Chapter Seven: He's here

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‎Asha stood abruptly, the booth seat scraping against the floor. Ronan said something.... she didn't hear what, but she was already moving, her body acting on instinct while her brain scrambled to catch up.

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‎"He's here."

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‎She didn't know how she knew. Didn't understand the certainty that flooded through her like cold water, sharp and clarifying. But she knew, with the same bone-deep awareness that told her when a storm was coming or when someone was watching her from across a room.

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‎Kadence was here.

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‎The pull intensified as she got closer to the entrance, that invisible rope tightening until it felt like her ribs might crack from the pressure. Her hand was reaching for the door handle when...

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‎Nothing.

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‎The sensation cut off so abruptly that Asha stumbled, catching herself against the wall.

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‎The warmth was still there, still radiating from somewhere behind her sternum, but that "pull" that magnetic certainty that had felt as real as gravity... was just... gone.

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‎Like someone had flipped a switch and turned off whatever connection had been humming between them.

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‎"No." The word came out as a whisper. Asha yanked open the door anyway, stepping out into the parking lot.

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‎Empty cars gleamed under yellow streetlights. A couple was arguing near a beat-up Honda. Someone's car alarm was going off three rows over. But no golden-eyed stranger. No man who looked at her like she was the answer to a question he'd been asking his whole life.

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‎Just an ordinary parking lot on an ordinary Thursday night in an ordinary corner of a city that had never felt more vast and impossibly large.

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‎Asha wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly aware that she was standing outside in sweatpants and a robe, her stage makeup probably smeared, looking like exactly what she was.... a stripper chasing after a customer who'd already made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her.

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‎"Pathetic."

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‎"He was here," she said to no one. To the empty air. To whatever cosmic joke was being played at her expense. "I felt him. He was....."

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‎"Cinder!"

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‎The voice cut through her spiral. Marcus, the bouncer, was standing in the doorway looking concerned and slightly annoyed in the way that meant he'd been calling her name for a while.

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‎"Your set's in five. Tony's losing his mind looking for you."

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‎Right. Work. The actual reason she was here. The job that paid her rent and kept her fed and had absolutely nothing to do with mysterious strangers and impossible sensations in her chest.

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‎"Coming," Asha called back, but her voice sounded hollow even to her own ears.

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‎She took one last look at the parking lot.... as if staring hard enough would make him materialize out of thin air... then turned and walked back inside.

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‎The backstage area was chaos. Three dancers were fighting over a makeup mirror, someone's music wasn't loading properly, and Tony... the floor manager with a perpetual expression of barely controlled panic.... grabbed Asha's arm the second she appeared.

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‎"Where the hell have you been? You're on in three minutes!"

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‎"I know, I just.... "

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‎"I don't care. Get changed. Now."

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‎Asha didn't bother arguing. She peeled off the sweatpants and sneakers, touched up her makeup on autopilot, and tried to ignore the way Jade was watching her with knowing, worried eyes.

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‎"You okay?" Jade asked quietly, passing her the silver heels.

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‎"Fine." Asha buckled the straps with fingers that only shook a little. "Just needed some air."

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‎"Asha..."

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‎"I'm fine." The snap in her voice surprised them both. Asha closed her eyes, forced herself to breathe. "Sorry. I'm just... it's been a weird night."

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‎"No kidding." Jade squeezed her shoulder. "Listen, after this set, we're getting drinks and you're telling me everything. And I mean 'everything'. Deal?"

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‎Asha nodded, though she had no intention of explaining something she didn't understand herself.

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‎The music started.... her cue. She walked onto the stage and the lights hit her face and the crowd noise swelled and everything should have felt normal, familiar, routine.

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‎It didn't.

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‎Asha moved through the choreography like a puppet with cut strings. Her body knew the steps... three years of muscle memory carrying her through spins and drops and the particular performance of sensuality that paid her bills... but her mind was somewhere else entirely.

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‎"You're what he found."

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‎What did that even mean? Found what? And why did it matter? Why did some random customer's reaction to seeing her dance matter more than the dozens of other men who'd watched her over the years, who'd looked at her with everything from admiration to disgust to that particular glassy-eyed lust that made her skin crawl?

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‎Because it did matter. Because something about Kadence... even his name felt important in her mouth, solid and real... had reached past all her defenses and grabbed hold of something essential.

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‎The warmth in her chest pulsed in agreement.

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‎Asha missed a step. Recovered. Kept moving.

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‎But she could feel it.... the disconnect between her body on stage and her mind spiraling through impossible thoughts.

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‎ She'd always been good at compartmentalizing, at being Cinder while Asha watched from somewhere safe inside, but tonight the walls between them were crumbling.

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‎Tonight, she was just one person, confused and off-balance and so 'tired' of not understanding what was happening to her.

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‎The song ended. Applause. She barely heard it.

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‎Asha walked off stage, not to her usual exit but straight through to the back hallway, past the dressing rooms, toward the employee entrance where her street clothes were waiting in her locker.

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‎"Cinder! Where are you going? You have another set in...."

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‎She didn't hear the rest. Didn't care. Tony could be mad. The club could dock her pay. Right now, all Asha knew was that if she stayed in this building for one more second, wearing this costume and pretending to be fine, she was going to shatter into pieces too small to put back together.

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‎Her hands shook as she yanked open her locker. Jeans. Sweater. Her ratty peacoat that had seen better days but kept her warm. She changed quickly, shoving her costume and heels into her bag without bothering to fold anything.

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‎"Asha!"

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‎Jade's voice, closer now. Footsteps in the hallway.

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‎Asha grabbed her bag and pushed through the employee exit before Jade could reach her. The cold October air hit her like a slap, sharp enough to make her eyes water.

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‎Or maybe that wasn't the cold.

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‎She walked fast, head down, hands shoved in her pockets. It was only when she reached her car.... parked at the far edge of the lot under a broken streetlight because she'd been running late and all the good spots were taken.... that she let herself stop.

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‎Let herself feel.

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‎And what she felt was angry.

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‎Not at Kadence. Or maybe at him, but not 'just' at him. At herself for caring what some stranger thought.

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‎At her situation for being what it was.... working a job she didn't love to pay for an education she wasn't sure would even lead anywhere better.

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‎At the universe for dangling something in front of her that felt important and then yanking it away before she could even figure out what it was.

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‎"This is insane," she said to her reflection in the car window. That girl looked tired. Older than twenty-three. Like she'd been running for so long she'd forgotten what she was running toward.

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‎Asha pulled out her keys, then paused.

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‎The warmth in her chest....the one constant in this whole bizarre night... was still there. Not pulling now. Not guiding her anywhere. Just... present.  She pressed her palm against her sternum again, feeling that steady heat.

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‎"What are you?" she thought. "What did he do to me?"

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‎But the warmth didn't answer. Just kept burning, patient and persistent and undeniable.

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‎Asha got in her car. Started the engine. Sat there with her hands on the wheel and her head tipped back against the seat.

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‎She should go home. Should crawl into bed and sleep and wake up tomorrow with some perspective. Should laugh about this over coffee with Jade and chalk it up to exhaustion and stress and maybe low iron or something.

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‎Should forget about golden eyes and impossible pulls and the way a stranger had looked at her like she was simultaneously his salvation and his ruin.

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‎"Should."

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‎But Asha had a feeling... bone-deep and certain as the warmth in her chest.... that forgetting Kadence  was going to be impossible.

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‎Because whatever had started tonight when their eyes met across a crowded club wasn't finished.

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‎She stayed still for a second, staring through the windshield. A quiet breath. A small nod. Then the car started, and she rolled out of the parking lot.

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