When Emily finished my make-up, I stared at my face for a few beats. She’d done well toning down the extremities of my scars, but they were still there plain as day. I swallowed and looked away. I had to forget about them for the next few hours. I just wanted this night over with so I’d never regret not going out.

“Let’s get out of here, huh?” I said in as much of an upbeat tone I could muster.

Emily squealed. “Yeah, boys! Watch out because the bitches are coming to town!”

I laughed and we each grabbed our clutch and headed out.

*****

The club was dark. The atmosphere was far from tame. The spectrum lights flashed and the music thumped its party mix throughout the large, crowded room. I’d completely forgotten how loud it could be. My personal space was invaded every few seconds by other bodies as Emily led me to the dance floor.

Once upon a time this was my haven. I’d get drunk and spin like a top under the flashing lights. The second I’d feel the warmth of a man behind me, I’d sag into him and bathe in his attention, feeling like the world was right again. I had been desperate for affection. Desperate for some kind of touching. Being with a guy was a good distraction. It made the wounds of a lifetime ago dull.

At the moment, remembering who I used to be was difficult. When a guy got near to me I squirmed away. Now the last thing I wanted was to be touched. I had new wounds I was recovering from, and none of them dulled in the warmth of some drunk who wanted to rub his boner into me. Yeah, no thank you.

Despite the groping males, I felt oddly comfortable. Nobody looked at my scars. Maybe it was because they were all drunk, or maybe it was too dark for them to notice. Whatever was the reason, I managed to relax. I blended in for once, and the feeling of relief might have made me cry if I thought about it for long.

Emily forced me to dance, and when I finally started to, she drifted off from me to join the men who batted their lustful eyes at her. I cringed at the feel of a man’s chest against my back, but I didn’t push him away or move elsewhere. I pushed the feeling of panic away, knowing nothing was going to happen to me. I shut my eyes and pretended to be that girl again. The one that was confident and beautiful.

I rocked to the music, ignoring the scent of alcohol wafting from the unknown man’s mouth. His thick hands wandered my body, settling against my hips. I felt his soft chest against my back and his hard length against my ass.

I opened my eyes and saw his grey sleeves while he moved all around me. His blonde thick hair brushed against my forehead as he tried to put his lips against mine. I turned away before he could. I didn’t want that, but the old me might not have objected.

My eyes roamed the club, and I wasn’t sure why I settled on a particular spot – maybe I had some kind of sixth sense I had unconsciously tapped into – but when I did, all air escaped me. My body slowed down and I blinked harder, trying to make sense of what I was looking at.

There he was.

I knew it was him. Of course it was him. He was standing against the wall of the dance floor, alone. Wearing all black, his pale skin appeared all the more pronounced. He looked eerily unhuman; as if the skies above spat him out of heaven and placed him here, in the world of grey and black, where he coloured our world like a rainbow.

Hidden in the shadows, he was watching me just outside the perimeters of the flashing lights. Without a doubt it was him. The shadows didn’t conceal him. If anything, it made him all the more pronounced. The unique lines of his face, the broadness of his shoulders, the way his chest went on for miles before meeting those narrow hips…

It was him.

My stranger.

I freed myself from my dancer’s arms and just stood there, gazing at him. I honestly didn’t think I’d see him. Being anxious around a crowd had distracted me enough from nervously waiting to see if he’d show up.

Of its own volition, my body moved to him. My heart roared louder than the music, practically sitting in my ear canals the more I neared him. I didn’t know what to say or do when I finally approached him. My stunned mind was muted by his beauty. There were some things I’d missed in my sketch of him, like how much thicker his bottom lip was to his upper, the random freckles along his jaw line, his long forehead half covered by his hair, and the thin two inch long scar above his eyebrow. He was an imperfectly perfect looking man… if that made any sense.

Those grey eyes felt familiar to me. Just as intense as they were a year ago, I felt like I was drowning in them almost immediately.

“Not a tourist after all,” were his first words. Oh, my God, that voice. I wanted to close my eyes and savour it. My memory did it no justice.

“No,” I replied weakly.

“I’m glad you got my message.”

I swallowed and replied, “And you finally gave me back my wallet.”

His lips pulled up in that sexy smirk I imagined late at night in bed. This one in particular looked secretive. “I’d intended on doing it a lot sooner.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Life got in the way.”

I didn’t respond. What the hell was I meant to say to that? I merely stared at him, entranced by his beauty, by his voice, by simply being near him!

“How did you know my address?” I then asked. This needed to be answered. He could be a crazy man for all I knew, and I wouldn’t dare continue this conversation if I knew he was whacko… At least, I hoped I wouldn’t anyway.

He just smiled at me. His eyes skimmed my body, and I went hot at being checked out so closely. It’d been so long. “You look incredible in that dress.”

I eyed his black button up top and dark pants. “So do you.”

“I’m glad you like my dress.”

I laughed and blushed. “You know what I mean.”

He chuckled, nodding. “Yes, well. It’s been a while and I wasn’t sure about what it is people wore to clubs like these. I took a wild guess.”

“Not one for partying?”

“No. Those years are behind me.”

We went quiet for a few moments, seemingly taking each other in. My heart was still thumping erratically in my chest, and my skin was gleaming with sweat from the heat of the room because it surely couldn’t have all come from his presence!

“Do you often dance that way with men?” he then asked, glancing behind me.

I followed his gaze to the guy that’d groped me minutes before. He’d since moved on to another poor girl that was trying to get far from him. Ew. Had I really gotten close to that? I awkwardly turned away and shrugged. “It’s been a while actually.”