Chapter 2 - Truth or Dare

[Alma]

I gulped down, my eyes fixed on the closed door as if Mason would walk back in if I looked hard enough

Walk back in and take back those words.

"Tessy needs me."

"Nothing is more important than making sure she's safe."

"You’ve been terribly out of shape."

The words echoed in my head over and over again, carving themselves deeper each time.

My chest tightened painfully as I tried—and failed—to hold the tears back.

My hand pressed against the wall as I staggered slightly, as though the weight of it all had finally become too heavy to stand under.

Our marriage was supposed to be one year old today…

But Mason had stopped being mine six months into it.

Six months since something in him shifted.

Six months since I started learning how to exist beside a man who no longer looked at me like I mattered.

And in those six months, I kept convincing myself I was the problem.

Maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough.

Maybe I was failing as a wife without realizing it.

Maybe I wasn’t the same woman I was to him when we dated for two years.

Because he wasn't always like this, he always wanted me happy...he always stood right by my side.

So I tried.

God, I tried.

I tried everything to make Mason look at me the way he used to.

The way he did at the altar a year ago.

But those moments…felt like they belonged to someone else now.

Someone I was slowly losing my husband to.

Tessy.

Mason’s ex-girlfriend—the same one he told me that broke up with him to pursue her career abroad.

That is the same woman Mason now leaves me for in the middle of breakfast… like I wasn’t sitting across from him.

The only woman he gets to smile and laugh with.

I swallowed, my lips quivering as I tried to brush it off one more time.

"I'm sure he'll change...I know he'll realize his mistakes... I'm sure..." My voice quivered as the words escaped me.

Tears rolled down my face.

"Mason loves me, he really does. He'll be back to the Mason I've always known... I'm sure he will..." The words got stuck in my throat as I bit down on my lips to keep the tears from falling.

"But it hurts..." I sniffed trying to swallow down the pain. "He's...he's all I have...he's...my world."

'This is your big day Alma. Don't let anything ruin it.' The voice in my head was firm—steady in a way I wasn’t.

I nodded.

Hard.

Even though my chest felt like it was splitting in two.

"It's my big day." I swallowed, sniffing back.

I needed noise. I needed air. I needed anything that didn’t feel like this.

I straightened up, wiping away the tears from my eyes.

"It's a big milestone and I should celebrate." Tears slipped down despite myself and this time I didn't bother wiping them as I made my way out of the room, shutting the door behind me.

~~~~~~~~

I should be home, seated beside my husband, watching him smile at me as we celebrated today.

But no.

Here I was, seated among unfamiliar faces in a club, watching their laughter spill through the air like my heart wasn't hurting.

My lips curled slightly as I lifted the third shot, bringing it to my lips before I muttered, "Happy birthday to me."

I downed it in one go.

The burn hit my chest immediately, sharp and warm, but it did nothing to stop the ache burning inside me.

The moment I dropped the glass, I felt it—the shift in attention.

"It’s your turn, birthday girl," the lady beside me giggled, her arm slipping loosely around my neck like we didn't just meet less than an hour ago.

I glanced down briefly.

The bottle had already been spun. And it was pointing straight at me.

"You can’t chicken out," she added, tapping my shoulder lightly. "It's the rule of the game."

A voice from across the table cut in, playful and loud. “So speak… truth or dare?”

My throat tightened.

I looked around the table again. Strangers. Faces I had only just met because I didn’t want to be alone tonight. Now every single one of them was watching me like I belonged here.

I shook my head slightly. "I… I can’t."

"No," another woman laughed. "You have to. We told you the rules before you joined."

My fingers tightened around the edge of the table.

And before I could stop it—

"Dare." The word slipped out.

A burst of laughter followed instantly.

I barely reacted. Everything felt distant, like I was sitting outside my own body, just watching.

The woman beside me leaned in again, her voice lower now. "Don't let whatever's bothering you ruin your day. Have fun to the fullest."

My chest squeezed painfully.

My gaze dropped briefly.

Before I could respond, the girl across from me clapped her hands once.

"Pick any random man," she said, excitement sharpening her voice.

My heart skipped.

"You kiss him," she continued. "Hard. If he pulls away, you’re free to leave it. But if he doesn’t…" she smiled wider, "you go wherever he takes you tonight."

My breath caught.

Something inside me shifted—small, dangerous, unfamiliar.

Heat crawled under my skin, not loud, but steady, as if it had been there waiting for a crack.

I shouldn’t be doing this.

I knew that.

So why did the idea of another man’s lips on mine make something in my chest stir like that?

Maybe it was the alcohol.

Maybe it was the loneliness pressing down so hard that even the wrong kind of attention felt like warmth.

Before I could think further, I was already standing.

Too fast. Too certain. Like hesitation would break whatever fragile courage had taken over me.

I could still turn back.

I should.

But I didn’t.

My steps slowed as I moved away from the table, the noise behind me fading slightly as my focus narrowed.

Then I saw him.

He stood a little away from the crowd, phone pressed to his ear, his posture relaxed, but there was nothing casual about him.

Something about him stood out in a way I couldn’t explain, as if the space around him bent just enough to make him impossible to ignore.

But my feet moved anyway.

And just as if he felt it, his gaze lifted.

And locked on mine.

Everything inside me stilled.

My breath caught.

I walked straight toward him.

By the time I stopped in front of him, my heart was racing so fast it hurt.

His eyes dipped briefly to my body… then back to my eyes.

That look alone almost made me lose my nerve.

Almost.

Before I could think, before I could stop myself, my hand shot out, grabbing the front of his shirt, my fingers curling into the fabric as I pulled him down toward me...

And crashed my lips against his.