EMMA’s POV :
----- One Month Later - --- -
I woke up this morning to an alarming text from lan.
lan: Emergency.
Ally’s in the hospital.
Call me ASAP.
I jolted from the bed and quickly called his phone.It rang for a few times before he finally picked up.
"Hey? What’s going on?"I said to the phone.
"It's bad,"he sighed.
"I found her lying unconscious in her apartment last night.I had to bring her to the hospital to get her stomach pumped.She was mixing alcohol and prescription drugs,"
"Oh, no..."I breathed.
"How’s she doing now?"
"She's okay now that they've pumped her insides.But she’s not doing well at all.I'm worried about her,"
"Have you called her parents...or Richard?"
"She explicitly told me not to,"
"So, what can you do?"
"Nothing...I just have to stay with her and make sure she doesn't do anything else stupid,"he scoffed.
"Oh..."
"Yeah..."
Okay, I don’t wanna be a petty bitch, but come on! I know Ally’s going through some hard time, but does she really have to keep doing this to my fiancée? When is this gonna end? It keeps going on and on! Whoa, now.
Slow down there, Emma.
A girl was fighting for her life in the hospital and all I could think about was my relationship.
Those were some very selfish thoughts.
I ended up scolded myself internally for being such an immature brat.
"So, I guess...there’s gonna be a slight change of plans for Christmas?"
I said to him cautiously.
"Yeah, that's also what I wanna talk to you about..."his tone was cautious too.
lan and I had a special rendezvous all planned out for this Christmas.
There was this amazing Van Gogh exhibition at the Met, which was lan’s favorite artist of all time, so I got us tickets for it as his Christmas present.
This year for Christmas, we wanted to give each other the gift of ‘ experiences’ instead of material things.
The Van Gogh exhibition would have been an amazing one full day experience where we could be transported to Paris in the 1880s.
What could be more romantic than that? lan, on the other hand, had booked us the suite room at the Plaza Hotel.
He knew that I grew up watching Home Alone 2 for Christmas, so he wanted to give me the ' Kevin’ package.
We were gonna ride around in a limousine and eat pizza before spending a romantic night together at the hotel suite.
But with just one phone call, all those plans were swirling down the toilet.
"Well, I can always auction off the tickets,"
I sighed as I grabbed the tickets in my hand.
Such a sad reminder of how epic our Christmas would have been.
"Would you mind? I know I’ve done this so many times already..."
"If that’s what you wanna do, it's fine.I understand,"
I tried to sound as casual as possible, hiding away my bitter disappointment.
"But you should still come to New York.We can spend some time together? A night at the Plaza?"
"You think so?"
"Yeah, absolutely.I mean, you still wanna come see me, right?"
"Of course I do,"
"Great.I'll see you this weekend, then?"
"Yeah,"
"I love you, baby girl.Thank you for being so understanding,"
"Sure..."
As soon as I ended the call, I let out the biggest dramatic sigh ever.
on the bed
was eating cereal and watching
on
"Good morning, Emmie.Cereal?"
Sophie beamed cheerfully.
"Ugh, hmm,"
and staggered towards the
"Uh-oh.That doesn’t look good,"
Sophie said to Tristan.
from his laptop screen and watched
Is it
tried to crack a
talked to lan on the phone," I
and Tristan exchanged a
to me and asked, "Wait, let me guess, he
were supposed to go to a Van Gogh
the Plaza because I said I
"Aw, that was sweet,"
Sophie pouted.
He
Tristan asked.
got this
"That girl Ally?"
Sophie narrowed her eyebrows.
"Yup,"
don’t even like her name, Ally.Alley.Ew,
to gag, causing me to
told them about
the thorn on
convinced that she
but Tristan
She did help him start the gallery, which is Ian’s dream.He might feel indebted to her in some
more logical and mature out of all
should
petty wasn't gonna get me
enough is enough.I’m not gonna let this ruin my Christmas," I said, full of resolution as
your game plan?"
go out there and be the supportive girlfriend that
lan, then she’s important
to spend Christmas taking care of her,
you, Emmie.That's a very mature
eyes sarcastically.She knew I was trying too hard.Okay, confession time: lan and I were eight years apart, I was secretly
wondered if he thought
and act mature, even though on the inside I was petty
about me.What are you guys’
to change the subject.The more I thought about
meet my parents," Sophie said and she
"That's a big step,"
dad are
I said
here. I got some work to do for the
eyes were glued
Christmas? Really?" I
to
need to get yourself a girlfriend.Your life is
Sophie commented.
life’s not that bad,"
up at me and said, "Plus, I already
me, a real
eyes at him and
rather focus on school, actually make something of myself, you know what I mean?"he
can do both?"Sophie
"Nah, I'm good,"he shrugged.
you know what they say, more honey
could agree
say I never thought
wrong, I love being
sometimes I did think that being single has
Tiff for example, she could travel the world without having to worry
on school and his future
"And hey, if you get bored, you can always
boyfriend? No, but thanks for the offer
course, what was I thinking? Tristan would definitely rather stay here than
one that insisted to go with lan to the
was there every day, so if I wanted more time
it was
felt like I was third-wheeling on Ian and
was so doting on
would bring her lunch every day and feed her
I didn’t know about, and they would
days of that, I
I stayed in his apartment, watching Home Alone, being ironically
New Year's Eve and our suite reservation was for
thing ever, ringing in the New Year
after what I’ve witnessed the past three days, the romance bone in me had
should be shaving my legs or picking out a sexy
the night watching TV and eating Cheetos and a tub of ice cream with a
heard that
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