City of Smoke // Brian 'Otis' Zvonecek ✔️

14 || NECKLACE

The faint brightness of the early morning sun shining through the thin curtains stirred Rory awake on the morning after the gala. Her eyes fluttered sleepily open, her mind not properly taking in her unfamiliar surroundings.

It wasn't until she glanced to the bedside table next to her did Rory quickly come to realise that she wasn't in her own bed nor was she in her own apartment. She sat up, blinking rather furiously as her eyes adjusted to being awake. The beige and neutral colours surrounding her were just another piece of evidence that made it clear she wasn't at home.

With her lips pressing together tightly, Rory glanced down at her naked body then to her left, where Connor lay fast asleep beside her. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out what had happened last night and as Rory's head began to clear, the memories of the night before slowly swirled around her mind. She had kissed Connor. Asked him to bring her home... What had she been thinking?

Sliding out the bed carefully, so as to not wake Connor, Rory grabbed a blanket from the end of it and wrapped it around herself as she began to quietly gather up her clothes from last night. She had never, ever intended to sleep with Connor, not when she was literally in love with Otis, so it's safe to say that she'd very much like to put this whole mistake behind her and get out of there as quickly as she could.

"Itching to get away from me, huh?" Came the sleepy voice of Connor, making Rory sigh softly to herself and bite the inside of her cheek over the fact that he'd woken up before she could slip out of the apartment.

"I have to get to shift." Rory babbled in response as she picked her underwear up from the floor, catching a quick glimpse of Connor as he shuffled to lean against the headboard, watching as she slid them on underneath the blanket.

"Last time I checked, shift doesn't start for another hour." Connor responded, the alarm clock next to him showing that it was only 7am.

"Forty five minutes, actually... You know what they say, if you aren't fifteen minutes early, you're fifteen minutes late." Rory said, continuing to avoid eye contact as she picked up her dress and looked around the room. "Have you... seen my bra anywhere?"

"You weren't wearing one." Connor replied casually, thoroughly enjoying the blush that rose quickly to Rory's cheeks, and all the way to the tip of her ears as she rolled her lips from embarrassment.

"Right." She whispered through gritted teeth, running her hand over the back of her neck. Talk about awkward. "Well I should get going... Don't want to impose on you any longer."

"You aren't imposing, Rory." Connor said as he sat up, watching as Rory gathered up her heels and looked between the blanket that covered her and the dress that lay on the bed, as if thinking to herself about how she was going to put it on without him seeing her. As if that mattered, he'd already seen everything. "Will you just stop for a second and come over here... Please?" He motioned to the bed next to him, Rory biting at her lip as she debated whether or not she should.

"We shouldn't have done this." She whispered, ignoring the lingering feeling in her stomach that told her sleeping with Connor was like betraying Otis. She knew that wasn't true given that she was single and allowed to sleep with whoever she wanted, but she just couldn't seem to shake that feeling. "I shouldn't have- This was a mistake."

"Was it? Because I thought it was just us having a little fun." Connor said with a shrug of one shoulder as he sat up straighter. "You are allowed to have fun, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah. But Connor..." Rory began softly, walking slowly round the bed towards him. "...I'm in love with another man. This doesn't feel right."

"But it did feel good." Connor stated, throwing his legs over the edge of the bed and grabbing Rory's hand, pulling her to straddle his legs and causing the blanket to fall from around her. "Didn't it?"