Paint Me Claimed - Book 2

24| My, oh my...

Leonardo

Zemira wanted a low key birthday celebration. With the new hotel beginning its functioning, she had her whole day filled with meetings.

Since my return from the rehab, Zemira seemed to be in control but the reality was a mirage.

She was unravelling.

Every call from her office made her turn to a bloody shade of purple.

She was falling off her therapy schedules, client meetings and even food intake - going the New Yorker style and grabbing anything from the fridge before heading out every day.

I was worried.

With my recovery already occupying her mind, the rest piling up all other available space, I could see Zemira burdened.

She needed help, one I was incapable of providing. I was never a businessman, never wanted to be. Even after many readings and evaluations of her hotel proposals and plans, I could come up with nothing.

Back in the day, Antonio and my father managed everything related to business. I was bestowed with a very good assistant who handled things for me. Practically, spoon-fed me everything I needed to know.

So in a desperate moment, when I thought the only way I could help Zemira was to distract her, I called for help.

Help in the form of friends.

Kiera and Jake arrived a few hours before Zem made it back from the office. Haley was heading the Miami division with Grant so her appearance was only possible through a video call.

Sam, however, arrived the earliest.

He was the first to bring the cake, although I had one baked for my girl.

"Buddy." Sam placed the champagne in the fridge, making a few adjustments to the yoghurt boxes and Zem's Kale salad boxes. "What are we planning for music?"

We?

"I am planning nothing," I began, ensuring I dragged Sam's boxed cake to a side and putting up my not-so-perfect-in fact-an-absolute-disaster-cake on the counter, digging candles around. "We'd have somber music but I don't want people getting annoyed with music."

Sam must have understood my apprehension. I never quite liked the guy.

Even though I knew he was only Zem's friend and even if he liked her more, I shouldn't have been bothered but I was.

I had no reasoning for the why of it but every time I saw him, I wanted to punch him...lightly.

Maybe because Samuel was a reminder of my mistake.

I'd left Zemira in the hope that she'd move on. She didn't. She stayed right where I left her, wombing more love for me than I could ever imagine.

In the process, she also made new friends and derived her happy self out of the pity pit she fell into.

I was proud of my baby, for what she accomplished and how she handles her depression. She was an inspiration - my inspiration.

Through the tough days when my body detoxed whatever I had stuffed in the name of painkillers, it was her sheer willpower that made me continue at the rehab.

Had it not been for Zemira, I would have escaped from life a long ago.

She made me want to be a better person. She made me want to make her the happiest woman.

"Buddy." Sam cleared his throat, his fingers tapping at the countertop. "What are your plans for after the cake cutting?"

"Talk, dinner," I began, realigning the happy birthday hat on my dog. Romeo refused to wear it, even for just an hour. "Zem's meeting her friends after so long. I don't want to drive the get together anywhere else and destroy the evening."