My Favorite Stranger

12

Mya stared at the mini garden in front of her blocked off by thin ropes. The flowers were beautiful, different colors and shapes sprouting from the well-kept dirt below.

She discovered this small quaint area walking around the convention hall, straying away from everyone. It reminded her of a mini-park, except the ground was decorated cement with grass spots of flowers and benches.

The sun shined brightly across the small getaway and most importantly, it was quiet. She needed quiet right now. The sun rays fell across her bare arms, her simple black dress warming up.

Mya pinned her hair up today, not knowing what else to do with it and being too lazy to braid it.

Jessie left last night, directly after they finished their dinner in uncomfortable silence. After their conversation, the mood definitely turned sour. Mya barely slept, everything playing over in her head. Her eyes not closing even for a single second.

She didn't mean to make Jessie uncomfortable. It seemed every time she tried to get someone to stay she ended up making it worse, pushing them further and further away. It hurt, so much that the pain couldn't be measured.

Jessie hasn't called. Texted. No note. Nothing. And Mya knew she was to blame. She had to be.

Why wouldn't anyone just stay?

Why did she have to be so illogical?

Uncomfortably hot tears slid down Mya's cheeks. She felt weak and embarrassed. So beaten and fatigued, trying to understand why she was so cursed. Mya couldn't help but break into a sob.

"This is not how I pictured this week going," Mya thought for what she swore was the millionth time this week.

I don't even know if — if I'm just attaching myself because of my past shitty relationship or if she's really just that amazing ...

Ever since I first saw her my body and mind were just in shambles. And I don't get it. Because I've been around beautiful women my entire life and only ever dated men.

She comes along, I take the bait like a stupid desperate bitch and now I'm sitting here upset because she told me she can't let me in. I mean, really? How did I let myself get so sucked in? Because she showed me a good time? Because she's irresistibly sexy and always looks so fuckable? I have got to be the stupidest person on the planet.

"I just had to be an absolute sucker for flirts," Mya rasped to herself. "I hate them all."

Mya always thought she could handle a one night stand. But no one told her first one stand would be with a woman who was too good to be true. What started off as curiosity turned into lust, then lust into what?

Not love. Not yet. Forbid it turn into that. Please.

The worst part about all of this was that she had no plans today. That meant she had all the free time in the world to trouble herself with all of it.

Mya arrived back at the hotel when the summit ended, begrudgingly dragging her purse and car keys along with her as she got out of her car. She was emotionally enervated and in need of wine and a hot shower.

Mya walked to her level of the hotel like a ghost. She was quiet, down and out, wanting to just fade away. She was almost there, the sound of her heels muted by the carpet underneath her. Her keys jangled, eventually annoying her to the point where she got a better grip of them, seizing the noise.

She was angry now. All of the emotions back at the summit boiling into a pool of her own condensed frustrations and even a little bit of rage. It was like she never left home, feeling this way.