Mark was a self absorbed s.o.b. that cared for no one but himself, and he liked to live like that. When he had girls (and sometimes boys, he wasn't very picky) he had them for a night and then leave. He gave them fake numbers, fake emails and sometimes even a fake name. In a city as big as Old New York, he could afford to do that his entire life and never get caught, never needing to repeat a single partner.
That night he met a girl, while sitting at a new found bar. He was sitting on the corner, smoking a cigarette, reading a book and drinking a small cup of vodka, when she entered. Because of the way she looked around the room, he knew she was looking for someone to keep her company. He put the book down and when she stopped at the bar, he got up and payed for her drink. She thanked him and followed to his table. She wasn't pretty, nor did she have a perfect body, far from it. After less than 10 minutes of talking, he found out that she wasn't even 'pretty on the inside', but she did want him inside her, and that was enough for him.
They left the bar and went to a cheap motel room, and left not two hours left. He kissed her cheek goodbye, and left before she could even ask for his number. He took the subway home, showered when he got there and went to sleep, happy with himself.
He went to work the next day, all by himself among hundreds of others just like him. He sat there, in his computer, picking up the most urgent request, coding it down in a couple of minutes and forwarding the answer to whom ever had requested it, and moving on to the next. Work never stopped coming, and every hour he'd stop, lock his computer, and go to the roof, smoke a cigarette and return to his work post. He'd unlock the computer, and resume his work.
Hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, always the same, until the great clock on the wall rang the 5 pm. He'd then finish up the last request, forward it, shutdown the computer and go home. At home he'd eat his microwaved food, dress in a suit, and leave for the night.
This day however, when the clock rang he got up, piked up his stuff, but before he could leave, she was there. The woman from the night before, all "happy happy, joy joy" grabbing his arm, calling him 'love' and saying what a strange coincidence it was that they both worked in the same department. She dragged him out the door, people looking at them, seeing her happy face and his look of confusion and mental anguish. She was asking him out for dinner, he realized later, already on the street. At first he started with the usual excuse : I need to go home to get dressed first, but her reply was something like "you don't need to, you are fine the way you are".
He did the fake phone call, pretending his mother was at the hospital and needed him there, so she offered her self to go with him. It was about this time that Mark remembered that he didn't really care about other people, nor other people feelings, so he told her what he felt for her : nothing. She was less than nothing, she was ugly, hideous. He said he was starting to feel his lunch coming up from his stomach just from the sight of her face, that he had made some prettier bowel movements.
She laughed, put his arm under hers and started walking to a restaurant, while speaking all the time. She told him about her friends Jannete, Marlen, and Claudia. She told him about her family, her mother, her father, her sister, her grand parents, her dog, even about her neighbors. By the time he had been dragged to the restaurant, a small italian house not far from work, Mark was already considering murder or at the very least suicide.
She asked pasta for both of them, without pausing her monologue, and he prayed for the food to come fast, so she would shut up. The food took a quarter of hour to come, but she didn't shut up. Watching her eat and talk at the same time made him feel sick, and unable to eat his own food. She finished her plate and grabbed his, eating all. While she licked the plate, he excused himself to go to the bathroom. Once he got up and behind her he ran home, not stopping for a single second.
For the first time in years he stayed home, not even going out for coffee. He smoked cigarette after cigarette until falling asleep. The next morning he sent a email to his boss, explaining how he didn't feel so good and how he could not go to work. Instead he spent the day trying to decide what he should do. Right after lunch time someone rang the doorbell he didn't even knew he had. After he understood what was happening he opened the door, and regretted it the second after.
She entered the house, explaining how she had asked his boss and how he told her he was sick and at home and no he did not mind giving her the address, and how she knew he had to be really sick, because you don't leave your girlfriend in the restaurant unless you are really, really bad. At the mention of 'girlfriend' he felt his lunch trying to get out. She noticed it and hugged him "My poor love!" and all. She stayed there, talking and talking and talking, the entire afternoon. When he said he felt better already, she took him to the bed, and not even there did she shut up.
Murder was again in his mind, and it would be so simple, he thought, in his own home, he had knives and all that sort of things... But she made him dress and dragged him out, to a little bar. Once there, after a full hour of talking and drinking, without pausing either one for the other, she had to go to the bathroom, but not before saying, laughing, happily "Don't you run on me! I know where you live!". She got up, started to move away, and came back, with keys in her hand : "Also I have your keys".
While she was in the bathroom a cute little boy walked into the bar, and Mark called him to his table. When she came to the table the two men were kissing. He saw her there and kissed the boy even more passionately. When the boy finally grasped for air, Mark turned to her and said "Sorry darling, but I'm gay."
She smiled and he felt fear like he had never felt before, while she said "Fine by me, let's take him home, come". She dragged them both, one on each arm, and once home sat herself in a chair, in front of the bed, watching. She is finally silent, Mark thought, but that didn't last long. When she joined them, she had started talking again about some stupid rom-com she had seen recently and then something else, not shutting up until later that night when they went to sleep.
Mark woke up in the middle of the night and the gay kid was standing next to the bed, a knife in his hand. He gasped, and rolled out of bed, waking her up. She looked up and saw the kid. Smiling she said "Oh! S&M! I love me some S&M! Have I told you, love, about that time when I" - Mark interrupted her screaming - "OH FOR GOD'S LOVE KILL HER! OR KILL ME!"
