In a just world, she would have been asleep already.

The problem had been that Trish had texted to check in on her, and Adelaide had mentioned her hotel drama from the night before, and Trish had insisted that Adelaide take one of the rooms where she was staying.

Adelaide had felt she couldn’t say no. Beyond normal social niceties, she wanted to make sure Trish wasn’t upset, and it would be good to get a sense of whether she was planning to stick around for another trip. And, also, Trish always stayed in incredibly nice places.

This had been no exception, and Adelaide had put her bags down in a beautiful bedroom that was apparently just part of the place Trish’s family owned, staffed, and barely visited in Bermuda. And Adelaide was thinking this would be fun, like college — watch a movie, talk a bit, fall asleep.

But now it was actually like college — wait while Trish takes too long getting ready, don’t have dinner until late, agree to a quick drink, and then get dragged out to a club. And then just having her eardrums melt while she tried to get a bartender’s attention and wondered how long before she could go back home.

It was a stroke of luck, at least, that there was an outdoor bar here. It was warm out, but not as sweaty as inside, and the volume was loud rather than intolerable. Adelaide had finally gotten another drink when Trish approached her.

“Fun, right? People said this place is the best, and it’s not bad for Tuesday!”

Adelaide smiled. “It’s like old times.”

“Exactly! But also isn’t it so crazy that we were on a boat like 48 hours ago or whatever! Totally different world.”

“I mean, literally.”

“Yeah! This is fun though. But I was surprised how little stuff I actually missed from normal life while we were out there. Like obviously it would be different if we had kids or whatever, but I didn’t really find myself thinking of home too much while we were gone.”

“You know, I didn’t really consider it one way or another until now, but I think you’re right.”

“Isn’t that weird? Like every time I go on a normal vacation, I spent a ton of time thinking about home. I post stuff and I see what my friends are doing while I’m gone and I compare the food and the clubs and the weather. But I didn’t have that at all. I wonder if it’ll be different next time.”

Adelaide turned to Trish, who was holding something that looked both fruity and extremely alcoholic. “So there will be a next time?”

“Of course! I mean, you don’t mind, right?”

“No, not at all! I just - I know we talked about it, but the way things ended…”

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“I get it, but come on! I’m going to miss a whole world? No way. We have to see what’s out there!”

Adelaide smiled, until she saw who was approaching them. Not that she knew him — she was pretty sure she’d never seen him before in her life. But he had an expression that she’d long since learned to read as saying, “I probably have a shot with one of them, right?”

And sure enough, he walked a step too close before saying, “Hey, great night, right? Can I buy you both a drink?”

And that wouldn’t be a problem, normally, because Adelaide would just decline except, right on schedule —

“Oh, we just got these, but maybe in a bit?” Trish responded. “And yeah, it’s really pretty out! Do you come here a lot?”

Adelaide never understood exactly what Trish was doing in these moments. If you’d never met her and just saw he respond to dumb flirting, you’d think the was really into every guy that approached. But she almost never went home with these guys. So maybe you’d think she was too naive to figure out they were flirting with her, but she was normally really astute about social cues. And if she was just too shy to turn them down, she didn’t need to ask so many follow up questions.

Anyway, this gentleman did not have the wealth of experience that Adelaide did with Trish’s reactions, and thus began a deeply inane conversation. Adelaide decided to charitably assume he was drunk and that was why he couldn't do much more than say how cool the music was and list other clubs on the island he liked. But Trish acted like she was hosting a podcast or something, asking him question after question.

Apparently, that was all the encouragement he needed to pull out a little baggie and ask, “What do you say, want to really party? I even have some more at my place.”

Despite herself, Adelaide looked at the contents. She wasn’t a narcotics expert, but she would have thought she would have at least heard about something that looked like this. The baggie was full of bright, red, shiny spheres that seemed too big to snort, but they looked like they would feel like ball bearings if you swallowed them. Did they have red drugs now?

“What is that?” Adelaide asked.

He gave her a weird look. “You know. It’s the Triangle’s latest.”

Before Adelaide could even respond, Trish cut in. “Oh, thanks, but we are actually leaving really soon. But it was nice meeting you! Bye!”

It took a few seconds for his synapses to bounce that one around, but once they did he seemed to accept the rejection. Or, at least, he wandered off, back into the club. Once he was gone, Trish asked Adelaide, “Do you really not know about the Triangle drugs?”

“Do I seem like I have a lot of time for experimental drug use nowadays? But I figure it has to marketing, right? How could you have a consistent drug line through the Triangle.”

Trish furrowed her brow in a way that was barely condescending at all. “Yeah, I mean, that’s the point: they don’t. It’s not consistent — it’s just what people call whatever rolled in recently.”

“That — that’s so dumb.”

“I mean, it’s not like drug use is ever brilliant, but yeah.”

“People just do stuff without knowing what it will do to them?”

“Sure, but that’s not so unusual. And the dealers will tell you ish what it does. The real problem is, what if it’s addictive? You do a bunch, get addicted, and then supply runs out, potentially forever. Cold turkey, like it or not, safe or not. So you run to the next thing.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah, it’s a problem. Poor kid.” Trish looked up at the night sky for a minute. Compared with the visibility of stars in their voyage, it looked like a piece of black felt. “Anyway, come dance with me for a bit before we go! Take advantage of it while we can!”

So Adelaide danced, and she even came close to enjoying it.