One Night with Calvin (One Night Series Book 2) (5 page)

“Cole? You have any dating horror stories?” I asked.

“I’ve never dated anyone until Paige.”

My brows scrunched in confusion.

“He met Reece in high school,” Paige clarified for me.

That was another thing about Cole. He had an ex-wife and a kid. An ex-wife who happened to be Paige’s soon-to-be stepmother. But again, I wasn’t going to voice my concerns to Paige. If it all fell apart, I’d be there for her to pick up the pieces. It was what we did for each other.

Hunter leaned forwards and put his elbows on the table. “I have a bad date story for you. It might not be as dramatic as either of yours, but it has confused me for years.”

My breath caught in my throat. I prayed he wasn’t talking about me.

“So, I meet this girl, right? Hot, funny—had a smart mouth she didn’t know when to shut.” He half-smiled which knocked the rest of the air out of my lungs. “But she was young, and I guess immature. Despite our small age gap, we spent this incredible night together, and when I said goodbye to her the next morning, I was confident she’d come meet me the following night.”

“Hunter …” Paige warned.

“Only, she didn’t show,” he continued. “She just … didn’t feel what I felt for her, I suppose. I guess she didn’t give a shit.”

He was glaring at me, and I was sure the expression mirrored my own. He wanted a story? He was going to get a fucking story.

5

- HUNTER -

NOW

When I’d opened the door and saw
her
standing there, I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t fucking move.

I understood her anger when she found out my name was actually Hunter, but what I couldn’t wrap my head around was why she was still pissed after she found out I hadn’t lied to her—not really. Ryan was my birth name. She was the one who stood me up four years ago, not the other way around. I was the one who should’ve been pissed.

I may not have handled our reunion well—pretending not to remember her and then letting those stupid words slip out of my mouth. “Apparently we’ve fucked.”
Ugh! Why did I say that?
But after four years of not understanding what went wrong, I was still hurt. She had no idea how much I’d fallen for her in that one night. I wasn’t stupid enough to think it was love—we’d hung out for all of nine hours or so—but it was the closest thing to a connection I’d ever felt. With anyone. Before or since then. She was the only person I’d ever considered a future with.

It was hard for me not to throw her over my shoulder and take her into my room like some sort of caveman and demand she explain herself when she turned up on my doorstep.

I hated that she didn’t turn up all those years ago, but I hated myself more for not getting the courage to go knock on her door. I was always tempted to go see her. At first, I thought something might’ve happened to her—like an accident or something horrible that prevented her from meeting me. I knew nothing short of death would’ve kept me from seeing her that night. But in one of my not so better moments, I sat outside her apartment until she showed up, just to be sure. As soon as I saw her, I wanted to approach her, but all her limbs were working and she looked healthy. As if she didn’t have a care in the world.

So when she started talking at dinner tonight about her string of dates with other guys, I saw red. I didn’t want to hear about her with other men. Disastrous stories or not. She should’ve been mine for all those years, not some loser’s, who took her on drug runs.

Bringing up our date while sitting at the table with two other people probably wasn’t the best course of action, but I wanted answers. I’d done a pretty good job of shutting my mouth so far, considering all I wanted to do since seeing her was ask her why.

From what I could tell, Cole hadn’t realised we were talking about Sara and me, but by Paige’s warning, and the glare she was giving me, I was pretty sure she knew everything. If Sara wasn’t willing to give me the answers, at least I could ask Paige.

“I have a similar story, really,” Sara said. “So, I meet this guy in a bar, and somehow we end up going on this night-long quest to do really stupid things. He was charming, somewhat crass, but he seemed like the perfect gentleman.”

My lips turned up into a smile before I could stop them.

“Even while he took my virginity on a beach.”

That made my face fall, and I straightened in my seat. “What?” My tone was more rigid than I aimed for, but what did she expect?
Did she really just say what I think she said?

“Anyway,” she continued, ignoring me, “I had every intention of seeing him again the following night. However, my mother woke me that day by banging on my front door. The friend who ditched me the night before was in a car accident, and my parents couldn’t get a hold of me because my phone was broken. My mum was frantic, thinking I’d been in the accident too. They didn’t know if my best friend was going to make it. So when I had to make a choice between meeting some guy or being there for my friend at the hospital, it was no contest.”

My mouth was agape, and by now, Cole had caught on, too.

She shrugged. “You had my address. You could’ve come found me and asked me why I didn’t turn up.”

Was that why she was pissed after all these years? Because I didn’t fight for her?

The table was completely silent for what felt like an impossible amount of time. I should’ve been on my knees grovelling for her forgiveness for being an ass, but there was something holding me back.

Was it irrational of me to be pissed that she hadn’t told me she was a virgin?
Isn’t that like a rule or something? What the fuck?

Sara stood from the table and addressed Paige. “I want to go home now.”

“I’ll go with you,” Paige said.

“No, that’s okay. I’ll catch a cab. It’s practically around the corner.” She was through the door before my brain could scream at me to stop her.

“I’ll be back in a sec,” Paige said, standing to follow Sara.

I leaned back in my seat and ran my hands through my hair.

“She was the one?” Cole asked.

“What?”

“She’s the one who turned you into a manwhore. You were already pretty bad, but something made you worse a few years ago. I thought it was that your career took off, but …”

I huffed a laugh. I didn’t think he noticed that shit. If anything, I was always the one harping on about his state of mental health.

“She’s no one. Just a one-night stand.”

“All of your conquests are one-night stands.”

But she was the only girl who wasn’t meant to be one.

***

When we arrived home, I was emotionally drained, and I didn’t want to deal with overhearing Cole and Paige go at it like they had been for the last six weeks.

“I’m going to bed. Please try to fuck quietly, I’m really not in the mood to be hearing that.” Was I being rude? Yes. Did I care? No.

Slamming my bedroom door, I paced my room.

She was a virgin?

As I replayed that night over and over in my head, the details came back to me as if it was only a few days ago. In some ways it felt like a lifetime had passed. In other ways it was insane that four years were already gone.

The memory of her was burned into my brain. I’d never been able to get rid of it completely, but taking random girls home regularly helped dim her ever-present ghost in my mind. That worked most times, anyway, but it was usually followed up by an overwhelming feeling of guilt. It felt dirty and wrong most times. None of them had that spark. I’d never shared a connection with anyone else—not deep enough to want to be explored past a few dates, and even then, they were considered long-term relationships for me.

Thinking back to that night for the billionth time, I was noticing details I’d missed before. Her complaints about being sore after we had sex on the beach, the brand new box of condoms in her bedside drawer, and the way she let me take the lead and guide her into position.

Fuck!

I didn’t understand why she didn’t tell me. If I knew, I would’ve … I dunno, made it better for her, or hell, not gone through with it at all.

Screw this.
She owed me an explanation.

Hoping she still lived in the same apartment all these years later, I left my room, rolled my eyes at the sex noises coming from Cole’s room, grabbed my keys, and headed out the door.

I wasn’t sure if she would still live in the same place. After all, I’d moved several times over the last four years, but she did say she still lived near the marina. So I went anyway, hoping, praying that she was there.

Instead of being level headed and rational, like I’d told myself to be on the whole drive over, as soon as she opened the door, I was raising my voice. “You were a virgin?”

“Shh, can you maybe not yell that so loud on my doorstep?”

“Have it your way.” I barged past her and into her apartment.

“So you do remember where I live. Did you have amnesia or something for the last few years? What are you doing here, Ryan? Sorry …
Hunter
, whatever your name is.”

“You can’t really be pissed about the name thing, right? My name is actually Ryan.”

“You never corrected me.”

Because I loved the sound my name coming from your mouth … yeah, don’t say that.
“You never told me you were a virgin.”
Not much better, asshole.

“Would it have made a difference?”

“Of course, it fucking would have.” I started pacing her living room. “I never would’ve slept with you if I knew. Or I would’ve at least waited until we got back to your apartment so we could … I don’t know, do whatever it is you do when you have sex with virgins.”

She smiled the first genuine smile I’d seen all night—that had anything to do with me anyway. Paige got a laugh out of her at the dinner table, and I couldn’t believe how familiar the sound was. How could I have missed a laugh I’d only heard a few times, so many years ago?

“And what exactly do you do differently with virgins than with non-virgins?”

“I don’t know. The only virgin I’d ever had sex with was in high school, and it was my first time too, so it was a bit of a fumbling mess.”

She scoffed. “That you know of.”

“What?”

“How do you know she’s the only other virgin you had? You had no idea I was one.”

“Because you’re supposed to tell the guy that sort of thing. It’s like an unspoken rule.”

“If it’s unspoken, how was I to know I had to tell you?”

“Can you not do that right now, please?”

“Do what?”

“That deflecting thing you’re so good at.” I continued to pace.

Her eyes widened before she masked her shock with a grimace.

“It may’ve been a long time, but I do remember what you’re like,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand.

“You spent one night with me, four years ago. That doesn’t mean you know me.”

“But I’m right. You’re deflecting.”

“If you only came here to have a go at me, you may as well leave. You had four years to drop by and ask me why I didn’t turn up, and you never came. Clearly I meant nothing to you, so I don’t understand why you’re here at all.”

I finally stopped wearing a path into her carpet. “Was your friend okay?”

“Huh?”

“The one who had the accident.”

She nodded. “She was in and out of surgeries that whole day, but she made it. She’s fine. Her near-death experience made her realise her boyfriend was a douche and that she wanted to go exploring. She landed herself in Europe and ended up moving to London.” Sara’s face smiled with admiration for her friend.

“If I’d known about her, I would’ve been there for you. Nothing would have stopped me from seeing you that night. All you had to do was come get me from the hotel. But you didn’t even bother calling.”

“Who was I meant to call? I didn’t have a phone or your phone number. Was I meant to call the hotel bar and ask them to find a guy named Ryan to give him a message? You wouldn’t have responded anyway—your name is Hunter.”

Frustration bubbled in my throat. “I thought …”

“You thought what?”

That we had something special
. Ugh. Don’t say that.
I shook my head. “Nothing.”

The anger over the virgin thing was completely gone, but now there was a giant hole filled with regret in the pit of my stomach. Why didn’t I do this four years ago? Why didn’t I confront her?

Deep down, I knew why. It was because I was afraid of the rejection. Being a model, it was something I faced often, and I’d built a thick skin. But the rejection I’d felt when Sara stood me up? It was crippling.

“Well, if that’s all …” She held out her hand, gesturing to the door.

“You think that’s all? Sweetness, we’re just getting started.”

“Really? That your new nickname for your conquests? What happened to ‘babe’?”

It never felt right calling anyone else that after you.
“Mixing it up a little. I get why you’re pissed, I do, but you can’t deny we didn’t finish what we started.”

“Oh, you finished it all on your own.”

“Because I never came to ask why you stood me up?”

“No. Because of what you did after you realised I’d stood you up.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

She shook her head. “Wow. You don’t even remember. How many women have you been with? Do you even know your number?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Paige told me about you. The girls she’s seen coming and going over the last six weeks, the fact you stole Cole’s condoms because you ran out. You’re the same guy you always were, and I’m not interested in round two.”

“I’m not that guy.”

She huffed a laugh and shook her head. “I call bullshit.”

She was right. I
was
that guy, but only because none of them compared to her. “I don’t see what any of that has to do with
us
.”

“Think about it,
Hunter
.”

I hated the way she spat my name at me, and I never thought I’d find myself wishing to be called Ryan.

“What was your reaction to finding out I wasn’t there?”

“How would you even know? You
weren’t
there.”