Chapter 2: Under The Same Rain
1267 Words
The city lights smeared across the glass as the taxi moved through the rain.
Eris pressed her forehead to the window, watching droplets slide down in long, unbroken trails. Every sound outside, the honking, the engines, the hum of life, felt like too much. Too loud for someone who felt hollow inside.
Her phone buzzed in her bag again. Her father. Always her father.
Come home. Bring money. Don’t make me wait.
She locked the screen, forcing her hands to stop shaking. The driver glanced at her through the rearview mirror, curious, maybe concerned. She didn’t meet his eyes.
Five months.
That was how long it had been since she made her first choice that was truly hers.
Five months since Maldives. Since him.
Dirk Donnovan.
She should have forgotten by now. But some people didn’t fade, they stayed. In silence, in memory, in everything you tried to bury.
“If you don’t want to, then it’s a no. I’ll never force you.”
His voice still lived somewhere inside her. That was what made it worse.
The taxi stopped. Eris caught her reflection in the window, pale skin, tired eyes, hair clinging damp to her cheeks. She barely recognized the woman staring back.
“Miss, we’re here,” the driver said softly.
She blinked. “Right. Sorry.”
When she stepped out of the car, the rain had slowed to a mist. The air smelled faintly of smoke and wet asphalt. She wrapped her coat tighter and started walking toward the house of her parents.
The streets were nearly empty. Only the faint hum of traffic and the click of her heels kept her company. Yet the deeper she went, the heavier her chest felt, like the night was holding its breath.
Then out of nowhere, a big bike pulled over beside her. Eris didn't look nor stop, she hastened her steps until she heard a familiar soft baritone voice calling her name.
"Eris?"
Eris stopped and the big bike moved to catch up to her then pulled over beside her.
"Eris."
Eris calmly turned to face the big bike and unconsciously stepped back when she saw who it was, a man she never expected to see ever again.
Dirk Donnovan.
Rain clinging to his dark leather jacket, hair was damp from the rain, eyes that looked exactly as she remembered, steady, careful, devastating.
"I was right." Dirk’s smile widened even more, his whole face brightening in delight. "I knew it was you. How could I forget?"
A frown made its way to Dirk’s face when Eris was quiet. Different from the Eris he met in Maldives, the outspoken Eris. The Eris in front of him looked afraid and wary of him.
Did I scare her by popping out of nowhere? Dirk didn't want that, but it was not his fault either! He was just driving back to his store after delivering a ring to a new big client and he saw her on the sidewalk. Just like that. He thought he was just seeing things, so he stopped.
"Did I do something to scare you?" Dirk couldn't help asking.
What happened to her? For some reason, he was worried. "May I drive you?" That didn't sound right. "To your destination, I mean."
Eris stared at Dirk. His first choice was asking her, like her decision and answer mattered. Why does his question sounds so foreign to me? Was it because he was asking and waiting for my reply like it mattered?
"Do you want to have coffee with me?" Dirk tried again. He just didn't want to let Eris go. He had been looking and hoping to see her for a few months now, so to just let her go now didn't sit well with him.
“Dirk…” The word left her before she could stop it. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Dirk lips parted, stunned at Eris’ straightforward answer, but he managed to pull himself together. He was not expecting that. He thought Eris would be happy to see him, after that night they shared, but maybe it was just him making it up in his head. Maybe she didn't enjoy it like he did.
Eris tightened her coat, pretending not to tremble. “Please. Don’t talk to me.”
Dirk got off his big bike and walked toward Eris. “Why not?”
She took a step back. “Because it’s over. Whatever happened in Maldives, it ended in there.”
He exhaled, his breath a white mist in the cold air. He stepped closer, water dripping from his hair. “You left without a single word. I looked for you everywhere after that.”
“You shouldn’t have.” Her voice trembled. “It was just one night stand.”
For a second, neither moved. The city seemed to fade around them, leaving only the sound of the rain.
A faint laugh slipped from him, half disbelief, half ache. “You always did know how to hit where it hurts.”
She folded her arms, pretending she wasn’t trembling. “You should go.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I told myself I’d moved on,” Dirk said, his voice rough.
Lightning flickered above them, white against the dark. He saw it then the faint bruise at her temple, barely hidden by her hair. His jaw tightened.
“Who did that?”
She turned away. “It’s nothing.”
“Eris—”
“Don’t.”
“Tell me.”
Her tone cracked. “I said it’s nothing.”
Dirk stepped closer again, careful, like she was a fragile thing he didn’t want to break. “You’re lying.”
“Don’t make this harder than it already is. You’re a good man, Dirk. Don’t ruin that.”
Dirk looked at her, eyes burning with something she couldn’t name. “You don’t get to say that after what we had.”
“What we had was a mistake.”
The rain started again, harder this time. She brushed the water from her face, though her eyes were already wet.
He stepped closer anyway. Voice low, desperate. “Eris—”
“Stop!” Her voice shook. “You don’t understand. If someone sees us together, if my family…” She swallowed hard. “Just go.”
He frowned. “Are you scared of them?”
She gave a small, bitter laugh. “Of course I am.”
“You don’t have to live like that.”
“And go where, Dirk?” she snapped. “You think I can just walk away? Disappear?”
“You did once.”
“And I’ve been paying for it ever since.” The rain began again, thin and cold. Her shoulders shook, but she held her head high.
He froze. “I can’t just walk away.”
“You have to,” she whispered.
He fell silent, jaw tight. He didn’t know what to say to that. The words hit him like a slap.
Her phone buzzed again. She didn’t look. She didn’t need to. Her father’s timing was cruel.
She wiped the rain from her face. “Goodbye, Dirk.”
Dirk stood still, watching her turn and walk away. Eris figure blurred into the streetlights, until all that was left was the faint echo of her heels and the soft rhythm of rain.
Dirk stayed there long after she was gone. Every instinct told him to chase her but he couldn’t. Eris didn’t need saving. She needed freedom and that was something no one could give her but herself.
- Writer
