Chapter Five
The taxi pulled up right outside Hotel Du Louvre. It was grand, illuminating lights came out of the dozens of windows. Rehaan paid the fee to the Taxi driver before taking his family across the large walkway towards the front entrance. Humera and Hamza were equally excited as they skipped along the ground, whilst Nailla desperately kept them together.
Inside, it was much more elegant. Decorated beige walls with deep red carpets, Faiza could not have been any more wowed away by it's appearance. There was a couple of French people lounging around in the main area whilst others were making their way through to their rooms. Taking their luggages which took them some time to get, the family made their way to the front desk where a young Caucasian woman smiled at them straight away.
"Bonjour, bienvenue l'Htel du Louvre. Comment puis-je vous aider?" (Hello, welcome to Hotel Du Louvre. How may I help you?). She asked whilst Rehaan gulped. Though he was the most intelligent one in the family, he struggled when it came to foreign languages.
"Do you speak English?" He asked. She bit her lip, blushing a bit.
"I...sorry. Speak little English. Wait, I bring you help." She struggled as she picked up the phone and spoke in fluent French.
"Amelie." Raina came down with a file in her hand. The woman at the front desk smiled, greeting her.
Raina stopped to notice Rehaan and his family was there. Instantly, she fell into a grin as she welcomed them. "Aunty." Fahmida quickly hugged the astonished Raina.
"Thank God we met you here!" Fahmida laughed. "I don't think this woman understands us much." Amelie blushed, understanding the few bits and pieces.
Ibrahim and Naila smiled somewhat thankful that they had finally met the girl who had been helping their family. Naila looked at Raina's appearance: She was wearing a black dress with tights whilst wearing a blazer over it.
"Don't worry, Aunty. Amelie, here is fairly new. Actually, the main manager had to leave so left her for a while. It's fine though, I'll help you. Where are your passes?" Raina asked as Fahmida took out the three passes that she had been given to Raina.
"Amlie, pouvez-vous donner salles selon ces laissez-passer s'il vous plat." (Amelie, can you give rooms as per these passes please). Amelie nodded as she took the passes and fiddled about on her computer. She noted down the spare rooms and gave Raina three keys. "Merci." (Thank You). Raina replied.
"Aunty...here are three rooms." Raina gave Fahmida the keys. "Actually, the thing was the rooms were pre-booked and it's really hard to get any room whilst you're here so I managed to only get one double room, which I'm pretty sure you.." She gestured to Ibrahim and Naila. "...would want." Naila smiled, whilst Ibrahim nodded.
"Thank you, I mean you don't have to do this." Ibrahim spoke.
Raina shrugged. "It's fine. Though it would mean there would only be two single rooms left, so if you want either Aunty or Faiza can share my room."
Faiza shrieked. "I would love to share a room with you!" She hugged Raina whilst Fahmida rolled her eyes before chuckling. She cleared her throat that stopped Faiza from getting excited as she pulled out of the hug. Faiza blushed, "I'm sorry, I mean if that's okay with you." She asked Raina.
"Yeah, it's fine. I mean I have work to do so I'll probably be busy with meetings." Raina gave them a slight smile before getting a spare key from Amelie and giving it to Faiza. "Anyway, I have to go. I'll see you all soon?" They all waved her off whilst leaving, looking intently at her file.
"How can someone help us this much?" Naila asked rhetorically.
"I don't know." Faiza grinned, looking at her key. "I'm just glad it's Raina to be honest. She's so cool, right Rehaan bhai?"
Rehaan was pushed out of his deep thoughts but Faiza's sudden question. He nodded slightly, making her happy whilst two Bell Hops carried their luggages to their respected rooms. It was lucky for them to see that the rooms were close by each other, with Ibrahim's room near Fahmida's and Rehaan's near Raina's. As soon as the twins were let down from their parent's arm, they rushed straight into the room and started to jump on the beds. Naila scolded them to stop being naughty as they sadly jumped down and ran around their father. Ibrahim couldn't help but laugh as Naila pretended to be angry. Rehaan helped his mother settle into her room, before leaving her to place her clothes into the wardrobe. He was about to enter his room when he saw Faiza having trouble opening the lock, he sighed she was always having troubles with doors. He chuckled lightly remembering how once she had gotten herself locked inside a bathroom one night when she was younger and everyone hadn't realised until the following morning.
"Bhai, help me open this." He laughed as he opened the door with a flick of a switch. He found himself walking in with Faiza and instantly his eyes went towards the large window. The scenery was beautiful. Outside, you could see the Eiffel Tower in the far background whilst in the front, people were rushing past, all happy and laughing.
"Wow!" He turned around to see what Faiza was up to. She had opened up the mini walk in wardrobe and was admiring Raina's clothes. "Look at all these!" She picked up a pair of Jimmy Choo's before squealing.
Rehaan sighed. "I'm pretty sure, Raina said you can stay in her room not to touch her stuff."
Faiza placed her hand on her hips, giving her usual attitude. "Bhai, It's Raina. She's the coolest person ever, she won't mind."
"Faiza." Rehaan gave her a stern look before she placed the shoes back to where it was and walked out of the wardrobe.
"Okay fine." She started to open her luggage. "I'll just put my clothes there." He nodded, appreciating it.
He looked around the room, noticing Raina's laptop and her papers all in a neat file. He couldn't help but feel that everything was all wrong. Raina was never like this. Sure, she was always hard working at college but everything she did, she did it with a smile, with laughter and not a fake smile. She was always someone who loved to party: she was just Raina. But there was something wrong with this Raina. And the worst thing was, he didn't even know what. She didn't even answer his question about why she came to London, not really. And she had told him that she left University: that was not the Raina he knew. She loved English, in fact she wanted to teach those who had difficulty, so why would she leave that dream? Something must have happened, he concluded. Rehaan walked out the room into his.
He didn't bother putting his clothes back properly nor looking around the room. In fact, he got his laptop out of his suitcase and opened it up. He waited until it was loaded, and connected to the Internet before logging into Facebook.
He had to find out what was wrong.
He just had to.
