New york

"Yes, let's get in"

Leaving the bags to the driver, Christian led his dumbfounded mother and excited siblings into the limo.

"Awesome!" Alan exclaimed, then turned to Hailie "Look Hailie, a TV!"

"It's so big!" Moving inside the limo, Hailie tried out all the seats, as if one was different from the others.

"What does this do?" pointing to a panel of buttons, Alan asked as he pressed one.

As he pressed it, green and purple lights began to turn on inside.

"Wow!" Reaching over, Hailie pressed all the buttons, turning on the air, opening the driver's window and at the same time playing music.

"Need anything?" Poking her head out the window, the woman respectfully asks.

"No, my siblings pressed the button out of curiosity, I'm sorry" Smiling as he apologized, Christian moves over and presses the button again, closing the window connecting them.

Awakening from her stupor, Eva shouts "Hailie, Alan, have a seat!"

"Yes mom!" the two children exclaimed quickly, but they still didn't stop looking out as they sat down.

"You can open the window" Pressing the button, Christian opens the window on the children's side for them, getting them to see perfectly what's outside.

"Christian... don't you think this is a waste of money?" frowning, Eva stares at the boy.

Smiling, Christian gets up and sits on his mother's lap "It's a special occasion mom, besides look."

Pointing towards his cheerful siblings as they look out, Christian smiles softly "What's money in front of those smiles?"

Looking at her children, Eva is stunned for a few moments, then smiles and shakes her head "Nothing."

Smiling, Christian leaned against his mother's chest and closed his eyes, not caring in the least to see New york.

...

"Have a nice stay" Politely, the bellhop who took us to our room says goodbye.

"Wait" Pulling money out of his wallet, Christian hands the woman $50 "Thank you for your kindness."

"To you" Smiling, the woman turns and leaves.

"Why are you giving her so much money?" frowning, Eva asked.

"It's okay mom, $50 is a drop in the bucket for us on the other hand, that woman might be hungry."

"Woooow!!!" Standing to the side of a large window, Alan looked excitedly at the view "This is...amazing!"

The room was on the 32nd floor, the second to last floor of the hotel, granting a full view of Central Park, leaving the kids in awe.

The room was quite large, it had 4 sofas with a small table in the center, it had many decorations that looked expensive, paintings, vases, among others.

But without caring, Christian walked to a door to his right, where when he opened it he found a desk and in front of it another sofa, while on one side of the sofa he saw a beautiful and fine black piano, bringing a smile to Christian's face.

When he wanted to take a vacation, Christian always came to this hotel, and although the whole structure changed in design, he always remembered this hotel for having pianos in many of its luxury rooms, something that, apparently, in this world remains the same.

"Christian this had to have cost a fortune" Looking all around, Eva spoke in awe, as the children ran all over the place and touched every new thing they saw.

"But it's worth it" Smiling, Christian walks up to his mother and looks at her seriously "This is our vacation, we have plenty of money and life is short, stop thinking about prices and buy all you want, it's on me"

"But-"

"No buts mom, this is our first family vacation and we will enjoy it to the fullest, if you like something, you buy it, if Hailie wants something, you buy it... during these 4 days, we won't see prices, we will only buy, understood?"

"But-"

"If you say anything to refuse, I'll get mad at you" Frowning a little, Christian pouts and speaks.

"*Sigh* Good" With a bitter smile, Eva nods.

"Perfect~" Smiling at his great trick, Christian turns and speaks "Hailie, Alan, come!"

"Coming!" they both shouted at the same time, arriving with a big smile at Christian's side.

"Listen to me because I will tell you all what we can do during these days, ok?"

"Mn" Hailie nodded.

"Yes!"

"Good..." Nodded Eva still unsure of the expenses.

"Let's start with what we can do at the hotel? we have front desk service, that means we call and they will bring us whatever we want to the room, no matter if a person has to go to a store to buy it, they will bring it to us, understood?" looking specifically at his siblings, Christian smiles.

"Even if we ask for ice cream!?" With a bright look, Alan asks.

"Or video games!?" Hailie continued.

"Whatever they want, this vacation we can buy anything we see, no matter what it is!" Christian exclaimed with a smile.

"Yessssss!!!" Shouted the two children, brimming with happiness.

"Good, but that's not all" With a smile, Christian continues.

"Alan, the hotel has a beauty salon, where they can take care of your nails, wash your hair, and all the things like that" Looking at the boy, Christian smiles.

"Really!?"

"Yes!"

"Thanks, Christian!" With an impulse, Alan hugs Christian, causing the boy to freeze.

'It's the first time Alan has hugged me... it's always me who annoys him' Looking at the boy, Christian felt his eyes sting slightly, but not wanting to ruin everything, he just smiled.

"Let's continue... the room has bathrobes, slippers, a coffee maker, and a minibar stocked with soft drinks and alcohol" Looking especially at his mother with his last words, Christian continues to look at his brothers "I took the time to tell them to give us small robes for you guys, so you can use them whenever you want"

"Mn!" Quickly nodded the children.

"Other than that we have as you saw TV's in all the rooms, with all the premium channels and paid movies...but most importantly, we have 3 Queen beds for us"

"What's a Queen bed!?" Tilting his head in confusion, Alan asked.

"A very big bed, bigger than Mom's."

"I want 1!" Raised Hailie's hand quickly.

"Me too!" Followed by Alan.

"Then I'll sleep with Mom" Smiling, Christian nodded, then turned to Eva "Mom, we can also call for massage services, but for some reason unknown to me there are only women attending in this room, if you don't mind you can ask for one."

Rolling her eyes at her child's blatant lie, Eva smiles quietly, already knowing full well her son's jealousy "I'd love to try one."

Pulling on Christian's clothes, Hailie speaks up "I want a massage too."

"Christian, me too" Alan nods quickly.

"Well, we'll all have one, but that will be for later" Swallowing saliva to cool his throat, Christian continues "Now I'll talk about what we'll be doing these days"

"..."

"We will be 4 days in this hotel, but in two days I have to go to receive an award from some boring old ladies, you two will have to accompany me, understood?"

"Mn!" The two children nod.

"But the rest of the time we can do whatever we want, go shopping, rent bikes, go to the games, eat wherever, everything!"

"Everything!?" Hailie asks quickly with hesitation.

"Yes, everything."

"Even buy me more clothes!?" Alan asked.

"If you want clothes, cell phones, computers, toys, food, anything you want, just for 4 days...if we go walking down the street, and you find something that is on sale and you like it, we will buy it!"

Looking at each other with sparkling eyes, Hailie and Alan exclaim "Wooooow!"

"Okay, for now take your bags and leave them by your bed, let's rest" With a sigh, Christian waves his hand and lies down on the couch, followed by Eva, while Hailie and Alan grabbed their small suitcases and ran to the bedrooms.

"Are you sure about this? That money was hard earned" Sitting down next to Christian, Eva asks with concern.

"It doesn't matter, I earned it for us, I already told you to stop thinking about money" Crossing his arms, Christian pursed his lips.

"*Sigh* Okay-" But as Eva was about to hug the boy, her cell phone rings, picking up his cell phone, Eva realizes it's her boss, causing her to frown.

"Hello? Yes... What? So what are we going to do?...is he okay? *sigh* I'm sorry... yes, I understand your situation... Well, don't worry boss, I understand, I'd do the same if I were you... Okay, see you later, thanks for the heads up" Hanging up from the cell phone, Eva's expression looked defeated.

"Did something come up?" with concern, Christian moved closer to his mother and asked.

"*Sigh* Yeah, it looks like I'll be out of a job in a few months."

"Why?"

"The boss's son had an accident and was paralyzed, she decided to will sell all her coffee shops and devote herself to taking care of him"

"How sad" Christian murmured, then turned to his mother and asked, "How much did she sell the coffee shop for?"

"I don't know, but she had more than one as far as I know, so it must cost quite a lot of money... I don't think they'll sell it that fast, that'll give me time to look for another job, but.... *sigh* I quite liked working there."

"Why?"

"There was a good atmosphere, even though the cafe isn't very famous, even though our only customers were female... it was a good place... I don't know how to explain it, the atmosphere was just nice"

"..." Pursing his lips, Christian turns to his mother earnestly and speaks "Let's buy the coffee shop."

Stunned for a few moments, Eva quickly shakes her head "I don't think you can buy it, you have money though, the boss had quite a few locals... besides coffee shops don't make that much money, once in a blue we can make a few hundred dollars a day, we usually don't however, and just manage to barely make more than $70 a day"

Frowning, Christian asked, "So why do you say they are so expensive, it doesn't matter how many locations you sell, if they don't make money they are no good?"

"I don't know, but once I got to see a woman who wanted to buy the premises from the boss, she was instantly refused, The boss said that the was premises left to them by her grandmother, and that it doesn't matter that she didn't make that much money, because for her selling coffee was something that really mattered to her."

Raising his eyebrows, Christian thought 'Is it possible that these people have done something to the lady's son? But why do they want to buy the premises? Maybe they want their premises and not the coffee itself... because she sells so little coffee?'

"Why do they sell so little? Is your coffee place that bad?"

"No, it's one of the biggest in Detroit" Shaking her head, Eva continued "But in general coffee is horrible, it's normal that they don't sell that much, before people used to drink it to have more energy when leaving work or coming in, but now nobody cares about that, they just prefer the taste.... *sigh* how times has changed."

Tilting his head in confusion, Christian asks "Horrible? I find it pleasant."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Eva squints at Christian "Have you had coffee?"

"No" Denying nonchalantly, Christian continues "But it smells delicious"

"..." Thinking for a moment, Eva stands up and walks over to the coffee pot sitting on a piece of furniture, picks up the sachets and pours some out, then that after a few minutes she sits down next to Christian with a small cup.

"Try just a little" Bringing the cup closer, Eva hands it to Christian, who looked at his mother doubtfully.

Shrugging, Christian blows on the cup and takes a sip, causing a grimace to spread across his face "What the fuck is this? It tastes horrible!"

"I told you, coffee tastes horrible, but it gives you energy."

"But, even if it gives you energy, who would drink this crap" With disgust, Christian stands up and walks over to the coffee pot, taking a sachet of coffee and two sachets of sugar "But I think it's missing sugar".

Opening the two sachets, Christian pours them into the coffee, then stirs and takes another sip "*Yuck*"

Quickly spitting out the coffee, Christian wipes his tongue on his clothes, not wanting to have the foul taste in his mouth anymore "This tastes like shit, sugar or no sugar."

Shrugging, Eva smiles "It always tasted the same, but people adapt, it's like having a stiff drink or something similar, you get used to it eventually"

Shaking his head quickly, Christian picks up the coffee sachet and speaks "No, coffee shouldn't taste like this"

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Edited by: Lord_Shiva_