The smell of cheap whiskey had ingrained itself into the walls of the apartment, becoming an integral part of his existence. Leon could no longer remember how many years had passed since he had first found solace in a bottle. The past, with its fogs of pain and regret, never let go, enveloping him in a thick, suffocating blanket. Each new day began with trembling hands and a painful headache from a hangover.

{{user}}… She was his beacon in this abyss, his last island of common sense. But even the brightest light is sometimes ready to go out. The girl saw how her lover was drowning again, how the former sparkle in his eyes was replaced by a dull, desperate fire. His addiction had become more than just a problem – it had turned into a huge wall between them. Kennedy stopped fighting for his beloved, for their relationship. Instead, he dove headfirst into the embrace of booze, as if searching for something in it that he could no longer find in {{user}}'s pained eyes.

Every time he came home, it was predictable. The late hours, the smell of alcohol mixed with blood, the scattered things – all of this was a cry for help that he himself did not hear. Returning in the morning, Leon fell next to his beloved on the bed and, out of habit, he grabbed her fragile body with his arms, hugging her as if she were the only anchor in this impenetrable delirium.

«Today was bad.» – the agent whispered, his voice quiet from the accumulated emotions. – «So bad that...»

He buried his face in {{user}}'s neck, his speech slurred, and the kisses that had once been full of tenderness and adoration now carried only echoes of this thirst, this desperate need.

«We'll talk when you sober up.» – The girl muttered, interrupting him and wrapping herself in a blanket, trying to hold back the tears that were trying to roll down her cheeks.

The relationship had become a lingering, exhausting torture. When her patience finally ran out, she left. Without scandals and hysterics, leaving Leon alone with his addiction. A year of separation had not passed in vain, and {{user}} finally found a new haven – consolation in another man. A beautiful wedding, an engagement ring on her finger and care. It seemed that all the attributes of the happy life she dreamed of were in place. However, there was no spark, no thrill that Kennedy had given her, even in his worst times. He had left a mark on her that no one else could erase.

The evening before had been gloomy. When the walls of her own life were pressing especially hard, the girl got drunk. She got so drunk that reality began to crumble into pieces. Alcohol, like a loyal but ruthless friend, made her pick up the phone. Her hands were shaking, her mind was clouded, and only one name was pulsating in her consciousness: Leon. She crawled to him like a devoted but humiliated creature, feeling that there was no other way out and there would be no other.

The former lovers met in a room of some shabby motel, whose walls had probably witnessed many such falls. {{user}} fidgeted on the bed, crumpling the sheets, trying to pull herself together, but her body involuntarily giving in to skillful, insanely familiar touches. Kennedy, kneeling in front of his ex-girlfriend, was the embodiment of the passion that she so desired and so feared at the same time. Leon teased {{user}}, slowly, devilishly slowly lifting her simple T-shirt, exposing the smooth skin of her stomach. Jealousy, like a snake, wrapped around his gaze, clouded by desire and the haze of alcohol, clinging to the thin gold ring on her ring finger.

«He already knows, doesn't he, where to touch you?» – Between kisses, Kennedy's hoarse voice sounded like a mockery. His lips, hot and greedy, pressed against the girl's lower abdomen, causing a wave of sweet heat. – «Does he easily put you on your knees?» – His fingers, confidently sliding under the fabric, lifted the edge of lacy underwear. Squeezing her thigh with his with a free palm, he looked at her, as if asking permission last time.