"Im coming home. Tell the world that I'm coming home. I'm back where I belong. I never felt so strong. I'm back, I'm feeling like there's nothing that I can't try. And if you're with me put your hands high." - Coming Home, Diddy
~
Stepping through the automatic doors of Nice Airport, Fiona took a moment to take in the scene in front of her.
She hadn't been home in a while and although there was still a thirty minute car ride left to get her back to Monte Carlo, Fiona felt immediately at home when she saw the familiar area in front of the airport.
It was a sunny day in the south of France. Nothing out of the ordinary but Fiona was used to the cold and chilly London weather. She needed a moment to adjust to the southern European weather and took off the black hoodie, which together with grey joggers and a plain white shirt completed her outfit. She never really understood how people could travel in anything else than comfortable clothes, just to keep up appearances.
Just as Fiona tried to put her long brown hair up into a messy bun, a loud squeak caught her off guard, followed by her best friend almost crushing her to death while giving her a hug.
„God, I missed you", the blonde girl said.
„Missed you too, Elle.", Fiona laughed and hugged her best friend back.
Elle has been her best Friend for as long has Fiona could remember. The two girls had met in kindergarden and hit it off immediately. Staying inseparable ever since. No matter what the other was going through, they could always count on each other to be there and Fiona never took it for granted. She knew these kind of friendships were special. She knew better then she would have liked.
Fiona and her friends were a tight group. Most of them having known each other since they were little, which wasn't hard in a small country like Monaco.
„Come on, let's get in the car. It's so hot out here", Elle said and Fiona was glad. She'd rather catch up in Elles Car with the AC on, than to melt out here in the burning sun.
The two girls got into Elle's car, a slick black Mercedes SLK, and started catching up as soon as Elle pulled out of the Nice airport and onto the freeway.
„How was your flight? Are you excited to be back for good now?"
Fiona had been living mostly in London for the past 4 years of her life. Moving there in 2017 to study real estate, so she could start working in her parents firm full time, once she returned back to Monaco.
People at university often asked her if that was what she truly wanted or it's just something she had to do. She never got that question in Monaco. Life was different here, but she got used to it, growing up in the principality. In Monaco it was the right thing for children to follow in their parents footsteps and make the same career choices. Especially if it were successful careers they parents had.
She knew she was privileged to have certain options in life through her parents but for Fiona real estate wasn't something she had to do or was forced into. Her parents weren't like that.
Event though they know had a life a lot of people wished for, they once hadn't. At least her mother, who grew up in a small City in Italy hadn't.
Her parents met at University Rome and eventually decided to start a business together in Monaco, where her father grew up.
Which made Fiona half Monegasque and half Italian.
Both of her parents, despite heritage and success remained down to earth and allowed Fiona to do what ever she wanted with her life and pursue any career she had in mind.
As long as she got a proper degree.
