Couple's Getaway

Chapter Four

Three years ago:

"Erik! Are you home?"

Shaunice dropped her Louis Vuitton shopping bags at the front door of their new luxury penthouse in the city of angels. They had just moved here from the east coast when Erik landed a huge job as a lead commercial architect. He graduated with his Master's and worked for five years as an Urban Designer dealing with the scales of neighborhoods, districts, and cities. He traveled between DC, Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, and Baltimore. Now, Erik is an upper-level building professional who designs projects for public and private buildings, including homes, commercial sites and industrial structures. His duties include meeting with clients to discuss budgeting, structural specifications, and contracts. He has his own office that overlooks downtown LA, and he can travel out of the country. He even received a hefty salary increase to almost 100k a year.

That was good news for his longtime girlfriend, Shaunice however. Now, she can finally open up the shop of her dreams in LA and hopefully finalize her clothing brand. ShaBella Clothing would be the brand name—Bella being her middle name. What Erik didn't know was that his long time girl just purchased a space for her new shop and even hired an assistant before they even arrived in LA days ago. She'll be doing hair, nails, lashes, makeup, esthetician services, and even selling clothes!!! She wanted an all in one for women to come and get pampered as well as treat themselves to a nice dress or a cute pair of heels. Shaunice couldn't turn down a little shopping on her way back home in Erik's Tesla. He should be home from work now. She slipped her feet out of her heeled nude colored mules and walked further into the penthouse.

Shaunice could hear clinking of glass from the kitchen and when she stepped inside she could see her man enjoying a glass of red wine from a gifted bottle that's wrapped in gold foil for decoration. With the glass tipped between his thick lips, Erik's onyx eyes turned to Shaunice. He loved what she was wearing—a long fitted skirt with a matching long sleeve cropped top in a heather grey color. It caused her brown sugar complexion to pop. She styled her hair sleek and straight with a middle part this time around. Shaunice loved to see him dressed up in his work attire—neck ties, skinny ties, bow ties, pocket squares, cufflinks, tie bars, tailored suits, dress shoes, Chelsea boots, turtle necks, you name it. He's wearing charcoal grey slacks, a black muscle-fit sweater with the sleeves pushed up, an all black Movado watch on his left wrist, and black leather oxfords on his feet.

"It's a...Grenache...nah, that's more on the sweeter side...Ah, it's a Pinot Noir." Erik said after studying the bottle.

"Who gave it to you?" Shaunice asked while grabbing the bottle, taking a sip.

"It was a welcome to the company gift, right along with some gourmet sweets and Bluetooth wireless earbuds to cancel out noise."

Shaunice peeked into his gift bag, "That's so nice of them. They love you already."

Erik chuckles, "you know what effect I have."

"Yes I do," Shaunice kissed Erik's cheek, "Uhm, baby?"

"Yes, Sha," Erik said before finishing off his glass of wine.

"I purchased a location for my shop."

Erik turned towards Shaunice with knitted brows.

"I thought we were supposed to look together, to make sure it's in budget? Since we, you know," Erik spread his arms wide, "Just moved into a 5,000 a month penthouse. That doesn't include the fact that we still haven't found an interior designer. Sha, you went and dipped into our savings. Today was my first day on the job, you can't be doing shit like that."