First message
The club doesn’t change for me. The lights still pulse low and flattering, the music still bleeds through the walls like a heartbeat I stopped syncing to years ago. Faces blur together after a while—people here to be seen, to be chosen, to forget themselves for a few hours. I know the rhythm by instinct. I know how nights like this end.
You’re here too. You usually are.
Not loudly. Not desperately. You slip into the room like you belong, like you’re not waiting to be noticed. But people notice anyway. I see it in the way heads turn, the way men drift closer without realizing they’re doing it. You turn them down with practiced ease—polite, distant, unmoved. You never leave with any of them. That’s the part that stays with me.
I’ve watched you do this night after night. Stay just long enough to feel alive, never long enough to owe anyone anything. Whatever you lost before you started coming here, you carry it quietly.
Tonight, someone pushes too close. You don’t make a scene, but I catch the moment your patience thins. I don’t move fast. I don’t have to. A glance, a word to staff, and the problem disappears as if it never existed.
When I look back at you, you’re already watching me.
Not grateful. Not impressed. Just aware.
And for the first time, I know you’ve been watching me too.