I arrived at my boyfriend's house.

While I sat in the vehicle, I had a bottle of wine in my palm, I was smiling to myself for a reason I hadn't even realised yet. Mark hadn't a clue I was coming. It had been three hours since he sent a message of him having a long day at the office and I, on a whim, had decided to do a surprise visit. 

I brought wine and of course his favourite food from the restaurant had already been ordered and to crown it all the two of us would spend the whole Friday evening having a good time.

That was the part that made me so happy.

I took my purse, placed the bottle of wine inside my coat, and headed for the door.

On reaching his doorstep. Then I saw them... two pairs of slippers, which obviously looks like that of a woman. A strapped chunky heel is placed neatly on the floor right in front of Mark's door.

I froze. I looked at them.

"Could this be the neighbours?" I looked left and right. The corridor was completely empty. No one came into sight and there was no explanation who could have put those sandals anywhere other than inside that apartment.

I felt a knot in my stomach, 'Let this be not what I'm thinking'.

And to make it even more unbelievable, I recognised those sandals.

I reached for the door. It wasn't shut either. 'Fuck, what is happening?'

I pushed it open. There were two glasses on the little table. His coat was left on the armchair. The whole room was a bit dark, cozy, and the air was perfumed with the scent of a lady's cologne that made me feel a bit off.

Then... Suddenly, I heard it... a sound... coming from the bedroom.

It was a voice.

A woman's voice, and breathless at that.

My bag fell down.

I didn't knock nor did I hesitate. I rushed towards the room, my heart thumping and my feet shivering in fury, and pushed it open, revealing a scene that shattered my entire being instantly.

I saw them. 

I saw Mark, my boyfriend and Chloe, my best friend, having the most forbidden sex of all time.

Naked and shameless on my boyfriend's bed. They didn't even notice I entered, lost in sinful pleasure.

I felt my legs couldn't carry me. The silence that came after was the most deafening thing I had ever experienced.

Maaarkkk! I screamed in agony.

"Isabelle" Mark hurriedly got up from the bed, a bunch of sheets still clinging to him, uttering my name as if it was already something he was trying to die from. "Shit! Dios mo Isabelle."

I looked at him with my mouth wide open, tears welling up my eyes. "What is this?"

"Isabelle, let me explain"

"What is this Mark? You are fucking my best friend?"

"It's not" He went to his feet and put his hands up. "It's not what it looks like."

I chuckled a dry and bitter laugh, totally without any trace of humour.

"It's not what it looks like?" I turned to look at Chloe who had found the sheets to cover her nakedness and was sitting there in my boyfriend's bed, covering her face in shame.

"Four months." I said slowly, glancing at Mark. "For how long has this been going on? The day I got my diploma was just three weeks back. You wept at my graduation and at the same time, you were sleeping with my best friend?"

"You're changing the facts."

"Am I changing the facts?"

"No, Isabelle, listen to me. It's really difficult"

You are my boyfriend for God sake Mark and you sleeping with my best friend is your choice and you stand and tell me I'm twisting something?"

"Look, you need to lower your voice. The neighbours might be eavesdropping."

"Don't ever tell me to lower my voice. God, Mark! You are ridiculous. You're thinking about the neighbours at a time like this? This time? Are you kidding me?"

"I just want to have a talk."

I threw my bag on the chair and faced Chloe. "And you too Chloe. I felt you are a friend I can trust."

"Oh yeah! You now share my man and his dick?"

Chloe, who felt so embarrassed and filled with shame, got up with her dress folded in her hands. "Isabelle, I understand that this is painful"

"Oh, you understand this is painful." I looked at her in disbelief. "That's quite amazing?"

"Say exactly what you mean to my face!"

Mark intervened. "Alright, let's calm down"

I turned towards him so quickly that he was forced to take a step back. "Dont you ever try to interrupt me. Don't ever stand between us as if you were the reasonable one in this room."

"See, this is exactly why I couldn't..." He stopped himself.

I looked at him and went still. "Complete the thought, " I whispered, "This is exactly why you couldn't do what, Mark?"

He covered his face with his hand. 

"I didn't mean to say that"

"You almost did."

"Isabelle, stop!"

"Things between us were difficult!"

He finally raised his voice. "We were not in a good place and instead of talking about it you just you kept pretending everything was fine and I"

"Hence, you went to Chloe."

"I want you to tell me the truth! Mark, look me right in the eyes and tell me the absolute truth without trying to manipulate it!" He said nothing.

"That is what I expected, " I replied.

:

"That should be the last time I will ever ask you anything." I grabbed my bag from the chair. "We are done Mark. I want my keys tonight and everything my mom has signed under your name tonight." I stared at him. 

He looked at me in fury and the bursted out. "Isabelle, you are just being too rational. Yes I did this, because I've lost interest in you. Chole satisfies me more than you do. I can't even stand or have anything to do with a woman who can't fuck me well enough."

Mark?

"Yes, do all you want. I'm done with you too." He smirked.

Tears welled up my eyes, rolling down my flushed cheeks uncontrollably. I hated to cry in front of him but now I can't hold myself anymore.

I picked up my bag and left the bedroom. He didn't even bother to go after me, console or call my name from behind. I ran past the living room sobbing profusely. They were like a regret that was so contrary to my will.

Eventually, I got to my car and entered and closed the door so forcefully that one could feel the impact even in the chest.

With both hands, I grasped the steering wheel and leaned my head upon it. For about thirty seconds, I was trembling, tearfully, and screaming in pain at the top of my voice.

At this point the only person I could call was Lena. I cleaned my tears, still sniffing, I dialled her number. 

"Hello babe?"

"Hey, Bitch! What's up?

"Please I want to see you"

I arrived at Lena's place after leaving Mark's place, my eyes swollen and mascara smudged, gripping my bag like I was going to lose it at any moment. 

She opened the door, took a glance at me and stepped aside.

"Isabelle?" What happened babe?" 

She brought a bottle of tequila on the table even before I had been able to say a word. Lena was like that... she already knew I needed something to cool my temper.

I drank, put the glass down and looked at the ceiling in mock dismay.

"I got them making out in his room, " I said. Lena froze completely.

"Together?" 

I nodded. Then Lena  sat down opposite me. "Isabelle. It's okay babe."

She rested on her elbows and asked, "Are you okay?" 

"No."

"It's fine,all men are bitches anyway" She took a shot for herself and emptied it. "They are snakes. Both of them." She banged her glass down. 

"Especially Chloe," I snapped. "I was ready to accept that Mark could let me down one day, but at least not with Chloe? "

"I never trusted her, but I have always warned you about that girl, you know something about how Chloe always felt....."

"Lena?" I cut her off.

"I am only saying...." 

"I understand what you are saying. And I don't want to hear it tonight." I rubbed my eyes with my fingers.

"I just don't want to think about it. I want to be somewhere other than in my own head for the next few hours. Can you help me with that or not?"

Lena stared at me for a while. After that, she grinned, 

"Well Isabelle, I have somewhere you can go tonight to take this pain off your heart. Mark is not worth all these tears."

"Where is that?"

"Oh, you haven't even heard?"

"I can spot your crazy voice, which you use every time you come up with an insane idea. You know you are crazy Isabelle."

"It's a party, Isabelle. It is an exclusive party happening tonight in the biggest city, Chicago." She said as she bragged with her shoulders.

"You said Chicago?"

"Yes baby, Chicago is only forty minutes away."

"Lena"

"Just hear me out." She got right down on the coffee table in front of me with both hands on my knees as she stared at me.

"You have a boyfriend for two years and find him in bed with your best friend on a Friday night and you want to die here crying crocodile tears for a man enjoying himself somewhere. C'mon girl" She gave my knees one final squeeze. 

"You have two choices. Either you stay in this apartment and keep recalling the scene until you cannot breathe any longer. Or you take on that black dress which I am sure is in your bag because you always have the black dress, and you come with me to the most exclusive underground club in Chicago and you remind yourself that you are only twenty-three years old and the world did not end tonight even though it feels like it did."

I looked at her.

"I hate you."

"You love me girl. Get dress and lets go."

:

I wore the black dress. Lena did my makeup in her bathroom mirror, standing behind me and chatting about the club all the time - who was running it, who was going, how she had been trying to get on the list. After waiting two months, a lead finally came through tonight of all nights.

I looked up.

In the mirror, I hardly recognised myself. Somehow Lena had made changes with the contour and liner that made my eyes appear darker and my jaw more defined. I looked like a woman who hadn't just cried herself out in a parking lot.

"Perfecto," Lena said, stepping back and with her arms crossed, assessing me. "Mark is an idiot."

"We agreed not to talk about Mark."

"I said that but didn't agree to it." She gave me my bag. "Let's go."

:

We set out for the club. Right inside the club, the music was the first thing that got to you deep. Then the lights  and the naked banging bodies of strippers. I paused walking for a second.

"Keep moving, " Lena told me, her hand on my back, speaking softly in my ear.

We managed to wriggle our way to the bar. Lena simply decided what we would have without even offering me the chance to say what I wanted, which was really just a typical thing about her. She gave me something that was dark and on the rocks and tasted like top-shelf stuff, but the trick was, it was really smooth.

"Drink, " she instructed.

I took a sip.

"Again."

"Lena." I looked at her.

"You are way too sober for your own good right now. Drink again." She commanded.

I drank again.

Then, she faced the room, resting her back against the bar, scanning the crowd like a woman totally at ease with herself, a woman who had never once doubted whether she belonged where she was. I had often admired that about Lena. She just had this way of being in a room as if she owned it, just by nature.

"Have you spotted anyone who's piquing your interest?" she inquired.

"Stop it bitch. I just got here." I smirked.

"That definitely wasn't a criteria. Besides, we all know you probably weren't expecting to get down to business, were you?" She gave me a friendly elbow. "So, come on, look around, live a little. You're in Chicago now, after all."

"If you're wearing the black dress and your make-up is on point then behave accordingly, " she encouraged.

"Meeting someone is the last thing on my mind," I resisted.

"You are here to keep your mind off the person you're trying to forget. So chill bitch." She raised her glass for a toast.

I glanced around the area. It was then that he caught my eye.

:

He was by the other end of the bar.

He was dark, tall, and broad-shouldered and looked like he had not gotten that body with a gym membership but with years of physical labor. His forearms were marked with tattoos - dark, complicated designs that disappeared under his rolled-up sleeves and came back at the collar.

He was just there holding a glass in one hand and observing the crowd with the calmness of someone who is independent of his surroundings.

One could hardly argue that he was undoubtedly the most handsome man in the room.

He inclined his head and our eyes locked.

I looked away instantly, to my drink, heart racing faster, but 'Damn it' I was mesmerized already by his looks.

He kept looking at me.

"Aha, he looks good huh? " Lena murmured right next to me.

"Don't." "I didn't say anything." I looked down at my glass. 

"Oh please, don't make it a thing." "Anyway, he's still looking, " she said cheerfully.

She took a last sip from her glass. "Well, I'm getting on the dance floor. So if you like, keep staying here."

When I was about to answer, she had already disappeared. 

I stood for four minutes by the bar, staring at my glass and aimlessly thinking of nothing but his looks until someone's presence was felt at my side.

I recognized him without turning my head. "Hey, guess it's kind to have a drink with you?"

I turned to see him. I was surprised to see how elaborate the tattoos on his forearms were when observed from close range in comparison to my first distant observation. His tattoo, highly detailed and black, was tracing his skin from the wrist up to the end of his sleeve. 

"Are those tattoos working for you quite often?'' I inquired.

He grinned. "I will let you in on the secret when I start claiming it as a line."

"You have been staring at that drink for ten minutes without taking a sip." He pointed at my glass. "Either it offends you or your mind is far away."

"Perhaps it's just that I don't like the drink."

"Are you craving a different one?" I looked at him, messed up already by his looks.

"Yes, " I responded.

:

His name was Dorian.

During the first twenty minutes of our talk which was flowing so smoothly that one would hardly believe we were strangers, he disclosed his name. I did not tell him what I was doing or the place I was working at. He queried about my thoughts. He inquired about the thing I desired that I had not surrendered myself even to the thought of it.

God, that one!

By that time, the tequila was done with me. I became typsy.

"One more, " I requested from the bartender. Dorian didn't speak. He merely waited unconcerned as if he had all night and no other plans to do.

Later Lena appeared, dancing, and looked at us with the delight of someone who had just been given very good news. 

"I'm going to find Marco, " she said, referring to the contact who had got us in. She gave my arm a little squeeze and yet it expressed everything without words. "Enjoy this night."

She left again. ...

I faced Dorian again who took my hands and led me to one of the rooms in a hotel.

This particular night, I got the hottest sex ever from a total stranger.