Teaching Mia

Chapter 17 - Shanghai, Baby!

They soon landed and the rest of the day was pretty hectic. They arrived to the Swissotel in Shanghai and Mia was pretty impressed. It was a 5 star luxury hotel, thank you very much. They had been having a nice breakfast in one of the private dining rooms of the hotel when they announced their rooms wouldn't be ready for another two hours. It was merely 10am. Rather than wait around, they decided to go ahead with their planned city tour of Shanghai.

Shanghai was truly something. Modern high-rise buildings, gigantic retail stores, and super tall skyscrapers. It reminded her of the depictions Ridley Scott had created in Blade Runner. It was like South Beach on steroids.

They made a stop at the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. Inside was an impressive city model made to scale that showed the old Shanghai streets from the 1930's to its present day planning and construction. It even had future technology renderings of the city that looked like pure fantasy. So far, Mia hardly felt like she was in China.

They proceeded to do a tour through Shanghai's historic district to visit the Yuyuan Garden, the largest of Shanghai's ancient gardens. They walked through crowded streets and local food shops.

Now this was more like it. She spent the afternoon taking amazing pictures but after sweating in the sun for a few hours, she felt like she could really use a shower. She looked around and could tell most people felt the same way. Someone finally convinced the tour guide it was time to go back to the hotel.

They checked back into the hotel at 5pm and she was happy to find out she would be sharing a room with Victoria.  She hadn't spoken much to her since that time they went out to Gabana, so it would be nice to spend some time with her and catch up.

The first thing Mia did when entering her room was head to the shower. She couldn't believe she had been wearing the same clothes for two days since she had left her apartment in Madrid.

When she stepped into the stall and the cool water finally hit her back, she couldn't help think to herself, "Never underestimate the power of a good shower." She shook her head remembering who had told her that quote once upon a time. She thought of Leo and that surreal night they had spent together, despite all the insanity from the club. The way he had held her, cared for her like there was nothing more important in the world. She leaned her forehead against the shower door and sighed. Things couldn't be more different now.

Later that night they had a presentation on Business in China over dinner at a conference room in the hotel. Mia was so exhausted she could barely keep up. She kept on picturing the fluffy bed of her hotel room and couldn't wait to fall into a deep sleep in it.

Once they finished dinner, Mariela ran up to Mia with a huge smile on her face.

"Mia, get ready. We're going out!"

"Now?"

"Of course! It's still my birthday, remember?"

"I don't know, Mariela. I'm really exhausted and we have a really early start tomorrow."

"Nonsense. You have to come. We're going to this place Bar Rouge, they say it's amazing and the views are breathtaking. It'll be so much fun!"

Bar Rouge? Wasn't that the place Leo had mentioned?"Okay, why not. You only live once right?"

"Exacto!" Mariela shrieked in excitement.

They arrived at Bar Rouge and the place was indeed amazing. It had an indoor bar that circled around the club. Bartenders were preparing exotic drinks and Mia even saw the bar lighting up on fire.

It also had a terrace with another outside bar and lounge chairs. As she walked outside, she took in the view. It was spectacular seeing Shanghai's skyscrapers lit up at night. They immediately started taking hundreds of pictures in front of it. Pretending they were holding the towers, jumping up and down, holding different GQ poses.