The feverish clamour of the band still echoed. Her veins still fizzed with the hot latin vibrations. A fuzzy afterglow, strings of golden orbs, blazed behind half-closed lids. Was that why the world looked different now? Why her cramped, rented room suddenly looked like a page cut from Italian Vogue? A trick of the light. Or maybe that last glass of champagne, that had warmed her cheeks and tickled her toes. Or the bourbon after that... She watched, mesmerised, as the sequins from her dress dropped tiny stars onto her faded rug, reminding her how the clouds had chased the moon across the night sky. Veils of gauze drifting across a benign eye - a lone spy: the only witness to her reckless flight from the lights and the champagne and the music behind her. Borrowed shoes, two sizes too small, had peeked out from under the glittered cloth of a tall cocktail table, abandoned as her bare feet skipped down stone steps and across a manicured lawn already glistening with dew. Down toward the walled garden. She had laughed as she spun: all the bubbles rushing to her head, tilting the world in a way that exhilarated her. Giving him a chance to catch up.
She held her glass delicately now, as if still clutching the crystal stem of a champagne flute. Her free hand trailed still-tingling fingers across the dress she couldn't afford. Pressing her palm deeper into the shimmering fabric, she relived the sensation of wrapping her arms around herself: hugging her trembling body as she hid, masked by shadows, inside the garden. She had shivered then, from cold. Or excitement. Or fear. But she wouldn't tarnish the moment with analysis or doubt or guilt. There was only starlight and the heady scent of roses. And then him. He caught up to her and all she knew was bright, clear joy.
It had faded only slightly since. She lay back and closed her eyes. Absently, she brushed her fingers across her lips and felt the slow smile spread. Tomorrow she would give the dress back. Tomorrow she would find the shoes and return them. Some things were all hers though... and she would never give them up.