After midnight, the restaurant turned into a club. The colorful lighting drastically changed the atmosphere of the place. The elegant, classy white and sterile interior suddenly exploded with all kinds of gaudy colors. The white was all the more understandable now. With a bit of lighting, you easily could change the character of the room.
I really had to go to the restroom now. This time, however, I decided to find it with some help. The waiter pointed me in the right direction. I elbowed my way through the crowd toward the ladies’ room, when I had that strange feeling of being watched again. I stopped and took a careful look around. On a pedestal, leaning over one of the wooden beams, stood the black-clothed man, pinning me with his icy stare again. He measured me with his eyes, his face showing no emotion. He looked like your typical Italian, though he might have been the least typical man I’d ever seen. His black hair cascaded down his forehead. His jaw was covered with a meticulously trimmed dark stubble. His lips were full and well defined. Perfectly suited to pleasure a woman, I thought. His stare was cold and piercing. It was the stare of a wild animal just waiting to pounce. Seeing him from that distance, I realized just how tall he was. He loomed over the women standing nearby. He must have been at least six three. I don’t know how much time passed with us just staring into each other’s eyes. It might have stopped for all I cared. My bewildered stupor was broken by a man who walked into me on his way somewhere. With all that staring I had grown rigid and numb at the same time, so I just wheeled around on one foot and toppled to the ground.
“You okay?” the Man in Black asked, appearing suddenly at my side. “If not for the fact that I saw it wasn’t you who walked into him this time, I would have thought bumping into people was your way of picking up guys.”
He grabbed me by the elbow and lifted me up effortlessly. He was so strong it seemed like I didn’t weigh a pound. This time I gathered my wits, and the alcohol made me braver.
“I would have thought the problem is that you’re always in my way, pretending to be a wall or a crane,” I retorted, shooting him the coldest stare I could muster.
He withdrew, but kept his eyes focused on me, looking me up and down, as if he couldn’t believe I was real.
“You’ve been watching me the whole evening, haven’t you?” I asked fiercely. I might be paranoid sometimes, but when I have a hunch, it’s rarely wrong.
The man smirked.
“I watch the club,” he replied. “I supervise the staff, check on the guests, and look for women in need of a wall or a crane.”
I found his response amusing and discomfiting in equal parts.
“In that case, thank you for being my crane. Have a good night.” I sent him a provocative gaze and headed toward the restroom. When he stayed behind, I sighed with relief. At least this time I didn’t look like a complete idiot and had been able to speak like a normal person.
“See you around, Laura,” I heard him say.
I spun on my heel, but the Man in Black was nowhere to be seen anymore.
How did he know my name? Had be been eavesdropping on us? No, he couldn’t have. I would have noticed him. Karolina grabbed me by the hand all of a sudden.
“Come on, or you’ll never reach that ladies’ room and we’ll be stuck here forever.”
When we finally returned to our table, there was another bottle of Moët waiting for us.
“Well, well. I see we’re not skimping on the drinks today, darling,” I said with a laugh.
“I thought you ordered it,” Martin replied, visibly surprised. “I already paid, and we wanted to leave.”
I took a look around the club. I knew it wasn’t a mistake. The bottle arrived at that moment on purpose. He was still watching me.
“It’s probably on the house. After your ‘Happy Birthday,’ they couldn’t leave us with nothing,” Karolina said. “But, since it’s already here, drink up!”
I fidgeted on the sofa until the bottle was finished, wondering about who that man dressed in black had been. Why had he looked at me like that? How did he know my name?
We spent the rest of the evening wandering around clubs, only returning to the hotel when the sun was rising.
I woke with a terrible headache. Oh, right… Moët. I adore champagne, but the hangovers it causes are the worst. What normal person binges on champagne? With the last of the strength I could muster, I crawled out of bed and reached the bathroom. I rummaged through my toiletry bag and foundmy painkillers, taking three and returning straight to bed. When I came to a few hours later, Martin was gone, and I could hear the sounds of people lounging in and around the pool. I needed to get up and catch some sun. It was my vacation, after all. Energized with that thought, I took a quick shower, jumped into a bikini, and thirty minutes later was ready for sunbathing.
Michał and Karolina were sprawled on chaise longues by the pool, sipping on ice-cold wine.
“Here. It’s medicine,” Michał said, passing me a plastic cup. “I’m afraid plastic is all they’ve got. Regulations.”
The wine was delicious. Cold and… wet. I downed the glass in one go.
“Have you seen Martin? He wasn’t there when I woke up.”
“He’s working in the lobby. The Internet was too bad in the room,” Karolina explained.
Right—man’s best friend, the laptop. And work was Martin’s favorite lover. I lay down on the chaise and spent the rest of the day alone, with only the constantly smooching couple next to me. Once in a while, Michał would push away from Karolina and exclaim, “Look at those tits!” at passing women.
“Want to grab some lunch?” he asked at one point. “I’ll go fetch Martin. That man can’t enjoy a proper vacation with that laptop of his.”
He got up, put on a T-shirt, and headed to the lobby.
“Sometimes I can’t stand him.” I turned to Karolina and she stared at me, eyes wide. “I’ll never be number one with him. You know, more important than work, friends, or hobbies. Sometimes I think he’s with me just because he’s got nothing better to do. It’s a bit like having a dog—you pet it when you want, play around a little bit, but when you’re bored you just shoo it away. It’s there for you, not the other way around, right? Martin spends more time chatting with his friends on Facebook than with me at home. Not to mention in bed.”
Karolina rolled to the side and propped up on an elbow.
“You know, Laura, relationships are like that sometimes. Passion just vanishes at some point.”
“But after a year and a half? Not even that! Am I that ugly? Is something wrong with me? Is it wrong that I just want to have a good fuck once in a while?”
Karolina jumped to her feet with a laugh and gestured to me to get up.
“You need a drink. Overthinking it won’t change a thing. Just look around! It’s perfect and you’re beautiful and so thin! If not Martin, you’ll find someone else! Come on!”
I threw on a light floral tunic, wrapped my beach scarf into a turban, put on my Ralph Lauren sunglasses, and followed Karolina to the bar in the lobby. My companion went to her room for a while to leave her bag and ask Michał about those lunch plans. Our men weren’t downstairs. I went to the bar and waved at the bartender, asking for two glasses of cold Prosecco. That was just what I needed.