Stephanie swilled down the last of her drink and motioned to the bartender for another round. On the far side of the bar, a petite Asian woman sang karaoke mostly off key, but since Stephanie didn't understand the language the actual scope of her fail didn't quite register.
What had started as a fairytale, had become the most horrible day of her life. Kenneth, had dragged them halfway across the globe to Japan for their wedding, only to announce at the last possible minute that he was calling it all off. That he was eloping with another man.
Stephanie, had never felt more stupid and deflated, more objectified and demeaned that she did right now. And that was saying a lot.
That she'd had no clue that Kenneth was gay, or embroiled in a seething romance with Vince was beyond stupid in retrospect. Beyond blind. She felt the alcohol hit her system like a familiar old friendly sledge hammer. The off-pitch crooning of the woman on the mini stage was somehow distracting. God, she wanted answers.
The woman soldiered on into the next verse like a ballarina wading through sewage. Stephanie looked at her. She was short-ish. Very busty. Or maybe not as busty as the rest of her slenderness made her look. Man, that was a weird thought. Maybe she should stop drinking. She ordered another drink.
The demons, they were always just beyond the fringes of the table. Her uncle that had repeatedly raped her from grade school on. The PTSD induced bad relationship decisions that followed one after another as she struggled, trying to figure out what was even real. The shaking anxiety of staring into the void, her voice stripped away.
"I'm sorry, honey. I can't see this through. I'm in love with Vince." Echoed in her mind as a reminder of her own failure, of her own neurodivergent anomalies. The little demon voices chanting "Who's fucked up beyond repair? You are! You are!"
The off-pitch singer with the tits was standing at the edge of her table. Blurry through the haze of alcohol and anti-depressants.
"Hey lady, maybe you no drink no more for a while." She heard her say in broken English.
Not knowing why that was a trigger, she poured out her life saga to the Asian woman, in a slurred and wandering narrative. She remembered the Asian woman nodding sympathetically, taking her hand, raising it to her mouth. A slight pinch on her finger, and then darkness like a warm impenetrable blanket wrapping her into oblivion. She embraced the void as it came for her.
She had expected to feel groggy when she awoke. She did not. Problem was, she didn't have a clue where she was. Other than that, it was all good.
It was an apartment. That much was clear. Sparsely furnished but neat as a pin. Decorated with an undeniably feminine hand, a triumph of Feng Shui and Japanese minimalism.
"You sleep long time." She heard the somehow now familiar voice.
"I guess so. I'm sorry." She quested for context.
"You had real bad night. Worse than my singing." The woman chuckled.
"How did I get here?" Stephanie asked.
"I bring you here. Till you find yourself again." She replied enigmatically.
"I'm sorry. I thought I was getting married. I have a right to be a little fucked up right now." Stephanie said.
"You kinda cute when you fucked up." The woman grinned.
"Shut up." Stephanie giggled back. "I don't feel cute, and you can't sing."
"I know." The woman intoned solemnly. "I don't really hear things like you people do."
"What does that mean? You people?" Stephanie asked.
"I got different ways of hearing stuff. Okay?" The woman offered. "That's how I felt your pain. Why I bite you."