Half an hour later, I was at the Ambassador Hotel, a four star hotel with a view on the mosque. The closest luxury hotel Christian could get me near the airport. My new bodyguard had disappeared into thin air. Apparently he was more of a surveillance guard than an actual bodyguard. I tried to have a conversation with him, but he seemed to want as little contact with me as possible.

The hotel looked nice. Christian told me to relax and that he would send me my flight details this afternoon. This time I would fly private he messaged, and I couldn't argue with that. I couldn't believe how quickly he took care of everything. He told me to call him in an hour, so I decided to explore the hotel a bit. Downstairs was a hammam. It was completely empty, except for the woman working there. She handed me a bathrobe and I found myself relaxing in this small but orient inspired steam room, filled with steamy hot air, that was cleansing my pores and making me sweat. Every sweat pearl felt like all the toxins and stress of the past hour were being expelled out of my body. What a total nightmare this had been. But then he had been a true saviour. I wondered how his business deal had gone. Had he managed to make it happen? I really needed to call him. After half an hour of sweating, I decided I had had enough.

I went up to the hotel room, and ordered a salmon sandwich. I was starving. Then I opened up the phone he had given me. It was brand new and unlocked without having to type a password. Thank god I had kept it. He was the first contact to appear. There was also Kates number and Aliya's and Shaheens and all the others. He had even added my mothers number in it. I didn't even want to think of how he had gotten ahold of her contact. I pressed the call button next to his name. It rang twice before he picked up.

"Hey beautiful. How are you feeling?" his voice was calm and reassuring.

"Much better. I can't say thank you enough.. you literally saved me."

"You're very welcome. I wasn't going to let you be stranded in a foreign country all by yourself. How's the hotel? Is Jenny catering to all your needs? You can ask her anything, she will take care of you. She's the general manager of the hotel."

Just hearing him say this showed me in what different worlds we lived. He could just call up the general manager of a hotel and book me a suite ready in half an hour with everything included. Where the manager herself would take care of me. How different the worlds of privileged people were compared to the rest of us. You're one of them now, Ana. A little voice in my head whispered.

"So, how did the business deal go?" I tried to change the subject.

"It didn't. It fell through." he sounded stern.

"Oh? What? Because of me?" I couldn't believe it.

"I asked the seller to reschedule. He is an old man in his eighties..He told me it was now or never, because he had flown in and this all took several months of negotiation. So I told him it would be never then, and walked away.. I don't regret it, you're more important than any deal." he added, his voice sincere.

"But ..you said it was months in the making!" I was perplex. He actually did that? Why did he do that?

"That's life, Ana. You're more important than any business deal could ever be. Let's not talk about it anymore. How long do you plan on staying at your mothers?" he asked politely, changing the subject. I understood from his tone that he didn't want us to discuss the hotel subject anymore.

"I don't know.. I just need some calm after all this emotional rollercoaster. Reconnecting with the fam you know." I smirked. "I'm really sorry for all of this." I wanted to say 'ruining your 100 million dollar hotel purchase, but I didn't. "I can't thank you enough..for saving me."

I felt so bad putting him through all of this, all that because of my personal incompetence to behave like a normal functioning adult.

"Just hearing your voice again makes it all worth it. I have to go." he added before saying "I love you. Have a good stay at the hotel and order whatever you feel like having. And don't pay anything, it's all on my account." before hanging up.

"I love you too." I said to the screen that was now black.

The screen lit up again. New email. It was from my University. Christian had even added my email account. Visibly he knew my password. Fantastic. The email read that my exam results were now available. Oh! My heart sank. I had a bad feeling in a day of bad miss happenings. I just didn't know how bad it would be. I clicked open on the link, typed in my date of birth and student email. A table appeared with every subject I had this semester, and the corresponding mark. But my eyes immediately caught the first line above: « Not passed. »

I failed the semester. Maths and financial modelling had been the worst. I would have to sit down in September for the re-sit. I had failed four subjects out of seven, which I would have to take again.

I felt like an complete failure. If he ever thought I was smart, now he would definitely not think that anymore. I couldn't pass exams that he could probably do in his sleep. His mind was so incredibly analytical. He never used a calculator. Always doing the maths in his head, getting the right result down to the last comma. If he found out about my results, which he probably already had, he'd reconsider dating me. I clearly had proven I wasn't an equal or a partner. More a liability.

Considering he already knew everything about me, chances were, he was already informed. Because his stalker behaviour apparently knew no boundaries. I felt anger build up inside of me. Having no possibilities off keeping any secrets from him felt like a true violation. On the other hand, where would you be if he hadn't been there today? Probably stuck at the airport crying with no idea how to return back home. Actually, I would probably still be in that very tiny shoe storage sized studio with low ceilings and bad lighting.

I lay on the big bed. Distraction would be the smartest move. I decided to do it the good old way: with a movie. I took the remote control and scrolled through the movies they had on offer. A romantic movie would definitely be the best idea to lift my broken spirits. There was Twilight, the famous movie adaptation from the vampire books. Then there was the Notebook. It was one of my favourite movies, but I had seen it already countless times. I finally clicked on a movie called 'The Secretary' with Maggie Gyllenhaal. It looked interesting.

The description said it was an American romantic erotic drama comedy film.

As the movie started playing, I couldn't help but glimpse at my new phone. Waiting for a message from him, or a call. Stop obsessing over him! I told myself. But what else was there to do?

But I couldn't stop thinking about him. About our weekend. About our nights together. I couldn't really concentrate on the movie.

I decided to look up Christian on the internet. I had played with the idea before, but never gotten to actually do it. I typed in QWANT, the last search engine that still respected your privacy. And then I distractedly typed in his name: 'Christian Grey'. Doing it felt like doing something forbidden. But wouldn't anyone search for their boyfriend on the Internet? Especially if said boyfriend was the handsome and mysterious Christian Grey.

Surprisingly, there were quite a lot of Christian Grey's out there. A photographer. Further down an architect.

This was pointless, he was nowhere to be found.

Somehow I was missing something. Was it true? Was he unfindable?

What if I typed Christian Grey Investments? I tried it. Far down the page, I would almost have missed it, was an article written in the NYTimes, titled:

'Most eligible bachelor' accused of pump and dump scheme.

By Paul Friedman

Oct. 3, 2002

Christian Grey is not your average Joe. The young entrepreneur from California is a minor celebrity, having been named 'most eligible bachelor' in a Fox News segment. It didn't take long for residents in Palm Beach County, Fla. to take notice.

At only 29, this self-made-millionaire had amassed a sizeable fortune. Forbes estimates his net worth to be around 50 million. But things are starting to not look so good anymore for Mr. Grey. He is accused of defrauding investors in an old-fashioned Wall Street con, a pump-and-dump scheme.

I stopped reading. My body was frozen. Was this him? Of course this was him! Defrauding investors? My heart beat was racing. I could see my hand trembling from the shock. What was I reading? Could that really be him?