Chapter 2 - The Dawn

Anna's POV

I woke to soft gray light leaking through the half-drawn curtains. My head throbbed hard. The taste of whiskey still sat thick on my tongue. I stretched one arm across the wide bed and met only cool sheets.

Empty.

I sat up slowly, trying to recall everything.

…….

I had just returned from another failed interview, disappointed. I sat down and decided to reply messages on my phone when this video pooped up.

I couldn't believe my eyes for a moment. “Daniel cannot be engaging another lady…Nooo”, I muttered to myself. “It must be a look alike”. I tried to stay calm and put a call through to him.

First ring…no response. Second…third…fourth ring and there was still no response. I decided to send him a text but then his message dropped. “I'm sorry…I can”, everything went blur immediately.

Brokenly,I left the house and dragged myself to the closest bar to my place and that was how I ended up in a strangers bed, drunk,broken,hungry and dejected.

I looked around the room for traces of this stranger, but found none. The room was silent except for the distant hum of the city waking outside. No clothes on the floor. No wallet. No phone. No note on the pillow. The stranger was gone as if he had never been there at all.

A dull ache pulsed between my thighs, reminding me of how shameless I was the previous night. I dragged myself to the bathroom to wash my face and fix my messy hair. I rinsed the taste of him from my mouth and wore the dress from last night. The fabric clinging to my skin in places that still felt tender.

I was about to leave the room when something shiny caught my attention on the floor, close to the nightstand. I picked it out of curiosity. A silver shiny cufflink. Plain. Expensive. The only proof he had existed. I turned it between my fingers and slipped it gently into the side pocket of my bag.

Downstairs the lobby was almost empty. The receptionist barely glanced up as I crossed the marble floor and stepped out into the pale morning. The air was cool against my bare arms. I walked without direction for a few blocks, then stopped at a quiet corner and closed my eyes.

Three years with Daniel. One night with a man who never even told me his name. I could still feel the weight of his hands, the way his dick had stretched me open, the way he had made me cum until I forgot how to speak. My body remembered everything my mind wanted to erase.

“It was just one night,” I whispered to myself. “One unforgettable night that will never happen again.”

I started walking again, faster this time, as if speed could outrun the memory. The cufflink sat heavy in my bag. I told myself I would throw it away the moment I got home. I told myself the ache between my legs would fade by tomorrow. I told myself I would never think of him again.

But every step sent a soft throb through my sore pussy, a quiet reminder of how deep he had been, how hard he had fucked me, how completely I had given myself to a stranger whose face I couldn't remember clearly.

By the time I reached the street that led toward my apartment, the sun had climbed higher. People moved around me, coffee cups in hand, headphones in, lives already moving forward. I kept my head down and kept walking, dragging myself back to the reality of my life.

Inside my small apartment I locked the door, dropped my bag on the floor, and stood still for a long moment. The silence here felt different. Cleaner. Emptier.

I pulled the cufflink out again and stared at it under the kitchen light. Smooth silver. No initials. Nothing that could lead me back to him. I should have thrown it in the trash. Instead I opened the drawer of my bedside table and tucked it beneath a stack of old receipts, out of sight but not gone.

I stripped out of the dress, stepped into a hot shower, and let the water run over every place his mouth and hands had touched. The heat soothed the bruises on my thighs. It could not wash away the memory of his dick sliding in and out of me, of the way he had held me down and made me beg for more.

When I finally crawled into my own bed, the sheets smelled only of detergent. I curled onto my side and stared at the wall, trying not to think about him again.

I guess we’ll never meet again…

The thought settled heavy in my chest. I closed my eyes and tried to believe it.

Little did I know… fate had only postponed our next meeting.