Episode 15 : Making A Mess

Hayley half-expected laughter to follow her outside the ladies' room. There was nothing, just the sound of the three women continuing to chat with one another.

They'd already forgotten her.

Fortunately, she was too distracted by her need for the ladies' room to wallow in her humiliation. The staff who had escorted her was gone and there was no one around to ask if there was another bathroom nearby.

She looked toward the house. There had to be bathrooms there, right?

It was a long, uncomfortable walk to the house, but she did find one of the indoor staff to direct her to a bathroom. It was empty, thankfully. After she was done, she contemplated finding her room and staying there for the rest of the evening. It wasn't as though anyone would miss her. Gabriel had his friends; he wouldn't be bored or anything.

But that would make her a coward. What's more, she was getting paid to be Gabriel's girlfriend tonight, as well as the next few weeks. She couldn't just take the night off just because she couldn't handle a couple of snooty, catty women. What had she expected, anyway? That his rich friends would all welcome her with open arms? Nobody knew who she was. They probably thought she was with him for the money.

Which she was, even if it wasn't exactly the way they probably thought.

So she made her way out the back, steeling herself to face whatever animosity was waiting for her at the party. She wasn't in a hurry to get back, so she took deep breaths of the cool, refreshing night air. It must be nice living here at the beach. But Edward didn't live here. According to Gabriel, his cousin had rented the beach house for his party. A few of his close friends — including Gabriel and her — would be staying at the dozen or so rooms in the house for the two nights Edward was celebrating his birthday. The other guests had either rented nearby homes or booked rooms in the nearest hotel.

She sighed. That meant she had to find some way to enjoy herself among his friends for another day and a night.

As she walked down the steps, her attention was caught by a loud, drunken singing from the direction of the pool. Either the singer was slurring his words so badly that she couldn't understand any of them or he was singing in another language.

Was that... German?

She paused. The voice sounded familiar, too.

She retraced her steps then headed toward the pool. The figure of a tall man stood on the deck, a bottle in hand.

"Reinheart?" she called out.

The singing stopped and the man turned to face her. "Hello," he said. "Join me for a drink?" He raised the bottle.

"I'm good, thanks." She moved closer. "You don't recognize me, do you?"

"Of course I do!" He cocked his head. "Brigitte?"

"Er, no. It's Hayley." The pool was brightly lit, but she figured he couldn't see her clearly as she was standing on the grass right outside the lit area.

"Of course!" He grinned. "Gabriel's new girlfriend." He raised his bottle again, this time swaying unsteadily. "We must celebrate. You like vodka?"

He really was drunk, she thought with an inward groan. Should she call Gabriel? Or maybe she could convince him to come back to the party with her.

"I like champagne," she said. "Let's go back to the party and get some."

"Pfft. The party is boring." His face lit up. "I know! Let's call Gabriel over and the three of us can have our own little party here."

"How about we both go get him?" Somehow, she felt she shouldn't leave Reinheart by himself. He looked like he was ready to do something really stupid. A couple of somethings.

"Nah." He flung a hand out over the pool, the motion making him sway again. "I'm just going to hang out here and—" He lost his balance and he fell into the pool, his words cut off by a loud splash.

"Reinhart!" Hayley ran to the pool. It was the deep end, according to the marker on the deck. He could swim, couldn't he?

She dropped to her knees on the edge of the pool and leaned over.

"Reinheart!" she yelled again. The lights under the water were turned off but she could make out his figure underwater. Barely. And he didn't seem to be moving. With a muttered curse, she stood up, leaving her purse on the ground. She kicked off her sandals and dove into the pool.

The water was surprisingly warm. She'd been bracing herself for a jolt of cold as she hit the water but now she could focus entirely on reaching Reinheart. She was a decent swimmer but had no training in rescuing drowning people, definitely not a six feet four drunk German. So she grabbed one of his arms and tried to drag him to the surface.

She tugged at the arm but she couldn't move him. But she tried again and to her relief, they both began to drift upward. It was only when they nearly reached the surface that Reinheart suddenly moved.

He was swimming on his own.

Their heads rose from under the water at the same time. "What are you doing?" he said.

Hailey ran a hand down her wet face. They faced each other. He didn't seem to have any problems keeping his head above water. "What am I doing?" she said. "I thought you were drowning!"

He grinned. "And so you came to my rescue."

"Oh shut up." She glared at him and slapped the water between them.

He laughed as he shut his eyes at the splash of water she directed at his face. "Oh come on. If I didn't know how to swim, I would have needed to be rescued."

"If you could swim, why weren't you moving?"

He looked down, spreading his arms wide under the water. "It's nice down here. Quiet." Raising his head to look at her, he added, "I can stay down for about a minute and a half, you know."

She frowned. "How?"

"Reinheart was in his high school varsity swim team."

They both looked toward the side of the pool where a man stood on the deck, arms folded across his chest.

"Gabriel!" Hayley said. "We were just...uh..." She glanced at Reinheart. The idiot was grinning.

"We were just going to ask you to join us, Gabe," he said.

"You're drunk," Gabriel said.

"Says who?"

"Elle."

Did he mean Emmanuelle? Hayley wondered if it was she who told Gabriel were they were.

"Are you planning on staying there for the rest of the night?" Gabriel said. His jaw clench in irritation. "If you are, I'll be at the party." He turned to leave.

"Wait!" Hayley cried out. In a few strokes, she reached the ladder at the side of the pool. "I'll go back with you."

Gabriel didn't leave. But he didn't look happy, either. "Dressed like that?" he said as she stood dripping wet in front of him.

She glanced down at her outfit. Fuck. She'd only worn it once and already ruined it. "Sorry." When she looked back at him, he was looking at her strangely. Less angry, at least. "Reinheart fell into the pool and he wasn't moving so I jumped in."

He wasn't even listening to her. It took her a moment to realize he was staring at her chest.

She glanced down again, and this time she saw that her flimsy top was plastered against her torso. It was so sheer that now that it was wet, it was practically invisible. Her white bra was all the covering she had. Which wasn't much, from the clearly visible outline of her nipple. With a gasp, she brought her arms up over her chest. "Sorry," she squeaked.





Damn it.

Gabriel forced his gaze up to Hayley's wide eyes and tried to school his expression. Still, there wasn't any way he could convince her that he hadn't been ogling her wet chest for the last minute, was there? "You must be cold," he said, and cursed inwardly at how thick his voice sounded.

"Yeah, I little," she said. She gave a nervous laugh. "It was much warmer in the pool."

He turned to the two staff who had heard the commotion and were approaching them with large towels. He took one and moved closer to her so he could wrap it around her. "Come on. Let's get you changed." Turning to his friend still in the pool, he said, "Reinheart?"

"I'm good right here," he replied, giving us a wink. No. He gave Hayley a wink. Gabriel's teeth involuntarily ground together at the gesture. He didn't care what pissed Reinheart off, he had no business winking at anybody's girlfriend. Gabriel didn't show his annoyance as he turned to walk away toward the house.

Hayley walked faster to catch up. "I'm sorry," she said. "I ruined my outfit."

"It doesn't matter."

"It's my first time meeting your friends and I'm making a mess of everything."

"You didn't."

"Oh? Then why are you so mad?"

"I'm not..." He stopped, realizing he'd raised his voice. "I'm not angry. I just need to get you out of those clothes." He clenched his teeth. No, that was not what he wanted. He did not want to think of Hayley without her clothes. What he wanted was to get her into dry clothes. That's all. "You'll catch a cold."

"People don't get a cold from getting wet, you know."

When he turned to her, she was smiling. "That's, like, a myth or something," she went on.

"That makes sense." He didn't know what else to say.

"But I guess I can't go back to the party looking like this."

"What was wrong with Reinheart?"

There was a pause before she replied, "He seems to be upset about something."

"He didn't say what?"

"No. He was definitely drunk, though."

A woman, maybe? Reinheart hadn't confided anything with him recently about anyone he was seeing. Not after that actress. But that didn't mean there wasn't anyone. Of course, it could have been brought about by another argument with his mother. Their relationship was rather volatile. They had issues —mostly about him refusing to work in the family business. Gabriel could understand why Reinheart wouldn't want that. After all, Gabriel had also insisted he forge ahead with his own enterprises. Luckily for him, his sister Michaela was more than eager to take his place.

"You think it's about a girl?"

"Maybe."

When they got to the house, one of the staff led them to their room on the second floor. It had a great view of the ocean through wide bay windows. However, the first thing that caught his eye was the bed. The single, California King-sized bed.

"There's only one," Hayley said, her voice soft.

He didn't have to ask her what she meant.
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Thank you for reading, loves! If you enjoyed it, please don't forget to vote 🙏🏽

Episode 16 "Far From the Madding Crowd" will be up on November 27. If you'd like to read ahead, episodes 16 to 19 are available here (please type the URL on your browser):

https://anselacorsino.com/rs

Episode 16 "Far From the Madding Crowd"
Episode 17"A Beast in the Dark"
Episode 18 "No Turning Back"
Episode 19 "Negotiations"

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