The frozen night gnaws at my face like it hasn’t eaten in days, alive with a bouquet of red currants and fanfare. The smell of perfume slips silently out of the after-party and down the spiral staircase, escaping through the closed door in lusty drafts like a flower garden on steroids. Our footsteps echo - too loud in the crowded, solitary parking garage. Everything feels amplified tonight, and yet far away - like I’m listening to - reaching out and existing through a glass wall. The click of my high-heels on the concrete… The heartbeat of the alcohol in my bloodstream…
She - I stand shivering in the burning red cocktail dress we rented just for the occasion as Kattar makes a ceremony out of opening my door.
My phone buzzes in my trench coat pocket like an angry bumble bee, making the fabric tremble and writhe on the chair. Kattar rolls his eyes, lovingly exasperated, as I sit back in my chair, and swallow the whole of the bonbon myself, with a teasing smile. I jump up quickly and retrieve the irritable robot from where I left it lying in the plastic chair by the television.
“Sorry, I’ve gotta take this one - It’s the queen,” I say tauntingly, holding out my phone to show him his mother’s caller I.D. He just shakes his head, crossing his arms over the hospital gown and leaning into the pillows with something like a sigh, as I put the cell to my ear.
