I shake my head in an attempt to physically dismantle the thought. The more I ignore it, the more it will inevitably fade into a questionable nightmare I left behind in that dark alley on 5th.
Hopefully.
But as I pull articles of clothing out of my dresser drawers, trying to distract myself by considering which outfit has the least chance of freezing my tits off tonight, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m preparing for something more than just a night out.
The city has always felt like a living thing to me, but now it feels likehisdomain. Every street corner could hide those piercing blue eyes, every shadow could conceal that broad frame. The thought should terrify me.
It does terrify me.
But it also makes my cheeks heat in a thoroughly inconvenient way.
After careful contemplation, I settled on a fitted, long-sleeve black dress with an open back. The seam hits me mid-thigh, so I pull out some sheer black tights and knee-high boots, throwing them onto the bed as my phone screen lights up against the pillow.
Unlocking my phone, I check the message.
Sophia:
Be ready to go in about an hour?
I text back a confirmation and start getting ready, ignoring the slight way my hands shake as I apply my makeup. It’s just the cold—nothing more.
Luckily for us, Sophia’s sister lives in the city and lets us crash at her place whenever we come down for the night. No 3 AM drunk-Riverside-bound-train for us.
I pack a few things in my bag for the night and double-check to make sure all of my assignments were turned in. I’m just putting on the finishing touches to my makeup when my phone lights up again.
I swipe my keys from the hook by the door and flick off the lights.
“Fuck, it’s cold out here!”
Sophia shivers in her own skimpy dress as I pull up to her apartment complex and unlock the door. The second the door clicks open, she lunges into the car like her nipples are already suffering the effects of frostbite.
“Stop laughing at me, witch!” She says as she rubs her icy palms together in front of the small heating vent.
I laugh harder, diligently rubbing her exposed arms with my palms to warm her up. “You’re the one who insisted on not wearing tights. I tried to warn you about hypothermia, but nooo, you had to look ‘hot enough to melt the bouncers’ hearts.’”
“It’s only gonna get colder when the sun goes down. Still think this swanky club is worth it?”
She shakes her head, not even deeming to respond. Once the warmth returns to her flushed cheeks, she turns to examine me.
“You may have taken forever, but at least you look fantastic.” She says with a cheeky grin. “Very ‘mysterious womanwith secrets’ vibes.”
I preen under her assessment. “It takes more time for some of us to look presentable than it does for others,” I say as I reroute us to her sister’s place in the city.
“Don’t give me that shit, you probably just rotted in your bed for an hour overthinking whether this dress makes you look like a serial killer or a femme fatale.”
I snap my teeth at her in a playful bite, pulling onto the street. “A wiser friend would be much nicer to her personal chauffeur.”
The rest of the drive goes by quickly enough, Sophia almost immediately gaining control of the aux and blasting her music through the confines of the car like the true passenger princess she is.
It’s not until I spot the glimmering lights of the city and the towering buildings lining the river that I fall into an uneasy silence. The Manhattan skyline rises before us like a fence of glass and steel, beautiful and terrible in the dying light.
There was a reason I’d been avoiding going back since the incident. Even though the logical side of my brain knew there was little to no possibility of running into him by chance again, some part of my subconscious was convinced that the man I saw that night was this powerful, otherworldly creature.
That the city itself was his web, and I was just another fly stepping back into his domain.
That, somehow, the second I stepped back into his territory, he’d be there, waiting in the shadows between skyscrapers to tie up his rogue loose end.
I’m not an idiot.
