The Interview

The Interview

The warm summer breeze blew through the open widow of the city hotel room; forcing the thin white curtains to billow into the room, directly to the nearest occupant. A young woman, scarcely out of her teens, stretched languidly across a chaise lounge that occupied the far side of the room, opposite the door and nearest to the window.
 
Much can be said of the woman, for she exhibited a sort of bored, lazy, careless air that set her apart from others. For example, she laid her head back in such a manner as to convey to all that had not a care in the world. That the most difficult thing she would do all day was to get up and get a fresh piece of chewing gum. With one arm held up easily against the top of the lounge and her mouth slowly opening and closing to chew her gum she made the perfect picture of youthful arrogance and carelessness; the laziness of inherited wealth bestowed upon unworthy subjects.

The light breeze affected the woman's dress just as it had the curtains and blew the white cotton dress, which upon closer inspection proved to be intricately patterned with small flowers, towards the only other person in the room. This person, a man, was positioned in a similarly lazy and comfortable position. Seated in a smart looking chair with his feet propped up on another and his arm resting on a large wooded desk. The desk was cluttered and messy, covered in papers, books and other such knickknacks that always seem to pile up on any empty surface. Similarly, the room seemed to be equally unorganized with dirty clothes strewn haphazardly about. Empty bottles of alcohol along with half-empty glasses, cigarettes and other examples of reckless debauchery were scattered on the fine furnishings of the hotel room. Overall, the room could best be described as a sort of luxury slum, a place once very fine and beautiful thrown into complete chaos and disarray.
   
While the couple are both positioned similarly the woman is completely relaxed, but the handsome man has a certain tenseness about him that makes his mouth thin and his hand clutch tightly around the ice-filled tumbler he holds. He seems, to the untrained eye to be anticipating something, something unpleasant and dreaded. However, it is known to be otherwise if one is in the know.

These people, the Waldorfs are newlyweds, young newlyweds at that, and they were quickly gaining a reputation throughout New York as a glamorous and extravagant couple, and receiving much tabloid attention for it.  The man, James, had recently inherited a large fortune upon his Grandfather's death. After the mandatory period of feigned grief James had quickly married a young woman of prominent, but not wealthy family from New England. Adriana, as the woman is known, matched her new husband in not only beauty, but in unchecked extravagance and recklessness.

Our story begins on one random day early in the Waldorf's marriage some thirty minutes after the aforementioned lounging, not with a bang but with a knock on the door of their hotel room. In the thirty minutes past Adriana had managed, after great effort, to lounge her way into the bathroom and consequently into the large tub to take a bath, as she usually did about twice a day. You see Adriana seemed to find something symbolic in bathing, as if a half hour in the bath could cleanse you of your sins, both real and imagined like it did dirt.

With his wife's departure, James had moved into the bedroom to rummage through his clothes with the hope of finding a fresh set. For James had long since grown used to changing his clothes three times a day if he wished. However, this requires maintenance and housekeeping, something his young wife seemed incapable of giving him.

And this is how they were when the knock sounded on the door. Abandoning his search James angrily threw a dirty pair of pants across the room and went to answer the door. The knocker turned out to be a young man of no small stature who held in his hand a notebook and a pen and had a small camera bag slung over his large shoulder.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Waldorf."  At James' confused look the man said "I'm Luke Brown, we spoke over the phone last Tuesday."

"Oh, right," James said remembering, "you're the reporter, I must have forgotten...Oh, please come in." he replied opening the door.

James looked anxiously around the messy apartment and led his new guest to a seating arrangement surrounding a small table, which he quickly cleared off in what he obviously hoped to be an inauspicious manner, near to the slightly ajar bathroom door.

Then he yelled to his wife "hurry up! That reporter I told you about last week is here to interview us."

"Why don't you start without me, dear, I'm gonna be awhile yet," Adriana answered with a splash from her bath water.

James' anger returned with this reply, but he politely offered Luke a drink, which was refused, and then poured one for himself. After James was settled in an empty chair, Luke opened his notebook and began the interview. James, soon relaxed by Luke's interested gaze and by the stiff drink he drank, answered Luke's questions about the last few weeks of his and Adriana's lives as fully and truthfully as he could. And that is how the next forty-five minutes went, with several more stiff drinks for James and the occasional outburst of James tell him ‘bout this and ‘James tell him ‘bout that from the listening Adriana.

Finally, after forty-five minutes Luke seemed to have gotten what he wanted and after a quick picture of a now slightly tipsy James and a soaking wet Adriana, who as it turned out had bathed in her slip, left the apartment promising the couple that the interview would be printed in the next day's paper. After the usual night activities, dinner, a show from which they were kicked out of for disturbing everyone by laughing loudly at the sad parts and weeping hysterically at the humorous ones, and finally a friend's party to which they showed up drunk and took a nap before joining the other guests, the Waldorfs woke up the next morning, or afternoon as it was excited to read their interview.

However, after finding the paper and page the article was printed on their excitement soon waned.
"This is horrendous! Where did he find this stuff?" exclaimed Adriana. Then accusingly with a sharp look at James, "did you tell him?"
"No! Of course not, do you think I'm an idiot," replied James. Clearly shocked and upset he shook his head he continued, "that man has obviously been looking a lot closer than we thought."

The article as it turns out was not the pleasant tale of their recent exploits that the Waldorfs had expected and grown accustomed to, but a tongue-in-check mockery of their lifestyle that described in painful clarity all of the less well known and even more scandalous details of their private lives and their less than commendable dealings with some of their friends and acquaintances.

"Let's just forget about it James," said Adriana taking the paper from her husband's hands and placing on the table that the offending interview had taken place.
"Yes, let's," replied James. And that's the last they spoke of it for the rest of the afternoon.

That evening the young couple went out as they usually did, fully intending to forget about the unfortunate story. However, as luck would have it, it seemed as if all of New York had read the article. At first James and Adriana thought that the stares and whispers they noticed during dinner were just the usual ones they received from star- struck people that recognized them from magazine covers. But it soon became apparent that there was a more malicious intent behind them. And this hit the Waldorfs full force at their friend, Dorothy's party later that night.
The Waldorfs entered the room in which the party was being held with a bang, as was usual, but being pointedly ignored by the familiar host was not. And when Dorothy proceeded to recount the nastiest quotes in the article to anyone who would listen, when she thought that the subjects were out of hearing range, the Waldorfs knowing when they were not wanted quickly excused themselves and went home.

During the cab ride back to the hotel James and Adriana came to the conclusion that in a few days time this would all blow over and be forgotten and everything would go back to normal. But when they arrived at another friend's party nearly a week later they realized that this was not the case.

The Waldorfs held steadfast to the rule that the first thing to do at a party was to greet the host. After scanning the room James soon found the host of this particular party, an intelligent man of the name John. John had his back to the young couple and was speaking to a large man who at close range seemed vaguely familiar to James. Then with a realization that hit him so hard he felt as if a train had hit him he recognized the man; it was the reporter, Luke Brown!

James stopped in shock and Luke turning his head quickly, gave James a malicious and haughty smirk and pointedly turned his head toward the ignorant host and continued their conversation. The room swam before James' eyes and grabbing his wife he made his way as quickly as possible to the door, a permanent exit from the room and from the lifestyle it exhibited. For after the Waldorf's first of many four daylong rows, the young couple packed up their belongings and moved east to Europe, never to return again.

The End