Just a Friendly Confession

Just a Friendly Confession

 

Two strangers, one truth, and a night that changes everything.

 

Mille Dynamite

 

© Copyright 2025 by Millie Dynamite

 

NOTE: This work contains material not suitable for anyone under eighteen (18) or those of a delicate is a story and contains descriptive scenes of a graphic, sexual is a work of otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this book are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

 

Just a Friendly Confession

 

She didn’t mind the din of voices, of too-loud instruments, or the hiss and clang from the settled into the café’s mess of sound and smell and warmth, shaking off the cold of another city, another start, another her drink, with both hands wrapped around the too-hot in the place hummed with its own anxious energy, the lights too bright, the flyers too colorful, the crowd too eager to be more than this town allowed them.

 

Lena was like them, but more so.

 

But the man across the room caught her. A calm in the clutter and clatter of the her catching his eye unmistakable attraction, the way his focus danced back to her, lingering, gaze, filled with the promise of more to be said, done, more than any online profile offered.

 

The heat from the coffee seeped into her pushed her bag under her chair, untangling her scarf and unzipping her was still awkward with layers, having spent too many years in a state with a single she was learning what seasons were again, some warm and friendly, others cooler, standoffish, and one, more often than not, cold and same as it is with people, areas, and with everything these days.

 

The guy was talking to in a way that made Lena’s stomach tighten, as though she discovered him before, but in a she couldn’t quite hold on as he nodded to his friend, he was staring back.

 

For a second, Lena let the corner of her mouth turn to wasn’t sure what gave her it was there, an electricity hummed through the packed room and found her.

 

“Hey, can I get a refill?”

 

The barista was a peppy blonde girl, the sort of person who lived on foam and espresso shots.

 

Lena slid her mug across the counter.

 

“Surprise me. ” One of the few things she enjoyed about being pretending not to recognize what she when you love something, you lose it, she might try everything without emotion.

 

The young woman handed back a cup full of something too sugary. “If it’s awful, next one’s on if it’s dreadful, I’ll be offended. ”

 

“Sweetie, I’m not that picky. ” Lena made her way to the remaining empty people were staking a claim to one moved their bags, sketchpads, and things as she sat.

 

They introduced themselves. A feller in a newsboy cap and a lady with septum were charming, but Lena allowed the names to wash past wasn’t here to be the third wheel or a science project for the nudged in, chattering, folding her into their talk about the latest noise-pop sensation, which would’ve sounded just like the last if it had made it this far from Brooklyn.

 

“Not my type of tune. ” Sidestepping the , she loved all these 18- or 19-year-old ‘children’ didn’t interest , it’d be fun to have them in bed, if they handled who and what she was.

 

Sipping it, she determined that she didn’t hate the drink after duo slipped back to the stage area, but she stayed where she was, taking in the places had always been easy for they were easier when the stakes were low, when it didn’t matter if she fit in or if she left after a , those times, no one remembered she existed at time was different.

 

She sought more than a shiny toy; she desired this to be home.

 

Another glance at where the man had been, but now he wasn’ pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked but some app notifications about messages she wouldn’t read until she glanced up, he materialized, a few feet away, his back to the enough, his mouth worked as he spoke with the chick beside him, not so near to catch a word of the conversation.

 

Not quite able to make out what he said.

 

Lena let herself watch him. A one-or two-day growth of beard on a handsome , broad shoulders, a scruffy, rugged, well-kept face, which only certain men got away was animated and expressive, his body never out of step with his crowd swallowed him in noise and chatter, but he stood out.

 

Biting her lip, Lena pondered all the things she wanted to do to him in was her kind of man, but she doubted she was his type of gal.

 

When she caught his eye this time, he smiled and turned his attention laser-focused on a slight nod, half hello, the rest, can you believe this joint? Lena liked it, the shared sense of being outsiders together in a world where everyone was an outsider.

 

She was about to stand, to close the distance, when the mic cracked and whined and brought her focus back to the front.

 

“Hey! for coming out, all you beautiful people!”

 

The MC wore a floral dress and more eyeliner than Lena believed was advisable for anyone who crowd didn’t know if it was for the outfit, or the mascara, or the beauty she became part of the was good to make noise, to be swallowed up in everyone else’s clatter.

 

“We’ve got an awesome lineup of new if you think you can do better, talk to ’ve got a few slots we did. ” The MC waved over her shoulder as she jumped off the stage.

 

A skinny gentleman in plaid and skater sneakers hooked up a Fender Stratocaster and introduced himself as someone Lena wouldn’t didn’t had a way about him, awkward and natural all at once, causing the room to pay attention. A post-modern day with floppy hair, a pencil-thin mustache, and a soul patch.

 

“Little quiet up want more vocals or more—”

 

“Guitar!” Lena said, her voice surprising herself, raw and caught a glance from the musician and from the hombre still across the heat rushed to her cheeks, her ears, the back of her neck.

 

“Louder, huh? Alright. ” The dude stepped on a pedal, the sound ramped up, and shook the room cheered, the bass rolled through everyone, giving the bar a heartbeat that Lena realized she missed.

 

Closing her eyes, she the onlookers crowd in close and swayed awkward, dancing, or at least, not good let herself drift with it, allowed it to sweep her up in the immediacy of people being where they wanted to likes, clicks, or check-ins that proved this moment instant the song played, she took it and made it all hers.

 

The ballad wrapped clapped hard, and the pulse left her as the energy in the room was the first to understand him, to recognize he was next to her.

 

“Can I sit?” he said, the words as close and easy as if he were with her forever.

 

She opened her was a little older than she thought, early thirties, but not in a way making her too young or out of her her to believe she was seen.

 

“It’s crowded. I get it,” Lena said, motioning to the empty chair. “But, you appreciate, I might be waiting for ’s say it’s you. ”

 

He sat.

 

“Just moved here. ” Skipping to the honest, playful move, helping Lena to like him right away.

 

“Been talking to my friends, I see. ” Showing him her let herself laugh, a light sound, the name she used for such a short been Lena for almost three years now, it still felt as fresh as this location.

 

“Online?” he asked, settling into the chair, claiming his space with none of the entitlement she was discomforted by.

 

“That couple over yonder, well, they think I’m hip. ” She glanced toward where the pair had disappeared. “They’d be disappointed to discover I still use dial-up. ”

 

“You tired of dating profiles?” He held his drink two-fisted, mirroring her in a way that didn’t mirror at if they drank from the same cup, the identical evening.

 

“There’s something to be said for can get uncomfortable conversations out of the way and agree to move on to the next person. I get weary of everyone else being. ” Drifting off and not finishing her sentence. “Sometimes I think it’s more romantic to meet someone and decide you hate each other than to get fooled and be disappointed later. ”

 

He set his drink down and extended a hand.

 

“I’m Adam,” he said, “and I think I already like you. ”

 

She took his hand, enjoyed the firmness of it, the way he didn’t hold back, didn’t retreat. “ may, might, probably will change your mind after our for now, it makes me happy you think you find me attractive or fun to be around. ”

 

“ alright if I tell my friends you’re a little bit hip?” Letting her be as much or as little of herself as she wanted, he leaned back.

 

“Tell them I’m an underground sensation, with undercover assets. ”

 

Ting a sip, Adam considered his next move. “Can’t keep something like you out loud here, you’d end up headlining in no you have me, what’s it called, oh yes, curious about your assets. ”

 

The second act came on, and Lena didn’t care about missing lights crowd’s chatter was hushed around her, everything soft and immediate and close.

 

They talked about the city, about how different it was from where she lived had been here for two years but understood what to say to make her think it was unfamiliar to him, too.

 

“It gets let’s say if you don’t let it get to you earlier than it should. ”

 

“ problem is easy, bores the shit out of me. ”

 

He asked about her work, about what had brought her, and she answered without wasn’t her usual list of truths she constructed over the years, each one missing enough detail to be made everything about her less threatening and more real.

 

She talked about how much she required a change, how tired she was of doing the didn’t comprehend why, but she believed him when he he said he was three years into being herself, and he comprehended all at once.

 

Would he still believe he got it when she came clean, she wondered.

 

Unafraid of the gaps, he allowed the conversation to go to silence, letting Lena lean back, and the melody wrap around she was ready, when she dropped her for now, it’s still up, grew a little softer, and she turned back to him.

 

“And what about you?” she asked.

 

“I was waiting for she wasn’t so cute or nice. A dating app,” Adam said, admitting the awful truth.

 

Lena nudged him with her knee under the table.

 

“Does she know you’re sitting with me?”

 

Adam shrugged.

 

“If she doesn’t yet, she will. ”

 

Lena liked the casualness of it, the way he let it hang mid-air for her to take or to leave.

 

“And she’ll be okay with us?” she asked, risking it.

 

“She’ll figure out where to find me when she tires of my Instagram. ” It wasn’t a didn’t retreat from the meaning beneath was the same with everything he to be misunderstood.

 

“She isn’t here?” Lena gazed about the room.

 

“Supposed to no, I haven’t seen her yet. ”

 

“If she isn’t attractive or pleasant, why’d you want to meet her?