END OF A DREAM Lu: And then, I kissed her. Mila’s lips were soft, wet, eager, as always. And hot, like the summer asphalt beneath her. She pressed her mouth against my lips, I felt her tongue caressing mine. And I tasted the blood, you know, this kind of metallic flavor. It was all so surreal. But what really destroyed me at that moment was the other smell… this scent on her face, blending with her sweat…this was… me, my own…taste. I mean, a few minutes ago her tongue was inside me, her face bathing in my liquids…paradise, heaven…and now…deep hell. I cried out, that was a strange sound, like from far away, I just couldn’t hold it back. The old man kneeling next to me looked at me in terror. Mila grabbed my hair, pulled me close. She looked so soft, so vulnerable. Mila whispered, “You know, Lu – so I’ve got edges that scratch. And sometimes I don’t got a filter…But… I’m just so tired of eating all of my misspoken words. I’m just fed up with compromising. Perhaps it is better like this. Better to end the dream here than live a reality that’s not mine. Their reality…” My tears dripped on her face, forming a little puddle in the corner of her mouth, before disappearing between her beautiful lips, coming back as small pink bubbles, every time she exhaled weakly. Her energy was leaving her; I could tell from the empty look in her eyes. And I thought, “God…this is all my fault! Why do I never listen to my intuition? I should have stopped this right at the beginning…” CIVILIZED HUNTING Arian: And Lu wanted to stop it. When we were waiting in the hotel in Mitte, at this noisy rooftop bar with all the people, she wanted to cancel. “I just feel strange about this,” she’d told me. From today’s perspective, yes… I had pushed her into this. And yes, she’d just agreed to do this for me. And now she wanted to stop. Okay, I knew that her intuition is like a Swiss clockwork: Always right. But hey, this was my dream finally coming true, right? I had arranged everything, found Mila online, fixed a date, booked this hotel, now I was so close! And all of a sudden Lu wants to quit? For what? A feeling? What should I have done at that moment? Lu: Quite easy. As always, more use of your head, less of your dick, dickhead. I mean, what is that? A date with some online slut? That’s your dream? Really? Arian: Why slut? She wants fun, some erotic adventure, that’s all. Lu: Negotiating sex with complete foreigners online, that’s fun for you? Just because all you digital junkies have forgotten how to date right, you order sex like a pizza and then think, “Whoa, cool, what a great erotic adventure I’ve just googled!” I consider erotic adventures as something with style… Two people meet, get vibes going, build…