Chapter 1: Neon, Perfume, and a Blue Dress

Neon bled across my windshield as I cruised Maple Heights after midnight. That’s when I saw her—a woman in a blue dress, standing under a busted streetlamp, waiting just for me. The radio was mumbling some old Garth Brooks tune as I rolled to a stop, and the Ohio night felt so quiet you could almost hear the corn growing.

Inside my cab, a faded Ohio State bobblehead nodded on the dash, and the place still smelled faintly of last week’s spilled coffee. The second she slid in, the air shifted—cooler, tense, a whiff of expensive perfume cutting through the leftover takeout and vinyl seats. My heart thudded a little harder.

She wore a tight, ultra-short skirt that showed off her pale, slender legs. I couldn't help but swallow hard as I glanced at her. She was trouble, the kind you see in movies, not in real life. My gut twisted between wanting to impress her and knowing I was way out of my league. My hand gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, eyes locked on the road ahead.

She looked like she’d rather be anywhere else—lips pressed tight, jaw set, barely meeting my eyes as she muttered her destination. Even her sigh had an edge, sharp as a snapped guitar string, like the world had let her down one too many times. I caught her fingers drumming on her purse, nails chipped, a little raw, like she’d chewed them all night.

She told me to drive out past the edge of town, toward a patch of woods that never saw much more than raccoons and high school dares. Then, just as the dashboard clock flicked over to 1:12 AM, she started undressing. My jaw nearly hit the steering wheel. For a second, I wondered if I was dreaming—or if I should pull over and ask if she was okay. But she just kept going, like this was the most normal thing in the world. Headlights from passing cars sliced through the cab, and out in the woods, with the engine ticking and crickets buzzing, the night turned reckless and strange.

Her hands were ice-cold on my skin, but somehow I didn’t care. Steam fogged the windows as we lost ourselves in the dark, the world shrinking to nothing but her breath and my heartbeat. For a little while, I forgot about bills, my ex, my dead-end life. There was only the wild, breathless now. When it was over, she slipped out silently, her blue dress flashing in the moonlight as she vanished between the trees, leaving me dazed and shivering in the driver’s seat.