The Billionaire And The Waitress (gxg)

56 - a drowning

IT was possible Adrien had never had a greater idea in her life. Jump into the ocean drunk to save your fake wife who can't swim, said nobody ever. 

      As soon as she hit the cold water, the last of the tipsiness evaporated from her body. She felt entirely too sober as the ocean swallowed over her head, and she went under.

      She gasped, inhaling a mouthful of the sea. Her lungs burned. It had been a long time since she'd had to swim in deep waters. But her mind had narrowed determinedly on one thought: Save Muse. 

      Her eyes blinked erratically underwater. Sunlight glimmered in the sea, haloing each crest and fall of the waves. It would have been magical, if not for the pounding of her chest and the panic that accompanied each heartbeat: Save Muse. Save Muse. Save Muse. 

      Fish darted by like phantoms in the corner of her vision, disappearing as they sensed her frantic presence. The salt seared her vision. But she saw Muse just below the surface, her white dress unfurled around her legs like a blooming flower. Her golden-brown hair was alight with the rippling strands of sunlight. Her brown skin gleamed like burnished gold. She looked like a fallen angel trapped in shimmering glass, captured by an artist's painstaking hand. Even drowning, she had the ability to take Adrien's breath away more than the ocean itself.

      Adrien didn't realize she was moving through the water till she braced her hands on Muse's arms, gripping her tight. Muse's eyes opened in a flash. Hazel and honey. She wasn't even trying to swim. She was too afraid. Bubbles drifted from her lips, and her eyes fluttered shut. Fuck. 

     They were close enough that Adrien could slightly break the surface without releasing Muse. The air felt warm on her skin, the sunlight hotter. The white ship towered over them, and inch by inch, she realized it was moving farther. Faint shouts from the distance and the sound of an emergency boat were her only hints that help was coming. But Muse didn't have that long, not if she had stopped breathing. 

      Adrien inhaled deeply and went back under. 

     "Muse," she tried to say. It was more of an incoherent cry. Muse's had lolled back, the soft column of her neck exposed, glistening soft and gold under the sunlight.

     Fuck that. Muse wasn't dying on her, not now, not ever.

     And she especially wasn't going to drown if Adrien could help it. 

     Using every ounce of her strength against the shallow current, Adrien heaved Muse's body upward. Muse had gone almost entirely limp. What was lifeguarding protocol for carrying deadweight? She suddenly wished she had finished her swimming lessons. 

     Suddenly Adrien was in her former office. She was twenty-one. Grey sat in the chair opposite her desk. His expression reeked of disdain, disgust. 

     "This is your startup company, Adrien?"

     "I didn't want to use my father's money. I wanted to do this on my own. I told you that."

     "Yes, I know." He had been twenty-one then, too. His hair was longer, curling at the ends, but still slicked back. The lifeless gleam in his eyes was the same. He smiled at her, but it was missing something vital, something human. 

      "Did you have a reason for coming here, or do you want to stare at my office in disgust?"

      "You'll never succeed, you know." He leaned forward, his elbows on her desk, cluttering the papers and forms without a care. "You wanted your own corporation, your own legacy, so bad. But this is pathetic." He chuckled. "Daddy's little girl goes out into the big world and realizes she's nothing after all. Nothing. Nobody."