Chapter 2
LILY
It was a lovely restaurant, Lily can admit that. Gorgeous chandeliers, table decor, the whole shebang of it all. However, Lily’s date could not be more self-absorbed and boring! Seriously, how can you only talk about yourself and have nothing good to say? Lily knows, because whatever her name is keeps doing with an amazing amount of confidence. Lily hasn’t even attempted to speak in the last 45 minutes and her date doesn’t seem to notice. Until Lily forgot to nod her head and fake smile for the 76th time that night.
“Hello? Lily, are you even listening? I was showing you my pictures of me and my ex-girlfriend in Cancun…”
There’s no way that Lily’s confusion and shock weren’t showing on her face but the brunette kept looking at her expectantly. There’s no way somebody could be this horrific. How she even managed to be in a relationship before is beyond Lily’s imagination.
“Yeah, I have to pee.” Little did her date know, Lily would never return.
Instead, she grabbed her purse - can’t forget the essentials - and she did go to the bathroom but not to pee. Awaited her was a beautiful window, only about four feet away from freedom. She nearly runs to the window trying to unlock it. So locked in on escaping, that she didn’t hear someone come in behind her until they let out a giggle. When Lily whips her head around, a tall (cool and mysterious) woman is there watching her.
“Can I help you?” Lily jumps into defensive mode instead of explaining herself. Because is this creep just staring her down? Hm?
“No this is plenty of entertainment for the night. Thank you so much.”
Lily was already in a bad mood. Maybe, if she was out having a fun night, then she would be able to notice how attractive the woman is. She was tall, towering over Lily, gangly, and accessorized to the max. Not to mention, so many tattoos. And beautifully braided hair down to her waist. But tonight. All Lily was focusing on was the stalkerish behavior displayed by the woman in front of her. Definitely not her gold bracelets dangling around her wrist, or her long, black-painted nails. Or the necklaces that dangled so low into the V neck of her outfit. None of that.
“You are such a creep. Get away from me.” Is what she says instead. Focusing her attention back to hold eye contact - because she 100% wasn’t staring in awe at the woman.
“Great, I’ll bring your date in here so she can watch you shove your body through the window. That’ll be even more fun to watch.”
“You don’t know me. How would you know who I’m here with?”
“Because I know your date. Bella.”
Ahhh, yes Bella was her name. Wait- she actually does know my date.
“What are you? Another ex-girlfriend? I can’t waste any more time with you. Just let me do my thing and keep me out of whatever psychotic thing you two have going on.” Lily returns to trying (and failing) to get the window loose. Ignoring the fact that the mystery woman is still there, not budging.
“I’m not her ex. A friend of an ex and I felt bad for whoever agreed to this date. And you can just walk out the front door. There’s no chance in hell she’s noticed how long you’ve been gone. Just leave. I’m on my way out as well”
Lily doesn’t know what to feel. On one hand, She wants to be stubborn and keep trying things her way. On the other, there’s an extremely hot stranger woman that she can follow out. Honestly, she doesn’t even care if Bella catches a glimpse of her leaving.
The mystery - well no longer a mystery, her name is dorcas - girl ended up taking her to a bar. Don’t ask Lily how they got here but they did. She was surrounded by bodies swaying, neon lights bouncing around her eyes, and music pounding in her ears.
She needs a drink.
“Let’s go to the bar first.” She didn’t wait for a reply before making her way over there or turn around to make sure Dorcas was following.
“Can I get two bloody marys, please” Lily smiled at the purple haired bartender who winked back as she made the drinks.
“Thanks for ordering me one but there’s no way in hell I’m drinking that.” Dorcas physically recoils as she says that.
“Good thing I didn’t order for you then!” Lily takes both drinks from the bartender and tips the kind lady. She downs the first bloody - green stuff and all - then then sips the second. “One is a kickstart for me and the other is to keep me going. I have full faith in your ability to order for yourself.”
With that, Dorcas just grins and rolls her eyes. Lily eyes her as she holds up two fingers while ordering shots. How do people do shots? So gross. Lily thinks to herself and continues sipping her drink. How are her fingers so long and slim? Is she a model? She looks kinda familiar. What did she order? Looks brown so whiskey maybe? Gold is so her color, not that I’m going to tell her that.
“Lily?”
Suddenly Lily snaps back into reality and it dawns on her she definitely spaced out for too long. “What?”
“You’re staring.”
“Great observation you’ve shared with the class. Are you going to narrate every little thing I do for the rest of the night?” Lily stands her ground, ignoring the fact she felt like she just committed a crime, luckily Mary works fast.
“Stop being a cunt and let's go dance.”
Lily would be lying if she said the girls dominance didn’t turn her on in the slightest.
They stumble out onto the dance floor getting squished in the crowd. Lily got shoved closer to Dorcas but she surely didn’t apologize or make an effort to move away. Instead she wrapped her hands around Dorcas and pushed up against her. They didn’t bother to talk, no way they could hear each other over everything else. But as they moved as one, the world around them faded into a blur of lights and shadows, leaving only the echo of their laughter and the beat of their hearts as they danced into the night, lost in the magic of the moment.
Lily felt so free, more than she has in a really long time. She didn’t know if she would ever see this girl again but she was going to make the most of every second for tonight.
Lost in her own little world until a familiar beat started playing through the speakers. Her hips faltered, her feet stopped moving, and she dropped her hands from Dorca’s neck. Her heartbeat was in her throat and the voice, that voice, was the worst of it all. She felt the back of her eyes sting and knew that whatever magic was in the air had disappeared now. She looked at Dorcas who was clearly concerned and had words coming out of her mouth but nothing made sense to ehr right now. She needed air, where did you find that again? Before she knew what was happening, she was being dragged out of the club and boom there it was, there was the air.
Lily immediately closed her eyes and let the cool, night breeze brush her skin. What felt like coming down after the worst high imaginable.
God, that was dramatic. Wait, where did Dorcas go? Did she just drag me out here and lef tme on the curb. What a b-
“Here.” Lily looks up and sees a water bottle being shoved in her face. Okay so Dorcas did not just leave her to rot. Good to know.
“Thank you”
“That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard you say all evening. You should have panic attacks more often.”
Lily let out a hearty laugh. “Maybe you’re misinterpreting what I’m saying.”
She wasn’t. But Lily won’t admit that.
“You flat out called me a stalker, but I guess you have some weird kink or something because you still ended up here with me.”
Lily didn’t respond. She was back to zoning out and reflecting on what just happened. Remembering why she just flipped out in the first place. It must’ve shown on her face because Dorcas was staring intently at her now.
“What happened in there?”
“Well uh, the song that started playing, it uhm. Well that was my ex-girlfriend singing who moved across the country to chase her dreams and it looks like she made it.”
Lily has flashbacks to the last letter her ex sent her:
“One day, you’re going to hear my voice on the radio. And it’s going to be one of these songs I’ve written about you. I hope you like it. “
Lily did not like it.
“Shit.”
Yeah shit was right.
“Yeah so. Really, thank you for tonight. Before that, I was having a really good time, but I think we should wrap this up. I can call us an Uber?’
“I actually live just a couple blocks down and I prefer walking but let me put my number in your phone, yeah?”
Huh?
“You still want to see me again even after you saw me have a meltdown over my ex girlfriend? Shouldn’t you be running for the heels right now?”
“Shit happens. I never claimed I was known for making good decisions. Hand me your phone.”
Lily didn’t care that this was probably a bad idea. She definitely shouldn’t have immediately handed over her phone. But she didn’t care about making good decisions either right now. She did know for sure that she’d do about anything to see Dorcas again.