Love After Divorce

7. Electric Encounters

I wake up the next morning with my head feeling like someone had dropped a crane on it, and the soreness in my core makes it worse. Wait…

I look down and to my horror discover that I'm stark naked and tangled in the sheets of a bed that isn't mine. "What the f**k…"

All the memories from last night come rushing to me, and I'm in total disbelief.

My face heats up at the memory of the entire deal, and I don't know which is worse; the fact that I slept with a hot stranger or the fact that I actually enjoyed every bit of it. The way he loved every part of me, and whispered the sweetest and dirtiest words in my ears.

"Good morning, princess."

You know that moment when you completely freeze, because you are terrified or because you suddenly find a drop dead gorgeous man half naked with a towel hung on his neck and water dripping down his ripped torso?

Well this moment was both of them.

"G– good morning," I manage to stutter as I grab for the sheets to hide myself, knowing fully well he'd already seen me naked. I could feel my face burn painfully when his soft, and sensual chuckle graced my ears. I have officially had my first and most definitely my last one night stand.

"Christ!" I hiss, clutching my head in a power grip. It feels like someone is slicing through my brain and pouring alcohol on it. Mr gray eyes appear by my side, hot, wet, and holding a glass of water and pills.

"I did tell you this would happen. You had too much." I take the medicine in one gulp and rest my head on my palms, the after effect of everything coming back to me.

"I can't believe this," I whisper. Shame quickly clouds my eyes and I feel so dumb. I feel the bed dip when Mr gray eyes sits at the foot of the bed. "I can't believe any of this. This isn't like me to…to…"

"To have s*x?" He cuts in and I feel his hand slowly creep up my legs. His fingers are cold, but my skin burns treacherously under his touch. "With a complete stranger. I'd never do anything like that–"

"You didn't complain when this stranger made you c*m until you could barely feel your legs."

"I– I need to go." I say and slip out of the bed trying to ignore his gaze following me, and put on my clothes.

"Why are you going?" His question stops my hand over the door and I turn to look at him incredulously. He sits back on the bed with his hand thrown over the headboard, looking like he'd just landed from planet f*****g gorgeous.

"I'm going because this was a very very terrible mistake…"

Now I have to spend weeks getting over the mortification and attraction for you.

"A mistake?" He stalks towards me like a predator watching its prey, and his eyes pin me to the floor. Everywhere suddenly becomes hot when he traps me between his hands, and leans close; so close that our noses almost touch. My eyes drop to his lips; those lips that did sinful and delicious things to my body, setting every inch on fire. His slow smirk snaps me back and he leans further down to my ear, whispering, "my sweet princess, you can't deny the fact that you are attracted to me as much as I am to you, and you know very well that everything that happened last night wasn't a mistake."

His hot lips brush my earlobe and a shiver runs down my spine. His chuckle and words drift into my ear, "your mouth may call it a mistake, my little princess, but your body says something different. It would gladly make that mistake over and over again until it can barely move. One way or another, you will come back to me."

When he moves back, I take my belongings and scurry the hell out of here, because I know that if I stay even a second longer, I wouldn't want to leave.

***

"So…what were you up to last night?" Cherry plops down beside me, moving a cup of juice in my hands, and I groan for the nth time since I came back. Her rather suggestive smile makes it even more difficult for me to mask the fact that I had gotten up to something last night; something hot and naughty.

"It's nothing, Cherry. I drank too much, passed out somewhere in the club, then came back here." I sip my drink silently. "I don't know what else you wanted to hear."

"Oh, just the story of what happened after you made off with a handsome stranger."

I nearly choke on my drink.

"What are–"

"Sweetheart, I saw you leave the bar with him, and even if I didn't, I'd still find out because you are really terrible at lying." She scoots closer and whispers, "now tell me everything. Don't leave out any details."

And so for the next ten minutes with my face red as a tomato I narrate everything I could remember from last night to Cherry and when I'm done she is squealing like an excited school girl.

"Your first ever one night stand! I'm so proud of you!"

"I don't think that's anything to be proud of Cherry."

"I told you that a night in the club would do you good."

"Yeah…and I ended up sleeping with a stranger."

"OH stop it. From the look on your face you enjoyed it. So don't be embarrassed."

"I'm not really emba–"

"Who's embarrassed?" Casper asks, coming to sit beside Cherry. "Sofie's embarrassed because of a one night stand she clearly loved." "Nice. I'm proud of you Sofie."

"Christ," I groan helplessly and cover my face with my hands. This isn't what I planned for our conversation to be, and with her teasing I'm sure I'd get nowhere.

"Hey, I'm just glad you had a good time last night, and even if you were drunk as f**k, you looked happy and free after such a long time. That made me very happy," Cherry says and hugs me tightly. "I'm always here for you."

Although her words warm my heart to the core, the feeling of guilt drifts through my mind, a constant reminder of what I intend to say. I know Cherry and Casper won't be happy with it, but I couldn't allow myself to slow them down. They are going to be a family soon, and they needed time to themselves, not a recently divorced friend living in their house.

"I know Cherry, I know," I hug her tightly and pull away. If I don't say it now, then I have no idea when. "But there's something I have to tell you guys. I'm moving out."

"What?!"

"Huh?"

"I have to do this, guys. I can't become an extra baggage or burden on you two–"

"But you just got here, and you'll never be a burden to us. We're your best friends, Sofie," Cherry whines, taking my hands in hers, "You're my best friend."

"I'm divorced now, and I don't have anything of my own. I need to get my life together again," I plead and after a while of silence, Casper, and Cherry agree with me.

Casper thinks for a while then asks, "so what apartment do you have in mind? I know someone who can–"

"Actually, I've been looking into a few affordable ones, and I'm meeting with the landlord this afternoon…I'll also be moving out this afternoon," I end with a nervous laugh as they look at me incredulously. I had to prepare everything else they'd somehow find a way to make me stay, and as much as I really wanted to, I won't be doing myself any good.

***

I say my final goodbyes to my best friends and enter the taxi they had stubbornly paid for me. I arrive at the neighborhood where the apartment building is located and I grimace at the state of it. Several dumpster cans litter the alleys with racoons and rats fighting over who gets the feast. We pass a few weird looking men with even weirder looking tattoos on their bodies, smoking and staring pointedly at us.

The goosebumps that rise on my skin is a clear indication that this place is far from safe, unfortunately I cannot leave because this is all my money can afford.

The climb upstairs is the worst I've ever taken. I constantly have to look over my shoulder to check if I am being followed because wandering in the dark, and old stairs with unsettling people wandering around could put anyone on edge.

After my conversation with the landlord, I settle into my new home. A broken TV, torn couches that probably have a million bugs in it, a dripping sink, broken kitchen windows, a small bedroom, and faculty lights.

"Could've been worse," I sigh and shrug. At least I have a place of my own now. A place to sleep, a roof over my head, my own privacy. Either way I was proud of myself and even if my apartment looked like a fifty year haunted house, it was mine, and as soon as I find a job, I will be able to save up to get a better one.

However, a job is another hurdle. I never went to college because Alex asked me not to. He promised to take care of my every need and I believed him; partly because I was in love with him, and he was a successful CEO himself.

"I was so dumb," I chastise myself and head to the kitchen to get a glass of water. I will not let this major disadvantage make my life hard for me. I am a survivor, and hell will break loose if I ever let any other man into my life to shatter the pieces I am trying to put back.

My mind drifts back to that hot night at the club. For that one night I had forgotten everything that was wrong in my life, and put down my defenses. My body heats up in certain areas where it shouldn't at the memory of the things he did to me, and the image of those gray eyes that gaze at me with so much passion threatens to destroy the foundation of my senses. His last words ring in my head like a never ending alarm.

I sigh. "Get out of my head…"