Wild Riviera

by Tripp Ellis

  “Pizza delivery.”

  The light coming through the peep-hole flickered as she looked through it.

  “I don’t see a pizza box, Mister,” she said, playfully.

  “It’s right here. It’s got extra sausage.”

  She laughed at my crude joke and pulled open the door. Her arms wrapped around me, and her full lips kissed my cheek. She took my hand and pulled me into the apartment. “Well, this is it. What do you think?”

  “Not too shabby,” I said, glancing around.

  The apartment had breathtaking views of the city. In the southwest corner of the apartment, her large terrace overlooked the East River, the skyscrapers of Midtown, the Hospital for Special Surgery, and the Queensboro Bridge in the distance.

  The 2 bedroom apartment was 1000 ft.² and cost $1.8 million. There was a $1500 monthly maintenance fee, and around $1700 in monthly taxes on top of the mortgage.

  I guess being a famous Insta-model paid off?

  The kitchen flowed into the living room with an open architecture. The corner terrace featured wood decking and balustrade panels, offering a sweeping view. The apartment had wide-plank hardwood floors that were stained in a dark rosewood. The kitchen had quartz countertops, and a spacious center island. The kitchen was loaded with state-of-the-art stainless steel appliances.

  There were two bedrooms split on opposite sides of the living room. Scarlett and her friend, Sadie, stayed in the guest room. The master bedroom had a private en suite, and the guest bathroom was easily accessible from the main area or the guest suite.

  Scarlett gave me a sheepish look as she approached for a hug. She knew what kind of trouble she was in.

  I arched a stern eyebrow at her.

  “I know, I know,” she said, wrapping her arms around me.

  “You can’t run off like this.”

  “I just needed to get away for a little while. I’ve been so stressed out. And Aria was kind enough to let us stay.” Scarlett smiled.

  Aria raised her hands, innocently. “I had nothing to do with this. She was already in New York when she called me.”

  “Aria has been super cool,” Scarlett said. “She set up a meeting with her agent, and she’s been giving me the scoop on the whole modeling thing.”

  Scarlett introduced her friend, Sadie. One look, and I could tell she was trouble.

  She had pink shoulder length hair, dark mascara, and creamy skin. The 19-year-old wore an oversized anarchy T-shirt that had been cut into a fashionable dress that hung off one shoulder. The belt around her waist showed off her petite figure, and the hem of her dress barely extended to her thighs. She wore black stilettos that accentuated her toned calves. She was ready for an evening on the town.

  We shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

  ”Don’t be mad at Scarlett,” Sadie said with a smirk. “This was all my idea. I’m the bad influence.”

  “You don’t have to convince me of that.”

  She chuckled. “You don’t understand. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. DPR is playing their last show ever at the Garden tonight?”

  “DPR?”

  “Dope Pilot Revolution,” Sadie said.

  “Oh, right. Those guys are assholes,” I muttered.

  Scarlett lifted a curious brow. “You know them?”

  “I know the guitar player, Zazzle.”

  Both of their eyes brightened.

  “Really, that’s so cool!” Sadie said. She stepped closer and grabbed my arm. “Can you get us backstage?”

  “Sorry. I’m not that cool.”

  “I don’t know. You dated Bree Taylor. That makes you pretty cool in my book.”

  I could feel Aria’s eyes blaze into me. I shrugged innocently. “I wouldn’t call it dating.”

  Aria cleared her throat. “Next subject.”

  Sadie flashed her an apologetic glance.

  “So, after the concert, you two are heading back home?” I asked, phrasing it as a subtle demand.

  “After the meeting with Aria’s agent,” Scarlett said.

  “When’s that?”

  “Tuesday afternoon,” she said, sheepishly.

  “And your court date is Thursday,” I said.

  “Plenty of time.” Scarlett made a sad, pouty face. The one that she knew would get her everything she ever wanted. Then she laid on the high drama. “This could be my last moment of freedom. They could lock me up in some maximum-security prison for, like, the next 30 years. I could be put with hardened criminals. I’ll be forced to join a gang to survive. I might have to do hits in the yard, stabbing other inmates with a shank to please my gang overlords. Then, I’ll get life. This may be the last concert I ever see as a free woman.”

  I rolled my eyes. “This is your first offense. You’re going to get a slap on the wrist, and a heavy fine.”

  “See. It’s no big deal,” she said, flippantly.

  My eyes narrowed at her. “Oh, believe me, it’s a big deal.”

  Scarlett smiled. “Great. So we’re in agreement. It is a big deal, and I should enjoy this moment to the fullest.”

  There was no way to win an argument with this girl.

  “I told JD I would have you back in time. You realize you’re about this close to giving him a heart attack,” I said with my thumb and index finger less than a millimeter apart.

  “Sorry,” Scarlett said with that adorable pouty face again.

  I paused for a long moment, then sighed. “You can go to the concert. But I’m coming with you. And you two are not getting out of my sight for the duration of your stay here. As soon as your meeting is done with Aria’s agent, I’m putting you on a plane, and we’re going back to Coconut Key. Are we clear?”

  She nodded with a mischievous grin. The two little delinquents exchanged a glance.

  “You know the concert is sold out, right?” Sadie asked.

  “No worries,” Aria said. “I know a guy who can get tickets. Might have to pay a little more, but…”

  I gave her a nod that I didn’t mind paying a little extra. I mean, how much could it be?

  Aria dialed her phone and got her connection on the line. “Hey, Brad. Do you have anything for tonight’s show?”

  30

  Brad's thin voice crackled through the speaker in her phone. It wasn't quite loud enough for me to hear.

  "He's got floor seats," Aria said. "Section C, to the right of the stage."

  I nodded.

  "No way!" Scarlett said, her eyes wide with envy. "We are in section 221, up in the nosebleeds. You can’t have better seats than we do. That’s not fair.”

  "How many do you have?" Aria asked Brad. She listened for a moment. “He's got four seats."

  "Please, please, please!" Scarlett begged.

  I gave a nod to Aria.

  "We'll take them. How much?"

  Brad's thin voice crackled back.

  Aria covered the phone. “He wants $650 each. Face value is $475."

  My jaw dropped. "Are you sure they're real?"

  Aria nodded. “I’ve purchased dozens of tickets from him.” Then she uncovered the phone. “We'll take them."

  Both the girls cheered with joy.

  I wondered who the hell was gonna pay for these?

  I definitely owed JD one. But I didn't have $2600 cash on me.

  Aria must have read my look. “Don't worry about it. I got it.”

  The girls hugged Aria, thanking her profusely. They bounced up and down and screamed, elated.

  I couldn't believe we were paying that much to go see Zazzle’s band.

  "Brad's going to meet us at the venue and give us the tickets," Aria said after she hung up the phone.

  The doors opened at 7:30 PM, and the first act went on at 9 PM. We ordered a pizza, then headed to the Garden.

  We dumped the crappy tickets for face value near the venue, and Aria pocketed the cash. Fortunately, we didn’t get caught. You had to be licensed and bonded to re-sell tickets in New York, and it was illegal
to sell within 1500 feet of the venue.

  The opening act was the Loud Assholes, and they were aptly named. I'd heard catfights that were more melodic. Screaming vocals and fast beats. Sloppy, angry guitar riffs that all sounded derivative. Maybe I was just getting old, but I couldn’t decipher a single lyric.

  As bad as the Loud Assholes were, Dope Pilot Revolution made my skin crawl. They had a few songs that I liked, but my encounter with Zazzle killed any enthusiasm I had for the band.

  It was just bizarre. A week earlier, I had almost gotten into a fight with him on a yacht in Monaco. I thought life would begin to seem less surreal once I got back to the United States, but the strange drama of my life kept unfolding.

  The seats were great. For $650 apiece, they ought to be! We were on the 2nd row of section C. I could spit and hit the stage—and I thought about it a few times.

  The crowd roared when DPR went on. The bass drum boomed like a howitzer, and when Zazzle hit a power chord it growled like a chainsaw. Colored lights slashed the hazy air, and the lead singer screamed, “Hello, New York!”

  The crowd erupted again.

  In the old days, the arena would take on the sweet aroma of cannabis the minute the band took the stage. Now, everyone mostly vaped, but there were a few tokers here and there. Security didn’t seem too uptight about it.

  Scarlett and Sadie loved the show. They bounced up and down and sang the lyrics with their hands in the air. They disappeared a few times to supposedly use the restroom, but I know they went off to get high. They returned with tall cups of beer in their hands as well. I knew Scarlett had a fake ID, but the vendors weren’t being too picky about who they served.

  I quickly realized I was not cut out for the chaperone thing.

  "Relax, let them have fun," Aria shouted in my ear, grabbing my arm and snuggling close. She could easily read the tension on my face.

  "I'm supposed to be keeping her out of trouble."

  "They're having harmless fun,” Aria said. "You were that age once, remember?"

  I arched an eyebrow at her.

  "Loosen up. Have a little fun," she shouted over the noise.

  I forced a smile. "You want anything to drink?"

  "I'll take a Jack and Coke," she said.

  I squeezed down the row, stepped into the aisle, and made my way to the vending area. The line wasn't too bad, but I wasn't too thrilled about paying $15 a pop for watered-down mixed drinks. I decided it was best to make them doubles (which doubled the cost). I bought two for each of us. I carried $120 worth of drinks back on a cardboard drink tray, praying someone didn’t bump into me.

  Somehow, I managed to make it back to my seat without spilling them. Aria took her drinks and kissed me on the cheek.

  I tried to pretend I had never met Zazzle. I had to admit, the guy could shred on guitar. I managed to let my animosity go, and I enjoyed the show as best I could. The girls were happy, and that's all that really mattered.

  My ears rang after the show like I had been in a prolonged gun battle, despite wearing earplugs.

  The VIP seats we purchased came with backstage passes that included a meet and greet. The girls were ecstatic at the prospect of meeting the band. I doubted Zazzle would even remember me. He was pretty inebriated at the time, and it seemed like ancient history now.

  The meet and greet was nothing more than the VIP ticket holders standing in a backstage hallway for 20 minutes, waiting for the band to come out of their dressing room. The band moved through the line quickly, shaking hands, and inviting pretty girls back to their hotel to party.

  Zazzle instantly homed in on Scarlett and Sadie. He was shirtless, drenched in sweat, and that stringy black hair concealed most of his face. “You definitely have to come party with us!”

  The girls’ faces lit up.

  “Absolutely!” Sadie replied.

  “I don’t think they’ll be joining you,” I interjected.

  The girls’ faces fell flat.

  I felt like that stodgy old man. This was not a role that I wanted to take on.

  Zazzle’s face crinkled, and he brushed aside his greasy hair. He twisted to face me and almost lost his balance. “I know you. Still a dick, I see.”

  I gritted my teeth and forced a smile.

  Zazzle turned back to the girls. “Lose the loser, and come with us.”

  Sadie grabbed his hand. “Ok. Sounds fun.” Her sassy eyes found me. “Sorry, but you can’t tell me what to do.”

  She followed her statement with a smile that said fuck you, then she grabbed Scarlett’s hand and pulled her down the hallway with Zazzle.

  I had completely lost control of the situation.

  Scarlett looked at me and shrugged innocently as she shuffled away. “I promise, we won’t get out of hand.”

  I clenched my jaw, and my face turned red.

  “You want me to go with them?” Aria asked.

  31

  “Jack is right,” I said. “It’s not my job to keep her from making bad decisions.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Aria said. “I’ve partied with several rock stars before. They’re usually pretty tame… I mean, this isn’t the 70s.”

  She tried to downplay the situation.

  I watched Scarlett and Sadie disappear down the hallway with several other groupies.

  “JD’s going to kill me if anything happens to her.”

  “I’ll go and keep an eye on them.”

  “No.” I tried to convince myself that it was no big deal. “Harmless fun with rock stars, right?”

  “Right,” Aria agreed.

  Neither one of us really believed it.

  “They’re adults.”

  “Right.”

  I still wasn’t convinced.

  “We should make use of the time. We have the apartment all to ourselves,” Aria said with a naughty glimmer in her eyes.

  I hesitated and glanced down the hallway again. The groupies and the band were gone. They had exited the building.

  Security moved through the hallway, ushering the VIP ticket holders, who didn’t make the cut, back to the front stage area.

  “She’ll call if she needs anything, I’m sure,” Aria said.

  Against my better judgment, I relented. We left the Garden and caught a cab back to Aria’s apartment.

  “I think it’s cute the way you look after the people close to you,” Aria said. “Even if you are a little uptight.”

  “I’m not uptight,” I said, feeling the tension in my shoulders. “Okay, I’m not usually this uptight. I just feel responsible. I told JD I’d get her back without incident.”

  “You will.” She smiled. “I have no doubt.”

  She moved close and pressed her full lips against mine. I had forgotten how nice they felt. It didn’t take much for Aria to distract my attention. We stumbled into her bedroom with our lips locked, peeling off our clothes along the way.

  We fell into bed and reconnected in mind blowing ways. When we had worn ourselves out, she lay beside me with a smooth leg wrapped around me and her head nuzzled into my shoulder.

  “I missed you,” she said in a delicate breath.

  “I missed you too.”

  “Obviously not that much.”

  “Hey, you were the one that bailed on me.”

  “It was for work. You know that.”

  I shrugged.

  “It’s not like you didn’t have fun.”

  “I don’t know if you’d call it fun.”

  Her eyes narrowed at me. “Please. You banged a movie star.”

  “A movie star who died!” I said, overstating the obvious.

  “Well, that part sucks.” She paused. “What was she like?”

  It was a little awkward talking to Aria about Bree. “She was nice.”

  “Did you like her?”

  “I didn’t get to know her that well.”

  “But do you think you would have grown to like her?” There was a slight hint of jealousy in her voice.

>   “Where is this going?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know.” She paused again. “What if you would have fallen in love with her?”

  “That’s kind of a moot point, isn’t it?”

  “Well, what happens when you meet someone? Like, really meet someone?”

  “What happens when you meet someone?”

  She huffed. “You can’t answer a question with a question. Honestly, how many girls have you been with since the last time we saw each other?”

  “Is this a trick question?”

  Her eyes narrowed at me. “No. It’s not a trick question. You’re free to do whatever you want, I’m just mildly curious?”

  “How many guys have you been with?” I reconsidered the question immediately. “No. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.” I hesitated. “I thought we were doing the no drama, no strings thing?”

  She sighed. “Ugh, I don’t want to do this.”

  “Do what?” I asked, hesitantly.

  “I’m sorry. I never wanted to fight about this stuff.”

  “We're not fighting. We're having an… uncomfortable discussion.”

  She gave me a sour look, not amused. She took a deep breath. “I really like you. You’re easy to be around. We have fun together. But our lives are totally different. I love New York. I love this city. I love my job!” Her eyes were wide and her face filled with enthusiasm and passion. Then her expression drooped again. “But you’re never going to move here, and I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”

  “So, we just keep enjoying each other’s company when we can.” I said, fumbling for words.

  “And what? Do that until we each find someone who fits our lives better?”

  That hung in the air for a long moment.

  I didn’t have an answer.

  I was saved by a phone call. But it wasn’t good news.

  32

  “I’m in trouble,” Scarlett stammered, her voice trembling.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “I think they put something in our drinks. I started feeling weird. Sadie doesn’t want to leave.”