Page 2 of The Pakhan’s Accidental Bride

The club is packed. The bass thrums through the floor and up into my chest while lights flash in dizzying patterns of blue and purple across the dance floor. Bodies press together everywhere I look, people laughing and dancing and living their lives without fear. The air is thick with perfume and cologne and sweat, so hot I can already feel moisture gathering at the back of my neck.

I used to love this. The energy, the chaos, the feeling of being part of something bigger than myself. Now it just feels overwhelming. There are too many people, too many places for someone to hide, and too many exits I'd need to watch.

"First round's on me," Sarah announces, heading toward the bar.

Jess stays close, her hand on my lower back as we follow. She's been my best friend since college and knows me well enough to sense when I'm about to bolt. Right now, I'm definitely considering it.

The bartender is cute, all muscles and tattoos, and he flashes us a grin as we approach. Sarah orders three vodka cranberries, and I try to focus on the normalcy of it all. This is what twenty-five-year-old women do on Saturday nights. They go out with their friends. They drink. They dance. They don't spend every evening locked in their apartments, afraid of their own shadows.

"Here's to girls' night," Sarah says, handing us our drinks and raising her glass.

"To girls' night," Jess and I echo, clicking our glasses against hers.

The vodka burns going down, but it's a good burn. A normal burn. I take another sip, then another, feeling the first tendrils of warmth spread through my chest. The alcohol softens the sharp edges of my anxiety just enough that I can take a full breath without feeling like my lungs are being squeezed.

We find a spot near the edge of the dance floor, close enough to feel part of the action but not so close we're immediately swallowed by the crowd. I sip my drink and watch people dance, trying to remember what it felt like to move like that. Free and uninhibited. There's a girl in a silver dress who's absolutely killing it, her body moving like water, and I feel a pang of envy so sharp it almost hurts.

"He's not here," Jess says quietly, leaning close so I can hear her over the music. "You're safe."

I want to believe her. God, I want to believe her so badly.

"How do you know?" I ask, hating how small my voice sounds.

"Because I've been watching the door since we got here, and I haven't seen anyone who looks like that asshole." She squeezes my hand. "And if he does show up, we'll handle it. You're not alone, Kiera. You've got us."

My eyes burn with sudden tears, and I blink them back furiously. I will not cry in this club. I will not let Arnie ruin this night before it's even really started.

"Thank you," I manage. "For not giving up on me."

"Never," Jess says fiercely. "You're stuck with us."

My second drink goes down easier than the first, the vodka softening more of those sharp edges. I find myself swaying slightly to the music, and the DJ is good, mixing tracks seamlessly, keeping the energy high. Sarah's already dancing in place, her hips moving to the beat, and she grabs my hand and spins me around.

"There she is." She laughs. "I was wondering where my Kiera went."

I can't help but smile. The music is good, something with a heavy beat I can feel in my bones, and the alcohol is doing its job. The knot in my stomach is loosening, unraveling thread by thread.

"I'm still here," I say, surprised to find that I mean it. "Just a little rusty."

"Then let's shake off that rust." Sarah pulls me closer to the dance floor, and this time, I don't resist.

The music wraps around me like a physical thing, and I let my body respond to it. It's tentative at first, just small movements, but it feels good. It feels right. Jess joins us, and suddenly, we're a unit, the three of us moving together like we used to. I remember this. I remember what it felt like to lose myself in the music, to let everything else fall away.

By my third drink, I'm actually dancing. Not just swaying, but really dancing. My body moves to the rhythm like it remembers how, even if my mind has forgotten. My hips roll and my arms lift above my head, and I'm laughing because it feels so good to move so freely.

Jess and Sarah are on either side of me, and we're laughing about something stupid, some joke I can barely hear over the music. For the first time in what feels like forever, I feel like myself again.

The lights flash across my face in waves of blue and purple and pink. I close my eyes and just feel. Feel the bass vibrating through my body, the heat of the crowd around me, the sweat trickling down my spine, and the ache in my feet from these ridiculous heels. Alive.

When I open my eyes again, there's a cute guy dancing nearby. He's got a nice body, lean and athletic, and when he catches my eye, I don't immediately look away. I smile back. It's just a smile, nothing more, but it feels like a victory. Arnie doesn't own me anymore. He doesn't get to control who I smile at, where I go, or how I live my life.

"I needed this," I shout to Sarah over the music. "I really needed this."

She grins and pulls me into a hug, and I hug her back, feeling the tension I've been carrying since the breakup finally start to drain away. This is what healing feels like, I think. This is what moving on feels like.

The DJ transitions into another song, something even more upbeat, and we scream along with the lyrics like teenagers. My feet hurt in these heels, and I'm sweating through my carefully applied makeup, but I don't care. I'm having fun.

I throw my head back and laugh, the music pulsing through me, making me feel alive in a way I haven't felt in so long. The lights flash across my closed eyelids as I spin, dancing, free.