Unforeseen events
Enrico
After spending the entire day at the nursing home with my father, persistently urging him to start eating again, in the late afternoon, at the time when all visitors were instructed to leave, he finally agreed to have dinner. In reality, I would say that hunger spoke louder, and he ended up yielding to his biological needs, but his motivation wasn't the central point; the important thing was the achieved result.
At the closing time for visits, I left the house feeling a bit more at ease. After all, he had eaten, and I firmly believed that by the next day, everything would have returned to normal, and I could go back to London to undergo the car tests, which were always conducted before a trip to another Formula One circuit.
When I arrived at the hotel suite where I had settled upon arriving in Seattle, I contacted Hannah and invited her for some drinks. She promptly accepted, as long as it was in the hotel bar where she was staying.
“Today was quite exhausting” she explained “As I mentioned, the procedures for the permanent move to Kansas are consuming me.”
Hannah had received an excellent job offer in another state and had been living in Kansas for a few weeks. However, she needed to return to Seattle to sell her house and visit an aunt, who happened to be in the same nursing home as my father. That's how we had crossed paths the day before.
“I see no problem with us hanging out at your hotel bar” I agreed “I'll wait for you down there in an hour, then.”
“Agreed” Hannah accepted, and we ended the call after saying our goodbyes.
I planned to make the most of our reunion, as we were both in Seattle just temporarily, and afterward, we would go our separate ways without complications or dilemmas.
As agreed, I arrived at the Bentley a little after eight o'clock and chose to wait for Hannah at the bar counter, where stools stretched along its entire length. The initial idea was to enjoy some drinks and, if Hannah invited me, spend some more time together as we had done before. It was all I wanted at that moment: a bit of whisky, a pleasant conversation with Hannah's charming company, followed by another night of intimacy.
When the waiter approached to inquire about my drink choice, I ended up ordering a shot of tequila to start, but shortly after, with just one sip, I was already thinking about the second round, which would be whisky.
While waiting for Hannah to arrive, I took the opportunity to observe the environment with its clean decoration dominated by white and beige tones. It was simple but remarkably organized, and I began to think it was, after all, a good place.
I recalled the encounter with Rachel in the elevator the previous day. It was intriguing because that hotel didn't seem to match her extravagant and expensive style. It made me wonder if she had spent all the money she got from Graham and now needed to save. Or maybe she had just stayed at the hotel for the night, as I overheard at the reception that there was the conclusion of a large gathering from a multinational technology company based in Seattle, explaining the hotel being fully booked the night before.
Probably, Rachel would have managed to change hotels or reclaim her and Sarah's apartment, at least that's what I hoped. She had rented the place without her sister's authorization, but Sarah only recently found out about it. As she was determined to have no further contact with Rachel, Sarah didn't seek more information on the matter.
Anyway, the last thing I want today, under any circumstances, is to have to deal with her again, especially after learning about Rachel's unexpected visit to Kael's mansion. That was pure audacity: showing up a month after her sister's accident and attempting to reconcile with Sarah. It could indicate that the money ran out, and now she intended to use Sarah once again to ensure her comfortable life.
However, this wasn't the time to think about Rachel, her schemes, and selfishness. I decided to pretend I had never met her before and focused my attention on the bar entrance, which also led to the restaurant. The two areas were separated only by an imaginary line: on one side, formal and elegant tables and chairs; on the side where I was, simpler and more modest tables, along with a bar with an extensive counter.
A few minutes passed until Hannah arrived and stood by my side, bringing with her a cloud of sweet and overly strong perfume. I tried not to wrinkle my nose at it. I liked her a lot; we had known each other since childhood, but that night, she had made a serious mistake in choosing the perfume.
"Hello, dear," she greeted me with a smile.
Gentlemanly manners dictated that I should stand up and greet her more appropriately, and that's what I did, even though her perfume was bothering me in a rather unpleasant way.
"Hi, Hannah," I replied, trying to display a smile and greeting her with a quick hug and a kiss on her cheek. "Please, have a seat."
I pointed to the stool next to me at the bar, but Hannah didn't seem to like the choice, and her forced smile didn't reach her eyes.
"Do you prefer another place?" I asked.
She confirmed my impression, saying:
"It would be great if we could sit at one of the tables in the restaurant. I haven't had dinner yet."
Well, that contradicted my plans a bit, but I could join her for a meal after all; I had invited her. We then headed to the part of the lounge designated for the restaurant, and after placing our orders – I opted for something simple, just a seafood salad – we began to talk about our day while waiting for the meal.
I was making a tremendous effort to focus on what Hannah was saying, but it was becoming increasingly complicated. Her perfume was already starting to make me feel dizzy and nauseous. I did a quick mental review and only then realized that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. A headache was subtly creeping in.
When the meal was finally served, I was seriously considering the possibility of leaving as soon as we finished eating. It seemed like my original plans had gone down the drain, and I wasn't thinking about going up to Hannah's room anymore.
"You don't look well at all, dear," Hannah commented, showing genuine concern. "Are you feeling unwell? Is that it?"
I tried to smile, but I was genuinely bothered by Hannah's perfume and, at the same time, felt guilty for feeling that way, especially with someone who had always been so kind and whom I held in high regard.
"It's nothing, Hannah," I lied.
She didn't hesitate to confront me, saying,
"It's written all over your face, Enrico. You're very flushed!"
Hannah stood up a bit from her chair, enough to put her hand on my forehead as if she wanted to check if I had a fever. It was an unnecessary gesture, and when I tried to stop her, I ended up knocking over one of the wine glasses on the floor.
"Damn!" I muttered quietly, in a whisper, unable to contain my frustration at such carelessness.
Quickly, the restaurant's maître approached us, very helpful, and called a staff member responsible for cleaning the tables to gather the shards of glass and clean up the mess I had made.
"Sorry, Enrico," Hannah apologized, visibly embarrassed by the mishap. "I was just trying to help."
"It wasn't your fault," I tried to downplay the situation. "Things like this happen all the time."
I stood up and moved away from the table a bit, realizing that a waitress was exiting through the same door the cleaning staff entered. I immediately deduced that she would be in charge of cleaning and certainly needed space to do her job.
"I think it would be better if we left," Hannah suggested.
"Okay," I agreed promptly.
The night wasn't going the way I expected, and my enthusiasm for continuing with my plans had completely vanished. I was relieved to see that Hannah had the sensitivity to understand this.
I made a discreet gesture to the waiter while the waitress continued her work, paying her no mind. As I observed her from above after requesting the bill, I noticed that her hair was very similar to Rachel's, something utterly foolish on my part.
I decided not to look in that direction anymore, as I was imagining things. When the waiter brought the bill, I focused all my attention on the restaurant staff.
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