In the spotlight

65

I stood in front of the receptionist desk, with my arms crossed in front of my chest. Right next to me stood Adriana, leaning against the desk as well. We both had the same disposition and demeanor on our faces. Even the way we wore our hair and our clothes was matching.

But what we really had in common at the time was our shared heavy feelings towards the third member of our trio. Even the paparazzis and the social media started picking up rumors about Xavier suddenly quitting this trio, making up fake stories about us throwing him out, or rather him not being able to handle the fact that both of us were dating now (?).

As we were waiting for him to step through the doors of the Plaza Hotel in New York, my eyes wandered off towards the busy streets of downtown Manhattan outside. Crowds of people were walking quickly from one direction to the other, leaving Central Park with their pets or with hands intertwined with each other.

As I followed a couple with my eyes, I suddenly spotted a man leaning against a lamp post near the entrance we just entered a few minutes ago. I furrowed my eyebrows as I examined him further.

This isn't the first time that I saw him around. He was wearing a black zip-up hoodie with equally black jeans, and the hoodie was covering her head at all times. His fit was boring enough to be easily forgettable, but he had a unique pair of shoes on; therefore, I could always identify the mysterious man.

I successfully identified him for the first time when we left JFK airport, when we arrived at the hotel, and when we left for a meeting too. Now as we came back, he somehow reappeared once again.

His clothes didn't really tell me too much about his intentions; he probably wasn't staying in the hotel or in any nearby hotels, in fact. But then again, I was probably hardly overthinking again, creating conspiracy theories about a random man waiting for his Uber to arrive. He must've ordered a really slow one, though.

The opening of the door dragged me back to the ground as I snapped my head towards the source of the sound. Our long-lost third member stepped through the door, but as we laid eyes on him and were about to start talking, the words got caught up in our throats.

Xavier was... blonde? And much more muscular too? I furrowed my eyebrows as I tried to make sense of the situation. He stood tall and fashionable as always, but it felt as if everything else changed about his appearance.

His hair got much longer; almost dirty blonde curls fell over her forehead, but the sides remained short as always. His physique was something entirely different too, as if he spent the last few months in seclusion and in the gym.

His tanned skin was very hard to miss as his white shirt's sleeves were rolled up; the color almost made me jealous too. He was just absolutely radiating with happiness.

We snapped our heads towards each other with Adriana to see if what we're seeing is real, then turned right back towards him.

"I know that you guys really do not like me right now, but let me explain." He walked up to us, throwing his hands around our shoulders and leading us into the elevator. The porter followed us closely with his luggage up to the 7th floor into his assigned room.

Right as soon as we thanked and tipped him off, Xavier closed the room's door behind us and fell into his bed.

"Y'all," he stretched out completely. "I fell in love." He sighed heavily, his voice laced with heavy emotions and sincere honesty. My eyes widened as I tried to process the information, slowly connecting the dots together.

"Okay, what the fuck, wait?" Adriana spoke up at first. "What on the earth were you doing in Santorini? And why did you disappear completely?" She showered him with questions, running through his long jet-black hair. "And who are you even talking about?"