City of Eden

Chapter 1

"Promise you'll call every day?" my mom exclaims while squeezing the life out of me in a tight hug.

"I promise, again, for the five hundredth time," I chuckle, she finally releases her death grip on me and I take a deep breath.

I gather my luggage with the help of my father. Once it's all loaded onto the cart, he pulls me into his arms and embraces me. "I can't believe you talked me into this," he mutters while letting go of me slowly. 

"I'll be fine, don't worry," I say nonchalantly. "However, I can't say the same for you two, it's going to be pretty dull without me." I say with a forced smile. My voice breaks and it becomes hard to fight back the inevitable tears. My parents both nod in agreement to my words and my mom wipes the tears falling down my cheek. They pull me into a hug and look at me teary eyed while letting me out of their arms.

"We'll miss you E," my dad says as I prepare to make my way to the check-in station. I look up at him both my parents one final hug before finally walking away.

My little sister Ariella and I said our goodbyes last night, she tried to use me leaving as an excuse to miss school which is expected behavior from her.

My mom calls after me as I leave, "Call us as soon as you land!" I raise my hand and nod in acknowledgement of her statement as they fade into the distance.

I make my way through check-in and board the plane right on time. Thank goodness I don't have a middle seat, I don't think I would be able to make it through this long plane ride cramped between two strangers. I make my way to my window seat and quickly greet the cute old woman who soon took the middle seat. I settle in and prepare for the long journey ahead. It really hasn't registered until now that I'm actually doing this.

I never thought it would be this depressing to leave my family. I mean, I knew it would be hard but I feel like my heart just got left behind in that airport. My parents mean the absolute world to me. My mother is kind, understanding, and fun while my father is endearing, generous, and funny. And don't get me started on my little sister, it's probably hardest to leave her since she's so young, but I think she understands that I have to do this in order to live out my dream.

I owe all of my success to them and I am so thankful that they trust me enough to do this. Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited to be moving to New York but I'm going to really miss France.

I've lived in France my entire life. I was born in the United States, Connecticut to be exact, but my dad got a job offer in France and it was an easy decision since we already had family there. We moved to Paris when I was just a baby. Ever since I could remember I've wanted to go to school in New York City. I just loved the idea of living there and being a part of such a huge and diverse community. 

It took a lot of convincing but when I was finally old enough to understand what it meant to move to another country and basically start a whole new life for myself, my parents allowed me to follow my dream. I definitely didn't plan on getting into my ideal school, I mean, I worked hard for it but it's just surreal that it actually happened. It's almost like I'm not going to believe that I'm in until I'm there. It's like wow I actually got into Columbia, I'm actually going to live in New York City, I'm going to be independent... well mostly independent.

I'm not going to be entirely on my own unfortunately. My parents feel that I need to grow accustomed to city living with someone experienced with that lifestyle. I don't disagree with them because it would be pretty hard to try and figure out everything on my own. My dad arranged for me to stay in an apartment with one of his old friends. I'm genuinely scared to meet him, if he's anything like my father's other friends I'm in for a boring start in New York. My dad didn't tell me much about him, all I know is that his name is Wesley Brooks, he's a business owner, and that he's one of my father's oldest and closest friends which is weird because I haven't heard about him until recently. 

I just really hope he's nice and accommodating and not some old, boring, business man. I doubt my father would leave me in his company if he was mean or creepy in any way so I'm just trusting dad with this one.

I spend the rest of the flight either reading, sleeping, watching movies, or listening to music, excitedly waiting to land at JFK. The plane finally lands and the anxiety sets in. So many concerns begin to pop up in my head and I get lost in thought. Immediately I feel an elbow jab against my lower back and I quickly spin around to face a middle aged woman.

She says annoyedly with a phony smile, "Could you stop blocking the entire aisle and move, some people have places to be."

I immediately stammer some type of long winded apology and begin heading towards the exit. I guess that stereotypical rude New Yorker thing holds some truth. I exit the plane, go through an extensive security procedure and head towards baggage claim. After what seems like forever of waiting, my luggage is nowhere to be found. I eventually give up waiting and proceed to the exit to find the driver that's apparently taking me to my new "home." Hidden amongst a swarm of locals I see a sign that reads "Eden Laurent" and I make my way to the tall man in a fully black suit.

"Hi! My name is Xander, it's very nice to meet you Miss Laurent!" he smiles widely and juts out his tanned hand for me to shake it.

"Hello Xander, you can just call me Eden! It's very nice to meet you too!" I smile shyly and shake his large hand. He has the boy-next-door charm, I have a feeling we're gonna be friends.

He looks at me and notices my distress due to the fact that my luggage is nowhere to be found. "If you're worried about your luggage, don't be, Wes already sent a request to the airport to deliver the luggage immediately to his... I mean your home."

"Wes?" I ask confusedly.

"Oh sorry bout that, I'm just so used to disrespecting boss-man like that... I meant Mr. Brooks," he says with a smile in a fakely formal voice.

I let out a sigh of relief and laugh , "Oh thank goodness I thought I was gonna have to rough it for a few days until I got some new clothes or go commando but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have made a good impression on my new roomie." I chuckle nervously. Thank goodness he laughs or else I would've gotten right back on that plane in a fit of embarrassment.

"Wes needs a roommate like you, maybe you can teach him not to be such a tightass all the time," he says smiling as he slicks his dirty blonde hair back
with his hand.

He leads me to the large black car with tinted windows. I felt like an FBI agent hopping into that car with my own personal driver. Unfortunately, there's no Spencer Reid beside me so that FBI fantasy quickly fades. We begin to drive so I break the silence, "So... you said Mr. Brooks was a tight-butt, does that mean he's no fun?"

"Hmm, Wesley and fun don't necessarily mix. Don't get me wrong, he's a stand-up guy, he's a good friend, good boss, and a hard worker, he just doesn't know how to exactly... loosen up." I can't say I'm not a little disappointed and Xander sees that slight shift in the rear view mirror and quickly adds "But hey, I feel that with you around his attitude might change a bit."

I smile widely and say jokingly, "I'm a pretty fun person, I'd be surprised if I couldn't loosen him up." Xander laughs and asks me if I wanted the radio on. I obviously said yes because music calms me down and I can't say I'm feeling one-hundred percent calm to meet this high-strung business man. 

I recognize that we're entering the Upper-West Side of Manhattan and I start doing an internal Gossip Girl monologue but replacing "East" with "West." Let's just say the Gossip Girl in my head seems to think the "Upper West Siders" are not too happy with my arrival.

We arrive at a large fancy looking building and Xander informs me that we've arrived. I'm absolutely floored as we enter the lobby. My family is financially well-off but this is a whole other level of wealth. The elegance in the marble floors and intricate chandelier is absolutely breathtaking. We enter the elevator which by the way could fit the whole Kardashian-Jenner clan, and Xander pushes the button with the highest number on it. We ascend for what feels like forever and the elevator door opens to the largest foyer I've ever seen.

Xander obviously notices my gaping jaw and says "It's not as nice as it looks, Wes is terrible when it comes to interior design." he smiles down at me.

I smile and shake my head at his obviously false remark. Our bantering is interrupted when I see what I can only describe as a male model entering the room from the hallway on the left. My eyes widen as I take in the sight before me.