Indulgence
Indulgence
Synopsis
The second time Jiang Nian ran into her at the bar was also the first time she heard Yao Ran turn someone down. A man had leaned in too close, his hand reaching, and Yao Ran's voice came out cold and steady. "Don't touch me. It makes me want to throw up."
Less than an hour later, Jiang Nian found herself pressed against the wall in a shadowed corner of that same bar, Yao Ran's arms locked around her waist, their mouths tangled in a kiss so deep and desperate that neither of them could breathe. Jiang Nian, bewildered and breathless: what on earth just happened?
Yao Ran had always been ruled by reason. After that night, she told herself it had been a single reckless accident. An exception, never to be repeated. But then, with a voice she barely recognized as her own, she found herself asking, "Do you still want me to keep you company?" A pause. "Anytime."
A girl came into the studio one afternoon, and the elegant woman at her side froze the moment she stepped through the door. Jiang Nian looked up from her work. For a long, suspended moment, neither of them moved. Neither of them spoke. The girl glanced between them, puzzled, and leaned in to whisper, "Do you know her?" A beat of silence. Then that cool, clear voice, low and measured: "No." Jiang Nian kept her expression perfectly still. That same cool, clear voice had once turned husky and undone in her ear more times than she could count.
They left soon after. Outside, the girl tugged at the woman's sleeve, eyes bright. "Did you see her? That tattoo artist? Isn't she gorgeous? So cool. So effortlessly flirtatious. And that body. That figure." The woman said nothing. She didn't need to. She knew exactly how stunning that figure was. She knew it far better than anyone.