In bed with a stranger

“Have this.”

The young lady flicked her hand into her breast pocket and handed the money over to the cab driver.

The car sped down the busy road, its engine making a husky sound as it took a swerve into the next street, no longer visible to the lady.

She heaved a troubled sigh, having a glimpse of every couple swaying on the streets of Fremont. What a beautiful festival to watch. The instrumentalist did their part and left the rest to the dancers. It was no longer a convenient scene for a single lady to watch.

She heaved a sigh again, a weaker one this time.

A pub at the end of the street caught her attention. The same pub her father visited on troubled occasions, anytime Rose had caused him a lot of pains. “A drink or two washes down the pains Sloane,” he had said. She was all grown up now so who says she can’t grab a drink too.

Moving past a mass of crowd, passing through happy couples, really happy ones who didn’t give a shit on who might just say ‘hello, please can you move a little I wanna pass.’

After so much frustration she got into the ‘Meet Your Spouse Pub’ obviously what was written on it. She wasn’t there to meet any goddamn spouse.

The pub was a pretty large one, tenth of people moving in and out every second, she started to wonder, ‘what happened to Fremont? She walked to the bar, watching every eyes that stared at her, she was murdering them in her thoughts, the ones with ladies by their sides or on their laps. She was watching them so closely, if only she could cut through every person’s throat in this room, she would tear them into pieces and give the wild animals to feed, on their partners.

“Hello ma’am, what would you like to have?”

She was so lost in her evil thoughts that she had forgotten she was in the bar area, “oh I’m sorry, I’ll take any drink you have.”

“Any?”

A man in black asked, he was sitting close to her this whole time. A pretty man he was, with his blonde hair resting on his right eye. He didn’t smile while speaking, “you just said any, right?”

It then dawned on her that the ladies hadn’t been staring at her but at the man sitting close to her. Who was he after all? “Oh, I just don’t know which to order for.”

“May I help?” he turned to the bar man, “red wine and two cups please.”

She tried wearing a fake smile, “thanks.”

“Oh, you’re?”

“Sloane, its Sloane.”

“You just moved into town?” he asked, still not wearing a smile, when he did, a wild roar swallowed the club.

“Here you go Sir,” the bar man got rid of the distraction, he had slid two cups on the counter, one to the man and the other to Sloane. He poured a good quantity of red wine into the cups and left the strangers to continue with their discussion.

But they didn’t, everyone was busy minding his business, Sloane tried not to stare at the man, she just gulped a whole glass into her glottis and frowned. “How I wish you were here dad, it would have been fun, a lot of fun.” She poured another and another, whispering some lonely words, and then another till it was a single drop left. She shook the wine glass and felt like nauseating, ‘oh no!’ like a hundred waste products were to be excreted through her mouth, everywhere became blunt, she could no longer hear the music and the kisses. She passed out.

**************

Her eyes were weak, she couldn’t even feel her body. Her eyes were so heavy that when she opened them there was this sharp pain that didn’t seize till a minute. She lifted her legs, the blanket on her was preventing them from reaching the floor, it was heavy.

Wait a minute! Where was she? 

She raised the blanket and slowly peeped through it, she was completely naked, no clothes on. She tried not to scream, when she turned to stretch her weak bones, a man was lying by her side, the man in the bar, he looked so aggrieved with his eyes shut, so masculine.

No, she shouldn’t be thinking about that, she was no coward, no man had slept with her for the last three years, no one had seen her weaknesses and lived to tell the story, whoever the man may be, the one who had laid with her, taking advantage of her drunk state, she would wipe him out.

Carefully, she grabbed her gown and slid it on.

Sloane wasn’t thinking at the moment, she found a knife on a table at one side of the room, it was in a bowl of fruits.  She tipped toed to the table and took the knife, slowly taking a step, she was getting closer not till she tripped and fell. Lifting her body up was a hard task, the knife had escaped from her grip, when she raised her head she saw a laminated paper lying on the floor.

If only it was his credit card, this was what Sloane was thinking at the moment, but it wasn’t any credit card, it was an ID card. She took it by two fingers, careful she didn’t make any sound that might wake him up. When she looked into the card, her eyes almost fell off. She looked at the silent man on the bed and then to the card and back again.

“Oh my, I’m late!” someone exclaimed, the man at the bar, the one who had slept with her.

Sloane threw the ID card on the bed and pretended to had fallen out of unconsciousness, the man didn’t care, he just sighed, took his cloth, put it on and walked to her, his height so right, she could fall, ‘again.’

“You should leave now, have some of this.” He buried his hand in his pants pocket and brought out a hundred box. “Have this and leave, sorry for the inconveniences.”

Sloane couldn’t say a word, she just nodded, collected the note and kept on staring at him till she was out of the room.

 It would be no big deal trailing a stranger down to his house. After all it was her target, Fred Manchester.