Hello Adventure

Chapter 26

When I got back to the hotel, I flushed the pills. I knew for sure that I didn't want my old life back. And those pills were part of that old life.

While the pills circled the drain, Sebastian had sent a text inviting me to a party his friend was throwing that night, and I as I watched the last pill disappear, I decided I'd go because I needed to tell him I was done with the pills—and to never offer them to me again.

I wanted to go for other reasons too—but couldn't articulate them yet.

*

It was still pouring when evening rolled around and the shoots were finished. Sebastian was supposed to pick me up, but he texted me an address and asked if I could meet him there instead since he was running late. So, I ventured out early to get a head start in the bad weather. Luckily, I could take a waterbus, a vaporetto, which would basically lead me door to door.

Since I was just given the address, I didn't realize where I was going until I arrived: I was back at the Aman Venice—where I had been this morning with Dale. I was going to be attending the party that Dale had been making his desserts for.

I swapped out my rain boots for heels under a nearby awning that was taking a beating from the rain and entered through the formal entrance, not the tucked-away kitchen door where Dale had led me that morning.

Seb texted me that he was still running behind, but I didn't mind since I was early.

As I entered the hotel, my heels echoed off the checkered floor of the impressive entrance hall. The hotel was dressed in neo-renaissance décor and original frescos swooped across the ceiling in a way that made me crane my neck. I climbed an impossibly grand staircase with a massive lantern dangling overhead and gradually made my way through a labyrinth of high-ceilinged rooms until I found the bar. The party was going to be considerable and would fill this whole floor, but at least this little bar room was cozy and dry, care of a great ornate fireplace that roared orange flames. I dried myself in front of it, waiting for Seb and rest of the guests to show up.

Seb showed up over an hour late. When he found me he squeezed a handful of my ass, and before I could object, he kissed me on the corner of the lips briskly and started rambling.

"There you are, ma souris. My friend Niccolò is such a child. He thinks he's so important just because he works for this bank that throws these kinds of uptight parties. Look at this place, horrible, no, ma souris? So gaudy."

I looked at the ornate room bolstered up by towering windows, the rain slapping itself against them.

"Oh, come on," I protested. "You can't possibly think this place is anything but spectacular! Where have you been? I've been waiting for you."

He just frowned, eyes red, and threw back the last of the amber liquid that was in his glass. "Oh, so now that you've been to Europe you think you know of these things?"

I could immediately see he was already drunk or on something. He went on and on about Niccolò. I tried to interrupt him a few time to tell him about the pills, but he either just kept talking over me or we'd get interrupted by some friend in crisp eveningwear, bringing us drinks, saying hello, or staring at my cleavage.

I pull away from Seb whenever he'd try to snag my waist, which happened whenever one of his friends neared. Did he forget about the pills? I wonder when an hour passed and he still hadn't asked me about them (or anything else for that matter).

"Hey, Seb. Let's go on the terrace a sec?" I pulled his arm, but he snatched it away. "I have to talk to you about something important."

I wanted desperately to tell him about my time in rehab, all that stuff I told Dale this morning, about how it was the first good thing I ever did just for myself—despite how hard it had been. I wanted to talk to him about how when he left and stopped talking to me. How him treating me like that made me want to use more than ever, but that I hadn't. I wanted to tell him all of this, I realized, because I wanted him to be proud of me too—or at a more elemental, basic level—I wanted him to like me. After all this time, I was still vying for his affection.