I find myself a wife.”
*THE HOLLEN SERIES 04*
????????????EPISODE 04????????????
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*?? RICHES AND ROYALTY ??*
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Emily’s POV
“A WIFE?” Gen shouted loudly when I told her how the dinner went. She had come over to my hotel room again and was drilling me for every detail.
“Yes, a wife,” I confirmed.
“Em, if you’re to marry him, that means you’ll become a queen. It would be a dream come throu-ghfor you. You always wanted to be a queen. Remember when we were kids and we would pla-y dolls?
Instead of being a mermaid, you’d rather be a queen.”
I smiled warmly at her. Gen had always had my back, very supportive and call me out whenever I was wrong about something or did something that didn’t fit my character. She was a real friend.
“I highly doubt he’d even consider having me at his side, Gen. He’s not the same guy I left at high school. He’s different. He has transformed.”
I got off the be-d and closed the windows. The rain had been pouring down and it was beginning to get extremely cold.
I cu-mddled up in be-d with Gen next to me.
_________ The following evening, I started packing my stuff up. Gen was bu-mmed out that we were leaving but it made no se-nse staying here. After all, I couldn’t construct the hotel I had planned out.
“I can’t believe we’re leaving already. We should have taken a chance to explore this beautiful country.”
“Focus Gen! This isn’t an adventure of Dora The explorer. We must be moving on.” I stuffed my ne-cklaces into the suitcase side pocket.
“What about Sebastian?”
I paused at the mention of his name.
“What about him?” I asked.
“You haven’t given it any thoughts on whether you should stay here so you two can rekindle or you’ve already decided you don’t want to see him again?”
I heaved a long sigh and put my loose hair into a ponytail. I thought about her question then I shook it out of my head.
I gave him my number last evening and he hadn’t called or texted me. I held my suitcase and dragged it to the door. Gen did the same with hers. It was quite funny how she didn’t pack in her own room but would leave mine, go to hers, and come back to mine with her belongings in her hands before shoving it into her suitcase.
“Ready?” I asked her as I opened the door.
“No,” she answered like a child who didn’t want to get out of the sandbox.
“The car is here,” I responded without paying any sympathy to her sulking.
Gen and I walked out of the door and I closed the door after me. The bellboys took our suitcases to the car outside as we said our farewells to the hotel employees.
____________
As the car pulled onto the tarmac and my private jet came into sight, my heart became heavy. I thought out of the blue, out of somewhere, he would show up and ask me to stay a bit longer. I was wrong and it hurt dee-ply.
I took a de-ep breath and got out of the car and walked quickly to the jet.
“Em, why are you moving so quickly?” Gen asked as she jogged to catch up.
“I just wanna get out of here. I miss home. I miss mom and dad and Evan and EJ and everyone else.”
Once we had settled in the seats of the jet, I tried to conceal my emotions.
′Good evening Miss. Hollen and company, please prepare for take off in one minute.′
“I can’t wait,” I spoke.
Meeting Sebastian was a mistake, agreeing to go to dinner with him was a mistake and catching feeling for him again was a mistake too. He was the same old coward I had remembered him to be. He would rather leave than fix something.
While I cussed Sebastian in my head, I was unaware of a situation happening outside of the plane.
“What’s wrong, what’s going on?” Gen asked one of the air hostess.
“Why aren’t we moving? It’s been more than ten minutes already,” I stated.
“Our apologies Miss. Hollen but we can’t take off.”
“And why’s that? What’s wrong with my jet?” I quickly unfastened my seat belt and made a beeline for the co-ckpit.
The door slide opened when I banged on it. I walked into the co-ckpit.
“Hexx, what’s the hold up?”
“Sorry Miss. H, but there’s a vehicle blocking the stri-p.”
I peered throu-ghthe windshield and saw a black van there with its emergency lights flashing.
It was times like these that I wished I had an Army. My father had always told me to exercise safety but I walked around like any common person would.
What if that van is full of killers and they’ve came to make sure I don’t ever walk again?
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Sebastian’s POV
I wanted to see Emily again so much that I cut the meeting short and raced myself to the hotel where she was staying but when I arrived, I was told she had already left. I recalled her saying that she would be leaving at next evening but I had hope to catch her in time.
I raced to the airstri-p, the closest one. I was ninety-five percent sure that that was the airstri-p she’d use to her depa-rture.
*
*
I caught the jet and drove in front of it, blocking it from the runway. My hand hit the emergency light and I trembled in fear.
What if she rejects me?
What if she doesn’t feel the same way after all these years?
Questions swarm throu-ghmy mind like wild fire. I couldn’t think of anything to say to her now that I was actually about to see her.
I opened the car door and got out and my eyes fell on her instantly. She was walking towards my car with an object in hand but quickly put it into her purse when she saw it was me.
“Sebastian, what are you doing here?” She asked with her eyes glimmering.
“Isn’t it obvious, I’m here to stop you from leaving.”
“Why?”
“I can’t let you sli-p away so soon Emily. It’s been too long.”
Her scared expression formed into a beaming facial. She threw her arms around my ne-ck and hu-gged me ti-ghtly.
After her p-ulling away, my phone buzzed in my pa-nt s pocket. There were ten missed calls and a text message from my father. I read the message and my heart sunk :
Sebastian, where did you ran off to?
Princess Naomi arrived and she has accepted your proposal.
TO BE CONTINUED…..