章 4: One Night Stand
When a ray of light directs at her face, Shi Lian winches. Shifting to her right, when her arm finds something hard and cool, her brows knits together. Eyes fluttering, she opens her eyes slowly and when her view is clear, her eyes widen finding a man beside her.
Horror creeps into her skin like a cold blanket and with a gasp, she sits up. She gazes at Zichen's face, too handsome to ignore. His jet black hair is messy and his lips are slightly parted.
Shi Lian pulls her mind from the zone and realizes she is naked. She peers down to look at her body. She is wearing nothing and a man is sleeping beside her, half-naked. Her lower region feels sore, and when she tries to remember what happened yesterday, the nerves in her temple act up and she groans in pain. She cannot remember anything; everything is a blur.
Realizations draw on her and she tastes the bitterness on her tongue. She slept with a man, a complete stranger! And she cannot remember how it happened.
She bites the nail of her thumb, worrying about her actions. When her eyes wander over to the clock on the lavender wall, her eyes go wide again because she recalls she has a flight today. It's already eight!
She hastily gets out of the bed, trying not to wake the man up because she doesn't have the time for talks, not with the man who she slept with. She frantically scans the room for her dress and finds it across the room, lying on the marbled floor she quickly wears it. But the dress is not in the right shape. She curses, assuming the man must have ripped it apart. With her nostrils flaring, she notices the white shirt on the chair and decides to wear it since she has no choice.
"Fuck my memory for not remembering anything but if you tried to take advantage of me last night, I won't let you off the hook" she hisses, glaring at the sleeping man on the bed. It makes her annoyed how peacefully handsome he looks while sleeping. "You know what? I don't want to meet again." With that, she walks out of the room.
Shi Lian has no phone with her so she goes to give a call to Evelyn from the receptionist desk where more than three telephones are in spare. "Hello, can I use the phone, please?" she asks the blond receptionist, keeping her tone calm. The receptionist nods with a cheery smile and offers her to make a call.
Shi Lian presses the number and waits for Evelyn to pick up the call. Thankfully, Evelyn picks the call, and relief floods over Shi Lian. "Eve."
"Shi? Oh my God! Are you really alive? Where the hell are you?" she yells from the other line and Shi Lian has to keep the mouth of the telephone away from her ear.
"I am sorry. I will explain everything once I am there. I will be there within ten minutes. Can you prepare the suitcase for me?"
"Geez, fine. Come soon because you have a lot of explanations to do. Do you know I even called the cops to find you?"
"Cops? Really?"
"Yuh-huh! Anyway, come soon. I am hanging up."
Shi Lian sighs, cursing at her poor memory for not remembering anything after she came out with Evelyn from the club. She thanks the receptionist and is about to leave when the receptionist asks. "You need to check out, Ma'am."
Growing with frustration, she snaps at her, "Ask the man who brought me here! That asshole!" She whips around and marches out of the hotel. The receptionist blinks, trying to understand what she just said. Which man? She wasn't here last night.
Shi Lian gets inside the cab and after telling him her address, she leans back into the seat, rubbing her temples to ease the headache. Every five minutes later, she keeps on nagging the driver to drive fast, and with annoyance, the driver snaps at her. "It's a car, young lady. Not a jet!"
Fifteen minutes later, he drops her outside of the apartment building. The old-style apartment which she shares with Evelyn. "I'll get my purse from upstairs," she tells him, and taking skipping two steps at once, she reaches her apartment on the third floor. Pressing the doorbell, she waits for Evelyn to open the door. The moment the door opens, she walks in with lightning speed, straight to the bathroom. From inside the bathroom, she yells, "Give the driver the money! He is waiting outside! Please!"
Evelyn lets out a grumble and goes to pay the driver downstairs. When she comes back, she finds Shi Lian wearing the dress she picked out for her, knowing she will create a mess. Leaning by the doorframe of Shi Lian's room, she asks sarcastically with her arms crossed over her chest. "My dear, don't you think you should at least explain where the hell you spent your night?"
Shi Lian looks at Evelyn while wearing the top, and offers her a nervous smile. "I will but first tell me what is the time."
Craning her head to the clock in the living room, she answers, "Eight-thirty already."
"Shit."
For the first time since Evelyn started to live with Shi Lian, she feels the responsible and mature one now. It is always the other way around. Evelyn will be drunk and come home like a mess and Shi Lian will be the one to clean the mess and straighten her up. Sighing, she goes to the kitchen, which is a small open room attached to the living area, and prepares two cups of coffee. "I have packed your suitcase!" she informs while preparing the coffee.
"Thank you!"
Shi Lian comes from her room, looking good in the two-piece dress set. Her messy hair is brushed neatly and the black eyeliner marks are all gone. Shi Lian frantically finds her heels and straps them up, then going to take the coffee from Evelyn. She gulps down the black liquid quickly and goes to take her suitcase, not bothering to look because she trust Evelyn. Checking her wristwatch, she hurries to give Evelyn a last kiss but pauses when she realizes, she is weirdly quiet and her head is downcast. "Hey, what's wrong?" Shi Lian asks, tilting her chin up.
Shi Lian notices tears in her eyes and cupping her face, she asks if she is okay.
Evelyn sniffs, her body trembling and her condition makes Shi Lian worried. "Eve, is everything okay? You are making me worry."
"You are leaving and I don't know when you will be back. I will miss you, idiot!" Evelyn expresses, sniffing in between. "And look how you are ignoring me. I have been worried for you for the last night, barely got any sleep and you don't even care!"
It surprises Shi Lian and she realizes she acted like a dick. With a smile, she says, "Sorry, sorry, it's just I will be late for the flight that's why and about last night…." Her tone changes remembering the man she had one stand with. "I did something crazy."
Evelyn's blue orbs meet Shi Lian's brown ones. "What did you do? You didn't kill someone, right?"
"Way worse" Shi Lian mutters, looking away.
"What did you do, Shi? Tell me."
Evelyn notices the tension in her shoulder and worries if she has actually killed someone. With bitterness in her voice, Shi Lian verbalizes, "I had a one-night stand."
The room goes quiet. Evelyn for a split second thinks she hears wrong. She processes it in her head if she hears her correctly. Blinking in astonishment, she implores, "You slept with a stranger?"
Shi Lian bites the inner skin of her lips. She feels more terrible than Evelyn. How can she actually let that happen? Making her turn towards her, Evelyn searches her face. "You really slept with a stranger?"
Shi Lian nods, not daring to meet her best friend's eyes. Evelyn says nothing and the silence feels like a heavy rock on her shoulders. Finally, Evelyn asks, "How do you feel? You okay?"
Surprises, Shi Lian meets her eyes and finds genuine worry for her. This almost makes her cry. "I feel terrible" she admits, squeezing Evelyn's hand. "I don't even remember how I ended up in the hotel in the first place. I don't remember anything which makes me feel worse."
"Lesson learned here. You are never going to drink ever again."
"Not going anywhere near them," Shi Lian says innocently which makes Evelyn smile.
"God, I can't even stop you for a while because you are running late. Go quickly" she tells her, helping her with the suitcase and hugging her tightly for the last time, she sees her friend walking out of the apartment which they shared for almost five years. Evelyn doesn't have the heart to go with Shi Lian to the airport. Closing the apartment, she sinks down on the floor and cries in silence. She is going to miss her very much. She never thought she will get attached to someone and connect so deeply that it will hurt so much when she will leave.
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