CHAPTER2
704 Words
CHAPTER 2 The Morning After
The sound of her alarm cut through the soft silence of dawn. Amara groaned, reaching for her phone, her eyes half-open. The screen glowed with the harsh truth of 6:00 a.m. She lay there for a moment, staring at the ceiling, trying to remember what day it was.
Then it came back the job, the rain, him.
Adrian Hale.
His name sat somewhere in her chest, like a secret she wasn’t ready to tell.
She stretched, swung her legs over the side of the bed, and sat still for a while. Her small apartment smelled faintly of lavender and last night’s rain. The city outside was already awake horns blaring, engines humming, vendors calling out their morning deals.
She got up, made coffee, and stood by the window with the cup warming her hands. Somewhere below, a street musician was playing a saxophone; the notes drifted upward, slow and lonely. She smiled. Of course jazz. Even the city remembers him.
Her phone buzzed again Tessa.
Tessa: You never came home last night. You good or should I call the police? 😒
Amara typed back,
Amara: I’m fine. Just needed air. I’ll explain later.
She didn’t add I met someone, though it sat at the edge of her fingers.
She took a long sip, watching a pigeon land on the railing. Maybe she was reading too much into it. Maybe he was just another rich man with charm polished by habit. But something about the way he’d looked at her steady, curious, almost gentle stuck in her mind like sunlight through a c***k.
Her door knocked. “Open up, sleepyhead!”
Tessa.
Amara laughed and opened the door. Her best friend stepped in, wearing an oversized hoodie and holding a paper bag that smelled heavenly.
“Breakfast,” Tessa announced. “Because sadness should never be faced on an empty stomach.”
They sat at the small table, unwrapping egg rolls and puff-puff.
“So,” Tessa said between bites, “what happened last night?”
Amara hesitated. “I met someone.”
Tessa froze mid-chew. “Define someone.”
“A man.”
“The way you said that telltal letters and italics included tell me everything.”
Amara tried not to smile. “We met at a bar. We talked. That’s it.”
“Tall? Handsome? Dangerous?”
“All of the above,” she admitted.
Tessa grinned. “And you didn’t get his number?”
Amara shook her head. “No. It didn’t feel like that kind of night.”
But she couldn’t stop remembering his voice. The calmness. The way he’d said, You deserve better days.
After Tessa left, Amara tried to distract herself with chores. She applied for a few jobs online, updated her CV, cleaned her kitchen. But by afternoon, she was restless again.
She opened her laptop to check emails and froze.
There it was. A message she didn’t recognize.
From: Adrian Hale
Subject: For when you need a better day.
Her pulse jumped. She clicked it open.
Amara,
I’m aware this might seem forward, but you left your umbrella at The Haven last night. It’s waiting for you.
A.H.
She blinked. Her umbrella? She hadn’t even realized.
At the bottom of the message was a line:
P.S. I’ll be there around seven. You can pick it up yourself, or I can deliver it.
Her heart did that inconvenient flutter thing again.
She typed a quick reply:
I’ll come by. Thank you.
The rest of the day passed in a haze of anticipation. She changed outfits twice before finally settling on a simple cream blouse and jeans. Not too much. Not too little.
By the time she reached The Haven, the city had turned gold with sunset.
Adrian was already there same seat, same drink, phone on the counter. He looked up when she walked in, and something softened in his expression.
“You came,” he said.
“I figured it’d be rude to make you deliver an umbrella.”
He smiled faintly and gestured to the stool beside him. “Then stay for a drink. Make it worth the trip.”
She sat. Their eyes met and the world tilted again.
- Writer
