Prequel: Better Life Through Chemistry
For Anna, cocaine was a delight, occasionally, but the best thing about it was, how it was one of the primary arrows in her quiver to completely subdue her prey, Evan...
Many many months before Evan became the broken shell of a man Anna enslaves...
...
At first, it was a look. A low, knowing glance when Evan spoke about feeling burned out. He'd laugh it off, trying to stay breezy, but she could hear the weight in his voice. The exhaustion. The edge of something deeper beneath his carefully rehearsed composure.
"You burn too clean," she told him one night, legs folded beneath her on his couch, a glass of wine between her fingers. "All that performance, all that giving... it's not sustainable. You're going to collapse."
Evan smiled, unsure. "I manage."
"No," she said softly, almost kindly. "You endure."
The first time she offered, she framed it like an act of trust.
"Have you ever tried anything to boost your energy?" she asked, eyes unblinking.
He blinked. "You mean like--?"
"I mean like clarity," she interrupted. "Like quieting the noise."
She didn't call it what it was. She never needed to. When she pulled the baggie from the slim compartment of her purse, she didn't look at him. She looked at the table, poured two thin, elegant lines. Then she leaned back.
"No pressure," she murmured. "I just don't like to be high alone. Better life through chemistry, right?"
He hesitated. Just long enough for her to know she had him. He had known friends in their circles to have dabbled with blow, but he has never tried it before, he was too afraid. But the way she was sitting in her mini pencil skirt, how her thighs were looking delicious before she brought this up, and how she placed those lines, made him compelled to close his eyes and just snort it.
And then he exhaled. A tiny nod. The beginning of the fall.
She was careful with timing. She waited for the right cracks--moments when he looked particularly drained, worn thin by the pace of his own ambition.
After one brutal week, his eyes half-sunken from back-to-back meetings and a looming deadline, she tilted her head at him.
"Running on fumes again?" she asked.
Evan laughed weakly. "I haven't slept properly in three days."
Anna's voice dropped an octave. "You don't need to keep killing yourself to keep up."
She produced the bag without ceremony, her fingers practiced, calm. "Just a little. Just to keep you sharp."
He paused. "You think that's really a good idea? I mean... isn't this stuff--"
"Addictive?" she finished for him. Then she smiled, slow and soft. "Everything is, Evan. Caffeine. Validation. Control. The trick is knowing your limits."
She laid the card beside the mirror. "And trusting the right person."
Then, just as he leaned down, she added casually, "Better life through chemistry."
The second time was a reward. A long presentation, a client win. He was still riding the adrenaline when she poured the lines, her voice like velvet.
"You've earned this."
He didn't argue.
The third time, he asked with his eyes.
She never offered more than he was ready to want.
But every time, it was her bag. Her ritual. Her calm voice, steadying his nerves. Her lips, brushing his ear when he came down, telling him he was brilliant. Perfect.
When he voiced concerns again--weeks later, quieter, guilt-ridden--she dismissed them with practiced ease.
"I'm not handing you needles, love," she said, brushing a hand along his jaw. "You're not some addict hiding in alleyways. You're a man pushing himself too hard."
Then, softer, with a teasing smirk: "Besides, it's not the powder you're coming back for, is it?"
That stopped him.
She kissed his cheek and walked away, the implication sinking deeper than anything she could've said.