In this book within a book, plunge into the escapades of Satine Fontaine, who's on the run from her tumultuous past. The vibrant streets of New York beckon her, and fate conspires as she stumbles into Brooklyn's dingiest bar, encountering the enigma...
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STAR: 5:0
The days crept by with no sight of Satine, and Mingyu was beside himself. The fear of losing her for good was stronger than ever and it didn't help waking up in an empty house. He was depressed; condemned to a life of loneliness for no good enough reason.
It was the same routine every day. Wake up, call Satine, lounge around the house, call Satine, drink a bottle or two of whiskey, call Satine. She drove him crazy. It was an endless cycle of hoping she would finally give in and answer the phone, and then being disappointed.
Things changed as an evening once Diana bounced in from work. Some of that dreaded weight was lifted and her perky exterior had him cracking even the smallest of smiles.
"Are you hungry?" she would ask without hesitation. "I can make you something. Anything you want."
Some people really are too kind for their own good.
Mingyu would shake his head, still stuck in his daze. He had created the perfect hyper-reality, one he often found difficult to differentiate between.
-
Wednesday evening Diana sat prettily on his lap, leaving butterfly kisses all over his face and neck in an attempt to wake him up from his daydream. "Earth to Mingyu?" she sang, replicating a Disney princess in her floral dress and plaited hair. The material bunched up around the top of her thighs, showing off the milky skin that was so soft and grab-able that it in itself could have whipped him out of his land of make-believe. "You wanna talk about whatever's tinkering around in that brain of yours?"
It never changed and she knew that. Satine was at the forefront of his mind constantly. He was thinking and overthinking then thinking a little more about where she had run off to - or rather who with.
"Nothing to talk about, I haven't got a life, remember? No friends, no family, no purpose." His life was perfect a couple of months ago, he was churning out songs like there was no tomorrow and his band was on the verge of selling out venues. A record deal was in the palm of their hands and now he had nothing.
Diana was smart enough not to state the obvious, it wasn't the time. He didn't need to hear that he still had her; that she was going to be there through thick and thin. She would only get her heart broken - he rarely had anything nice to say anymore.
One idea did pop into her head, however, a way to pull him from his week-long funk. Something so out of character that she almost was convinced Satine was yapping away like the devil on her shoulder.
"I'm feeling hot..." Her sweet breath fanned his ear, leaving the hairs on his neck standing on end. "So many layers..." Unclasping a button at a time, Diana let her dress fall around her hips.
