Sweet Sorrow

Chapter 3 Long Time No See

Early the next morning, Nicole was waiting at the door of the Civil Affairs Bureau.

Austin arrived there late, almost an hour since Nicole got there.

"Let's go," Nicole said coldly.

However, Austin didn't budge. He grabbed Nicole's arm and said with his head down, "Nicole, I just want to say that I'm really sorry."

His words made Nicole burst into tears again.

"You know I love you," he continued with tenderness and reluctance in his eyes.

But after what happened yesterday, these sweet words sounded so ironic.

"You really make me sick," Nicole said with a smirk.

With a frown, he gave Nicole a meaningful look, and let go of her hand. Nicole went ahead inside, and he quietly followed behind her.

Blinking, Nicole tilted her head up, trying to prevent the tears to fall down from her eyes.

'There is nothing to cry about.

He's not worth it.'

The process was quick and easy, and so they came out of the building soon enough.

Nicole walked out of the Civil Affairs Bureau with the divorce certificate and felt very sad.

A year ago, when they came to get the marriage license, Austin excitedly embraced Nicole, beaming widely at her with so much love in his eyes. "This is my wife!" he kept announcing proudly to everyone

they passed by on the street. That memory was still so vivid in Nicole's mind, as if it had happened just the other day.

However, everything had changed.

The two of them stood outside the building in an awkward silence. "Where are you going? Let me drive you," Austin finally said.

Nicole shook her head and strode forward.

"No need for that. We are over."

"Nicole!" Austin shouted behind her.

Nicole stopped but didn't turn around.

"Don't get mad at Sabina, okay?"

It was like a sharp sword stabbed into Nicole's chest.

"This was all my fault. She really had nothing to do with this. If you have anyone to blame, it should be me," Austin said in a strained voice.

Nicole bit her lip and turned around, a mocking smile forming on her lips. "Don't worry. I don't blame either of you two."

With that, she hurriedly left, leaving Austin dumbfounded.

'There is no one else to blame,' she thought bitterly.

'There's no one to blame but myself.'

She blamed herself for trusting his promise and being moved so easily at such a young age.

They had only known each other for one year before they decided to get married. This experience should be regarded as a lesson to her.

As she turned around the corner, Nicole slowed down.

She walked slowly, with no purpose and direction.

Just then, she happened to walk in front of a hotel. There was a poster beside the door saying that they had a job opening.

From now on, she had no one to depend on but herself.

Nicole patted her face, took a deep breath, straightened her back and entered the hotel.

The lobby manager of the hotel asked some basic interview questions and then brought Nicole to the general manager's office.

"Nicole, right? Have a seat, please."

To Nicole's surprise, the general manager was a kind young man in his early twenties. There was a faint smile on his face.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Nicole Du. I saw your hotel recruiting new employees. I think I'm quite suitable to work for your establishment,"

Nicole said eloquently with great confidence.

The general manager smiled, "Well then, Miss Du... Do you currently have a boyfriend?"

Nicole was stunned.

"No, I don't," she answered, shaking her head slowly.

"That's good. It takes time for our hotel to train new staff. It would be a lot more difficult if certain, unprecedented factors appear,"

the general manager shrugged and said bluntly.

"You can guarantee that nothing like that will happen. In fact, I have just recently gotten divorced. I don't think I would want to be in a relationship anytime soon. Plus, I don't have any children yet. That's good, right?"

The general manager didn't expect that Nicole would be so frank. He said with pity, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pried so much."

"It's okay. I'm over it."

The general manager admired the toughness in Nicole's eyes. "Miss Du, when can you come in to work?"

"I... I can work as soon as today!" she said determinedly.

"Andy, please advise her on the company regulations and other formalities," the general manager said to the lobby manager without further questions.

Nicole was still confused until she got her uniform.

She didn't expect that everything would go so quickly and smoothly.

"Your food and accommodation are provided for free here. Your salary of probation period is 3,000. You'll become a regular employee in three months. When this happens, your salary will be adjusted according to the performance during your probation period. The company will equip you with five social

insurances and the housing fund..." The director of personnel spoke very quickly and finished words in a few seconds. Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

Except her salary and free food and accommodation, Nicole couldn't catch everything that he said to her.

But just those were enough for her.

With those perks, she could easily just use her salary to pay for her mother's medical expenses and her brother's schooling.

Nicole's thoughts raced with excitement.

She didn't tell her family about the divorce immediately. Afraid that her mother would be worried about her, she stayed in the hotel first to work.

Working in the hotel was easier than Nicole thought.

She was quick and polite, and all the hotel colleagues were fond of her. She soon became a part of the team.

Three weeks after entering the hotel, Nicole was arranged to clean up the presidential suite on the eighth floor.

She pushed the cleaning car out of the elevator. When she looked up, she saw a man standing not far away from her.

The man was on the phone, frowning slightly. He seemed to have encountered something that made him unhappy. His thin lips were tightly closed. After a while, he simply said a few words over the phone.

The warm yellow light in the corridor shone on him, and his side shadow was tall and straight. The well- tailored suit made him look as fair and handsome as a movie star.

'Jacob...'

Nicole's heart skipped a beat. She looked at him in a daze. Everything else around seemed to go out of focus.

There was a sharp and impatient look in his eyes. And then, his gaze met with Nicole's.

In that split second their eyes met, Nicole realized how she looked like in front of him.

She stepped back hurriedly and rushed into the stairwell to hide herself.

Jacob Gu slowly put down his cell phone and fixed his eyes on the direction of the cleaning car.

"Mr. Jacob, your room is ready. Please follow me," one hotel attendant said to him.

"Mr. Jacob?"

“…… Okay."

The familiar voice faded away from Nicole's ears.

Nicole slumped her back on the cold, hard wall, letting herself slip down onto the floor.

Five years...

It had never occurred to her that she would see Jacob Gu again.

Neither did she expect that he would be in such a place at this time.

She remembered that man clearly, and how much he had loved her. As time went by, Nicole often wondered what would have happened if she hadn't ended up with Jacob Gu like that. It was the biggest 'what if' in her life. Nicole had buried this deep in her heart, and never mentioned it to anyone ever since.

It was because she had thought that she would never see him again in her life.

After all, they didn't belong to the same world.

With her hand over her mouth, Nicole cried out in silence.

Jacob Gu, the only man who really loved her in this world. The greatest love in her life that she had ruined by herself.

-------------

In the presidential suite, Jacob Gu was standing in front of the French window, staring down at the busy city.

The air around him was aggressive and indifferent.

He wasn't like this before.

His sharp eyes gleamed as he furrowed his thick eyebrows.

After a long time, Jacob Gu called the general manager of the hotel.

"Stephan, is there a waitress named Nicole in your hotel?"

Having gotten the affirmative reply, Jacob Gu squinted his sharp eyes, and loosened his tie slowly, a cruel smile appearing on his face.

"Ask her to come to my room. I want to have a chat with her."