Being drunk is the fool's anaesthetic. It puts the primitive self in command when it is the worst captain of all. Marzia has just down a couple shots of fireball, and she's on the verge of collapsing by now. Even though only about half an hour has passed, her body has practically given up. "I—should probably go…now! Right, now!" she mumbles like a toddler and staggers her way out of there after mistakingly leaving a hundred-dollar bill on the table.
By the time she reached the elevator, her world has already gone blurry. She pressed all the numbers corresponding to every floor and it took her quite a while to get to the main level. "Ugh…" she groans after the ding. Unbeknownst to her, walking towards the silo are two men in suits. The moment Romeo heard the ear-piercing noise, he paused and held on to his boss. "Sir Ian, it's happening! The zombies are taking over!"
Ian annoyingly looks at him and pulls his arm away. He walked forward to check the screeching clamor, and low and behold, a familiar woman sits on the floor. Her eyes were closed, but she was mumbling something.
"Why is it when I see you you're always in a bind?" Ian audibly mutters, heaving as if a disappointed father. "Is that the runaway bride, Sir?" Romeo asks, but he's left unanswered as Ian crouches down to touch Marzia's face.
"She's hot. Probably drunk…" Ian states the obvious and looks back at Romeo. "I'll take her to my unit."
"W—What? Are you sure?"
"Yeah…" Ian answers and is about to lift her up, but Marzia's eyes suddenly props open. She seemed taken aback, but her vision is yet to be fixed. With no shame, she utters, "Am I in heaven? W—Why am I seeing a handsome angel?"
For the first time in his life, Ian is taken aback by a smooth-talking woman. Though it's probably just her intoxicated self talking, it's enough to sweep him off his feet.
…
"Are you sure you want to het her stay here alone? I can watch over her if you want," Romeo offers with feigned innocence. He even looked at his voice as if he could do no wrong. The two men stands before a hotel bed, watching Marzia sleeping there like creeps, though one of them have genuine intentions. Sneering, Ian replies, "No. You can go to the bar. Just stay the heck away from here."
"R—Really? Well then, I'll go now, Sir! Goodbye!"
"Make sure you don't get drunk!"
"I will!" Upon closing the door, Romeo raced down the hall, leaving Ian alone with the woman. The man then steps forward with curiosity and watches the latter lightly snoring in peace. He can't help but chuckle as Marzia mumbles something every 5 or so seconds. For a moment, Ian found himself immersed that he didn't notice his phone ringing.
He snapped out of it only when Marzia turned around and immediately picked his phone up. "Man?"
"Where are you? I've been waiting for more than an hour," the man on the other line said.
"Right, sorry. I'm here already. I'll be there in a second," Ian declared and dropped the call. He looked at Marzia one last time and exited the room.
Moments passed, and Ian arrived at the private room where his friend is supposed to be. With no hesitation, he opened the door and saw the man lounging there, smoking alcohol while downing whiskey, his buttons loose as if he just had sex with a bunch of hooligans. "You're finally here, you dickhead. Welcome home, Ian!"
"Y—Yeah. Sorry I couldn't attend your wedding, Scott…"
Scott chuckles. "You have nothing to worry about. It didn't happen."
Pursing his lips, Ian's bafflement grew vivid as he sat on the couch in front of his friend. "Why? What happened?"
"Long story, mate. You see this?" Scott turned his face sidewards and pointed to his bruise. "Old man did this."
"Oh…" Ian mumbles and eventually found himself chuckling. "I bet you woke up from that, eh?"
"You bet I did," Scott answered and the two shared a hearty laugh.
Circling his head around, Ian comments, "So… This room seemed occupied before."
Scott nodded. "You know me so well. But yeah, I chased them out because I knowhow stuck-up and proper you are."
"Well, thanks for that."
"Small thing. Shall we order drinks while we catch up, then?"
"Sure."
For the following minute, the two powerful men just chatted. Scott and Ian were left inside after the servers gave them some glasses and pints of high-grade alcohol. Though Ian rarely drank, whenever he's with Scott, he ends up downing quite a bit.
But besides that, they do have some long history. They've been friends for long. Ever since they're kids, actually. That's the thing about elite families. It's just a small world, so kids from these families end up hanging around each other all the time.
Chugging his beer, Ian asks, "So, how have you been doing? And what the heck happened in your wedding?"
Scott leaned his arms on the back of the seat and gave him a wolfish smirk. "You know I don't do that shit." He lifted his feet up on the ground and propped them onto his other legs. "I bailed out on the ceremony."
Ian wasn't shocked upon hearing that. Since their university days, Scott had been the asshole in their group. He had been in and out of the jail for petty violations and was in numerous fights because of pretty messed up reasons. Now, It seemed like Scott hadn't changed a bit even after Ian has spent six years away to take over his late brother's failing branch. Somehow, he found it refreshing, but deep inside, Ian knew damn well that it was depressing. It was Ian's idea to take hold of the management of their offshore businesses since their global sales and accounts had been drastically down after a shocking incident. The stock market plummeted significantly and Ian's only choice was to manage their international accounts after what happened. After all, his father was no longer with him at that time. Nonetheless, everything is stable now.
"You're still a pussy, Scott." Ian chuckled and swished the cold beer in his hand. "You've broken another poor girl's heart again," he stated lightly, but with a slight intention of shoving the truth down on the latter.
Scott raised his arms mid-air. "Tch, come on. I'm too exceptional for that shit." He deeply laughed as he dropped his arms back to the armchair and continued, "Anyway, enough about me. I haven't heard anything about you since you left. How are things going in France?"
"It's alright. After our accounts internationally became stable, I decided to return here and focus on expanding a new product line to a new market," Ian replied with his usual business and acumen tone.
Scott rolled his eyes as he grumbled. "Good to hear. But… Have you found someone yet? Or…"
Ian looked at Scott with pursed lips. "You know I still can't afford to busy myself with superficial things after what happened." He then placed his empty beer bottle on the glass table and reclined his arms on the couch. Crumpling his fingers into a clench, he added. "I have to fix myself first."
"Psh. You'll be fine. You've been going to therapy, you're killing it in the business world. You have shit tons of women who will sell their souls to you. Just loosen up a little, alright? It was an accident." Scott replied. He might be an asshole most of the time, but he was surely a great friend. He then threw Ian another beer bottle and lightly cheered him up. "Don't beat yourself up too much."
Ian smiled thriftily and just gave him a smirk as he opened the beer with his teeth, throwing the cap to the side. As the alcohol seeped down into his system, he couldn't shrug out what happened six years ago when his life turned into a massive ball of chaos.
He was already a prominent figure in the business world at that time. He has acquired Harrison's branch in Italy while his brother handled everything overseas. It has only been a few years since his father's death, but it seemed like everything was still going well.
Also, he had someone in his life. A woman, a very beautiful one. Although Ian wasn't in love with her, he was down to settle down for business purposes. It's not like he would lose anything after a marriage, anyways. He was a proper man.
But something dreadful happened when he stood by the altar and watched her ascend the mini scale. Suddenly, he received a text while the priest was praying over them. At first, Ian tried to ignore it, but the continuous buzzing left him jittery. And so, he opened it and the devastating news about his brother and his wife getting into a horrendous car accident greeted him before his eyes. His brother was in the hospital and was in need of an immediate blood donation from a relative, and Ian was the only one capable of that.
Having no choice, Ian did the unthinkable and ran away from his ceremony, leaving his soon-to-be wife.
In the next moments, Ian hastily drove to the airport when another unfortunate event came crashing down before him.
He hit a woman with his car and sent her flying across the pavement, bloodied and unconscious, her back turned against him.
It took Ian a minute to recover, but he only had one thing in mind. Since he didn't have enough time to heed her, he kept driving along with the conscience he bore until he reached the airport. Before boarding the plane, Ian called Scott to help him appease his fiancee and most importantly, save the woman he just hit.
In response, Scott agreed, and Ian begrudgingly boarded the plane for an hour.
He hurried to the said hospital, but to his dismay, his brother and his sister-in-law succumbed to the blow of the incident and were declared dead on arrival. And what made matters worse? Hours later, upon weeping beside the morgue, Ian received a call from his mother-in-law.
The woman he was supposed to marry committed suicide.