I turned to see a young guy about Mateo’s age, which is twenty. He was dressed in black sweatpants and a blue t-shirt.
“Okay, we’ve both seen him, now can we look for my suitcase,” I said as I returned to the conveyer belt to look for my suitcase. After chasing my suitcase to the end of the conveyer belt, we then headed for the entrance where dad had rented a van to carry our luggage and another one to take us. Lisa and Lola sat with their faces pressed against the window, marvelling at the different sights, like Time Square and Central Park. The van dropped us at a hotel called Fifth Avenue. When we got out of the van, a man dressed in a red tailcoat and black pants came from the hotel door and took all our suitcases from the van onto a carrier.
“Dad, how are we able to afford to stay here,” I asked as we walked through the revolving doors of the hotel.
“Well, when I got promoted, the company decided a move like this would be a bit hectic, so they’re paying for our stay here. Since our family is a bit bigger than the average American family, finding accommodation to cater for all of us is a bit tricky,” He said before he went to the reception to check us in. As we were waiting to be shown to our rooms, Nina and I decided to take a look around the hotel. When we passed the breakfast area and were returning to the reception. I saw the lady who was seated behind me and the guy Nina was obsessing over. The lady turned, saw me, and smiled as she checked in. Soon dad called us to meet him in the hall.
“Okay, I’ve checked us into four rooms near each other. Room 1209, that’s Sierra and Nina, here you go. “He said before handing us our key cards.
“Who are we staying with?“ Lilly asked as she reached for Lola’s hand and a key card at the same time.
“You two are staying with Abuela in room 1210.” He said moving the key card out of her reach and handing it over to Abuela.
“Bedtime is nine sharp for you two, clear?” Abuela said pointing to the twins after putting the key card in her bag.
“Ohh, man.” The twins sighed as they followed Abuela to the elevator. Dad chuckled at the sight.
“Then that leaves us, gents, here are your key cards. Our room is 1211. Curfew is eleven-thirty. If you roll in later than that, questions will be asked, clear?” Dad said while his gaze shifted towards Mateo.
“Crystal,” Mateo said as he walked off to catch up with us. Dad’s gaze then shifted to Leo.
“Why are you looking at me? I’m not even awake at that time,” He said with a half-smile as he headed for the elevator before it closed.
“I’m watching you, Señor,” Dad said before following the carrier who was taking our luggage.
Later dad sent a text saying that we had the opportunity to go sightseeing and that we should meet him in the lobby in an hour.
We entered the room to find two luxuriously soft beds, in a wide spacious room and an incredible view of the city lights.
“Oh my gosh, Sierra, our bathroom has a grand showerhead and a bathtub,” Nina said leaving her suitcases at the door blocking me from entering.
“I can’t see it cause of your three colossal suitcases that are blocking the door. Did you pack your entire wardrobe in here?”
“Oh, sorry. Let me remove them.”
“Wow, your room is huge!” Lilly said as she burst into our room with Lola tailing her.
“What are you talking about, aren’t they the same?” I asked.
“Maybe, but our suitcases took up a bit of space.”
“You guys made dad pay for an extra suitcase because y’all decided to pack a full suitcase of stuffed animals.
“But those were our gifts from Abuela Julie,” Lilly and Lola said with puppy dog eyes.
“Correction,” Grandma interrupted as she also entered the room in her sandals and her floral caftan dress, “She’s grandma Julie, not Abuela. I’m Abuela.”
“Oh wow, I mean wow. Abuela you look amazingly beautiful in that dress, who are you going to see?”
“Does there necessarily have to be a reason for me to look nice,” Abuela asked with a slight smile before she twirled around.
“Yes!” The twins exclaimed. “The last time you dressed up this nice was for our school play because Antonio’s grandpa was in town for the show.”
“Oh, I did no such thing,” Abuela immediately retorted.
“Oh really,” The twins said with sly smiles and squinting eyes.
“Even if I was going to meet someone, it would be none of your businesses.”
“Ooh, so you are going to meet someone, ha, we knew it, didn’t we Lola?” Lilly said clapping her hands in the air and giving a high-five to Lola.
“But who is it?” Lola asked.
“Wait, we only know one person who stays in New York. Isn’t it Nina’s late Abuelito’s American friend?
“Yeah, it could be. Mr. Jack Smith still lives in New York and we’re going to be staying with him during the holidays.” Nina said rolling her suitcase near the drawers on the side of the room near the forty-inch screen TV.
“Okay fine, I may have recently reached out to him through something the twins put me on called Twitter ever since I knew we were coming to New York.”
“Ooh-la-la, does dad know?” I asked dodging one of the tires of Nina’s suitcase.
“Oh please, I’m his mother and I don’t need to tell him everything.”
Nina started opening one of her gigantic suitcases to reveal all sorts of hair and makeup creams, combs, and other apparatus. “At least let me do your hair and makeup.”
After Abuela had been all dolled up by Nina, we remembered that the rest of us had to get changed from travel clothes to meet dad in an hour for the sightseeing tour. So the twins decided to get their clothes and change in our room. The twins wore matching blue rompers, Nina and I both wore denim, damaged jeans, except she wore a pink shirt and mine was blue. The twins raced down the grand stairs to beat Abuela who had taken the elevator. By the time they reached down the twelve flights of stairs, they could barely walk and flopped down in the cream yellow couch near the reception.
To be continued…
princejez 