Chapter 5: Love Birds

The board meeting had just finished a few moments ago and Gabriel had just come out. He stood outside the conference room waiting for Hailey to emerge from the room so that they could go and check out the apartments that Charles Henry wanted to show them. After a little while, he caught a glimpse of Hailey coming out of the conference room.

     “You wasted a little more time than I expected,” Gabriel told her.

     “I am so sorry about that, I was trying to arrange a few documents,” she replied. “has Charles arrived yet?” she asked him.

     “not yet, but he said he was on his way,” Gabriel told her.

     As they were still talking, Charles was walking toward them and waving at them.

     “Speak of the devil and he will indeed appear" Hailey muttered

     “so, who is ready for a tour?” Charles asked them playfully. “we are going to be visiting several apartments,” he said.

     “I am indeed interested in the tour, at least I will learn more about this city,” Hailey replied to Charles.

     So, Charles drove them in his car to the first apartment which was at Melrose avenue. It was indeed a nice neighborhood. The apartment was small from the outside, but what did that matter to her, she was going to be staying alone.

     Before they arrived, Charles had already informed the agents of the apartments that he was coming with a client. So they were already waiting for them to arrive.

     They saw the agent, a woman that seemed to be in her late thirties. She showed them around the house. It was a two-bedroom apartment, with a cool design. The interior of the apartment was painted white, a color that Hailey loved.

     The apartment was just a very recently completed and no one had ever moved in there, so it was still new.    

     “so what do you guys think about this place?” Charles asked them

     “I think it is a cool place and I love it,” Hailey said

     “It is a nice place but I think we should see the other apartments first before making any decision,” Gabriel said

     The next apartment was at Normandie avenue. The moment she saw the apartment, she did not like it probably because the previous apartment was better. So they just moved to the next location without even bothering to check it out.

     After about a few hours of visiting different apartments in about 6 different locations, they finally came to the perfect house for Hailey. The apartment was at Wilshire Boulevard, an awesome neighborhood.

     The apartment was also newly constructed. It had a wooden interior painted with a mixture of white and a touch of red. Above all, it had cool scenery.

     “This is just perfect for me,” Hailey said to Gabriel.

     “I am glad you like it,” Gabriel replied to her. “So I am going to get the paper works ready so that you would be able to pay and move in as soon as possible,” Charles said.

     “I am so grateful to you guys, I would not have been able to get such an apartment on my own,” Hailey told Gabriel and Charles, as she hugged them both.

     They were all famished, so they stopped by a restaurant to get something to eat. While Hailey went to get some food for all of them, Gabriel asked Charles to inform him once the paperwork was done for the apartment, so that he could pay for the house.

     Later that day, Charles and Gabriel went to get some beer at a popular lounge known as the Ivy bar. The bar was popular because a lot of celebrities normally visited the bar.

     The bar had the characteristic smell of alcohol just like in all other bars. It had unique scenery because it was located on a cliff which allowed customers to get a view of the vast landscape of Manhattan from that height.

      “you seem interested in Hailey, why is that?” Charles asked Gabriel being curious.

     “come on bro, she is just a friend. Moreover, what are friends for?” Gabriel replied.

     “why do I get the feeling that there is something much more than friendship going on,” Charles told Gabriel with a look of suspicion on his face.

     “We are just friends,” Gabriel said as he chuckled a little.

     “ if you say so,” Charles told Gabriel. “Anyway, my advice is that you should go for her. She is your kind of girl,” he said.

     “to be honest bro, I have grown fond of her,” Gabriel said. “you are actually the first person I am telling this but I am always happy around her,” he told Charles.

      “hey, I have known you for a very long time now, and believe me, I know when you are in love with someone,” Charles said to Gabriel.

     “so what do you think I should do about it?” Gabriel asked as he slacked back on his chair with a totally confused expression on his face. 

     “I think you should ask her out to a dinner and maybe tell her how you feel about her,” Charles told him. “I mean, what is the worst that can happen,” he said sounding sarcastic.

     After the discussion that Jason had with his friend Charles, he decided to ask Hailey out on a date to dinner. He just had to pick a good day for that.

     It was a few minutes past nine o’clock and they had not noticed that they had been at the bar for quite a while. It did not matter much to them, after all, they were just two single men. There was nothing they were going to be doing at home.

     So they decided to have a few more drinks just before heading back home.

     The next day just before Hailey went home, Gabriel came to her and invited her to dinner with him. She was obviously already in love with Gabriel and had been waiting for that moment for a while now, so she accepted without hesitation.

     Later that evening, Gabriel drove down to Hailey’s hotel in his red Lamborghini Centenario. He gave her a call once he arrived and she came down to meet him. She was wearing a purple flowing gown that was open behind revealing her back a little.

     “you look really beautiful,” Gabriel told Hailey as he went up to her and gave her a warm hug “after you my lady,” he said gesturing his arms like a gentleman for her to walk in front of him.

     On getting towards his car, Gabriel moved swiftly in front of her and helped her open the car's door.

     “Wow!, what a nice car,” Hailey said looking around the interior of the car.

     “Thanks,” Gabriel replied “so I have a special place that we should go to and I know that you would love it,” he said with a smile on his face as he started the engine of the car.

     They arrived at the Blue Willow Restaurant, which was one of the most exotic restaurants in Manhattan. The restaurant was beautifully decorated in such a manner that gave it an old Shanghai aura.

     “so, you will be choosing our dish,” Gabriel said to Hailey as he smiled.

     “ But I have never been to this restaurant before, how will I know what to choose,” she replied

     “it does not matter,” he said “whatever you choose would be perfect, moreover there is a menu,” Gabriel said as he gave her the menu book to choose from.

     After a long while of her looking at the menu confused about what dish to select she finally chose the dragon fire noodle bowl, which was one of the Asian dishes. The name dragon fire was given to the dish because of how spicy it was. Once they started eating, they realized how spicy the noodle was, they barely managed to finish the noodle.

     Gabriel drove Hailey back to her hotel and walked her to her room. When they reached the door he gave her a soft kiss, it made her feel a rush of emotions within her, she had never felt that way before and at that moment she realized that she could not get enough. Once he lifted his lips from hers, she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him closer, and kissed him passionately.