"Y-you don't understand I-,"Ruby rubbed circles on Carmen's back as she leaned into the toilet bowl spewing all her stomach contents.

She only paused to say that she wanted to meet Kimberly Cervantes. Ruby wanted to meet her too especially when they had locked eyes earlier that evening. Was Kimberly Cervantes interested in talking to her? She asked herself, but because of Carmen's greed of shrimps they were missing their chance to talk and actually give gratitude to the woman who had made their stay in New York city worth while.

"I-I think I'm fin-" and before Carmen could stand up, she was at it again, vomiting like crazy.

How much shrimp had she really had?

"I told you, didn't I? I warned you of the shrimp but no, Ruby's always wrong and Carmen is always right. Didn't you ask yourself why no one was eating it or ordering shrimp cocktail? It's alright, let it all out,"Ruby continued patting her back, the very thing revolting but had she been in the same situation Carmen would have done the exact same thing for her.

After freshening up, absolutely using all the liquid soap in the washroom to wade off the smell of fresh vomit, both women were out and back to the event.

"Where's she?"

Carmen asked the rest of the crew, her eyes scanning through the scarce crowd.

"She left,"Lucy answered,"she thanked us for showing up, told us the details of how the money was already transferred to the foundation's bank account and how pleased she was with our work and we could stay in the hotel for as long as we want"

"Though she didn't seem okay to me,"Chris another one of their colleagues chimed in, sipping cocktail using his straw in a rather irritating manner.

"What do you mean? Kimberly Cervantes never has a bad day,"Carmen said and Ruby rolled her eyes, rich or poor everyone had their off days.

"I don't know about that but she was shaking, literally shaking, she even stuttered, her face looked like she'd seen a ghost. Her husband mostly did all the talking"

"Tough crowd, I guess?" Ruby suggested and they all nodded.

"So I dressed up for nothing! So much for New York being the city where dreams come true, I really wanted to meet her you know"

"I know. I wanted to meet her too but it is what it is, Carmen. Besides we are in New York! We have the whole city to ourselves, we can go shopping, site seeing, maybe get you a man while we are at it,"Ruby suggested hugging her bestfriend.

There was no way they were going to go back home without having fun in the city. She was a mother and for eight years she had acted like a mother because motherhood found her. However being in New York city, made her want to explore different sides of herself, it brought out a side of her that she didn't know existed.

Maybe do parties, wear short clothes but not that short, get drunk, simply, do things that Marcus wouldn't like. Even as she thought about all the possibilities at the back of her head, her family loomed. She missed them terribly. Sure she had all the freedom, freedom to get drunk and not have to face your husband in the morning, freedom to go to one of those nightclubs without a care whether your kid has eaten or not, yet she missed being a mother and a wife.

She loved Kylie's tantrums, Kylie's stubbornness, Marcus' overprotective nature, Marcus' obsession of watching American football, having small fights with Marcus about stupid things like boats or who's turn it was washing the dishes and then making steamy love afterwards. She thought New York was supposed to bring back her old memories, instead it reminded her of how much she missed making such cute memories with her family.

"I'll take you up on that offer. I need a drink. We all need drinks after a successful night,"Chris hinted and they all smiled.

Precisely one hour later, they were at a club, jumping like crazy. Ruby had two shots of tequila, rounding up a third glass in her hand.

"This is why I hate it when you are drinking"

An unfamiliar voice came from the person standing infront of her. He had said that before. He had told her the exact same thing before but where? Why wouldn't he take off that hood that covered his face? Grey eyes full of prejudice stared back at her. She knew him. It must have been someone from her past. Except this time she wasn't dreaming, the guy was literally standing infront of her.

It couldn't have been the alcohol, right? No, she was sober, atleast that's what she thought.

She reached out, her hand falling on his cheek, it was now or never, it was time to uncover the guy with the hood, find out what face lay behind that hoodie.

"W-who a-are you?"

And right when she was determined to finally face him, he spoke out,

"Rue. Can you hear me? I'm asking if you are okay?"

The premises changed, the banging music became louder and when her senses came to, her right hand was on Lucy's face, her fingers caressing her cheek in the most peculiar way.

"I thought Carmen's state was worse but yours is on another level. Can you even see me? How many fingers am I holding up?"

Lucy wriggled her fingers in mid air infront of Ruby and she tried really hard to focus,

"Fi-four. Four?"

"It's two, Rue. Wow, I guess we are done for the night. This is what happens when you bring forty year old women to a club for the first time. I'll call a taxi"

Lucy blabbered on and on while Ruby huffed grabbing her glass and pouring it's contents in her mouth.

One more glass and she was out cold.

************

"Beep. Beep. Beep." Followed by a thud and a thud and another thud and another thud woke her up and she regretted doing so.

A migraine hit her without warning almost making her temporary blind. The knock on the door was still consistent. She looked around at the mess in her hotel room and on the floor was a snoring Carmen.

Flashes of yesterday came to mind, they had really let themselves go. All that alcohol, chugging it down like rowdy teenagers in a stupid highschool party. She took her phone from the nightstand dismissing the alarm.

There were a bunch of text messages from Marcus about how the event was going on, telling her Kylie wanted to talk to her. There were also missed calls, six missed calls from Marcus. He must have been worried sick.

Pushing the covers from her body, she got out of bed, dialling Marcus' number to inform him she was okay.

The pounding of the door continued and she walked to the door. Leave it to room service to be an hour earlier.

"Rue?Why weren't you picking my calls?" Marcus growled on the other end of the line.

"C-calm down, love. The event went a little longer than expected and we had an after party which to me was a huge mistake"

"Lemme guess, you have a hangover"

Knock. Another knock.

"You could have bothered to atleast send a text. I was worried sick and what's with the banging?"

"Room service,"she spoke turning the door knob and slowly opening the door,"I'm sorry to worry y-"

"Mikaella?!"

Except instead of room service, one man stood there. It was him, she could recognize that face from anywhere. He was the guy from the article, the guy standing shoulder-shoulder with Kimberly Cervantes. Kevin Cervantes was standing infront of her hotel room door having the weirdest expression on his face. As if ...he knew her.