Passion Abroad: A BWWM Billionaire Holiday Romance (2 page)

“
Well,
we came bearing gifts,” Emily said as she pulled out a bottle
of champagne from the brown paper bag she was carrying. “We
pinched it from the caterer’s van. I mean, they shouldn’t
get to keep everything right?” she asked.

“
Yeah,
they are keeping the security deposit,” Cassandra said
matter-of-factly. Erica looked at the two and shook her head.

“
I
hate to burst your bubble guys but you do know that bubbly is usually
used for celebrating stuff right?” she asked. Emily and
Cassandra looked at each other and smiled before Emily popped the
bottle.

“
Well,
we are celebrating,” Emily said. Erica raised an eyebrow. She
wanted to ask what her sister meant but she was too tired to let her
brain work out the kinks. “Well, you and Eli are officially
over and trust me, if ever there was a reason to celebrate, this is
it,” Emily added with a smile. Erica shook her head and grabbed
the bottle from her sister before taking long gulps from the bottle.

“
You
do have glasses, right?” Cassandra said as she held her long
dark hair up in a bun. Erica put the bottle down and stifled a burp.
“Well,” Cassandra pressed. Erica rolled her eyes and
walked to the kitchen. She caught a glimpse of the matching his and
her mugs. Normally, she would have smiled and probably held Eli’s
cup in her hands, maybe even kissed it at some point. She sighed and
dumped the two mugs in the trash causing Cassandra and Emily to run
into the kitchen. “Are you okay?” Cassandra asked when
she and Emily walked in.

“
Yeah
we heard something break,” Emily said.

Erica
turned around and smiled at them. “Never better.”

Emily
looked inside the bin and smiled. “I also thought a little
spring cleaning could do this place some good,” she said.

Erica
smiled and reached for the wine glasses.

“
So,
what exactly are we drinking to?” Erica asked as she leaned
against the counter.

Cassandra
handed her a glass and smiled.

“
There
is the obvious reason, freedom from Eli but then again we could also
just celebrate the fact that you never have to be in the same room
with his family ever again,” she said. Emily laughed and Erica
nodded. Cassandra was right. One of the best things about her and Eli
being over was never having to spend a day with Eli’s
judgmental family
ever
again. She raised her
glass and took a long sip.

“
You
know what I don’t get?” Emily started as she looked
through Erica’s fridge.
“The
fact that men get off so easily.” Erica’s eyes lit up
when her sister said that.

“
Funny.
I was just thinking that before you guys came in,” Erica
started. “When a high school girl gets pregnant, she has to
take a year or two before she goes back to school. But the guy could
very well be on to his next target, maybe even getting another
teenager pregnant,” she said.

Cassandra
looked into Erica’s brown eyes.

“
Is
this really about some high school boy?” she asked.

Erica
took another sip of her champagne and shook her head.

“
No,
it is about me dealing with all this crap while Eli is away having
the time of his life with his boys and his new woman in Ibiza,”
she said. “Maybe he should have been responsible for returning
the wedding presents. It was brutal,” she added.

Emily
shut the fridge door and looked at her sister.

“
Hey,
you know what? I am really proud of you,” she said. “Cousin
Trisha would have most definitely gone ahead with the wedding just to
make sure she wasn’t embarrassed,” she added with a
smile.

“
Yeah
she would have done that, wouldn’t she?” she laughed.
Cassandra looked at them a confused look on her face.

“
Trisha?
I have been friends with you two since senior year and I think I
would know of a Trisha given the fact that I have met most of your
extended family,” she said.

Erica
took another sip and nodded.

“
Actually,
you have met her,” she said. Cassandra raised an eyebrow. “Four
years ago at the Thanksgiving party. The pretentious light skinned
woman who was acting all diva like,” she added. Cassandra
frowned.

“
Oh,
you are talking about miss ‘I can’t believe you don’t
have any salad at this party because everything is so fatty.’
That girl?”
She
asked. Emily and Erica nodded. “I always knew I didn’t
like her.”

“
Yeah,
two years ago she paid someone to act as her boyfriend because she
hated being the only one in the family who didn’t have a man,”
Emily said. “I guess I was too thrilled to tell her that my
date was actually a gay friend,” she added.

Erica
laughed.

“
Yeah.
I’m sure she is having a field day knowing that Eli and I
called the wedding off,” she said. “You know she once had
a thing for him, right?”

“
Does
she have a thing for everyone?” Cassandra asked shaking her
head. Emily and Erica looked at her.

“
What
the hell are you talking about?” Emily asked.

“
The
guy I brought to the Thanksgiving party four years ago,”
Cassandra started.

“
Yeah
that guy was amazing. What ever happened between the two of you? What
was his name anyway? CJ, DJ…” Erica wondered as she
played with a strand of her hair.

“
JT,”
Cassandra said wondering why Erica was throwing around random
letters. “He was cool and everything but he had to move to
Guam. Career choices and everything. So anyway, we’ve been
keeping in touch over Facebook and stuff but I always notice a Miss
Tee posting on his wall. I didn’t know who Miss Tee was at
first but when I checked her photo out, I remembered who she was.”

“
Really?
What exactly does she say to him?” Erica asked.

“
Well,
she is always asking if she can visit him in Guam and everything,”
Cassandra said as the three of them walked back to the living room.

“
Well,
that’s Trisha for you,” Erica said sitting back down.
Emily and Cassandra sat down and looked at her. Erica noticed her
phone ringing again and sighed.

“
Need
to get that?” Emily asked. Erica shook her head.

“
I
really don’t. It’s a whole lot of apologies I can’t
handle,” she said. Emily gave her an apologetic look.
“Don’t
give me that look. I’m okay. Actually the way people are
handling this whole thing is the main reason why I have to leave,”
Erica said as she looked at her sister.

Emily
shook her head and then shrugged. “I’m just concerned. I
mean you have been talking of this trip for a week and…are you
really sure this is what you want to do?”

“
I
have never been so sure of anything in my life,” she said with
a smile. “A change of scenery is exactly what I need to snap me
back into reality.”

“
But
what about your job? What did your boss say?” Emily asked.

Erica
shrugged.

“
I
can’t think of that right now. Besides, the guys at Kirkland &
Ellis owe me. I haven’t taken a day off in two years,”
she said in an authoritative tone. “Besides, my bags are packed
and I already bought my ticket. So there is no going back,” she
added.

Cassandra
topped up her glass and smiled.

“
You’re
right boo. This is to a new start,” she said as she raised her
own glass.

Erica
smiled and raised her glass.

“
To
a new start,” she said before taking a sip. She could already
see herself in her new start with the wind blowing in her hair and
the sand tickling her feet.

When
Erica landed in Acapulco International Airport, she was already
thanking her lucky stars that she had chosen Mexico over Hawaii for
her first destination. The weather was perfect and the people were
all too friendly. For the first time in a long time, she was happy
she was not on the receiving end of people’s pitiful stares. It
had been months since she and Eli broke up, six months to be exact
but people were still looking at her like she had come to the end of
herself.

When
she checked in into her room, she took a long nap before hunger pains
woke her up. She considered having room service but when she looked
at the time, she realized that what was initially supposed to be a
short nap had actually turned out to be a six hour rest. She got out
of bed and sent a quick text to her sister to let her know that she
got to Acapulco safely. After that, she took a long shower and then
changed into a spaghetti strapped peacock maxi dress that showed off
her perfect curves. She then straightened out her hair and put on
some light makeup and some gold hooped earrings. A smile played on
her lips when she saw her reflection. It had been a long time since
she put on a maxi dress. Thanks to Vermont weather, she rarely ever
got a chance to wear anything sleeveless without a coat. She put on
some pink lip gloss and then picked up her purse before she walked
out of her room. She could not help but notice just how perfectly
tanned the hotel guests were.

“
Or
are they locals and I just had a racist thought?”
she
wondered as she rode in the elevator. When she got to the first
floor, she made her way to the restaurant and took a seat with a
beautiful beach view.
“So
is it lunch or breakfast?”
she
wondered as she looked at her phone. Three in the afternoon.
“A
really, really late breakfast.”
She
was still looking at her menu when a waiter walked up to her carrying
a glass of fresh pineapple juice. “I’m sorry…I
didn’t order this,” she said as she looked at the waiter.

“
Complementary
drink for all our guests, miss,” the waiter said with a smile.
Erica looked up at him and smiled. She couldn’t help but notice
the boyish telenovela star vibe. “The hotel also has a
pineapple venture,” the waiter added.

“
Thanks,”
Erica said as she held the cold glass and lifted it to her lips.
“This is really good,” she said when she put the glass
down. The waiter smiled in appreciation.

“
Three
years serving that and I am yet to get a disappointed customer,”
he said. Erica smiled and took another sip.

“
I’ll
have the chicken fajita,” she said but she wasn’t sure
that would be enough. She was famished. “Could I also have a
side of salsa and chips?” she asked. The waiter scribbled
something on his pad and nodded before he walked away. She took
another long sip of her juice and looked up just in time to see a
perfectly toned muscled man walking into the restaurant.
“Damn,”
she thought as she
looked at him. He was in a pair of white linen pants and a light blue
shirt. Even though the shirt was buttoned all the way down, she could
see the perfect muscular structure, she could almost picture it in
her head. The man had perfect dark wavy hair and Erica had to admit,
he was the hottest man she had ever seen. When the man began walking
towards her, she realized she had been staring and looked away. She
took another sip of her juice and tried as much as she could not to
make eye contact with him.
“Oh
come on,”
she
thought when the man took a seat right next to her. She thanked her
lucky stars that she had a seat with a view otherwise she would have
been stuck staring at an amazingly hot guy. She was still looking at
the beautiful scenery below when the waiter came back with her order.
“Thank you so much. Please charge this to my room,” she
said as she inhaled the rich aroma. She was trying hard not to moan
when she took her first bite. It was simply heavenly.

“
I
am surprised I can’t hear pleasure sounds coming out of you
right now,” the man seated at the table next to hers said. She
turned around dabbing the sides of her mouth where the food was
threatening to mess up.

“
I
beg your pardon?” Erica asked.

“
That’s
the fajita right? When I first had it, I was with a few board members
and the whole restaurant thought we were having a sexual experience
or something,” the man said. Erica smiled and then laughed.

“
Cute
and funny,”
she
thought. “Well, maybe I was trying to make sure I don’t
get branded a pervert on my first day in Acapulco,” she added.

“
First
day, huh?” he looked at her and smiled. She nodded. “Mind
if I join you?” he asked. Erica almost jumped up in joy.

“
Sure,”
she said before taking another bite. “Sorry, my manners…Erica
Hayes,” she said when she swallowed.

“
Daniel
Reese,” he said. She looked at her hands and smiled.

“
I
would shake your hand but…maybe we can do that in an hour or
something?” she asked. He smiled and nodded. Erica took a
tortilla chip and dipped it in salsa before she took a bite. “Would
you like some?” she asked. Daniel frowned and Erica followed
suit. “Come on, don’t be a baby,” she said. Daniel
smiled and then reached for a chip before he dipped it in the salsa.