Chapter 23

Chapter 23
The next day, all the extraneous activities that Vivienne wanted to do started. Dylan would have preferred if he could stay in the hotel but since he was the fiancé, he was going to be dragged into everything that she wanted to do. It seemed like Marianne was also not a fan of the things they were doing and decided to stay in her room. He envied her.

Even though they were in a fancy resort with all the things that were needed for a vacation, Vivienne still insisted on leaving. Dylan understood that there were interesting activities that the resort did not provide, but still, going zip-lining was not something he would want to do right away. He was not even fully recovered from the jet lag.

It also bothered him that it seemed like Vivienne invited everyone on her contact list. The amount of noise that he was going to have to deal with was not something he was prepared to deal with. Just in the first couple of hours when everyone started to pour in, the noise level had escalated to a point where it was almost to unbearable. It was like Vivienne only knew the people who never knew how to shut their mouths. He had always questioned her choice of friends and Vivienne always fought back saying that it was just the group of people that she clicked with.

It was obvious that most of the people did not see Vivienne as a person and value her genuinely but more liked what she could give them. A lot of people would obviously use the fact that they knew Vivienne as some form of clout and when living in Hollywood, knowing someone as famous as Vivienne could really get people things. Especially into private and exclusive places.

Dylan was disappointed, but he was not surprised that these were the types of people she surrounded herself with. They probably made her look good and showered her with endless praise and attention to keep her happy and keep themselves in.

When Dylan was leaving to come to Bali, his father had tried to talk him out of it and he could see that his father believed that he was making the wrong choice. From the standpoint of a parent, Dylan could understand why he was upset and he would also be upset if it were his child's future on the line. If his child was going to be marrying someone like Vivienne then he would clearly object to that. But since he was the one that was marrying her and had feelings for her, he did not want to listen to his father. Dylan was unsure if his father would show up to the wedding but he hoped that he would and would use the month that they were there to try and convince him.

"Dylan, come on," Vivienne's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

Dylan was seated in the outside dining area of a restaurant they had stopped at in their continuous endeavors. While the noisy group of people went inside, he sat outside with a couple of friends. They were probably the ones who would keep him sane throughout the whole thing. Because the group was mostly girls, it honestly looked like a giant bachelorette party than celebrations for a wedding.

Vivienne sat next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. Dylan smiled at her and she gave him one in return. "What's the matter? You seem a bit out of it. Are you sick?"

Dylan took her hand and held it, pressing it against his face. "Just tired."

Vivienne hummed, "Well... you can go back to the resort if you want. I know all of my friends want to have fun and I do. But if you want to rest then you can."

Dylan raised his eyebrow at her. She was being uncommonly reasonable. She would usually tell him that he was overreacting and that he should be happy that everyone was having fun and not try to bring down the mood. But it seemed that since Vivienne almost got arrested, she had become much better to talk to and much calmer as well. Maybe she was fearing that he was on his last straw with her and so she needed to fix her attitude before he really dumped her. If that was the case then she knew that the way she was behaving all that time was what made him upset and she never fixed it.

At that thought, Dylan sighed. "I think that would be best. But don't worry. I'll be ready in no time and then we'll visit every inch of this country."

"Ok." Vivienne nodded and ran her hand through his hair.

Dylan was more than relieved that she was being like this and was kind of grateful for the incident. Of course, a few seconds after that thought he remembered just how bad the incident was and now it still had not fully calmed down. There were still gossip sites going crazy about everything and the social media seemed to be more than grateful for another reason to make Vivienne their main target for all their life filtrations. It seemed like he was getting a little less hate than usual because of how he reacted to her getting arrested and instead, all the criticism went to Marianne, who let her go.

He did kind of agree that she should not have let Vivienne go, but he was grateful that the situation did not have to result in a court case or anything like that. He would have surely left Vivienne if that was the case and that was the reason why she was behaving like that. Vivienne knows that she's on thin ice and so she's watching her behavior.

When Dylan got back to the resort, it was perfectly quiet. He could hear the sounds of a fountain and the birds chirping, that is how it should be. The staff seemed to be catching a break now that most of the people had cleared out and when they saw Dylan, there was evident panic and frustration on their faces.

"It's just me. The others will be out for a couple more hours."

After his words, they all sighed and went back to relaxing in the lounge area. He would say that it was unprofessional but since they had been running to carry out the unreasonable and overwhelming demands of Vivienne's friends, he knew that they deserved to take the time to rest. He was sure that doing this just brought more people into the hating Vivienne parade.

When he was out of the lounge area he was going to head up to the elevator but through the glass wall that showed the outside of the resort, he saw Marianne. She was sitting with her feet in the pool and a book in her hands. It was the most casual he had seen her and he took a couple of seconds to take in what she looked like. Her hair was in a low loose bun and she had on a white sundress.

He changed his course and went outside to talk to her. He was sure that she was probably one of the only people there he could have a pleasant conversation with. When she heard him coming, she looked up from the book and gave him a wave.

"What happened? Not up for all the fun?" she asked and rested the book on her lap.

Dylan sat next to her and put his feet in the water as well. "I'm just still a little tired. I'm not sure where Vivienne gets all of her energy from but she's out enjoying her life to the fullest right about now."

"I'm surprised she let you go. Or did you sneak away?"

"She let me leave. She has been a lot fairer lately."

"I would imagine."

After that, they sank into a moment of silence. Dylan could not decide if the silence was awkward or not. Marianne looked down at her book and he looked in some random direction. They didn't really have much to talk about since they had the relationship of a therapist and client. They weren't really friends. Especially after all that happened. Saying that they were friends would be pushing it.

"Are you still upset about the entire situation? I know it's foolish to say but I want to know how you feel about it. And if you still have any problems then you should tell me so that we can solve them. Do you need Vivienne to apologize to you?"

Marianne was silent for a bit and then turned to him. "I'll take apologies in sessions. Just make sure that she does not get too carried away with having fun and forget that she needs to get help. If I can help Vivienne and see improvement then that's all I need. I would not have come here if I was still seriously upset about the incident."

Dylan chuckled. "I guess not."

"So just make sure that Vivienne is aware of that. Once she knows that I'm serious about this then that's all I need."