The Contestant#9

Wait! Before you start reading this, have you read ‘New Home’?

The woman sunk down into the couch cushions before turning to Adriana and handing her the extra champagne glass.  

 

“Having fun yet?” The red head asked, leaning into Adriana.  

 

“Oh yeah, in fact I think I might be having a little too much fun.” Adriana said with a laugh.  

 

The woman waved her hand dismissively. 

 

“Nonsense, no such thing as too much fun!” She said with a laugh.  

 

Her bright blue eyes shined with mischief, and normally Adriana would’ve kept that kind of observation to herself, but thanks to some liquid courage, she just had to let it be known.
 

“Why do I get the feeling that you’re trouble?” Adriana asked as she pointed her glass at the woman. 

 

“What?! Me? Trouble? No! Never!” The woman said.  

 

Adriana shook her head and chuckled.  

 

“I was just kidding, but after all that, you’re for sure trouble.” Adriana said.  

 

The woman shook her head, causing them both to bust out laughing.  

 

Maybe it was the champagne, or maybe it was the excitement of meeting so many attractive people all at once, but Adriana was on cloud nine. 

 

The blue-eyed woman introduced herself as Rachel, and after mentioning that she’d came all the way from France to be in this competition, the women got to comparing the busy and lively cities of New York City, where Adriana was originally from, to the busy city of Paris, and the far less busy towns of Hawaii. 

 

“No, no, no. While Paris might be a big city, it’s nothing like the constant go go go of New York. My goodness, I once went to visit an ex of mine and I almost got trampled because apparently I was walking too slow. ” Racheal said, clutching at her imaginary pearls.  

 

Adriana laughed.  

 

“I don’t know, I’ve visited all seven continents and have been to at least fifty countries, and I don’t even know how many cities, and yet nothing compares to New York. ” She said.  

 

Racheal let out a sound of disagreement as she finished off the last of her champagne.  

 

“Of course nothing will ever compare to your hometown, but objectively, New York is just too busy. It’s like one giant office.” Rachel said, waving her hand in the air as she spoke that last part. 

 

Adriana laughed as she shook her head.  

 

“Have you ever lived in New York City? Cause visiting a place and living there are two wildly different things.” Adriana said.  

 

“Define living.” Rachel said with a squint.  

 

“Six or more months.” Adriana said. 

 

Rachel’s eyes snapped shut as she shook her head, almost as if the champagne she was been drinking had suddenly become sour.  

 

“Oh God no! Six months plus? In New York? No, no, no.” Rachel said.  

 

“Geez Rachel, wayda make your feelings known. Let me guess, now you’re gonna tell me how you’re a Red Socks fan, and how Boston is the greatest city in the world?” Adriana joked. 

 

Rachel curled her lips inward, causing Adriana to let out a dramatic gasp.  

 

“Out!” Adriana said, pointing to the back gate of the house. 

 

Rachel laughed as she waved her hands out in front of her.  

 

“Wait, that’s not fair, I inherited my allegiance from my dad!” She said defensively.  

 

Adriana laughed. 

 

“Well clearly he doesn’t love you.” Adriana said, pointing her glass at the other woman.  

 

This time they both laughed, and after making one more comment about the Red Sox, the women moved on from the topic.  

 

The pair talked for some time, before Rachel was replaced by Rodney, a surfer from California.  

 

Rodney and Adriana talked fashion and nature, and a little about Rodney’s colorful traveling history before he was replaced by Samantha, a physical therapist from Missouri.   

 

The cycle of hellos and goodbyes continued for hours until finally, a need for water caused Adriana to put a halt on the revolving door of contestants.  

 

“I’ll be right back.” She said to a tall bald man, whose name she didn’t remember.  

 

The man gave a nod, and after rising up from the couch, she made her way across the backyard and into the house.  

 

After pulling the massive sliding back door closed, Adriana headed towards the kitchen, where laughter could be heard.  

 

Arriving at the opening of the kitchen, she found all of the kitchen staff huddled together. 

 

From where she was standing, someone seemed to be standing in the middle of the huddle, talking to all of the staff, but she couldn’t make out what it was that the person was saying.  

 

But as she inched closer, fragments of the story the person was telling, became a little more audible. 

 

“So he just starts screaming, ‘Whose better than me! You’ve got the best of the best right here! Why would you wanna waste money and go anywhere else?!’ Mind you, at this point he’s standing in the middle of the kitchen, butt ass naked, with all the staff just staring at him.” said a voice. 

 

Now Adriana’s interest had been peaked; while eavesdropping wasn’t something Adriana normally did, the notion of an angry naked man, screaming in the middle of a kitchen got her attention. 

 

“So he’s just screaming and muttering nonsense in Italian and I’m freaking out, mom’s freaking out, and my sisters are crying. We’re all like somethings wrong with papa, is it Alzheimer’s, maybe it’s dementia, we don’t know, but we’re freaking out. Eventually dad gets him out of the kitchen, we get him dressed, and we take him home, and long story short, that was the first- and last-time papa ever did shrooms.” Said the voice. 

 

The entire kitchen staff bursted into laughter. 

 

“Fucking hell. He’s lowkey kind of nuts, but God I fucking love Vinny.” Said one of the waiters, causing everyone to laugh. 

 

“Alright, we better get back to work before- Oh, Adriana, I didn’t see you there.” Mitchel, the head chef said.  

 

Everyone’s heads snapped to the door, deer in headlight looks taking over everyone’s faces. 

 

“Ahh, this doesn’t look good for me.” Said the tall figure standing in the middle of the huddle of the staff.