Page 141 of Forever

“That’s the porridge! Hors d’oeuvres are circulating. Help yourself to a beverage. But don’t go into the wine cellar, it’s off limits. And Mr. Jacob is already in the other room waiting for you with the other guests.” He sprinted off.

Wait. Jacob? How did he get up here so fast?I must have heard him wrong. I shook my head. “There are a lot of smells in the air.”

“Are you okay?” Matt asked.

I nodded. The smells were making me super nauseous, but there was nothing left in my stomach to come up. “I think so.” I stared at one of the paintings on the wall that was covered with a sheet. “Why are all the pictures covered?”

“No idea,” Matt said. He grabbed my hand and started leading me down the hallway. “But usually there’s a lot more of them. And statues too.”

“Statues of what?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. They were all covered too. Tanner’s always doing renovations.”

We walked by the kitchen where Nigel was pulling something out of the oven. I held my breath. I’m sure the food was great. But it was way too many things going on at once. And he was lucky he wasn’t catching his headdress on fire.

We walked into the huge great room, with floor to ceiling windows that looked out at Central Park and the city. The sun was just setting, casting a beautiful glow over the city scape. But the decorations inside were just as breathtaking. There were white pumpkins and white candles in gold holders all over the room. And there was ahuge white flocked Christmas tree that almost reached the ceiling. A white fur rug was wrapped around its base. It looked like it had just snowed in that corner of the room. There were little gold leaves hanging from the branches instead of Christmas ornaments. It was elegant and beautiful.

The open floor plan flowed into the dining room that had the biggest table I’d ever seen. It looked like one of those ones you’d see a king eating at, surrounded by all his loyal subjects. And there were several cornucopias on it. Actual cornucopias. I’d learned about them in school, but I’d never actual seen one before. Fresh fruit and vegetables poured out of them. The white candles and gold accents continued into this room too. But the real thing that brought everything together were the string lights stretching the length of the huge open floor plan. Strings of gold leaves and twinkle lights dipped from one side of the ceiling to the other. It somehow screamed Thanksgiving and Christmas all at once.

I swallowed hard. Maybe that was the point. Matt and I were originally supposed to get married around Christmas time. This tied everything together. But my eyes started watering at the twinkle lights. “It’s beautiful.”

“I know they were busy setting it up all day,” Matt said. “It’s perfect, huh?”

I smiled up at him. “So perfect.”

“Touchdown!” Jacob yelled. Jacob and Tanner were sitting on the couch watching football.

What the…We’d literally been standing in the entranceway. There was no way they’d passed us. And there were a million stairs they’d needed to climb.

“How are you two already up here?” Matt asked as he escorted me over to the huge white couch.

Jacob stood up on the couch and turned around. “The magic portal!”

Tanner laughed. “The stairs.”

“But Abuelo…”

“The stairs,” Tanner said again.

Jacob sighed like Tanner was exhausting him.

“We were standing in the hallway,” Matt said. “You didn’t pass us.”

Tanner shrugged. “We just beat you up here, I guess.”

“You’re on the 89thfloor. That’s not possible. Is there another entrance to your apartment or something?”

“Ah yes, that makes sense.” Tanner nodded. “It was that one. I have many entrances to my apartment.”

“Just tell them about the portal, Abuelo…”

“How about you go play knights with your friends, little man?” Tanner handed Jacob one of his sticks.

“Okay.” Jacob jumped off the couch and ran over to Scarlett and Sophie who were sitting on the floor sipping juice boxes. He sat down between them and Scarlett handed him a juice box. The three of them did a cheers and all took sips.

It was the most adorable thing ever. Especially because Jacob was in a little suit and Scarlett and Sophie were both in frilly dresses.

“There you are,” Rob said and walked over to us.

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