I arrived at Lena's place after leaving Mark's place, my eyes swollen and mascara smudged, gripping my bag like I was going to lose it at any moment.
She opened the door, took a glance at me and stepped aside.
"Isabelle?" What happened babe?"
She brought a bottle of tequila on the table even before I had been able to say a word. Lena was like that... she already knew I needed something to cool my temper.
I drank, put the glass down and looked at the ceiling in mock dismay.
"I got them making out in his room, " I said. Lena froze completely.
"Together?"
I nodded. Then Lena sat down opposite me. "Isabelle. It's okay babe."
She rested on her elbows and asked, "Are you okay?"
"No."
"It's fine,all men are bitches anyway" She took a shot for herself and emptied it. "They are snakes. Both of them." She banged her glass down.
"Especially Chloe," I snapped. "I was ready to accept that Mark could let me down one day, but at least not with Chloe? "
"I never trusted her, but I have always warned you about that girl, you know something about how Chloe always felt....."
"Lena?" I cut her off.
"I am only saying...."
"I understand what you are saying. And I don't want to hear it tonight." I rubbed my eyes with my fingers.
"I just don't want to think about it. I want to be somewhere other than in my own head for the next few hours. Can you help me with that or not?"
Lena stared at me for a while. After that, she grinned,
"Well Isabelle, I have somewhere you can go tonight to take this pain off your heart. Mark is not worth all these tears."
"Where is that?"
"Oh, you haven't even heard?"
"I can spot your crazy voice, which you use every time you come up with an insane idea. You know you are crazy Isabelle."
"It's a party, Isabelle. It is an exclusive party happening tonight in the biggest city, Chicago." She said as she bragged with her shoulders.
"You said Chicago?"
"Yes baby, Chicago is only forty minutes away."
"Lena"
"Just hear me out." She got right down on the coffee table in front of me with both hands on my knees as she stared at me.
"You have a boyfriend for two years and find him in bed with your best friend on a Friday night and you want to die here crying crocodile tears for a man enjoying himself somewhere. C'mon girl" She gave my knees one final squeeze.
"You have two choices. Either you stay in this apartment and keep recalling the scene until you cannot breathe any longer. Or you take on that black dress which I am sure is in your bag because you always have the black dress, and you come with me to the most exclusive underground club in Chicago and you remind yourself that you are only twenty-three years old and the world did not end tonight even though it feels like it did."
I looked at her.
"I hate you."
"You love me girl. Get dress and lets go."
:
I wore the black dress. Lena did my makeup in her bathroom mirror, standing behind me and chatting about the club all the time - who was running it, who was going, how she had been trying to get on the list. After waiting two months, a lead finally came through tonight of all nights.
I looked up.
In the mirror, I hardly recognised myself. Somehow Lena had made changes with the contour and liner that made my eyes appear darker and my jaw more defined. I looked like a woman who hadn't just cried herself out in a parking lot.
"Perfecto," Lena said, stepping back and with her arms crossed, assessing me. "Mark is an idiot."
"We agreed not to talk about Mark."
"I said that but didn't agree to it." She gave me my bag. "Let's go."
:
We set out for the club. Right inside the club, the music was the first thing that got to you deep. Then the lights and the naked banging bodies of strippers. I paused walking for a second.
"Keep moving, " Lena told me, her hand on my back, speaking softly in my ear.
We managed to wriggle our way to the bar. Lena simply decided what we would have without even offering me the chance to say what I wanted, which was really just a typical thing about her. She gave me something that was dark and on the rocks and tasted like top-shelf stuff, but the trick was, it was really smooth.
"Drink, " she instructed.
I took a sip.
"Again."
"Lena." I looked at her.
"You are way too sober for your own good right now. Drink again." She commanded.
I drank again.
Then, she faced the room, resting her back against the bar, scanning the crowd like a woman totally at ease with herself, a woman who had never once doubted whether she belonged where she was. I had often admired that about Lena. She just had this way of being in a room as if she owned it, just by nature.
"Have you spotted anyone who's piquing your interest?" she inquired.
"Stop it bitch. I just got here." I smirked.
"That definitely wasn't a criteria. Besides, we all know you probably weren't expecting to get down to business, were you?" She gave me a friendly elbow. "So, come on, look around, live a little. You're in Chicago now, after all."
"If you're wearing the black dress and your make-up is on point then behave accordingly, " she encouraged.
"Meeting someone is the last thing on my mind," I resisted.
"You are here to keep your mind off the person you're trying to forget. So chill bitch." She raised her glass for a toast.
I glanced around the area. It was then that he caught my eye.
:
He was by the other end of the bar.
He was dark, tall, and broad-shouldered and looked like he had not gotten that body with a gym membership but with years of physical labor. His forearms were marked with tattoos - dark, complicated designs that disappeared under his rolled-up sleeves and came back at the collar.
He was just there holding a glass in one hand and observing the crowd with the calmness of someone who is independent of his surroundings.
One could hardly argue that he was undoubtedly the most handsome man in the room.
He inclined his head and our eyes locked.
I looked away instantly, to my drink, heart racing faster, but 'Damn it' I was mesmerized already by his looks.
He kept looking at me.
"Aha, he looks good huh? " Lena murmured right next to me.
"Don't." "I didn't say anything." I looked down at my glass.
"Oh please, don't make it a thing." "Anyway, he's still looking, " she said cheerfully.
She took a last sip from her glass. "Well, I'm getting on the dance floor. So if you like, keep staying here."
When I was about to answer, she had already disappeared.
I stood for four minutes by the bar, staring at my glass and aimlessly thinking of nothing but his looks until someone's presence was felt at my side.
I recognized him without turning my head. "Hey, guess it's kind to have a drink with you?"
I turned to see him. I was surprised to see how elaborate the tattoos on his forearms were when observed from close range in comparison to my first distant observation. His tattoo, highly detailed and black, was tracing his skin from the wrist up to the end of his sleeve.
"Are those tattoos working for you quite often?'' I inquired.
He grinned. "I will let you in on the secret when I start claiming it as a line."
"You have been staring at that drink for ten minutes without taking a sip." He pointed at my glass. "Either it offends you or your mind is far away."
"Perhaps it's just that I don't like the drink."
"Are you craving a different one?" I looked at him, messed up already by his looks.
"Yes, " I responded.
:
His name was Dorian.
During the first twenty minutes of our talk which was flowing so smoothly that one would hardly believe we were strangers, he disclosed his name. I did not tell him what I was doing or the place I was working at. He queried about my thoughts. He inquired about the thing I desired that I had not surrendered myself even to the thought of it.
God, that one!
By that time, the tequila was done with me. I became typsy.
"One more, " I requested from the bartender. Dorian didn't speak. He merely waited unconcerned as if he had all night and no other plans to do.
Later Lena appeared, dancing, and looked at us with the delight of someone who had just been given very good news.
"I'm going to find Marco, " she said, referring to the contact who had got us in. She gave my arm a little squeeze and yet it expressed everything without words. "Enjoy this night."
She left again. ...
I faced Dorian again who took my hands and led me to one of the rooms in a hotel.
This particular night, I got the hottest sex ever from a total stranger.
