Sophia checked her nails as she lay on her side, not bothering to cover herself up much.

"So," she said to Jamie, "I get the impression that you've got some experience under your belt."

Jamie lay on his back, in a position that in cliched romance novels would demand a post-coitus cigarette. "I've been around the block a few times," he said tiredly, glancing at her. "I didn't blow it, did I?"

"No. You're certainly not the [i]worst[/i] lover I've had. Not by a long shot." Those words might have sounded more condescending in someone else's mouth, but Sophia knew perfectly well how to reassure her lovers. She did, after all, have a lot of practice.

It was nighttime, and the hour was very late. A familiar scenario. During their little affair, she took note of practically everything she could see in Jamie's bedroom, which in itself told her a dozen stories, each one subtly unique. Jamie was the kind of man who still kept those baseball cards he had collected in his childhood, not to mention quite sentimental items he'd had handed down from his father, himself a fan of collecting baseball cards, postage stamps, and the like.

[i]It's almost like I've always been here[/i], thought Sophia. She knew it wasn't true in actuality, as she had never been to this place before, but with every human's most private of places she found herself quickly adapting, even growing to love each one in a short amount of time.

Jamie took to lying on his side as well, resting his head on his forearm. "I can live with that," he said.

"Me too," said Sophia, perhaps too quietly.

A moment passed between them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Jamie.

"Oh, nothing." Indeed, it meant so little that may as well have been nothing.

Thoughts tumbled around inside Sophia's head, like clothes inside a washing machine. She wondered as to which she ought to grab first. [i]He seems like a perfectly fine man. I've met a lot of humans who are far worse than him. Suppose I were to break my own rules and settle down with someone this very minute...[/i]

"I'll have to leave soon," she said eventually.

Looking disappointed, Jamie said, "As in tonight?"

She knew how he would react, but no matter. "Yes, I'm afraid so," she said with sympathy. "Don't worry, it's not your fault. I like to wake up in my own bed after one of these [i]flings[/i]," almost spitting out that last word. She could feel the slightest pressure creeping back into her chest.

"Can I drive you home, then? I can do that much."

"No, you don't have to. I can take an Uber or something on my way back." It was a funny thing to say, if only inwardly, considering she had no money.

[hr]

Once Sophia knew she had lost sight of her one-time lover, she turned off into the night, into the nearest forest she could find, where she felt fairly certain nobody would find her.

Sophia wore a shirt and a pair of jeans, although they didn't belong to her. She felt uncomfortable in them, almost on a subconscious level, how unnaturally they seemed to fit against her skin. [i]Should get this over with quickly[/i], she thought, as she did practically every time.

In a swift and robotic motion, she rid herself of her clothes before kneeling in the dirt. She dug her knees in and clasped her hands, as if about to utter a prayer, but instead she squeezed her palms against each other so as to prepare for what came next.

On her naked back, near her shoulder blades, the skin started to break open. No, it was more like [i]tearing[/i] open, yet no blood came from these increasingly gaping wounds as feathers protruded from Sophia's back. She didn't scream, seeing as how she had experienced this so many times, but she let a pitiful moan of agony escape her lips, her heart racing as if in a fit of panic.

It took longer than she would've preferred, but large feathery wings sprouted from her being, and she knew she was ready to use them. [i]Of course [b]He[/b] knows I'm here, but I must go anyway. Better to give chase than to crawl back to Him[/i], she thought with resigned melancholy.

Then, with an aching heart, one of God's fallen angels took flight, and within seconds transformed herself into the stuff that distant stars were made of.