The boys arrived at the apartment building and Mason decided to call Giona. She had told them she'd be waiting for them in front of the building but she wasn't.
"Hey Giona, we're here, where are you?" He asked.
"I'm on my way down. I'm inside the building . Hang on, I'll come get you guys."
"Okay." He replied then hung up. Turning to Dylan, he murmured "She's on her way out."
Cole just shrugged and continued watching the chauffeur bring out their luggages.
In less than three minutes, Giona was out. She looked as radiant as ever but her hair was a different color, it was a light shade, Mason noted. She leaned in for a hug that Mason obliged, briefly. She had been his estate agent for a while—well, whenever he needed a place in NY, and she has always known what he wanted and tried to make sure he got the best properties.
"This way guys." She said as she gestured towards the door of the building. The door was opened by the doorman who wore a bright smile, the boys nodded briefly and polietly at him. The doorman knew what to do immediately she looked at him so he went out to gather the luggages that the chauffeur had brought down from the car.
They arrived at their floor and they liked what they saw—the paintings on the wall, the velvet rug they walked on and the lighting of the hallway—basically the entire ambience of the building was appealing to them. When they arrived at their door, she showed them the security lock and how to enable it.
"We'll do this later, I just want to see what the inside looks like. I like the exterior already" Dylan said smiling and nodding at Giona. Giona felt accomplished.
"Wait till you see inside, it's literally perfect." she said as she opened the door and revealed the impressive apartment.
The walls were a perfect white color, and the furnitures in the apartment were white too. The kitchen had a white marbled counter with a trendy kitchen Chandelier that hung almost low, covered in a thin cylinder-like gold ornaments. It was a three-bedroom apartment, just like all the apartments on this floor of the building. The boys had requested for a three room apartment for when they'd have a guest—they always had someone who'd eventually want to crash at their place and they wanted the person to be comfortable. Each room had a window and a small balcony, a walk-in closet and their own huge bathrooms. The beds were all king-sized and it was neatly arranged.
"Nice one Giona, you've outdone yourself" Mason finally said after they checked the rooms and everything looked good.
Giona looked proud of herself. She smiled and was satisfied to have impressed the boys.
"So, what have you boys been up to lately?" She asked concerned about their affairs.
"You know, just strictly family stuff." Mason replied casually.
"Yeah Gigi, just cool vibes and family time. Ain't nobody got time for anything else." Dylan added as he sunk into the couch.
She smiled. She had known the boy's families for almost 10 years and watching them grow has been a highlight of her own life. She was proud of the boys and she reminded them of that everytime she got to met them.
"There are two pool rooms, cinema rooms and hot tub rooms in the building, a general one and a private one, they're all in the last floor. Oh, and a gym.
"Word?" Dylan seemed excited to hear about the gym.
"Yeah. Word" She responded noticing the accent he was putting up since they came in. "What's with the accent? Is this a new thing?" She jokingly asked.
"Come on Gigi, I'm trying new stuff. The accent is not new, you just haven't heard it before."
She just rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Then, there was a knock on the door. "I got it" Dylan said as he jumped off the couch to answer the door.
"Must be the doorman with your luggages" Giona said to Mason. And when Dylan was no more within earshot she asked Mason about his Dad.
"He's good" was all Mason said dismissively. To change the topic, he asked, "Is there an inbuilt stereo system?"
"Yeah..." She noticed his digression and began to explain the technology system in the apartment instead.
Dylan opened the door and was letting the doorman in when he saw her. She opened the door to talk to Sheryl. Sheryl was Jessica's best friend. He just realized that Jessica might also be in this building with them but that's not exactly important to him now. He was distracted by the beautiful blonde lady that Sheryl was excited talking to.
She is so beautiful. Maybe a runway model. She looks like she is not interested in whatever Sheryl had to say, Dylan thought as he stared at her. As his eyes met with hers briefly, he smiled and she smiled back but only for a few seconds before the expression on her face changed to surprise. A few seconds later, she went back into her apartment as Sheryl walked off happily. Did she know him? He thought to himself because he never got the chance to ask her. He wanted to say hi.
Well, there'll be another meeting, he thought to himself as he made up his mind to ask Giona about her later. But her eyes though, they are so beautiful. Thank heavens she's in this building. I was worried about Jessica and her drama but I guess this neighbor is a perfect distraction to the drama, He thought to himself.
"I'm all done, Sir." The doorman said.
"Thanks"
"You're welcome, Sir"
Dylan came back into the apartment still thinking about the beautiful blonde stranger he just saw. Mason noticed he was lost in thought and asked him if he was okay.
"Yeah, of course, why?"
"Your face"
"What's wrong with it?"
"You have this lovey dovey expression all over it. Wait! Don't tell me you're in love with the doorman" Mason teased.
Dylan threw a couch pillow at him but Mason dodged it laughing. "Jerk! It's not the doorman, it's the blonde that was opposite our apartment."
"A blonde?" Mason immediately recalled the blonde stranger he had seen at the airport. He couldn't get her face off his mind too.
"Yeah, and she's across our apartment right now." He was still talking about the blonde when Giona walked into the living room and was about to pick up the couch pillow on the floor. She was about to say something about it but Dylan immediately asked, "Gigi, I gotta ask you about someone"
"Yeah? Who?"
Mason's phone rang so he went into his room where he'd left it.
"There's a blonde girl in the opposite apartment, do you know who she might be?"
"A freshman in your school."
"Really? That's nice" he said as he smiled mischievously.
"What's that? You have a little crush on her?"
Dylan flushed and said, "What's not to crush, she is beautiful."
"Yeah, she is. Is that all you want to know about her?"
"From you, and for now, yes."
"Alright then, take care of yourselves boys, I need to be off now, I have other meetings to attend to." She said, moving to the front door with him.
"Sure" he said as he closed the door.
He got back and Mason was talking to someone on the phone so he just took his own luggages into his room. Ten minutes later, he was hungry for some sushi so he came out to see if Mason would like to go out for some.
When he got into Mason's room, he saw Mason arranging his work desk. Although he knew the answer he still asked, "Need help with that?" Mason responded without looking up "No, thanks".
"I'm hungry, I want to go out for some sushi, are you coming?"
"Yeah, I just need to be done with this, give me a sec."
"Alright" he said as he sat on Mason's bed. He got a text from his mum and he responded to it immediately. He then remembered that Sheryl lived in the building.
"Sheryl's here."
Surprised, Robert looked back at him and asked "Here? As in, in this house right now?"
Chuckling, Dylan replied, "Not here, but the building. On this same floor."
Mason paused what he was doing and faced Dylan, "How'd you know?"
"I saw her earlier."
"Did she see you?"
"Hardly, she was talking to the beautiful neighbor."
"Beautiful neighbor?" Oh, the one you spoke about earlier. Do you think it's one of their friends or something?"
"I doubt it. I think they're just meeting. She was so excited that she didn't even notice me standing across."
"Oh" Robert raised a brow.
"I guess we'll be seeing Jess after all."
Shrugging, he calmly responded, "Whatever, I don't really care."
"You know how possessive Jessica is. She will be back into your life. You know it."
Mason rolled his eyes and said, "I'm over her, fam".
He was really over Jessica. He didn't want her anymore. In fact, his mind was more occupied by the stranger from the airport. He knew he could get information on her from a phonecall but he didn't want to encourage his heart's crush. If they were meant for each other, fate will somehow bring her to him. Though, he was worried about staying in the same building as the person he just broke up with. So, even as he went back to arranging his table, he gave that a though.
When he was done setting up his desk, he signalled Dylan who was on his phone and they left to get dinner together.
As they walked out of the apartment, they saw Sheryl going into the elevator. Even though they all wore a facemask, they knew it was Sheryl. They noted that she looked good. Sheryl has been Jessica's best friend since they knew her. She was Jessica's personal photographer who didn't get paid but was satisfied with being beside Jessica . She was scrolling through instagram and was focused on stalking whoever's page she was on. She never looked up till she was out of the elevator. When they got out of the elevator, their Uber ride was already waiting for them.
"Enjoy this one before your dad sends you another driver" Dylan teased Mason as they entered the car.
"Us. You know your mum."
Immediately they entered the car, the driver said hello and started the ride.
The drive was a five minutes one and they enjoyed seeing the beautiful city again. It was really beautiful at night and the city was always bubbling, day or night. They were going to their favorite restaurant to eat sushi. It was a small restaurant but they served the best sushi.
The place was busier than usual. There were a couple of their college basketball players who came in directly from their football match to celebrate. It was so loud in there but they were willing to risk it for some tacos. As soon as they got into the restaurant, someone yelled a chant and everyone raised a toast with any liquid the had around them.
A waitress approached them and after exchanging pleasantries, she took them to a reserved table. She looked at them, read the inquisitive expression on their faces and said, "The University's team won the game this season and they're celebrating in our restaurant. The customer service may not be as responsive as usual because the help is less than the orders. Please bear with us. What would you have, let me take down your order."
"We'll have the usual." Dylan responded as they looked around at the loud players. The players had been at their best all season even though their previous seasons were a disaster. The coach had helped them and made sure the school had a clean slate all season so they decided to celebrate at the Bayz after an anonymous vote was passed for the place they should celebrate.
One of the players, Ian Webster, saw the boys and came over to them. He was one of the boys Mason tutored in their first semester because he was behind in some subjects but he became one of their friends.
"Yo, Scott!" He said with excitement immediately he got to their table extending his hands to fistbump Mason. He then did the same to Dylan. "What's good with y'all? I saw your girl Jess some minutes ago."
"Doing good my man, and she's not my girl anymore."
"Really? What happened?" He asked but immediately added, "if I had to take a wild guess, she got yo ass tired with the drama right?"
Robert smiled and shook his head but Dylan laughed and said, "I know it got mine tired for sure!" The comment had Ian laughing and he fistbumped Dylan.
"I think we're very opposite." Mason finally said.
"Look man, I knew y'all weren't gon work out It was obvious-" he was interrupted by the coach who screamed "Ay Ian! Come over!" Ian turned to his coach and nodded.
That's when Dylan saw the beautiful blonde stranger walk into the restaurant with another girl whom he presumed was her friend.
Turning back to the boys, Ian said, "Look, there's gon be a party, we're all going from here, do y'all wanna come? It's a welcome party sorta thing but it's very exclusive. I don't even know the location yet, that's how exclusive it is, but I heard that some celebrities will be there. It's by invite and since y'all are my dawgs y'all should come through. Password is..."