The Ice dragon's Mistake

Chapter 2-Sapphire

“Keep it down” Riley heard someone mumble beside her before she forced her lids open. The heavy rays of the morning sun had her blinking twice to adapt to the blinding light that had directed its way into her eyes. She forced herself up from bed and reached the direction of her blaring alarm.

“Holy s**t!” She cussed under her breath as she recalled wanting to go to work and immediately hurried out of bed but paused for a minute after rushing to find her clothes…”Oh, that’s right, I was fired-” Realisation dawned on her and she felt her world crumbling down all over again but that wasn’t the worst part. Riley’s eyes grew as wide as saucers as her eyes fell on the sleeping man on the bed she just got herself out of.

“What the-” She paused as images flooded her brain before settling in with a hangover. Perplexed and disarrayed, she found herself reaching for her purse, the only thing she brought with her and bolted out of the room before she could take a minute to sort herself. So, the bar has a motel? Her jaw hung low when she found herself back at her starting point, the same bar she had drank herself to a stupor the previous night.

Not wanting to cry over spilt milk, Riley finds the bartender from the previous night to ask him if he’s found her box. “f**k! I should have just gone home” She groaned as the man tried to recall where he’d seen her.

“Oh, the blabbing lady-

“Excuse me?” Riley furrowed slightly at the concerning title the bartender addressed her with but then her brain replayed her memories, displaying the scene of her blabbing to the handsome stranger in HD while all eyes at the bar were glued on her, of course, none of that mattered at the time since she was damn drunk and all that mattered was getting the stranger to her bed. “f**k! You’re crazy Riley!” Riley shuts her eyes in embarrassment. “That’s gotta be the most embarrassing day of my life” She mumbled under her breath, the bartender chuckled and left her standing there before returning shortly with a box of the things she’d cleared off her desk which she had left there. “Thanks” She mumbled, rushing away from the bar.

“I’m never coming here ever again” She swore as she reached for a taxi while trying not to fall on her wedged heels before hastening towards the taxi that had stopped some seconds away from her location. Ignoring the terrifying headache that was starting to set in, Riley wished she could wash over her shame with some water or something as she settled into the taxi, after throwing in her box the moment she told the man the location to her house.

“I can’t believe I slept with a total stranger, I mean he was hot but…fuck, that’s not enough reason Riley!” She mentally scolded herself while sinking her fingers into her hair mulling over what she’d done.

Riley got home much later than she expected, while she thought she could put the crazy day behind her and probably start organising her life that was put in tatters in just a day she was internally breaking down with every step she took.

She managed to walk to her apartment, opened the door then collapsed to her knees. She might have acted strong the previous day but she could no longer stop her tears from falling, she leaned back against the door as tears spilt from her eyes.

“Where should I start from now?” She sobbed silently ignoring the throbbing sensation from her head. For several minutes Riley sat at her door crying and sobbing until she finally gathered enough courage to walk herself to the bathroom of her two-room apartments whose lease she wasn’t even done paying. After having a cold shower she returned to her lonely room where she collapsed into her bed in nothing but her bathroom robe, she knew she needed some breakfast or maybe some hangover pills but feeling worn and devastated she lay sprawled in her bed while trying to figure what to do with her messy life.

Riley had no intention of sleeping off but she did, and then she found herself in a dark vast space which at the end, was something curled up, Is that a snake? No…it’s bigger, what the hell is that? Riley wondered as she took cautious steps towards the massive being whose entire body seems to have occupied half of the vast space. She looked small and insignificant before the dark creature whose mass overshadowed her.

“What is this thing?” Riley muttered staring at the scaly creature. “It looks like a…dragon?” Her heart sank as realisation struck hard her before one eye of the creature opened up to face her directly, her body tense and her heart thundered in her chest, the dreadful feeling she felt right there had her freezing up as the huge sapphire eyeball stared deep into her soul until she woke up in a pool of her sweat. s**t! She cussed silently.

“What the f**k was that?” Her racing heartbeat was yet to calm down and her head was still pounding like crazy. Her body was slightly trembling as well as she couldn’t bring herself to calm down.

“It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream” She muttered to herself finding it rather difficult to shake off the terror she felt in front of the massive creature. She glanced in the direction of her bedside clock to see the needle pointing right 12.

I can’t believe I slept for four hours, Riley sighed and drew out her last drawers to pick some drugs for her throbbing head, her eyes fell on her birth control pills which she’d abandoned after her last breakup. She didn’t remember much of the previous night and frowned as she struggled for one tiny detail, ‘We probably use protection right?’ She wondered before she heard her front door, open. The only one who has the passcode to her apartment is her best friend Sasha Tucker.

Riley used to have many friends, but after her parents passed away when she was 17, she lost contact with most of them as she struggled to stay on her feet, working while schooling, and struggling to pay back student loans after that, the only person who had seen her through all that had been just one person, Sasha.

“Hey, I heard what happened” Sasha rushed to her side and threw her arms around her.

“Taylor told you-” Riley guessed wearing a tired look. Taylor was her co-worker or probably the only co-worker she was close to in Burgundy Enterprises and through Riley she was able to know Sasha, her only friend.

“Well, yeah…I tried calling you all day, but you weren’t picking my calls, girl I thought something bad happened to you” Sasha paused and gave her a long look after she separated from her.

“You’ve been crying” Bingo, she always managed to guess it right, or maybe she just knew me better than I know myself, Riley thought after Sasha managed to hit the bullseye.

“f**k, I knew that motherfucker was trouble the moment he offered to drop you home, I can’t believe he’d pull a stunt like that, did he seriously think you’d come back to him crawling if he gets you fired? He must be outta his goddamn mind-

“Sasha” Riley called after noticing her temper was rising beyond normal. Sasha Tucker is an African American with serious anger issues, she’s been in and out of the psychologist's office for the past couple of years. Presumably, the only reason why she’s got no other friends apart from Riley is due to her nasty temper but Riley thinks Sasha is cool after all she is someone who sees the world for what it truly is.

“If you’re gonna ask me to calm down, I’m sorry to tell you this, I can’t not right now, what sorta terrible foul play is that I mean who does that, ending someone’s livelihood because you won’t let them get into your pants, that s**t ain’t dope Riley” Riley felt relieved knowing she at least got someone who cares for her, someone who was angry in her stead because she actually couldn’t do anything after she was asked to clear her desk.

“I know-

“And I’m really glad you left that f*****g ass company, I mean even the if he's some big shot has asked, how could they fire a competent employee like you because he ordered them to do so, we could sue them for that y’know” Riley chuckled.

“I’m okay, it’s not a big deal,” Riley said while approaching the fridge.

“It is a big deal, you were talking about getting a promotion soon and they do this, that’s messed up” Sasha fumed.

“Sasha, you see Taylor got me this really fine red wine a couple of days ago, what do you say about getting drunk tonight?” Riley suggested after retrieving a bottle of vintage fine wine which was stored in her refrigerator. Sasha after Riley’s suggestion paused for a moment and sighed, maybe what Riley really needed at that moment was a drinking buddy, she knew Riley was in pain but she’d gotten so used to bottling it all in that it doesn’t really matter anymore.

“Yeah sure, looks like the good stuff, why don’t we order pizza with that?” Sasha suggested wearing a reassuring smile on her face and Riley smiled in response. It was exactly what she needed.

****

“You can’t be serious?” Bundled on her sofa with a romance movie on her big screen, a half-filled red glass cup in hand, Riley narrated her ordeal with the handsome stranger, Winter to Sasha whose surprise was written all over her face.

“You gotta believe me, I flirted with him-

“It’s had to believe, I mean I didn’t think you had that in you for real” Sasha replied.

“I didn’t know I had it in me either, I couldn’t believe I was saying those things, I felt like I’ve lost my mind or something but-” She paused and wore a shy look.

“But what? You’re not planning to stop right now are you-

“He was really hot, he was over 6 foot, broad shoulders, midnight black hair, finely trimmed stubble, long nose, deep blue eyes that sparkled like sapphire, and his abs were so strong, he probably worked out-

“Holy s**t, you did it” Sasha instantly guessed

“Yeah, I mean, it felt so good I thought I was gonna go crazy, I don’t really remember everything though but-” Riley paused as a memory flashed before her eyes, the glowing sapphire eyes as he held her down, wait…those eyes? Riley frowned as the full memories finally settled in and she recalled, the shiny dark scales that appeared around his neck while his eyeballs narrowed, as he squeezed his face to the lust that had struck them both they weren’t normal but it probably nothing right?

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