Jason meets his ex, Maria, at a party....
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'Do you come here often?'
My heart jerks. It's a voice I recognise, despite the music.
I turn, and it feels like slo-mo. Surely it can't be her? Why would she be here?
But it is her. She's here. And I feel kind of sick inside from a mix of shock jumbled up with guiltiness… and regret.
'Do you come here often?' repeats Maria Lewis, a woman I once dated in London. A lovely girl who I really didn't treat well.
'Maria?'
An oblique smile, not unlike that of the barman, curves her soft pink mouth, and before I can say anything else, she reaches out and places her fingertips over my lips, to shush me. I'm semi-speechless anyway, so it doesn't really matter. But the warm contact of her skin almost makes my heart stop.
Bloody hell, she looks amazing.
I didn't know her for long, but she was always a pretty, and in a far more refined way than a lot of the Z list slappers that I went through.
But now, oh hell, she's just beautiful.Blue eyes brighter. Hair shorter, but blonder and wilder in a sort of sexy shag cut. Her perfect heart-shaped face has an inner glow of mystery, of life, of supreme confidence…
And her body?
Dear God Almighty, her body is just perfection - the stuff of every wet or waking dream I've ever had.
She's become every inch the superstar that I aspired to be and never was.'Let's dance,' she purrs, the tip of her forefinger pressing heavily on my lower lip for a second, dragging it down.
I feel as if I've just been struck by lightning.
