Chapter 33: Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Trouble in Paradise

Grace’s P.O.V

As soon as the cab dropped me in front of Casa Dolce Casa, Daniel’s hotel and our home, I all but ran up the stairs, the doorman, Philip, opening the door just a second before I collided with it and into the lobby, making a beeline for the private elevators while the hotel staff shook their heads at me with knowing smiles and the guests gave me confused and amused looks.

As soon as I got into the elevator, I pressed the button for the penthouse apartment, waving a quick ‘hi’ to Zach and Dylan, two of the bouncers at Hell Hole, the nightclub that Daniel owned and his friends. I tapped my foot lightly on the floor, impatiently waiting for the doors to open to my floor so I could go and kiss the sense out of the love of my life. I know it’s only been two days since I went to a conference with the rest of my team at my office, but it sure felt like two years.

If this is how I feel only with us living together, I don’t know what will happen once we get married. Speaking of...I looked down at my left hand, the diamonds in my engagement ring caught the overhead light and sparkled light all along the walls of the elevator. The ring had one small diamond at the centre, surrounded by five larger diamonds forming the shape of a daisy. Beautiful and delicate. I don’t know how Daniel found it, but it seems to fit my personality well.

The elevator door dinged, signaling that it had finally reached my floor and when the doors opened, Daniel was there to take me into his arms. I rubbed my face in his chest, taking in the scent of spices with a fresh bite of lime and let his warmth comfort me after a tiring weekend at work.

“I missed you.” I told him when we parted and Daniel took the overnight bag from my hand and walked me into our home with his hand around my waist.

“I missed you too.” He nuzzled me closer. “Come on, freshen up and let’s have dinner together and then I can show you exactly how much I’ve missed you.”

My heart did that odd thing that it does whenever Daniel says something like this. How on Earth did I get this lucky?

“Daniel...I was thinking about...our wedding,” I said a little hesitantly as we headed into our room.

“Ah! We haven’t set a date yet,” Daniel agreed instantly. “When do you want to have it?” He asked after he’d set my bag in a corner of our bedroom and I picked out a comfy pair of PJ’s to wear.

“I was thinking...maybe mid February?” I asked. “I don’t want to be freezing on my wedding but I want the weather to still be cool enough so that the guests aren’t uncomfortable.”

“Sounds good enough for me,” Daniel said as he plopped down on the bed. “How about 14th of February?”

I frowned. “Don’t be cheesy. Third week sounds good though.” I waited for Daniel to say something else but it looks like he had been working prior to me getting here. The laptop was on the bed and he went right back tapping on the keyboard when I went into the bathroom to change. When I came back out, he was still busy tapping away.

“You’re seriously not going to say anything?” I asked him incredulously.

Daniel looked up from his laptop frowning. “What’s there to say? We decided a date, so now we can just hire a wedding planner and leave things to them.”

“Daniel! It’s our wedding and I don’t want anyone else to decide what’s going to go in it.” I tried to explain it to him. “And it’s nearly December! Wedding venues have to be booked months in advance and so does the wedding dress and tux and flowers an-“

“Grace! Grace, stop!” Daniel put his finger to my lips when he saw me having a panic attack. “I’m sorry, I didn’t ask before. But there’s no need to stress about it. Alright, how about we make a list of things that we need to do for the wedding? Like you said, flowers and dresses and venues? And then you can call Kendra and Tatiana so they can help us make some of those decisions. Call Tory as well.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and plopped down on the bed next to him, feeling exhausted and excited at the same time. “I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to snap at you...it’s just...”

“It’s our wedding and we want everything to be perfect.” Daniel finished for me. “I understand that. Honestly, I haven’t really been to any weddings since I was a child so I don’t really know what to do about these things.”

“Well, lucky for you, I have helped out a college friend with her wedding last year, so I do have some idea on what to do.” I smiled. “Looks like we’ll get through this after all.”

“We will,” he pulled me into his arms. “Together.”

“Together.” I repeated.

And we did. After we’d had dinner, Daniel and I sat down on our bed and came up with a list of all the things we needed to do to have our perfect wedding. And then I decided to call everyone.

Tory’s phone was switched off so I went for Tatiana next. After informing her about the date and stuff, I asked her over the next day so that they could help me decide all the important stuff. I called Kendra last.

“Hello?” She answered after the fifth ring, sounding tired and groggy.

“Sorry, did I wake you up?” I asked, looking at the clock. It was only eleven.

“No, it’s okay...I just...yeah...” her voice sounded weird. “Tell me, what’s up?”

“Daniel and I came up with the date for the wedding and we’re thinking about third week of February.” I told her.

“Really?” Her voice sounded a lot clearer now. “That’s great! Congrats!”

“Thanks,” I smiled. “And I wanted you to come over tomorrow so we can decide flowers and venues and themes, you know, wedding stuff.”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll definitely be there.” Ken said excitedly.

“Great! I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye!”

“Bye!”

I went to hang up the phone but felt my eyes widen when I heard a groggy “Who was it?” from beside her...in a very familiar voice, before the line went dead.

“What is it?” Daniel called out from the kitchen when he didn’t hear me speak for a few seconds.

“Nothing.” I said quickly. “I guess I’m a bit tired today.”

“It’s alright, I’m almost done here. Why don’t you go ahead and go to bed?” Daniel told me. “I’ll join you as soon as I’m done with the dishes.”

“Okay.” I rose from my seat and went over to Daniel for a goodnight kiss before heading back to our bedroom and snuggle under the covers.

But all the while I couldn’t get one thing out of my mind. Why did that voice beside Ken sound so much like Tory’s?