KEYS

Chapter 23: The Accidental Death

It has been two months since Lourissa's unusual and sudden death. Her mother Mona had to travel from Germany and stayed at Ross's house for a month after her funeral. Whenever someone spoke about Lourissa's death, Ross had to gather his best acting skills and pretend that her death broke his heart into a million pieces. However the best time for Ross during that month was when his visitors left and he no longer had to pretend to be depressed. Now that Ross had a little bit of extra money not being squandered recklessly, he was able to arrange for him and Trevor to travel down to New York for a month in order to do some shopping of their own. Ross began to realize how much Lourissa was holding him back in life. Each day, he would apologize to Trevor for treating him badly and would simply say 'I was blinded by love.' When Ross and Trevor arrived in New York, the weather was just perfect for a day of walking around town. Each day, they would leave their hotel and head out to a mall nearby and start going crazy with buying useless stuff they did not need and had lunch or dinner afterward. Ross never noticed in the beginning, but Trevor began to feel to him like a brother he never had. Their friendship began to develop tremendously that Ross decided it would be unfair to have Trevor still working as his butler and told him that he no longer has to be a butler, but instead a friend to help him out if it is needed. The two of them were busy getting ready to have dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant on their final night in New York. The street was crammed with people being dropped off by the busload. Ross and Trevor made their way out of their hotel room and down the stairs towards the reception desk.

"Excuse me sir is there any chance you can arrange a cab for me and my friend to take us the Tikada a few blocks down?" Ross asked the young man working behind the desk.

"Sure thing sir, there is already one available outside. The lady in room thirteen just cancelled." They headed out of the hotel's front doors and got into a yellow cab parked right in front of the stairway.

"I have not been to Tikada before. Where did you hear of it?" Ross asked Trevor as he warmed up his hands because of the strange and sudden cold night they were experiencing.

"Remember when I paused for a few moments yesterday when we were walking back to the hotel? I saw a poster on one of the coffee shop's walls and I took down the number and made a reservation. It is quite a fancy place if you ask me." Moments later they arrived at the restaurant. Ross payed the cab driver and the two of them headed toward the doors. It was indeed like Trevor said 'a fancy place.' Red table cloths were hanging from almost sixty-seven round tables with silver utensils carefully placed next to each other and along with a golden candle holder in the middle of each table. To Ross the setting seemed quite similar to Mr Holder's social gathering a month or so back, but with more Chinese décor on the walls.

"Good evening gentlemen. Do you have a reservation?" A short Chinese man said from behind a counter next to the door.

"Yes we do, Brown." Trevor said politely and cleared his throat afterwards.

"Yes Mr Brown I have you right here, table five there right at the front. Please follow me." The man took two menus from a cabinet behind him and stepped out from behind the counter. As they made their way through the crowd, Ross noticed that people were staring at him excitedly and whispered something to someone who sat next to them. He even heard a faint gasp in the background followed by yet another whispering sound. As they reached the their table, Ross looked up and noticed a black grand piano standing on a small stage at the left of the restaurant with a green seat cover. He stared at it for a few seconds when he got interrupted by a waiter asking him if he could please have a seat and take his menu. Ross took his seat and smiled at the waiter. He kept on staring through the corner of his eye at the piano behind Trevor's head.