Sinbound (18+) | ✓

40 | loose ends

40 | loose ends

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"You're really leaving..." Gregory sighs sadly and sips his tea. "Wow."

I laugh at his shocked face, "I've been telling you this for six weeks, Greg, and you react the same way everytime."

He waves me off, "Yeah, I know, I know. I just didn't wanna believe it all those other times."

Rolling my eyes playfully, I tilt my head and give him a look, "Are you forgetting that you're literally building a club over in Spain?"

He narrows his eyes playfully, "It's not the same."

I poke out my bottom lip and rest my hand over his, "I know you'll miss me."

"Eh." He shrugs making me gasp dramatically, "I'll miss your advising, sure. That's about it though."

"Uh-huh," I roll my eyes playfully, "Keep playing and see if I don't leave right this moment."

Greg chuckles and leans back in his seat. We're back in the café he took me to weeks ago, eating and catching up with anything we've missed in the past week that we haven't seen each other.

I have my final meeting with another corporation in an hour so I decided to treat him for one last time.

My visa came through two days ago and I've been in the process of packing and tying up loose ends in preparation to leave this wack ass country in my rear view and move on to bigger, better things — both for my future and my sanity.

I'm drawn from my thoughts when Greg questions, "When are you officially leaving?"

I sip my coffee that I thought would've cooled down in the five minutes I let it sit only for it to burn the roof of my mouth — again.

"In two days." This makes me gasp in realization, "Which reminds me — I got you something. A parting gift, if you will."

Gregory watches me and leans forward as I pull a smaller paper bag from my handbag on the chair beside me.

I place it gently in front of him and watch with excitement as his eyes light up in surprise.

"You didn't have to, Monique."

"I wanted to." I reassure, clasping my hands in front of me.

He hesitates before pulling the bag open and taking from it a white object on a string with a red button in the middle.

"It's a..." He trails off, waiting for me to finish the sentence for him.

I snicker, happy with my parody gift, "Senior medical button. Press it if you ever need help. Like, when you fall and can't get up."

Greg rolls his eyes, seeing right through my jokes, "Ha ha, very funny — I'm not that old."

I lean forward like Regina in that one Mean Girls meme, "So you agree? You're old."

He rolls his eyes and kisses his teeth and that's when I pull out his actual gift. It's a bigger bag, the items concealed with the coloful stuffing paper people use for gift bags.

He pulls them out and rests them neatly on the table. Reaching within the bag, he emerges with a Coach watch box. He looks up at me with doe eyes, "Monique, you really didn't have to."

"Open it."

He exhales and opens it to reveal a navy blue and gold interfaced watch with a matching band. "Wow. Monique, thank you so much."

"Check the back." I tell him, giddy with excitement.

He turns it around, eyes watering as he reads the engraving on the back. "Thank you for being the father I never had. Love, Mo." He exhales shakily, bringing tears to my eyes.

Dang, I was gonna gangster it out. Guess not.

"I don't even know what to say." Greg leans forward and rests the watch back in the case to hold my hand, "Thank you, Mo. And you know I'm always here for you."

I nod and purse my lips, trying to keep the tears at bay.

He sighs and pulls away, reaching into his briefcase, "While we're on the topic of gifts..."

I gasp in surprise, "You didn't..."

He emerges with an elongated box and plants it in front of me — it reads Swarovski with their trademark swan.

"Greg..."

"Open it."

It's a Swarovski tennis bracelet. Don't cry, Monique.

"Greg, you didn't have to." I trail off.

He smirks, "Neither did you so I guess we both didn't have to."

I nod and bite my lip, eyes stuck on the jewelry in my hand, "Thank you, Gregory. For everything." I sniffle at the realization that this might be the last time we sit in this café, "I know we'll see each other again, but it won't be in the way we usually see each other, you know what I mean?"

He nods, "The important part is — I'm always here if you need anything, Mo. Call, text, whatever — it doesn't matter, I'm here."

another short filler while i now try to get this book together 😭