“I’ve been good, actually.”
“Maybe you should get out more often,” she said. Maybe I would. I was thinking about what she said when I felt a chill. My palms started sweating, and felt clammy. Shit. Not now, I thought. Not when I was so far away from my kit. Why did my body always choose the worst times to get dope sick?
I rolled down one of the windows to see whether it would calm me down. I couldn’t get comfortable. My body was going to feel worse and worse till I shot up again.
“Nate?” Abby asked. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. It’s just warm in here,” I said lamely.
“Should I turn on the air?” she offered.
“No. Just drive,” I said, getting irritated. None of this was her fault, but she was behind the wheel and needed to get me back to my suite right the fuck now.
She was quiet after that. We were back at the hotel in about half an hour. It got worse when I could see the building. I was practically crawling out of my own skin.
She started parking the car, and I undid my seatbelt, ready to jump out as soon as she stopped.
“Nate?” she said. Fuck, what now?
“Yeah?” I asked, distracted.
“I’d really like to take you to see the island again,” she said.
“Right now?”
“No. Sunday? If you’re up for it?” she asked hopefully. Was a yes what would get her to leave me alone so I could go shoot up?
“Yeah. Sunday sounds great,” I said, opening the door. She might have said something else, but I didn’t hear her. I didn’t look up again ’til I got to the door of my suite. Everything was harder when I needed a fix. I opened the door and made a beeline for the bed where I had left my kit.
I unzipped it, pouring everything out onto the bed. Fuck. What was I doing? Everything was fine before we left. I’d felt great when we were at the Garden of the Gods. I’d felt calm and happy; why couldn’t I just feel that now? Without the drugs.
Maybe I would one day, but today was not that day.
Chapter Twelve
Abby
He's up there shooting himself up with drugs right now, I thought. Just like during the luau. Was that what the drugs did to you? I wasn't that familiar with what heroin was supposed to do when you put it inside your body. It was so hard to watch. He was sick. He became ill when he didn't have it.
I waited
for someone to come take the car and went back inside the building. It was late afternoon, heading towards evening. It had been a warm day and was still really pleasant. The sun wouldn't start going down for a couple hours yet. I needed to quickly change back into my clerk uniform before I got back to work.
We'd walked around, but the hike wasn't that difficult. I didn't need a shower before I did. I got to the desk, seeing Makani sitting there on the phone. I waved, walking around the desk to sit beside her and see whether I'd gotten any messages before I went to the changing room.
"Could you please hold?" she asked the person she was talking to. "Joseph asked me to tell you to go see him when you got back," she whispered to me.
"Really?" I sighed.
She shrugged apologetically, turning her attention back to the person on the other end of the line. I got up and went into the back towards Joseph's office. I guessed since he had been the one who had thrown me into taking Nate on the trip, he must want to know how it had turned out. There was no hotel without guests to fill it with, but Joseph either really liked Nate, or really feared him.
An endorsement from someone like Nate Stone would probably be great for the reputation of the resort. I knew Nate’s father was really wealthy and influential; maybe he just wanted to make sure the Stones liked us. I had no problem letting Nate know about all the different stuff he could do on the island. I didn't even really mind being the one who physically drove him around to do them.
Something had happened today. He wasn't really Nate Stone to me anymore. He was Nate, just Nate who hated being called Mr. Stone. A guy, like any other I had met in my life. One who had a problem that I wanted to help him with.
I knocked at the door before going inside.
"Abby, what took you so long? Where did you go?" Joseph said. One day, he would greet me like a human being before laying into me, I thought.