Chapter 3

Charlie

The air felt thick, as I take in another deep breath, trying to hold back my tears. My eyes start to sting and there was a tickling feeling building up in my throat. I feel sick to my core.

The loud music blasts into my ear as I look up at the man in front of me holding up his hands in defense as if he didn’t just let another woman rub her ass against his cock. He takes another step towards me, trying to reach for my hand but before he can get to me I turn around and force my way through the crowd.

I can’t believe this is happening right now. I don’t want to believe that it is.

Sam, my boyfriend, who just had another woman all over him, brought me here for our last day of fun before the next year of university starts after the weekend.

If I would have known this was his idea of fun I could have saved myself the embarrassment. I could have saved myself from a lot of things actually.

God, I feel so stupid.

My hand finally meets the cold metal of the door handle as I pull it down and push the door open. The cold night air wraps around me, making me shiver.

There are a lot of people spread around the back entrance of the club. People leaning against the railing, smoking. Some of them were moving to the music that was still vibrating through closed doors. Others were making out like horny teenagers ripping at their clothes.

I try to push past them without falling as I take the few stairs downwards to the street. The air was filled with smoke and the smell of weed hangs above my head. I try not to breathe in too deeply.

The club’s exit was located between two buildings in an alleyway. It was dark, the only sources of light being an emergency exit sign above the door behind me and a lantern at the end of the alleyway that led to the main road.
I stumbled away from the crowd, reaching for the house wall in front of me, trying to steady myself, to gather my thoughts.

This whole situation feels like a fucking nightmare.

I lower my head, trying not get too overwhelmed by the feeling of betrayal. But I can no longer hold back my tears. I feel pathetic as they fall down my cheeks and soak into my skin.

I press my palms harder against the cold bricks, the contrast somehow grounding me. Another shaky breath leaves my mouth, before I force myself to move in the direction of the street.

My legs are shaking not only from the alcohol which makes it hard to compose myself but also because of the cold circling over my bare skin. The soles of my feet hurt in my high heels and for a moment I considered taking them off but since I am walking through a dark alley I choose not to.

Before I can reach the end of the alley, someone suddenly steps in front of me. For a moment I thought it would be Sam who followed me outside to give me some more of his stupid apologies. But it wasn’t him and right now I am not sure if I am glad about it or not.

The guy in front of me was way taller than Sam. Dark hair and arms so big that he could probably lift me up with two fingers. I couldn’t really see his face due to the darkness but something inside me tells me that the way he looks down at me means no good.

“Where you going so fast, babygirl?” His voice is deep and I can practically hear the smirk on his lips. He lifts his hand and I try not to immediately flinch at the sudden motion. He reaches for a strand of my hair and pulls it behind my ear. My eyes follow his hand and as his fingers touch my skin slightly I freeze in place. Panic rises inside me as I feel my legs go numb.

I can’t move.

I try to say something, to scream if I could, but not even a whisper crosses my lips.

“Already made you speechless, huh? Haven’t even done anything yet,” he laughs.

I slightly cringe at the sound of it and the nausea from before is feeling ten times worse now. As he tries to touch me again I finally find the courage to take a step back, moving out of his reach.

“My name is Hektor,” he says and I really couldn’t care less. I just want to get away from him.

I don’t understand how he can’t see how uncomfortable I feel. How does anything about this situation make him think I am in any way interested, when my whole body language is screaming at him to leave me alone.

“What is your name?”

“Sorry, my boyfriend is waiting for me.” I almost don’t recognise my voice. The lack of confidence in it scares me. He scares me.

He would probably only need two big steps to catch up with me if I ran away, so I don’t think trying that would do me any good.

“Boyfriend?” He says, looking around as he steps back into my space. “What boyfriend? I don’t see one.”

“Please, I just want to go home.”

“I can take you home, baby.” He reaches for me again, but before his filthy hands can touch me, a woman steps between us. Her steady eyes find mine as she takes my now shaking hands in hers.

“There you are, darling.” She says to my surprise. She is so close that I can feel her breath on my skin leaving faint goosebumps behind. “Ive been looking everywhere for you.”

My eyes widen in shock but I am quick to understand that she is trying to help me out. I was never really good at improvising, so I just nod in response.

“Come on, we have to go, our cab is here,” she turns around without even looking at the guy behind her. I feel a tug on my arm as she tries to drag me after her, but my eyes are fixed on the man who is now standing in front of both of us.

“You are in my way,” she says coldly.

“I was just talking to her. Find yourself someone else, to take home with,” he growls at her.

The sound turned my stomach upside down. How can a man even produce such sounds? It’s not sexy or impressive to sound like a god damn animal.

“What part of you are in my way, didn’t you get? Besides, you won’t take her anywhere with you.” Her hand closes tighter around mine, assuring me that I am not alone in this.

“Who are you? Her mother?” he spits back.

“I am the one who will kick your ass if you don’t get out of my way sooner rather than later.”

They stare at each other for a few seconds, the tension almost visible between them, before he finally gives in and moves out of our way. Before I can so much as blink she pulls at my arm again moving us out of that godforsaken alley and far around the corner.

We came to hold a few houses down the road.

I finally find myself able to breathe again, so I take in a big gulp of air, trying to free myself from that heavy feeling in my chest, that’s been sitting there from the moment that guy stepped in my way.

I close my eyes to collect myself. Her hand is still laying in mine which is somehow more comforting than it probably should be since she was a total stranger. As she lets go of it I open my eyes in fear she might just leave me here.

“Hey, it’s alright,” she reassures me, as if she had noticed my panic. “I am not going anywhere.”

I try to think of anything I could say to express my gratitude. Based on the situation thank you just doesn’t seem enough. I mean she basically threatened to kick that guy’s ass for me.

“You don’t have to thank me,” she suddenly breaks the silence.

“What?” my eyes find hers.

They are blue. Not just blue but the bluest blue I have ever seen in someone’s eyes. Not greyish or pale but bright like the sun hitting the surface of the ocean kinda blue. Even in the dim light they were shining like diamonds and I find myself wondering how they would look in the natural lighting of the sun.

“You don’t have to thank me,” she repeats. “It’s alright, I saw you needed help, so I helped. It’s no big deal.”

“No big deal?” I almost laugh. “You threatened to kick his ass.”

She tilts her head in amusement.

“Yeah,” she grins. “I guess I did.”

I look her up and down. To be honest she doesn’t look like the kind of person to actually throw punches casually, and besides, that guy was easily about 6ft tall and built like a bear. If she isn’t secretly She-Hulk an actual fight between them would have probably ended pretty quickly with a win on his side.

“Men hate confident women,” she says when she catches me looking at her figure. “Sometimes that is enough to intimidate them enough to back off.”

Still being unable to form proper sentences I just nod in response. I try to cover my inability to answer by looking around, but somehow my eyes find her quickly again.

She is older than me. If I had to guess, I would say late thirties to early forties. Even though I wear heels I had to slightly look up at her when she was standing directly in front of me earlier. Her blonde hair hangs in curls over her shoulders and reaches just underneath her collarbones. The features of her face were fine, her blue eyes standing out, seeking for your whole attention. There was something in her gaze that made you feel seen completely which I could not quite explain.

A straight, slender nose cut clean lines down her face, and her lips, softly shaped and set in quiet seriousness. There was strength in the subtle rise of her cheekbones, structure without sharpness, and her jawline was firm but unaggressive.

She is beautiful I had to admit.

Stunning actually.

Her eyebrow shot up as she noticed me staring at her again without saying anything. I feel the heat rise into my cheeks, hoping she wouldn’t notice, due to the lack of light.

“Thank you,” I finally got out. I guess there is not much more to say than that even though it didn’t feel quite enough.

“As I said no worries,” her calm voice fills me up with warmth I realise I am desperately seeking under the given circumstances.

A wave of sadness hits me at the thought. I bite the inside of my cheek, the pain rushing through me, bringing me back down to earth.

“Are you okay?” her voice forces its way into my foggy brain.

“Yeah,” I pause. “It was just… a terrible night.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I’m not really good at expressing my feelings. Not that I would do it even if I could. I avoid it because I don’t want to be a burden to anyone. Especially not to my friends. Besides, she’s a complete stranger, so why should I talk to her about it? But then again, maybe precisely because she’s a stranger, what’s the harm? I’ll probably never see her again, so it doesn’t matter anyway.

“I had a fight with my boyfriend,” I simply say. Something flickers in her eyes as I speak. The emotion was so sudden that I am uncertain if I did not simply imagine it. “He is just an asshole and I feel stupid for trusting him.”

“Why do you feel stupid for something he did?”

“What?”

“Why do you feel stupid when he’s the one who made a mistake?”

My words get stuck in my throat and tears start to form in my eyes again. That’s why I never talk about my feelings. Because when I do, I cry, and crying is for the weak. At least that’s what my father always said. “Because he promised me to change so many times and he never did. He showed me several times that I shouldn’t trust him, but I did anyway, and that’s why I feel so incredibly stupid.”

“You are not stupid for trusting someone you love. It’s what you do when you love someone. You trust them. How else would we be able to form relationships if not based on trust?”

I wipe away a small tear that has found its way down my cheek. Her words echo through my head. I know she is right, but that doesn’t make it less hard.

“I guess I am just hurt,” I say, breaking the moment of silence that had settled between us.

“Whatever it was that he did,” she begins, her voice so incredibly soft. “You deserve someone who not just loves but also respects you enough not to break your trust over and over again.”

I suddenly feel so tired, the weight of the day pressing hard on me. “You are probably right,” I put on a wry smile.

“Do you want me to call a cab for you?”

“At this time around?” I raise my eyebrow at her. “In this area of London? Impossible.”

“Well, then in which direction do you live?”

I look around, trying to orient myself and then I point behind her, down the street.

“Well great, my hotel is in the same direction so we might as well walk together.”

Something in her voice tells me that this wasn’t a question so I just nod and start walking in the right direction as she quickly falls into step beside me.
From here it should be about 20 minutes to my flat.

I try to remember if there are any hotels near the building I live in and either I don’t know my area as well as I thought I did or there really aren’t any.

“I’m Stella by the way.”

I look over at her, a small friendly smile set on her lips.

“Charlie,” I hold out my hand in her direction. I don’t know why I do it since we are walking but she still takes it anyways.

“Nice to meet you, Charlie.”

The way she says my name does something to me. She makes it sound like it holds so much importance in it. I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe it is the alcohol still floating through my bloodstreams, slowing down my brain functions. Or maybe it’s just the American accent and the slight rasp in her voice that makes my name sound so light on her tongue.

I am curious now where she might be from exactly and why she is here. I suppose she is only temporarily in London, since she is staying in a hotel. I would really like to ask her about it but I don’t find the courage to do so.

We keep walking in a comfortable silence, the only sounds coming from the cars beside us, speeding down the road. Her heels click firmly on the ground and I admire the way she holds herself so gracefully while all I want to do is cry out in pain.

I almost sigh in relief when the bus station in front my building finally comes into sight.

I come to hold at the corner of the building. “Here it is.”

“What floor do you live on?”

“What?”

“You heard me,” she says. “Dont worry, I wont come back to stalk you. I just wanna make sure you arrive safely in your apartment.”

A smile spreads across my face and I shake my head at her, laughing. “You know my boyfriend of two years probably didn’t even consider coming after me when I fled from the club to see if I am okay and you, a total stranger, are now making sure I wont get kidnapped in my own building.”

“I’d rather be safe than sorry, darling.”

“I see,” I laugh. “Well, I live on the second floor of the building.” I point up at my apartment with the white curtains behind the windows.

The moon is reflecting in the surface of the glass and only now do I realise that it’s a full moon.

I lower my head back down towards the woman next to me, only to find her already looking at me with those intense blue eyes. In the moonlight, they seem even more radiant now.

“Okay,” stutter breaking the silence. “Thank you again for saving my ass and bringing me home. That was genuinely kind of you. I don’t know how to thank you properly.”

“You can buy me a coffee in case we see each other again,” she jokes. Or at least I think she jokes.

I mean what are the odds?

“Good night, Charlie.” She finally says holding out her hand again and I take it, the cold medal of a ring I didn’t notice before now pressing into my palm. “It was really nice meeting you even under those strange circumstances.”

“Good night, Stella.” Then I let go of her hand and walk into the building and quickly up the stairs to my flat.

As soon as I enter, I turn on the light and walk towards one of the windows in the living room to look down to the streets. When I finally spot her, she is already walking back the way we were just coming from.

So much for her hotel being in the same direction as my building.