The beat throbbed through her bones. Womp womp womp. Sophie let herself be moved by the music and let herself forget why she was here. The Miami night was no match for the patrons of this club. Nothing would stop them from a party. Not COVID, not committed relationships, not even the fact that they might be in this city just for a family function. Which she was.

Normally Sophie wouldn’t be seen in a place like this. She was a shy woman. She preferred quiet activities. But she’d do it for him.

Him. The mindfuck who said he couldn’t be what she needed and that he was not capable of a romantic relationship. The man who said to stop looking at him like she loved him but then called her “more than human, you are Art.” Capital A Art. The man whose words echoed through her life for the last eight years despite her being engaged with a child.

She wasn’t in the habit of cheating on her partner in the flesh. Sure, she’d send a picture here and there, teasing internet friends, but this was something else. She needed it.

Maybe she heard “you’re acting like a whore” disdainfully one too many times, maybe it was the unwillingness to hang out with her friends, maybe the general disregard for what she wanted in favor of his needs.

So here she was, dancing amongst half-naked strangers in the night. Though who was she to judge? Her own dress barely covered her ass. Still, she couldn’t help but be swept up in the atmosphere of revelry. Her sister had taken her out with her college friends as a last hurrah graduation celebration. This included the drinking that went along with such a celebration. Sophie had two drinks and that was it, two more than she was used to. She, unlike her sister, wasn’t trying to get sloppy drunk.

She was starting to think he might not show, that this was just a misbegotten meetup. He was a busy man after all. But then she saw him. He was dancing with this tanned, fit woman probably similar age to her. For a minute she watched them as if detached from the situation. She admired the way he held her, the way she melted into him. And then he saw her. His eyes sparked upon recognition and he smiled that leg quivering smile of his. Her heels didn’t help the weak in the knees feeling. He excused himself from the dance partner and sauntered over, weaving through dancers to get to her.

A traveling doctor, his work took him to a few cities, New York, San Francisco, and now Miami. He could have any woman here that he chose but he wanted her. Sophie reeled at the thought.

When they danced it was electric. It was neon orange and hot pink and luminescent purple. It was sparks of silver and gold. She wrapped her hands behind his neck. She twirled away, teasing him. She came back and pressed her ass into him.

She reached behind her to the bulge in his pants. He was still packing heat, she thought with a smile. She couldn’t take it anymore and pulled him into a hallway.

“I think about you all the time,” she said breathlessly.

“As do I.” And with that he leaned down and kissed her, pulling her into his warm, strong body.

He turned her around so she was pressed to the wall, hitched up her dress, undid his pants, pulled on a condom, and sunk himself inside her. He was thicker than her partner. (Fiancé? She hated that word) and slightly longer. He stretched out her cunt, thrusting in time with the music. No more words were needed. We never did much talking anyway, she thought wryly. Though she did wish to feel his skin without the condom, she took what she could get. And, with a man like him, she was going to get it.

For all she knew people were walking by but she couldn’t care less. All she could care about was the sensations he was bestowing upon her. Nothing could keep her from this man, from this feeling.

She began bucking her hips back against him in frenzied lust. Just as she felt her legs would give way, he scooped her up and flipped her back around to face him, her back against the wall. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, gripping like he was a lifeguard rescuing her from the ocean. And he gripped her tightly to himself as well. She had no fear of falling, no doubt in her mind that he would hold her and never drop her. He was strong and she felt like a dainty little thing in his arms. He continued slamming her body up and down on him, driving his shaft up into her with the force of an army.

If he was going to destroy her she wanted to be destroyed. She wanted to be consumed, to be ruined by this, by him. If he was danger then fly her to the danger zone. People were selfish, rude, boring, but he was something else.

It all came back to her. Walking by the Burlington waterfront at night to meet him, how he took her upstairs, faster and faster, laughing, gripping her hand. Out of breath. Here drink this. A flask. How he fingered her on the street in Brooklyn at night. Fucking on a rooftop. That Tame Impala concert and the edibles. The mysterious figure in a long coat at the end of the bus terminal. The club in Boston, the look he gave her as that woman rubbed up against him. How he said he wanted to travel the world with her. How he said she would make a great mother.

“We have to make up for lost time,” he said, breathing heavily. Yes we do. So much lost time.

She shuddered against him and gripped tighter. Then and only then, did he release himself, pulsing inside her. When he withdrew it was like something missing and she was desperate for more. She caught her breath and leaned against the wall. It was one of those times she knew she’d look back on when bathing her son or driving to work, cooking dinner.

She heard her sister's voice break through her thoughts.

“Where have you been? We’ve been looking all over for you!”

Sophie turned to introduce Jack but he was gone.

“I saw my friend.” Where the hell is he? He was right here a second ago!

“Well where are they now?” her sister pressed.

“They must have left.” But why? Who does that?

“Come back and dance with us!” And so she did. She knew he’d come back. He always did. She forgot about her self-consciousness and danced like her soul was on fire. Something he’d told her once. She forgot about trying not to be that white girl dancing and just moved.

And there he was. Like a phantom.

“Come home with me,” he said. And who was she to say no? They got in the Uber.

“Coral Gables,” he told the driver.

Her phone buzzed.

Where are you? Naomi.

I left with Jack. Didn’t I tell you?

The phone buzzed again. She didn’t bother to look, instead moving in to kiss his neck. He rubbed his hand up and down her leg. She was ready to straddle him right there, but held back. It was around this time that she realized her pussy juice had leaked to her knees.

At his place, they were all hands and mouths, knocking over dishes and pillows like they do in romance movies. He ravished her like she was the last woman alive and ate her like she was a pint of Ben and Jerry’s.

When she woke up, she smiled to see him there, next to her in his bed. Sunlight streamed through the windows. They must have slept in. It was all she could do to just peel her limp languished body off the bed and get dressed. She could have stayed there forever, but, life goes on. Her flight left in a few hours and she had to get back to her Airbnb to get her stuff.

“Well, until next time,” she said with a sad smile. Would it be months, years, a decade? Never?

“Until next time,” he said, and something in his assurance soothed her. She walked out of his apartment building confidently. They say nothing good can last forever. Well maybe it can.