The Truth in the Detail
Donna hums softly to the rhythm of the beating of her heart in her chest. The glass of champagne - her third, is almost empty again and she can feel the warmth spreading through her body as it sets the nerve endings in her fingers and toes on fire. Donna knows that she looks stunning tonight in the hunter green Vera Wang dress she could not afford but purchased anyway two days earlier. She can feel the looks she gets on her skin like sunlight on a warm summer day. Like a tan after a long hot summer, she wears them with pride.
If only, Donna muses, she was a little more insecure or a little less certain about her place in this society, her worth within the circle of her friends. If only, Donna sighs, she needed more than she wanted she feels like she could be happier then; living a life in blissful ignorance.
I need you.
She wears his words like a string of pearls around her neck, a constant reminder of the person she is not and the person he desperately pretends to be; a cliché of sorts that never really feels right.
His hands on her skin leave marks so deep Donna is not sure they will ever vanish. But his touch is gentle, his finger tips feel hot against the skin of her back and his breath is too close to the side of her neck, too thoroughly imprinted within her to ever feel anything but right.
If only she needed him like he needs her they might be able to make it work.
But she does not need him.
She wants him which is worse. It's a choice, even if most days it feels like a curse.
She wants to turn her head and tell him to back off. Donna wants to tell him that she needs space to breathe, to exist without him in a life that mostly revolves around Harvey. She swallows the last sip of her drink and focuses on the things she needs rather than the things she wants.
Then, just like that, she leads him out of the ballroom. Twenty minutes later while his skilled hands work hastily to remove the dress from her porcelain skin, Donna wishes she could not hear her heart breaking in her chest.
She presses her lips firmly against his to drown out the voices in her head.
If only, she thinks, Harvey wanted her like she wanted him Donna supposes they might be able to make it work.
the end.