Beth needed one night of not being herself. A night away from work and mathematics and people who assumed, because they knew her, that they knew everything she was.
She was at a warehouse party. She hadn't realized they still had them until some friends took her along. It was loud, and badly lit, and full of strangers, and that was what she needed. Lights too dim to see and music too loud to think. It was warm, muggy from too many people packed too close together, and the bass was so deep and full she could feel it in her chest when she breathed. She was sweaty and sticky with spilled drinks, and had been hit on so often she was just shaking her head no without even speaking any more. It was perfect. She was having a perfect night.
She was dancing, had been dancing with the same guy for ten minutes or so, and as far as she could tell in the darkness, he was hot.
She had a fuck-me dress and heavy makeup around her eyes and stripper heels. The shortest dress and the highest heels she owned, so high she shouldn't really be able to walk except she'd skated as a kid and still had good balance. Her legs looked good. She looked good. She looked nothing like a mathematician, and that was the point.
She pressed herself against the guy and could feel the heat of his chest through their clothes. "I need a drink," she shouted into his ear.
He looked at her and grinned.
"Drink," she shouted, and mimed it, then waved goodbye and turned away. Beth assumed she'd lost him then, that he'd forget her and dance with someone else.
There was a bar set up in a back corner. She wasn't sure how permanent or legal the whole place was, but they had a bar. She got some money out her bra, warm and damp from her skin, leaned over the counter and shouted, "Water," and pointed.
She stayed where she was, leaning forward, waiting for the bartender to come back. She didn't want him losing track of her in the darkness.
Someone put their hand on her hip, but she ignored it. It happened fairly often. Usually it was gross and creeped her out, and occasionally she didn't mind. Right now, she'd been dancing and forgetting and felt like the sexiest woman alive, so she didn't mind being felt up a little.
She stayed where she was, pretending not to notice.
The person moved, got right close behind her, leaned past her to get water too. She realized it was the same guy, the dancing guy. He must have followed her.
She looked at him and grinned.
He kept leaning forward, pressing against her a bit, so she was trapped against the bar. It felt good, that contact. It felt good to be a little bit trapped. He moved his hand slightly, put it on her ass like it being there was an accident, and she just grinned at him and let him. He might have been meaning to touch through her dress, she thought, but the dress was so short that he got bare skin. He looked surprised, for a moment, like he hadn't expected skin, but left his hand there, touching gently. Stroking Beth's ass, while she looked at him. She hadn't quite decided if she should get upset or not.
His hand felt good. Far too good for the kind of pervert who'd grope her at the bar. She decided not to make a fuss.
She opened her bottle, and sipped, and he watched her from inches away. She thought he was going to kiss her, and she wasn't ready for that yet. He was still waiting for his water, so she held her bottle out. He took it. Took it with his other hand, still feeling her up with the first. He drank, and she pushed back against his hand a little, just because. His fingers slid ever so slightly down between her legs.
He leaned over and said something in her ear. It might have been his name, but she couldn't really hear. She shook her head anyway, said, "Don't talk. Don't tell me."
He shrugged. He couldn't hear her, and she couldn't hear him, and that was kind of hot.
He was younger than her, she decided Definitely younger than her, probably only just old enough to get in here. She liked that, liked the idea of a one-night toyboy fling with a guy ten years her junior.
She took her bottle back, and he looked at her wrist as she reached over. She had Euler's identity tattooed there, quite small, black. She'd got it the night she finished her last undergrad exam, a bit tipsy, before she decided having pi tattooed anywhere on yourself was tacky. She'd probably been older then than the guy with his hand up her dress was now.
"Maths," she said, and he heard her that time.
"Yeah," he shouted, like that was obvious. "I know."
That was kind of hot. No-one had reacted like that before, even though any engineer or scientist ought to recognize it.
She nodded, and looked away. Looked around the room. He still had his hand up the back of her dress. He was rubbing the back of her leg, rubbing her ass, trying to get his fingertips into her underwear, into her. It was pretty deliberate now, he wasn't just feeling her up, he was trying to turn her on. She leaned on the bar, breathing hard, resting. Breathing hard from all the dancing, obviously.
She glanced around, checked no-one was looking at them. It was dark. No-one had noticed.
She was being felt up in the darkness, in a crowd of hundreds of people, strangers bumping her arm, her shoulder, reaching past her to the bar.
It was hot.
He waited until she looked towards him, and kissed her. She'd been expecting it, and kissed him back. Standing at the bar, pressed together, ignoring other people jostling them while trying to get their drinks. She thought he'd stop, after a minute, but he kept going. For a long time, far longer than anyone had bothered kissing her lately. He might have been high, since people got a bit funny and started touching strangers for hours at parties like this. He might have been worried she'd change her mind if he stopped. She didn't care why, she kissed him back. His mouth felt good against hers, soft lips and no spit and no tongue at all until she got desperate and opened her mouth first. And she had to respect that, making her do it, so she looked like the needy slut.
She leaned on the bar to keep her balance, and just kissed him, and whole minutes passed. She was standing at a bar and kissing a total stranger, and that was exactly what she'd needed to do tonight.