Five Star Hotel

3. Pink Dresses

Dante

"What's happening to you man?" Sean asked as we entered the bar. He snatched my cell phone out of my hands.

"Nothing." I snapped, taking my phone back. My father was the problem. He wasn't supposed to reach out to me, but of course he didn't care, he was the boss, no one told him what to do, and that was proved by the five missed calls I had from him.

Either something was wrong or he started using again.

I didn't answer the call. I let it ring and ring until he was sent to voicemail. If it was really him, and he really needed something he could very easily find me some other way.

All of my ancestors died young. They lived long enough to pop out a few kids and keep the family name going. My father was the exception due to the fact that he was smart and worked his way up the social ladder. Of course, I use the word worked lightly. No virtuous, ethical man got to where he was without blowing off a few heads along the way. You had to be cold blooded, heartless, and fearless.

I certainly wasn't that person. I had a heart, I had fears, I had a conscience. My father knew that, so rather than allow his son to be viewed as the weak link, rather than mold me into the devil he was, he shipped me off to somewhere safe with minimal contact.

"I'm fine, I just need a drink."  I sighed, heading over to the bar.

"You see her?" Sean asked me as I took the first sip of my drink. The first of what I planned to be many drinks. "I've been watching her for three days now."

"Yes, because that's not creepy at all."

Sean laughed. "Nah. I haven't been stalking her. She's been down while I've been down here, it's purely coincidence, Dante. Point is I want her, but that big dude is always around her."

I couldn't help but laugh. "So you want me to use my Italian Mafia ties to scare him away, is that it?" Sean thought I was joking.

"Exactly. You use your naive foreigner act to charm her away from him then pass her onto me."

I sighed. "Fine I—" Stopped talking the second my eyes landed on her. She looked so sad but so beautiful. She was mesmerizing. I then noticed that the strange girl was mumbling to herself and was surrounded by many empty glasses.

Please tell me she didn't drink all of those by herself. Tell me that Alex, the bartender didn't actually serve her all those drinks, I silently begged.

"What the f@ck are you looking at?" Sean followed my gaze to the little brunette in the pink dress. A dress that hugged all of her curves perfectly. "Or should I say who are you looking at?" He laughed at his sad attempt at a joke. Could that even be considered a joke?

"Shut up." I blurted out, quickly looking away.

"She looks pretty wasted. You could probably—"

"I could and probably would strangle you if you finish that sentence." Most people are scared of me, even though they don't usually have any reason to be. I've been called 'intimidating' many times by many different people. Even on a good day, I'd get told to 'cheer up' and 'smile'.

Sean just laughed off my threat. "Go kick that guy's ass. The girl is mine."

So I did. I walked up to both of them and just started talking to the girl like her friend wasn't even there. Usually acting like the lost foreigner who barely knew any English worked wonders.

And this girl was no exception. She waived her friend off and told him that she would meet up again with him later. He left without question, making me wonder who he was in relation to her. Maybe they were just friends, although Sean had a reputation of going after taken women. If I had a dollar for every guy I had to scare away so my best friend wouldn't get his ass kicked...