It had taken Zoe all of three minutes to put herself back together in the ladies room. That left twelve long minutes of standing alone in silence. Twelve minutes to dwell on all the reasons she should have walked away. Zoe knew she shouldn't be with David; he was a client who would be moving into her building this weekend. She knew all the reasons it was wrong from the way he treated her like an object to the way she submitted to her desire without thinking of consequence. But being with him made her feel alive in a way she had never felt before. Logically she knew what she was doing was wrong, but the pleasure of being with him overwhelmed her. It made all logic disappear. It made Zoe become someone else. It made her become someone she never thought she could be.
After the longest fifteen minutes of her life, she made her way down the stairs again to find the music was louder, the crowd was bigger, and her date was starting in on yet another drink. As she walked up to their table, Matt put his arm around her waist as if he had done it a thousand times before, and pulled her close.
"I thought you'd never make it back." He said into her ear as he handed her a drink. She could feel his hot breath on her neck as he squeezed her close. "Do you want to dance?" Zoe tossed back the sweet vodka drink he had handed her and nodded her head meeting his eyes. His eyes were warm and inviting, but that could have been from how much he had to drink. She let him take her hand and guide her out to the dance floor near his friends. There was a DJ now and the music had grown loud and rhythmic. The dance floor was crowded and Matt seemed to use that to his advantage as he faced Zoe, placing his hands on her hips and pulling her close to him as they danced.
Zoe was not the type of girl you would find in a club, she was usually out at gallery openings, concerts, or home reading on the weekends. Clubs usually made her anxious and she was not the biggest fan of large crowds but with all that had happened in the past two days, all the things she had done that were so far from the norm for her, she found herself giving in to the rhythm. Matt had pulled her close but not too close, his hands rested firmly on her hips and only ever moved to her lower back when he did dare to move them. She found the warmth of his eyes comforting, and while his smile seemed permanent it was sincere.
This is normal. She thought. This is what normal people do. Not David. David is anything but normal.
She had no idea how long they had been dancing, but her toes began to ache in her heels as Matt leaned in close, "Care for another drink?" He shouted over the music in her ear. She met his smile with her own and nodded. He grabbed her hand to lead her off the crowded dance floor and as she looked up ahead, past the seemingly never ending sea of people, she saw David.
Stone faced, with eyes like daggers pointed straight at her. He was standing at a table along the edge of the dance floor. It was as if he wanted to make sure she knew. He wanted to make sure she knew that he saw her. She felt all her breath leave her. Her smile disappeared and just when she thought she would never be able to tear her eyes away a hard heavy jolt of pain hit her ankle, her grip was torn from Matt's hand, and suddenly all she could see were high heels and polished shoes and she felt a heavy blow as her head hit the floor and everything went dark.
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