The Height Of Happiness

Without him, the poolside seemed desolate. The space felt less welcoming, but Serena needed time to get her head right. A long moment passed as she sipped melted ice. When that was gone she drank the cocktail Teddy never touched. She stared down into the water half-expecting to fall in or have someone kick her out of the pool. Her imagination always ran wild when she was drunk, and Serena found tonight was no exception. The cool breeze swirling through the atrium died off and left Serena in the warmth of the summer night.

Finishing her drink, Serena stared down at the pair of glasses sitting on the cement. The sense of guilt washed over her enough to make her shove a ten dollar bill into the empty tip jar tucked under the bar. She left the glasses on the wet bar and walked back inside to the cool halls of the hotel trying to play it off, but the sense of what she was walking towards overtook her.

Stepping into an elevator alone, Serena held the room card tightly in her grasp. The room number written on the back was one of the top floors where elegant people stayed in suites bigger than the average Manhattan apartment. It made her wonder how Teddy could afford such a luxury. Was it his money or was his company just generous in their accommodations? As Serena listened to the mindless elevator music playing above her head, she began to think about just what was going to happen when she used this key.

Who was this man? He could be a murderer or a con artist. Teddy might not even be his real name. Serena began to understand why most women prefer to have s*x in their own bed. What had been harmless indulgence suddenly felt like a possibly dangerous situation.

The thought of those vivid and genuinely warm eyes stopped her rampant imaginings. Serena found herself lost in just the memory of them.

The fingerprints he left felt as if they were now permanently burned into her skin. She couldn’t forget the sensation, but another emotion began to rear its ugly head alongside the realization of the intensity of it all. The hot heat of stage fright began rising up inside of Serena’s chest. This was not who she was. As dreamy as Teddy was in that moment downstairs, Serena couldn’t escape the inner thoughts of her sober self. Liquor had drawn her down the halls and gotten her to rise upward toward her destination, but as the elevator finally opened to four gleaming dark doors she stopped.

Taking a step so her back was firmly against the elevator wall, Serena watched as the doors closed again before pressing a new button and sinking back down into reality.