Chapter 14 : the night of thanksgivings
Kelvin (present )
After I left Anna that night of thanksgivings I went straight to a bar to recorrect my taught but end up thinking about her during my time in the bar .
The glass in my hand sweated as I leaned back in the bar's leather booth, the hum of low jazz slinking through the dim space like a secret. The ice in my bourbon clinked against the rim, but even the bite of the liquor couldn't erase her voice from my head.
Anna.
After four years, she walked back into my life like a goddamn ghost—alive, glowing, and completely unaware that she'd wrecked me the moment our eyes met across the conference room.
I hadn't expected it to hit that hard. I'd spent years building walls, filling the cracks she left behind with numbers and noise, with board meetings and casual sex. But one glance, and it was all dust.
I finished my drink in one long swallow and signaled the bartender. The woman who delivered my refill smiled a little too long. She was curvy, inked, and wore her hunger like a second skin. Easy. Willing. And nothing like Anna.
"Long day?" she asked, her voice a husky whisper.
"Something like that," I said, eyes drifting down her neck to the low-cut black tank top barely holding her in. She leaned closer, her perfume thick and sweet, but it didn't stir anything in me.
I saw Anna in the curve of her throat.
I saw Anna in the curve of every goddamn woman.
I stood. "Come with me."
Her brows arched, surprised but pleased. No questions. Just heels clacking behind me as I led her to the back hallway and pressed her against the cool brick wall.
I didn't even ask her name.
Her hands went to my belt, eager, and I closed my eyes.
But it wasn't her I wanted. It was the memory of that night.
Anna, tangled in my sheets, drunk on my name, moaning like she was breaking apart beneath me. The way her fingers dug into my shoulders. The way she gasped Josh—and the silence that followed when I didn't correct her.
I was hard now, throbbing behind the zip, but it wasn't because of the stranger panting against my neck.
It was because my mind was filled with Anna.
Anna, who had looked at me this morning like I was a stranger.
Anna, who didn't know I remembered every damn sound she made that night.
I gripped the wall over the woman's shoulder, trying to stay grounded. She kissed along my jaw, tongue tracing skin, but I didn't respond.
I couldn't.
Not when my whole body remembered someone else's mouth.
"Something wrong?" she asked, breathless.
I pulled back, exhaling sharply.
"Yeah. I thought I wanted this." I stepped away, running a hand through my hair. "I don't."
She scoffed, adjusted her top, and walked off without a word.
I stayed in the hallway, the tension in my body still coiled, the ache in my chest deeper than anything physical.
I wanted release, but not like that. Not with someone whose name I didn't know. Not when my whole goddamn soul still whispered Anna.
And the worst part?
I didn't think I ever stopped wanting her.