“Thanks, that’s nice.”
The sarcasm in my voice must not have been apparent because her chipper voice responded with, “You’re welcome.”
So, not only was I paying an exorbitant amount of money, but I had to wake up before the sun rose and would be refused food if I didn’t get up on time? This sounded more like a prison than a plush treatment facility.
For about five minutes, the water seemed warm. I washed my hair and body and then stood under the beating water as I tried to relax. But as my body became used to the water, it felt colder and colder and I had no choice but to climb out and try and get back to sleep. Not even my own shower would cooperate with me that morning.
There was one, small towel in my bathroom, and I assumed the size of the thing was also because they were trying to keep us all safe. It was soaked with water by the time I finished drying off. I certainly wasn’t dry enough to climb into my jeans and t-shirt yet, so I just stood there for a bit to air dry. There was no way to get to my dresser without fully exposing my ass to anyone who might be walking by, so I was lucky they were all engrossed in their morning meeting as I walked out of my bathroom and to my dresser.
The idea that I would actually spend fifty-nine more nights in the clutches of that facility was too much for me to even imagine. It felt like torture to be there, and I wasn’t the kind of guy who got off on being tortured. One week, that was all I could reasonably commit to. Spencer would just have to be all right with that, and so would the new movie studio.
I was actually looking forward to the idea of being part of a movie studio. I knew they just needed Spencer and me for the financing aspect that we could bring to it, but I really loved movies and couldn’t wait to be part of something in a field that I didn’t know much about.
Learning had always been something I enjoyed, whether it was in a classroom or while I was building my company. I suspected I’d have a lot of learning to do with such a huge change in occupations, but that was just fine with me.
My love of movies was deep and long. I could still remember the first movie I saw in the theaters. Star Wars. It had been a weekend date with my first girlfriend. I had saved up for weeks working at the mortuary for my father so I could have enough money to take her out. She let me hold her hand and I even got to kiss her goodnight when I walked her home.
Those were the days. Back then, people actually went on first dates. We actually didn’t expect anything more than a kiss when the date was over. And we didn’t worry if there wasn’t a text message or phone call from the person the very next day.
Things had changed a lot over the last ten years. It wasn’t just men who weren’t into the dating scene anymore, either. Most of the women I met wanted to keep things “casual,” they would tell me. That was their way of saying they weren’t interested in anything more than a fun night.
Of course, I was fine with that. I didn’t want to be tied down to a woman any more than they wanted to be tied down to me. But it was a lonely existence. Woman after woman each night of the week. None of them caring about me and me not caring about them. But it was what it was and there was no changing that.
I finally felt myself getting tired and drifting off to sleep. Thank God I’d be able to get a few more hours before I would have to drag myself out of bed and interact with all the drug addicts and alcoholics on the unit; I wasn’t looking forward to it at all.
“Breakfast time,” I heard a soft voice say from my doorway.
“No thanks.”
“Are you sure? We have strawberry crepes today, and I’m in charge of the whipped cream.”
I opened my eyes and saw the stunning Cassidy standing in my doorway. Her brilliant, red hair and blue eyes were something that fantasies were made of. She didn’t carry herself like a girl who knew how beautiful she was, though; instead, she looked down at the ground the second I made eye contact with her.
Her black scrubs hugged her curves perfectly and she had a delicious body underneath them, I could tell. Her smile was mesmerizing and I got lost in it for a moment as she stood there looking down at me. My body even got a little hard at the quick flash of imagi
nation that filled me when I thought of her climbing on top of my hardness.
“Bring that whipped cream in here later, and we can talk about breakfast while you lick it off of me.”
I laughed at my own comment. It was a little overboard, even for me. But it had already left my lips so there was no taking it back now. Women loved it when I flirted with them. They couldn’t get enough, and I was happy to give them anything they wanted.
She looked sternly at me, though, and didn’t seem to find the humor in my offer. I felt like crap when she looked at me and regretted making the comment almost instantly. Instead of laughing like girls did at my parties, she looked at me like I was a child who had just acted out and needed to be slapped.
“So, you refused to go to group and you’re refusing breakfast. Sounds like you’re ready to get clean and sober for sure.”
Her sarcasm took a moment to hit me, and she had left my doorway before I could come up with a witty comeback. I wasn’t used to sarcastic women. Most of the ladies I hung around with were always trying to make me happy, either in the bedroom or in the office. They didn’t dare make comments toward me that were sarcastic.
I did want to find out where her piercing was; maybe I would have to get up and go eat some breakfast so I could talk to her some more. I couldn’t help but wonder what the rules were around this place about sleeping with the staff members because I sure as hell planned on getting that woman naked sooner or later.
“Mr. Levy isn’t eating today,” I heard Cassidy say as she walked away. “Subtract two points from his chart.”
Points? Shit, was I on some sort of childish point system? This wasn’t going to turn out well for me at all. When I was a child, my mother had a chore chart that we earned points for doing the chores we had assigned. We could also earn additional points if we did extra chores around the house. My brother, Heath, always did his chores and typically did mine, as well. He was such a people pleaser that I knew I didn’t need to do my chores and they would get done by him.
The problem with the chore chart my mother had was that there was no consequence for not doing my chores. If I didn’t earn any points from chores, I simply didn’t get to pick out a treat from the store. I learned to live without those treats and without doing a single chore for much of my childhood years. I suspected I was going to have to participate in their little points system if I was ever going to get a room with a door.
Even if I was only going to stay there for a week, I wanted a damn room with a door. It was a normal, adult requirement to live in some sort of privacy. How did they expect anyone to get better if they couldn’t even retreat to their room to contemplate their own sobriety?
“Come put some of the whipped cream on my breakfast,” I demanded as I came out of my room and sat down at one of the tables.