CHAPTER 3

Laura's ride home was long, her mind spiralled around her current predicament and the turnout of events. She also consecutively had to ignore calls from Anna, until she finally switched her phone off.

Her head rested on the car window, trying to contain her anger at herself. She knew that she couldn't blame Anna, she was the one who was at fault. She knew that she was too careless. 

How could she have allowed herself some drink when she knew of her bad alcohol tolerance? As she sat there, although her face looked outside the window, her mind was in a haze. She wanted to let out a scream.

Almost immediately, the car stopped.

"We've reached your destination." The Uber driver alerted her.

She didn't know that she had already reached home. "Oh…" She looked around, recognizing her place, "thank you very much." She said as she searched through her bag for some dollar notes, which she gave to the driver upon finding them, making her way out of the car.

Her legs dragged as she moved up the stairs to her flat. Unlocking the door and entering, she kicked off her low heels, let her bag fall on the floor as she lazily found her way to her bathroom, and let the tap run in the bathtub as she focused her gaze on the mirror. 

Laura looked haggard. Her red lipstick was smudged, and her eye makeup was sully. She looked like she was dressed up for Halloween.

"Woah!" She mouthed as she eyed the figure that stood in front of her. She was certainly unfamiliar.

Even at that, Laura didn't make a move to clean up her face, she just stood still with her eyes intently looking at the mirror as snippets of the pitch-black room of yesterday night, flashed by her memory.

The man opened the dark hotel room with staggering steps, guiding Laura inside. His hands were strong but gentle as he held her close to his warm body, his lips found Laura's and kissed them passionately. 

He led her to the bed, both fell, as he speedily undressed her. From her skimpy gown to her bra and pants, after which he continued to kiss her with more lust-filled eyes. She felt him blindly caress the outline of her body in admiration of her seductive figure as he proceeded to free himself from his clothing.

He undressed, taking off his buttoned-up shirt quickly— because Laura was tugging at it, then to his belt, his boxers and his jeans, all dumped on the floor; allowing for Laura to feel every nook and cranny of his build. 

He swiftly retreated to Laura's body afterwards as his own body couldn't stop him anymore. Laura on the other hand, who has been celibate all her life, was surprisingly as thirsty as this man, encouraging his every touch and kisses by moaning libidinously. 

He penetrated with force, consecutively, inside of her. Although she screamed repeatedly in pain, she held him tight on top of her, never letting go. They had passionate intercourse in the dark room, both drunk.

Laura shook her head from such unsolicited reminisce, her mind reverting to the image in front of her, she was in shock as her eyes saw the bathtub almost filled up in the reflection of the mirror. 

She quickly made a 180 as she reached for the tap and tapped it off. Laura stripped off her clothes, taking a deep breath, she raised one leg after the other and dropped them calmly in the cold water, flinching slightly as her intimate part got in contact with the water.

"Ouch." She whispered, as she endured and continued her descent into the water until she sat comfortably in the tub.

After a considerable amount of time, as Laura washed her body, she decided she had to suspend her indulgence. 

Laura made her way to her bed yawning, dressed in a big cotton t-shirt; she had encountered a whole lot. She wanted to sleep. 

She lay down on her bed. Slowly, she fell asleep. 

*****

Laura's eyes opened, she groggily rose from her bed and sat up, her eyes traced to the window on the opposite of her bed, she saw that the sky now had a dark tint, and the sun was nowhere to be found. It was already evening. 

She was alerted immediately, almost like she was programmed, as she instantly remembered that she had a report to submit on Monday.

"Shit." Laura mouthed as she quickly searched for her workbag. 

Her eyes searched her whole room until they rested on the black and brown sling workbag sitting carelessly on her chair. She rushed to get the bag remembering she dumped it on her chair, yesterday, after receiving a call from Sophia when she got home from work.

She walked to the bag, picked it up and strolled to her table, opposite her bed, right in front of her window; it was her worktable. She took a seat and placed the bag on the table. Heaving a deep sigh, Laura opened the bag and retrieved her work laptop. She began working.

Laura worked laser-focused as she was determined to get her work done, she couldn't afford distractions. 

"Grrrooowwwlll!" It was her stomach. She immediately clutched her abdomen, remembering that she had not eaten a meal since morning. She knew she needed a break.

Laura stood and stretched her body to her satisfaction as she began her quest for food. 

She strolled across the room to her refrigerator and opened it. Two bottles of water, an apple, soda and three biscuits greeted her from the now lit-up fridge. She was supposed to do groceries today, but the unravelling of the day was too unpredictable.

She grabbed two biscuits and the soda and walked back to her table. She munched the biscuits as her fingers continued punching her keyboard, remembering that she had only gone through a thousand pages of research work. She could not afford another break. 

Her eyes watered, and although she blinked the tear away, a drop managed to escape her left eye and trickled down her cheek. 

Upon feeling the warmth of the tear, Laura burst into tears.