Chapter Three

Adriel sat unmoving, minutes after Allison had left. Her words echoing in his mind.

"I doubt you'll be able to understand, with your shallow mindset and all"

She had called him shallow as well, a long time ago, yes she had, and it had cut him deeply. He had told himself that she was just looking for an excuse to leave but hearing Allison say the same thing, could she have been right?, Adriel wondered.

As he sat there pondering on her words, Adriel soon began to drain glass after glass of alcohol. Soon he was quite tipsy and in no condition to go home on his own. The waiter, on seeing his state, decided to help and took out his phone. Using Adriel's thumbprint, he opened the phone and went straight to the call log. The recent and most called number was 'Miss Garcia' so the waiter tapped on it.

Lola was at home that evening with her best friend Camille when her phone suddenly rang. She glanced at her screen and scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion. Why was Adriel calling her at this time?

"Aren't you going to answer your call?", Camille asked her.

"It's my boss," Lola replied.

"By this time?", Camille said, glancing at the clock.

"What could he possibly want?", Camille asked her.

Lola shook her head.

"I don't know. Normally when he calls me this late, it is to make or add last minute arrangements to one of his fancy dinner plans but he's already on a dinner date with someone so why is he calling me?", Lola told her.

By then the phone had stopped ringing but it soon started ringing again. Seeing as he was calling for the second time, Lola began to wonder if it was an emergency.

"Hello?", she said into her phone as she picked up the call.

"Hello, good evening", the waiter said.

"Good evening, who is this?", Lola asked when she noticed the different voice.

"I'm a staff at La Rousseau's and I'm afraid the owner of this phone had a bit too much to drink and is in no condition to go home on his own, it would be nice if you could come pick him up", the waiter told her.

Lola paused for some time.

"But is he alone? What about his dinner date?", Lola couldn't help asking.

"He's alone ma'am. There's no one else here with him", the waiter answered.

Lola didn't reply immediately and thought about it for a while.

"Alright, I'll be there soon", she said.

"Ok", the waiter said and hung up.

"What's up? What happened?", Camille asked Lola when the call ended.

"It's my boss. I have to go pick him up", Lola told her.

"You? What about his dinner date?", Camille asked her.

"I don't know", Lola shrugged.

"I guess the date didn't go well. She did seem like a tough woman", Lola told her.

"So? You do know no one would fault you if you don't go and pick him up right? It is outside your working hours", Camille told her.

"I know", Lola said softly.

"But I can't just leave him there", she added as she stood up from the couch.

"Oh Lola", Camille groaned.

"We are in the middle of a movie", Camille whined.

"Yeah, about that, could you just pause the movie till I come back? I promise I'll be back real quick. I'll just take him home, then come right back, I promise", Lola pleaded with Camille.

"Ah, fine", Camille conceded.

Lola quickly threw on some clothes and took a cab to La Rousseau's. Since she was the one who made the reservation, she knew exactly which room Adriel was in so she headed straight there.

When she got there she met the waiter who had called her.

"Good evening", Lola greeted him.

"Good evening", he responded.

"Are you Miss Garcia?", the waiter asked.

"Yes, that's me", Lola answered and glanced at Adriel who was resting his head on the table, his cheeks flushed, no doubt he was definitely tipsy.

"Thanks for calling me", Lola thanked the waiter.

"It's no problem", the waiter smiled and left.

Lola looked at the state Adriel was in and sighed.

She walked towards him and began to tap him lightly. Adriel stirred but refused to wake up. Lola continued persistently to try and wake him up.

"Mr. Alvarez?", Lola called.

"Mr. Alvarez, please wake up let's go home", Lola tried to wake him up.

Adriel stirred again and then raised his head from the table. He stared fixedly at Lola for a long time as if trying to remember her face.

"Heyyy, Miss G.. Garciaaa", Adriel said finally.

"Yes, yes, it's me, stand up, let's go", Lola implored him.

"No", Adriel said in a childish manner with a pout on his face.

Lola almost wanted to laugh at his expression.

"Mr. Alvarez, please let's go, it's already getting late", Lola pleaded.

Adriel looked at her thoughtfully for sometime.

"Ok, I'll go with you", Adriel said finally.

"Thank you", Lola breathed a sigh of relief.

"But!", Adrian suddenly continued.

"On one condition", he told her.

"What condition?", Lola asked carefully.

"On the condition that you drink with me", Adriel declared.

Lola facepalmed. What the hell was this?

"Mr. Alvarez, please stop playing with me and just let me take you home", Lola pleaded.

"No", Adriel said once again in his childish manner but Lola was beginning to find it less and less cute.

"It's either you drink with me or I won't go home with you", Adriel said.

Lola sighed. She didn't want to drink because she was a lightweight, any little bit of alcohol and she was sure to get tipsy. She glanced at Adriel who looked very serious with his demand.

"You promise that if I drink with you, you will let me take you home?", Lola asked him.

"Yes, I promise", Adriel promised, nodding his head like an obedient child.

"Ok", Lola said as she sat in front of Adriel and watched as he poured her a glass of Scotch.

After pouring the glass, Adriel handed it to her. Lola took it unsurely but she consoled herself by saying she would only take a little sip, that still counted as drinking, somewhat. Lola brought the glass to her lips and took a little sip. But just as Lola was about to take the glass away, she suddenly felt a hand forcing down on the glass, giving her no choice but to gulp down the entire glass.

Lola put the empty glass down and stared in disbelief at Adriel who was grinning mischievously at her. Why did she feel like she had been tricked?