A simple swipe right. It was supposed to be a one time thing. No names or numbers. Just a location and some quick f*ckery. How was I to know he was a billionaire inventor who wanted more?
I'm Sacramento with a cowbell. He's San Francisco with a pent...
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We drove for hours in silence on the bluebird. Toni wasn't making a point of me not talking as she drove back from San Francisco to Sacramento. The lights on the San Francisco bridge glowed golden passing by my tired eyes in flickers. But all I could hear was the hum of our bluebird's hybrid electric diesel engine and the rumbling of our tires. That rumbling hum centers me. Because if I talked about it before we stopped it would mean I'd answer questions and not be centered anymore. I'm not sure I could handle that so soon. And like any lifelong best friend, Toni wasn't afraid of the silence between us. She took my hand in one and kept her other on the steering wheel as we drove back to Sacramento in the middle of the night. In the rear-view mirror, the California coastline beckons and the stars lead us home.
***
Back on the farm and the bus was parked it was time for bed. And we still had not talked about tonight. Normally after the most basic events we cross our notes and figure things out between us. This time though it wasn't the case at all. I took off my gown as if it was stained. It wasn't at all but I felt so many different things crashing into me at once. I couldn't pin it down in one place. My chest tightens anytime my thoughts took me. We'd walked away from so much money but it also felt dirty at the same time.
And...
His name was...
Hadrian Valentine.
In a weird way it felt and also sounded like a super villain's name. For someone who agreed with my statement of him being a bad man, maybe I pegged him better than I thought. I have halfway decent spidey senses after all.
I got dressed for bed and carefully put away my gown. Taking off my makeup, all of it was in silence. The shower was quick and completely impersonal. I knew how out of it and the autopilot had kicked in hard core for me. I climbed into the bottom bunk and stared at the ceiling. A memory of the rugged, handsome man. His shortcut beard, haphazard styled hair that somehow looked absolutely styled. The kind of guy thing that's annoying. Where he'd spend like a total of thirty seconds putting something into his hair. Run a comb through quickly and it sits, and he looks like a sophisticated million bucks. Meanwhile, you're spending days preparing for the event. Hours braiding and styling your hair. With the careful setup of a silk bonnet the night before. Then a retouch where you're fighting god that everything stays perfect. But his disgustingly handsome ass is ready and styled in 5 mins flat. That man's being was haunting me. The eyes I saw without closing mine, Sapphire blue.
The overhead light clicks on in the BlueBird. And the beams shine blinding me. I wasn't getting sleep.
"Was it good?" Toni asks. She was sick of my shit, I could hear it in her voice so I answered.
"Very good." But behind my words the thoughts followed. My body still tingles from how good it was. It wasn't just the sex we had there were weird belly flop moments of connection. Is that the way a one and done is supposed to be? Confusion makes me turn and curl in on myself. Those heartbreaking crack gem gaze played in the back of my mind. That moment of connection looped. And the thought was correct. He wasabsolutely, bad for me.
