With a solid night’s sleep, we’re up and ready to go again in the morning, going out on the Mediterranean on a sailboat I’ve hired. Wills keeps trying to tell the crew what to do while the rest of us have a great time diving off of the boat and swimming in the sea, watching dolphins jump at the front of the boat, and eating like royalty at a little island stop where there’s a pretty restaurant tucked away in a stunning Mediterranean garden.
When we get back to the hotel later that evening, we’re all a bit tired from the sun, the sea, and the booze, so we pass out and both of my boys are wrapped around me in the massive bed I have in the master suite. It’s like heaven.
It may be because of this feeling that I get a little carried away the next night.
It’s easy to get caught up in this life; to forget consequences and caution.
So, naturally, I throw all caution to the wind and decide to throw an absolute rager at the penthouse. I may or may not be a little tipsy on champagne when I make the announcement, and I may be even more tipsy when I invite the entire beach to join us.
I have the concierge hire a DJ for us, and one of the restaurants nearby cater, and by the time we get back to the hotel from our day out exploring Nice, I am excited to see that our temporary home has been transformed into an amazing party.
Excited and a little surprised, given that I most forgot about it right after instructing everyone to set it up.
We aren’t alone together for very long before people start showing up to party with us. We remember some of them, and some of them are friends of theirs, and some of the people are complete strangers, but we’ve all had enough to drink that we really don’t care.
Dana pulls me aside when the party really starts to get full, and she talks to me in her serious tone.
“Teddy, I think you should cap the party. Like, put someone outside of the door as a bouncer and don’t let anyone else in. It’s already getting pretty crowded in here. We probably want to use some kind of good judgment here.”
I blink at her, my head buzzing with champagne, and laugh. “Oh Dana, it’s going to be fine! People will go, and more people will come. It will be a revolving door. We’ll be just fine.”
She sighs and looks at me worriedly. “I just wonder if maybe you’re getting in over your head a little bit. You’ve gone a little wild on this trip and I haven’t said anything about it, but I kind of feel like maybe it’s time to slow down a little.”
I frown, her words buzzing in my already buzzed mind. “Aren’t you having a good time?” I ask, feeling slightly insulted. “I mean, I’m pretty sure you’ve been having a great time. We’ve done things I never would have dreamed.”
“Yes,” she sighs and crosses her arms over her chest, “I’ve had a great time, I just think maybe you’re going a little overboard, that’s all. Let’s reel it back in a bit, okay? Please?”
I lift my chin in defiance. “I don’t want to slow down! I have had such a crappy life up until now, and now I have money … god, I have so much money, and it just keeps pouring in.”
I shake my head. My uncle Dane keeps sending me weekly reports, and the numbers are staggering. “We don’t need to pull back. I don’t have to pull back! This is my new life, and this is the new me!”
I’m adamant about it. I feel a surge of my newfound power flooding through me, and I don’t want it to stop.
Dana shakes her head. I have a sneaking suspicion that she’s the only sober person here. Even the DJ has been taking shots.
“No, Teddy,” she says. “You‘re still the same person that you always have been, and that’s who we all love and want to be around. Not this crazy, carousing girl you’re acting like right now.”
My voice gets louder, and I hold my hands up between us. “No. I’m a new woman, Dana. I’m a super power now!” I reach into my pocket and pull out a thick wad of cash; all hundred-euro bills. “You see this? Watch this. You want to see serious power? This is serious power. People will do anything for money.”
I should know. I’ve been one of those people my whole life.
I turn and face the crowd around us. “Who wants some money?” I wave the wad of cash in my hand, and people all around us start yelling and coming toward me. “You want some money?” I ask the nearest guy to us. He yells and nods.
Maybe the power has gotten to my head, but that doesn’t stop me.
“I’ll give you a hundred right now if you strip down to your underwear and dance on that table.” I point to a solid stone table not far away, and I hold the hundred up in front of the guy’s face.
He laughs and yanks his clothes off, right down to his boxers, then he grabs the hundred from me and heads straight for the table, dancing on top of it like he’s Tina Turner. Dana stares at him and then at me.
“It’s not just him, Dana. It’s all of them. Watch this.” I wave the wad of cash in my hand again. “Anyone else?” I yell. “Anyone else want some cash?”
“I do!” calls out another guy a few feet from us. “You want me to dance in my underwear?”
I shake my head. “No, I want you go downstairs to the lobby of the hotel, and then run out to the front of the hotel. I’ll go out on the balcony, and wave at you. I want you to wave back to me.”
“In my underwear?” The guys asks incredulously.
I pretend to think about it for a minute.