02~ One Sweet Escape

Hailee’s POV

I congratulated myself on maintaining my composure and not cutting her through with a knife like I’d pictured in my head. I took in a deep breath, looking out over the crumbling, run-down buildings, cast in the shadows flickering lamp posts dotting the street.

Squinting through the darkness, I stood by one of the lampposts with my hands shoved into the pockets of my coat. The crisp, chilled wind nips at my coat causing it to bellow as I strolled down the lonely road leading to the park.

My eyes flick back to the dark lonely road behind me, scanning the surrounding sketchy buildings. Hoping I’d be lucky getting a taxi out in the dark. I glanced over at my watch realizing how late it had now become, hating myself for choosing to come.

And just as I stood there in the cold, the headlight of a taxi beamed at me from a distance blaring its horns as it approached me.

“Finally,” I sighed. I stormed into the taxi, still fuming from what had happened back at Richard’s.

“Where are you headed miss?” The taxi driver asked, cutting me off from my little thoughts as I snapped back to reality staring at him.

“Miss?” He called out.

“Home, sort of,” I responded.

“You’ll have to be specific,” The taxi driver said.

Technically, a home implies that one has a roof over their head but I’d been at Richard’s for what seemed like forever, and slowly it dawned on me that I had nowhere else to go for the night.

And tonight, the stars suddenly felt more fun to stare at than the ceilings back at Richard’s. I would know, seeing that I used to have a ceiling to stare at every night wrapped in the arms of Richard. Back when I had no need for the stars to keep me company other than Richard right next to me in bed.

After a long couple of minutes of contemplating whether or not I was to crash at Brenda’s for the night, I finally decided on where to go.

“Avalon,” I called out to the taxi driver, staring into the dark from the window.

“To the club, hmmm, good choice,” The taxi driver responded as he started the ignition.

In less than an hour we had arrived, and I was wearing a dusty pink lace sleeveless panel dress with a revealing neckline. Alongside my favorite simple stiletto heels that matched my dress perfectly well. Not that I had it in mind to party for the night but then I wasn’t going to let some dumb ass break up, ruin the day either.

“Thanks for the ride,” I said, and then hopped out of the car and headed for the main club swaying my hips from left to right. Biting down the urge to flare up at any dude who had the guts to stare at me.

“They’re all the same, cheaters, liars,” I mumbled to myself walking into the club.

I walked over to the bar, grabbed a seat, and then snapped my fingers at the waiter in front of me.

But just as I did, I saw a pair of expensive loafers and perfectly tailored Armani pants seated across from me. And for some reason, he kept staring at me. He was wearing a white T-shirt tucked in with a few buttons undone, his sleeves folded and pushed up displaying his intricately designed tattoos that stretched from his arms to his neck.

My eyes trailed down to the glass of wine he was holding and then back into his eyes. He was a massive man, made of solid muscles and aura.

He grinned a perfect smile at me as he sprung up to his feet, walking towards me slowly closing the space between us. My jaw nearly dropped as I took in full sight of him up close and realized he had straight, styled, jet-black hair with a pair of soul-piercing dark blue eyes. My damn type of man.

“What’s a pretty lady like yourself doing out here in the bar all alone?” He asked.

“Waiting on someone?” He added.

I giggled, taking my eyes off him and then I raised my eyes to his with a smile creased on my face. “Well, where do I begin?.” I responded.

“Every detail girl,” He said.

“Let’s say, it’s been a non-stop shit show these past few weeks and here I am ready to cool the night off,” I said.

“Even if nightclubs are the worst places alive,” I added.

“Wait-what?” He asked and then chuckled.

“You can say that they’re the worst when you’re here ready to cool the night off like you said earlier,” The gentleman protested, still smiling at me.

“Okay, we’ll make that as an exception tonight,” I responded and just when I did, we both burst out laughing so hard that the others could hear.

“Good point,” He said. The night went on and on with us suddenly speaking to one another about relatable matters and for some damn reason, I couldn’t stop staring at him.

“Do we, Uhmmm…” He stuttered.

“Call it a night?” I cut in, as I gulped down the last content of my glass feeling a lot better and tipsy at the same time.

“I was going to say otherwise but yeah,” He said and then leaned forward, kissing me on the lips.

I backed away for a bit, shocked and mad at why he’d done that. In anger, I sprung up to my feet and headed for the door of the club and the minute I got out I kept screaming in my head. “They’re all the same,”

“Wait!” The gentleman from earlier called out to me and in seconds caught up with me as he grabbed me by the wrist pulling me closer to his chest.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered into my face, causing shivers to run down my spine at the sound of his voice sinking into me.

I stared at his lips, lost in the comfort of his arms wrapped around me and then I leaned forward kissing him back. For a long couple of minutes, we stood out in the cold wrapped in the arms of one another, with our lips locked in the comfort of the other.

“Is this real?”…