Chapter 60: Anything Is Fine
There was a slight humming of a machine that rang through the car. The in-car air circulation system seemed to have been turned on. Arianna put out her cigarette and wiped her face with a tissue. Then, Travis whispered to her, “What do you want to eat?”
“Anything is fine.”
After a long silence in the car, Arianna felt she could not breathe and had to say something to ease herself. She thought for a long time and asked, “Is your sick friend getting better now?”
Arianna did not worry that Travis would be mad at Ryan for telling her such things. According to Ryan’s loyalty to Travis, anything he said to Arianna was with permission.
Travis lifted his eyebrows and said, “They have been stabilized, and the operation was a success.”
“Wonderful,” Arianna said sincerely. Her grandfather’s image had popped up in her mind. If their fates had to be so similar – even their last relatives were sick at the same time, she wished Travis’s friend could live forever.
Both of them remained silent for the rest of the drive.
When they arrived at the restaurant, the dinner was served quietly. Arianna didn’t even know what she was eating, but she ate a lot, and her appetite was much better than it usually was when she was with him.
Perhaps it was the white wine they served there that was particularly appetizing. This time, the dry white had no sweet taste. Instead, it was fresh and a little bitter.Text © owned by NôvelDrama.Org.
Arianna kept drinking until the bottle was empty. Then, she swayed her glass and asked Travis, “Are you going to let me have another drink?”
Travis flagged down a waiter and said indifferently, “Could you get her a glass of brandy? The brand I drink, please.”
After the waiter left, Arianna said, “I don’t like brandy.”
“If you’re looking to get drunk, brandy is better. The white wine isn’t good for intoxication.”
Arianna was drunk by the end of dinner. One sip of the brandy made her head spin. She was still conscious, but she had to focus on keeping her body steady while she walked.
“Do you want a drive back to the sanatorium?” Travis asked her.
She shook her head. It would be disrespectful to return to the sanatorium in such shape.
While her agreement with Travis was still in effect, she tried not to enjoy the special treatment. This way, she could not be tempted to come back in the future when she was freed.
When she was drinking, she didn’t think Travis was going to send her back, so she indulged in the evening-being drunk reduced her discomfort when he touched her.
So, she was taken back to his residence instead. She was already sleeping in the car, and her head was pounding now. When she reached the master suite, she spent a whole hour in the bathtub.
She soaked in hot water and soap. The heat progressively spread through her entire body. Arianna was helpless to find that the alcohol she used to crazy her mind seemed to gradually dissipate in hot water. As the water grew colder, her brain became less dizzy.
Arianna debated filling the tub with hot water again or just getting out and getting dressed. But she was too lazy to move until the water was completely cold. When her teeth began chattering, she had to try hard to stand up.
The bathroom door swung open at that moment. She fell back into the tub in shock. Travis was standing at the bathroom door, wearing a bathrobe, and had slightly wet hair.
There was something in his eyes that she could not identify, and Travis did not take another step forward.
“I didn’t drown,” Arianna said, keeping her eyes on his.
“Need some help?” Travis looked down at the water on the floor.
“No, thank you.” She straightened up in the water, trying not to make herself look too weak and helpless. Then she found Travis’s gaze was transferred from the water on the floor to the bathtub. She looked down and saw her body showing a strange, deformed shape in the water.
Arianna changed her posture to cover her private domains, hoping that Travis was going to leave. But when the water fluctuated with the change of her position, she felt like she was seasick. She removed her hands from her body and gripped the edge of the tub before slowly getting out.
He had seen every inch of her body, after all. She dried her body off with a towel before him and then wiped her wet hair. With her back facing him, she slipped into a bathrobe.
She was afraid to confront him face to face. She hated seeing him.
But looking through the mirror on the wall, she could see that Travis had not moved and was staring at her. He was not going to leave.
Arianna briefly met his eyes through the mirror before turning around to see him directly. What was he going to do?
Travis turned away after holding her gaze for several seconds. While walking, he said, “Get some sleep. I will send you back tomorrow morning first thing.”
Feeling like ants were crawling across her heart, itching, Arianna called after him, “So is this a gesture of compassion for me?”
He turned and glanced at her. His lips moved slightly, but he didn’t say anything and walked away.
Arianna felt ridiculous. The remaining alcohol in her body rushed up into her head. She blurted, “Do I need your pity? The whole world can pity me. Every single person can, except you!”
Travis turned back and said, “You drank too much. I’ll tell them to get you something to help sober you up.”
“That’s so nice of you, huh! Now you must be a happy man because your wish is about to come true!”
Travis sneered aloud, “Yes, the pleasure is all mine. Franco Sanchez deserves all the consequences he has been given. You shouldn’t feel too hurt. The suffering you’ve been undergoing is just paying off the interest in what your family owes me.” Then, he opened the door of the room.
“You don’t plan to collect interest today? Did you just want to see how miserable l am?”
“No, I’m not going to touch you today. Are you disappointed?”