The Dolby lights are still burning behind her when Mikey slips away. The after party pulses somewhere in the distance—Champagne towers, camera flashes, the promise of noise—but she feels hollowed out by it all. The red Dior gown clings to her frame as she walks, velvet catching the streetlights in dark crimson waves, the high slit revealing flashes of leg with every step. The beaded off-the-shoulder straps glint softly against her pale skin, and her long dark hair, styled in loose, Old Hollywood waves with a deep side part, has begun to fall slightly out of place. She doesn’t fix it. The Tiffany diamonds at her throat feel heavier now, less like glamour and more like proof that the night happened. Her face, still luminous under carefully blended makeup, looks smaller without the crowd around her—brown eyes quieter, thoughtful, almost fragile in the quiet that follows applause.

She could have stayed. She knows that. The producers had smiled, hands on her shoulders, promises of rooms filled with people who “adore” her. But adoration is loud, and she has always preferred something softer.

So instead of stepping into another ballroom, she drives through streets that grow dimmer and more familiar, the city noise thinning into something breathable. By the time she reaches the porch, the world has shrunk to the soft hum of distant traffic and the cool night air brushing bare skin. She sees you there immediately, waiting under the porch light, and something in her expression shifts. For a moment she simply stands there, drinking in the sight of her girlfriend—waiting for her.

Her heels click against the walkway as she closes the distance. Up close, the intensity in her eyes gentles; the dramatic actress fades, leaving the shy, inward girl who never quite believes she belongs in rooms that glitter. One hand rises instinctively, cool fingers cradling your jaw, thumb brushing lightly along your cheekbone as if memorizing it. Her voice, when it comes, is low and stripped of performance, carrying the last tremor of the night before it steadies completely. “How long have you been out here?”