“Oh, Spencer, I don’t think you want me to do that.”
“Like hell I don’t! You’re certifiably insane, you know that?”
She sighed and leaned against the shower wall as if she wasn’t wearing a satin gown. “It’s coming back to you then,” she stated rather than asked.
I gulped. “I remember it all.”
She studied me with furrowed brows. “All of it?” she asked. I watched her. “Even the money?”
My heart quickened. “What money?”
“So...not all of it.”
She seemed to get some sort of sick thrill out of knowing this part of the night I couldn’t recall.
“What happened?” I asked her.
She began to laugh, cackle really, and escaped the shower. I jumped up and tossed a towel around my waist. I followed the wet trails of her dress all the way into the bedroom but couldn’t find her.
“Piper,” I called out, searching the room. “Piper!” I called again, scouring the closet, but she wasn’t there.
I ran from the room, sprinting down the hall to the top of the stairs and peered over the edge. “Piper!” I shouted down, but she didn’t answer.
I descended the stairs and inspected the living area as well as the kitchen. She was gone. I threw open the villa doors and scanned the balcony, but no Piper. I ran back through the living and practically tossed the front door off its hinge.
“Piper!” I yelled into the empty hall.
I stumbled back into the room and closed the door, resting my back against its flat surface. “Where in the…”
My hands began to tremble as a thought came to the forefront of my mind. Slowly, ever so slowly, I walked back through the living room, hesitating to step over the threshold of the balcony. My breaths deepened.
“Oh, please, God. Please, God,” I prayed under my breath as I reached the balustrade.
I placed both my hands on the edge and leaned over.
“Come on,” she whispered. “It’ll be fun.”
She dragged me by my tie to the gambling floor, the private floor just for whales.
“I’m too drunk to gamble, Piper. Besides, my head hurts like a mother,” I slurred.
“Shh,” she quieted into my left ear, “you’ll do fine.”
o;You’re insane,” I told her.
“I know,” she admitted, lifting a Cheshire grin my direction.
She faced the wind and screamed, making my adrenaline spike further than it already was.
“You’re burning my buzz,” I told her.
She turned to me but it was too quick a reaction for her drunk body, and she stumbled. She began to fall forward but did nothing to stop herself. Instead, she closed her eyes as if she sat at the top of a roller coaster, ready to drop.
I tossed her back and she fell on top of the chaise, unharmed.
But I lost my footing. My arms wound around, as if that could balance me. This is it, I thought. Poor mom. Poor Bridge.
My feet slipped from underneath me and I began the fall but at the last second, Piper pulled hard at my arm, drawing me back toward the villa decking. It wasn’t far enough and I caught the middle of the balcony solidly on my side.