This Hotel ?

Zina’s Pov

I felt my body moved on a soft surface, my fingers gently caressed the fluffy material beneath it. “Something’s not right” I suddenly opened my eyes and quickly registered where I was.

Ofcourse, I’m in my mother’s humbled abode, forced against my will. I picked up my phone and checked the time, I still had two hours before the event. I got off the bed and started taking of my clothes for a bathe but stopped in my tracks, there was a black box on the edge of my bed.

I hadn’t heard someone come in, “was I really that exhausted from last night? Was it that exhausting to get laid?” I thought to myself, a huge smile plastered on my face “ what a waste, I actually didn’t get laid”.

I picked up the box and loosened the white ribbon that was used to decorate it. Immediately the lips were off the box, the first thing I noticed was a card.

A tiny card with a note on it, it had my mother’s handwritten note on it.

“I know we’re not in the best mother and daughter relationship, and you have every right to still blame me for your father’s death. I take full responsibility for what happened that night, and I’ll always try to make it up to you. M”

I wasn’t ready to do this right now, or maybe never.

How am I supposed to forgive someone who didn’t have a little bit of decency to live without another man after what she did to my dad?

He was the only who doted on me, she was never present, always busy with work, work, work.

She never attended any of my school activities, hell no, scratch that. My so-called mother didn’t even know the name of my school or which grade I was. Dad taught me everything I knew, he taught me how to solve math problems, he taught me how to code, he taught me how to be confident.

She was never present now, and she wants us to have a mother and daughter relationship, isn’t it pathetic?

The first time I saw my period blood on the bed I was just ten with zero knowledge on what it was, all I did was cried. My dad was supposed to sign an important deal that morning, it was huge, it could have changed our lives, but he lost it because he had to go get a pad for his little girl. I remember how he came back that night looking tired, after he showed me how to change my pad he tucked me into bed till he thought that I was asleep.

I wasn’t sleeping, but he thought I was, I could hear him. He was on phone pleading and begging the person on the other line that he was late because his daughter saw her first blood, that the contract means so much to him. But the person on the other side of the phone hanged up on him.

From my room I could hear my father’s muffled cry, he was literally crying like a baby but trying not to make a sound so that his little girl would not hear him. I heard him ask God “Why? Why he had to lose this opportunity”

She was never present during all of this and now she’s asking us to have a mother and daughter relationship. How do you have that kind of relationship with a child whose age you can’t tell correctly? I remembered when I was sixteen, I told my mother that I’d also like to attend the road trip with other kids at school that all that was needed was her signature. And she told me that a thirteen-year-old shouldn’t be going on road trips.

I gently wiped the tears I didn’t know had gathered in my eyes as I walked over to the bin and dumped the card there.

I was eager to see her make a fool of herself with the dress in front of me, desperately wanted it to not be my size as I gently pulled it out of the box.

It was a red dress.

A Long, flowing, deep red with a shimmer that moved whenever I lifted it, it had a slit at the side and a V-neckline that would definitely make my boobs visible in it.

I held it up and looked at it.

“You’re a beautiful dress and I hope you don’t fit me” I smiled wickedly.

I took my time getting ready because I had like two hours left and no one to talk to.

I could barely concentrate in the shower because it reminded me of that man.

I felt a jolt of pleasure when the sponge ran past my nipples, it made me gasp. “ What did that bastard do to my body? Did he unlock something in me? This madness had to stop” I said to no one in particular as I quickly hurried out of the shower, carefully avoiding all my sensitive body parts.

I’m not used to makeovers but the expensive products that were displayed on my dressing table were so enticing, I had no choice to apply some on my face. Then I proceeded to style my hair into a deep body wave. I couldn’t recognize the reflection in front of me when I was done.

I picked up the dress on my bed still not praying it doesn’t fit, but it did, perfectly.

It hugged the right places and wasn’t too tight or too loose. “Isn’t this screaming attention?” I sighed in anger because my plan to sabotage any chance of me attending that engagement party didn’t work.

I slipped into the silver heels that came with the dress. Stepped back from the mirror to have a proper view of myself and was in awe. “ How did she even know my sizes, she never cared to know before now, so why is she suddenly interested in my life” I hissed angrily before stomping out of my room.

My Mother was already in the foyer when I came downstairs.

She was dressed in a white flowing gown that followed each time she took a step, her hair done in a sleek bun, makeup done in that understated way that took more effort than the dramatic version. She looked nothing like a surgeon, she looked beautiful and she knew it.

She looked up when she heard me on the stairs.

I watched her face do that thing mothers’ faces do when they see their daughters dressed up for the first time in something that actually fits.

She opened her mouth but I stopped her.

“Don’t,” I said, still walking down.

“I was just going to say…”

“I know what you were going to say, I just don’t want you to say it.”

I reached the bottom and stood in front of her, I looked her over the same way she had just looked at me.

“Not bad,” I said. “For an old woman getting married again.”

She blinked in surprise, Then she laughed.

A real one, not the polished laughter she used at hospital with her patients, but the one that came from somewhere she didn’t usually let people see. She covered her mouth with her fingers.

“I look forever young,” she said, “and you know it.”

“I said not bad. That’s practically more than compliments coming from me.” I walked past her toward the door. “Let’s go before I change my mind about all of this.”

The rest of the ride was quiet. It’s the first time we’re going anywhere together since she’s never available. So the atmosphere was really awkward.

She looked out her window and I did same, I just wanted to get this night over with.

As the car moved, I could see the fine tall buildings of New York moved past us while I just stared blankly.

It was the first time since morning that I had nothing on my mind, I wasn’t thinking.

Not about Darren

Not about the strange man

Not about my mom

My mind was blank until the car slowed.

It felt like I’ve been here before let’s say Déjà vu.

I looked through the windshield just to be sure that I wasn’t overthinking.

I felt my stomach twist when I realized that I was actually right, but why here?

The Meridian.

The name was right there above the entrance, the neon lights blinking softly.

The Meridian?

This hotel?

Like this specific hotel?

My mother’s fiancé is hosting their engagement party at the same hotel where I had drunkenly walked into a stranger’s bathroom last night, called him daddy, and made a comprehensive fool of myself before vomiting on his towel and passing out.

Why did it have to be this hotel?

As I stepped out of the car, I prayed silently that I would not cross path with him, and I wanted that prayer to be answered so desperately.

We both held hands showing off the perfect mother and daughter duo, as we walked into the hall. It was not too extravagant, but there were elites and some very rich people present.

When we got to where roses were sprayed on the floor, I released her hands and she walked over to the man that was already waiting with his back against the crowd. She looked really happy, and wouldn’t stop smiling.

“if she is genuinely happy, maybe I’ll just be happy for her, and let myself give her a chance.” I thought to myself smiling too.

But that smile didn’t last.

Immediately he turned, my smile disappeared.

What was he doing over there?

“That’s where my mother’s fiancé should be standing.” I was anxious but was careful not to let it show.

As if on cue he knelt on one knee and asked my mother to marry him.

“Wait!! What???? He is my mother’s fiancé?” She got the ring happily, and the crowd erupted in happy applause.

I could feel all the blood in my body drained and I was sweating profusely.

I wanted the ground to open and swallow me but here I am.

After the proposal, people were now scattered across the room, some were talking to their old friends while others were trying to make connections. I was grateful he hadn’t noticed me until mom walked over to him.

“Damn, no, no, no, no” I whispered, I knew what she was about to do. “God please, don’t let him see me” if he was my mothers' fiancé we’re definitely going to meet, but not here at least.

I don’t know what she whispered to him, but whatsoever she told him, made him look in my direction.

Our eyes met.

“Damn it”.