One Night with Calvin (One Night Series Book 2) (6 page)

“I was there. I was just late.”

The following night was more blurry than the memory of our night together. I knew I was pissed, then dejected, and then I just wanted to forget. So I drank. A lot. And then …

Oh, fuck.

***

- SARA -

FOUR YEARS AGO

“Why are you still here?” Lana asked. I’d just finished telling her everything about Ryan and the night before. I wasn’t going to say anything, but she begged me to distract her from the pain. Even with the pain meds, she wasn’t doing too well.

She was hooked up to about a million machines. She had bruises all over her body and winced every five minutes from the pain, but she was going to be okay. Eventually.

I’d spent the whole day in the waiting room, nervously waiting to find out if she was going to make it.

“Look around. I wasn’t going to leave you,” I said.

“Even after I ditched you last night?” Tears welled in her eyes. “I’ve been such a shitty friend lately. You have to at least go tell Ryan why. It’s still early—he’ll still be there.”

I shrugged. “He has my address. If he wants to see me, he can come to me. Being here for you is more important.”

“Sara, I’m fine. They said I’ll make a full recovery. I’ve broken some bones and shit like that, but in a few months, I’ll be as good as new. You don’t have to stay here with me. Besides, visiting hours are already over, and you’re going to be kicked out any minute. Please promise me you’ll go and explain? Don’t let your Prince Charming get away because of me.”

I snorted. “I didn’t realise my Prince Charming would have such a dirty mouth.”

She sighed wistfully. “My soulmate will have a filthy mouth. I’m sure of it. You go get yours.”

The dashboard clock in Mum’s car read 21:52 when we pulled out of the hospital parking lot a little while later. The Lab Hotel was only a five-minute drive out of the way, so I asked Mum to drop me off and wait for me while I ran in to explain myself. I didn’t tell her it was a guy I was supposed to meet or that I’d spent the previous night getting a tattoo and losing my virginity to him. That wouldn’t have gone down well. I remained vague, explaining I was meant to meet a friend and had forgotten with the drama of Lana’s accident.

The plan was to run in, tell Ryan what happened, and then go home to get some much-needed sleep. I’d napped in the waiting room at the hospital, but I was constantly being disturbed and was uncomfortable as hell in those stiff, upright chairs.

Mum pulled up on the curb outside the hotel, and I made my way through the restaurant and into the bar area, figuring they would’ve been done with dinner by now.

My heart was racing, my stomach was doing flips, and I was about ninety percent sure I was going to throw up.

If the mere
thought
of seeing him again did that to me, I was worried about what would happen when I actually laid eyes on him.

I needn’t have worried.

When I found him, my fluttering heart sank to my stomach and scared all the butterflies away.

Prince Charming turned into a toad with one simple kiss.

Granted, I was almost four hours late. Granted, we weren’t together and blah, blah, blah. But after the night we had? How could his lips already be attached to someone else’s?

In movies and romance books, that would’ve been the part where the girl runs away and doesn’t wait for an explanation. Me? I was ready to get all “Hold my earrings, I’m-a cut this bitch” on the clichéd blonde bimbo sucking his face. My inner bogan wanted me to run over there and cause a scene.

I probably would have if I wasn’t frozen, completely stunned, as I watched them slip out a side entrance and jump into a waiting cab out front.

Fucking asshole.

***

Hunter

NOW

I was quiet, unsure of what to say. I’d majorly screwed up, but what did she expect? I was dejected, my ego took a major blow, and then that girl came and made me feel wanted again. And no, I couldn’t remember her name.

“Yeah, you looked pretty cosy with some blonde when I finally got to the hotel.” Sara was waiting an explanation, but nothing came. Nothing worthy of an excuse anyway.

“I don’t have anything to say other than I’m a fucking moron.”

I thought Sara wasn’t coming, and I drank to forget the connection I’d felt. I was wasted when that other girl approached, so yeah, I took her home. I was chasing a feeling that couldn’t be replicated. That was the first night I’d ever taken someone home and felt guilty immediately afterwards. It was a feeling I came to know well over the last few years.

“Yeah, well, you won’t get any arguments from me on that,” she mumbled.

I took a step towards her. “I will do anything to make this right.”

“It’s about four years too late for that.”

I tried taking another step closer, but she flinched and stepped back.

“Sara—”

“I think you should leave.” She folded her arms across her chest. It was meant to be a defensive move, but it just pushed her breasts together, making her cleavage mouth-watering.

I shook my thought free and turned towards the door before I pushed her too hard, too fast. We both made mistakes four years ago, but they were all forgotten as I remade a promise to myself.

I’m going to make that girl fall in love with me.

6

- SARA -

Unknown number:

This isn’t over – Hunter

Sara:
Creepy. That’s one step away from ‘If I can’t have you no one can.’ Do I need a restraining order? How did you get my number?

Unknown Number:

I have my resources …

FYI – THAT was me being creepy. Don’t need to call the cops just yet, Paige left her phone in the living room and I found your number

I hated that his text made me smile. Blowing out a loud breath, I knew I had to end whatever he was trying to start. I had to stop it from going any further. I shouldn’t have replied to the first one, but I put that down to a momentary lapse of judgement on my behalf. He seemed to make me have a lot of them:

Going to dinner tonight in the first place.

Telling him about my virginity.

Letting him into my apartment.

Sara:

Found/stole, same thing, right? You can go ahead and delete it now.

Unknown number:

Please refer to my original text

Argh!
He was impossible. I realised the best course of action would be to ignore him. I saved his number under Ryan. It was a small act of defiance seeing as he hated being called that. I would’ve deleted his number altogether, but I’d no doubt forget who was messaging me.

Pfft, like you could forget.

I kept telling myself the lie anyway.

Ping!

Dammit.

Ryan:

For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I don’t think I actually said that earlier

I groaned.
Don’t reply.

While my willpower was still strong, I switched my phone to silent and climbed into bed, determined not to touch my phone again until morning.

I lasted all of four minutes, according to the time on my phone display. The disappointment I felt when he hadn’t messaged again pissed me off.

That’s it. No more.

Unplugging my charger from the wall, I took it and my phone and trudged out into the kitchen where I plugged it into the outlet in there instead. It would sit there overnight so I wouldn’t be tempted to reach for it. Or worse, reply to his message.

Ryan going home with another girl only twenty-four hours after being with me really stung. No, it killed me. As pathetic as it was, I really thought we had something special, but it took him all of four hours to move on from me. I was discarded as easily as the condoms we’d used.

Thank fuck, we used condoms.

I didn’t want Ryan the manwhore, but I wanted what we had. That connection.

None of the men I’d dated since Ryan lived up to that first night with him, but who knew where I’d be if I hadn’t met him. Perhaps I’d be dating the drug-dealing guy because I wouldn’t think I deserved better, or maybe the guy who turned out to be married, or even the freaky sex guy … okay, not the freaky sex guy. Ryan set the bar for all the other men to reach, and only one came close to ever measuring up.
Daniel Minor.
Paige’s older brother. If I really thought about it, if I hadn’t met Ryan, I had no doubt I would be with Danny … well, if he was in the country anyway.

Danny went to uni in America, and on one of his trips home two years ago, we spent nearly every day together. I liked him. A lot. He was the most down to earth guy I’d ever been with, and it was easy with him. Comfortable. There may not have been
the
spark like there was with Ryan, but it still felt right.

We both knew it was a short-term thing as he still had a year left of uni in the States, but I felt I could’ve fallen for him, if given the chance. That was, until he left without even saying goodbye.

He added me on Facebook about a year ago, but I ignored the request. He took off without so much as a reason as to why he fled—other than the poor excuse Paige gave me that he needed to get back to school. That didn’t explain why he left earlier than he’d originally planned to.

I’d often asked Paige about him in passing, but she’d only give vague answers. She was excited when Danny and I first started dating, and I had to calm the future sister-in-law talk way down, but when he left, she stopped talking about him altogether, and I didn’t know why. Then, when I thought Danny was due to come home for good, Paige finally dropped the bombshell on me that he wasn’t coming back. He graduated and got a job over there teaching kids’ football.

Maybe if I’d accepted his friend request when he sent it, he’d be here right now, we’d be together, and I would’ve laughed off running into Ryan.

Instead, I was in bed telling myself why it would be a horrible idea to go back into the kitchen to retrieve my phone.

Terrible. Horrible. Stupid.

My resolve hardened as I kept reminding myself that Ryan was the one guy who had the ability to rip my heart out if I let him anywhere near it.

***

Purposefully taking my time getting out of bed, I dawdled into my kitchen and turned the coffee machine on before checking my phone. Therefore, I wasn’t the sad girl who checked her phone first thing. That’s what I kept telling myself anyway.

I had three missed calls and two messages. One of the calls was Ryan, and the other two were Paige.

My stomach churned as I read my messages.

Ryan:

Babe, totally not doing the stalkery thing this morning. Give your girl a call. Shit just went down and she broke up with Cole

It was timestamped at 06:37. The following message didn’t ease my sickly feeling.

Paige:

Fuck my psycho stepmother

That was sent an hour ago. I immediately hit the call button.

“Hey,” she answered, her voice raspy and coarse.

“You need me to bring the vodka?”

“It’s eight o’clock in the morning.”

“I’m failing to see the problem.”

“Thanks, but I think I’m just going to wallow in my room for a bit.”

“What happened?”

“Reece said if I didn’t leave him, she’d take their kid away from Cole.”

Fucking bitch.
“Want me to burn her house down?”

She laughed through her sniffles. “You mean
my
house? How did this whole thing get so fucked up?”

Because fate clearly has a sense of humour … just at our expense.
I didn’t say that aloud to her. She didn’t need that right now. There was silence for about a minute, and I knew she was shutting down. I wasn’t going to get anything else out of her.

“Call me if you need anything, okay?”

“Will do. Talk soon.” She didn’t wait for me to respond before she ended the call.

I was really hoping Cole was different. Even with his issues, I’d never seen Paige glow like she did when she was around him or talking about him.

But at least with them broken up, I’d never have to see Ryan again.

Hooray for being a selfish bitch, Sara.

I sighed and pulled up my messages again and did the polite thing. Why? Because clearly, I was a masochist.

Sara:

Thnx for the heads up

The phone started vibrating with an incoming call seconds later.

“Thought you weren’t doing the stalkery thing this morning,” I said into the phone.
Why did I answer?

I had absolutely no control when it came to Ryan.

“How’s she doing?” His voice was smooth. I hated that.

“Did you really call to talk to me about Paige and Cole?”

“Yes.”

Why does he care?
I didn’t get the chance to ask before he started talking again.

“I consider Paige a friend, and I don’t like that she got hurt because of Cole and Reece and their fucked-up drama. I’ve been dealing with their shit since we were teenagers. I always liked Paige, and I want to make sure she’s okay.”

Well, fuck
. He had to go and be a nice guy, didn’t he.

“She didn’t sound too good, but I know her, and she tends to deal with this type of stuff on her own. When she needs me, she’ll ask. It’s how it’s always been between us.”

“How long have you guys been friends?”

“Three years. We met the first day of law school.”

“Huh. I thought you guys must’ve been childhood friends or something. You seem pretty close.”

“It was an insta-BFF moment.”
And now you sound like a teenager.

“Love at first sight, hey?” His tone dropped lower, and even though it was said in a playful manner, I couldn’t help wondering if he was hinting at something else.

I swallowed hard. “Totes.”
Kill. Me. Now. Could I be anymore awkward?

He chuckled. “So, you’re still saying that annoying word.”

He had a point. When “totes” became a thing, I’d say it in jest. What started as ridiculing the crap out of people who used it became addictive. Then it was suddenly a part of my vocabulary, and I didn’t even notice when I said it anymore. It was a hard habit to break, but I was trying.

“You’re still calling me babe, so, yup.”

“You want me to stop?”

“Calling me babe, or calling in general?”

“Oooh, harsh.” He was loving this conversation. People say you can hear when a person is smiling on the other end of the phone. If that were true, I’d bet a hundred bucks Ryan was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Umm … I should go. I need to run some errands before Paige calls me back and summons me to get drunk off our asses.”

“That sounds dangerous,” he mocked. “When things settle down with them, do you think we could get together for coffee?”

“I don’t drink coffee,” I lied, while simultaneously staring at my warmed-up coffeemaker that was begging me to make my morning cup.

“You know what I mean. I’m asking you out.”

I winced. Everything inside me was screaming to say yes, but my brain wouldn’t allow it. I didn’t know what to say.

“I guess complete silence is better than a big fat no,” he said with a small laugh. “I’ll take that as a maybe for now. I hope to see you soon, Sara.”

He hung up before I could find words.

***

Ryan:

Reason #8 you should go out with me:

If things go well, we already have matching couple tattoos

Two messages per day, four days in a row. All the same thing—a reason why I should go out with him. I’d managed to stave off replying, but this one was too hard to resist.

Sara:

I had mine removed.

Ryan:

I’ll need proof of that.

I threw my phone on the couch beside me, lesson learned. No more replying. Ever. My phone dinged again, and I hated that I couldn’t resist looking.

Ryan:

A photo with your top off would suffice but in person would be more thorough.

And now I’m smiling. Dammit!

Don’t respond, don’t respond, don’t respond.

Sara:

Are you trying to sext me? Not cool, yo.

Good listening to your conscience.

Ryan:

Too far?

A knock at the door scared the crap out me. It was Wednesday night. Late.
Who the hell is at my door?

Sara:

You’re not being super creepy right now and knocking on my door, are you?

As I hit send, a voice came through the door. “Sara?” It wasn’t Hunter. It had too much of a Texan twang to be Hunter.

Fuck, no. Not now.

Scrambling to the door, I flung it open, hoping I was going to be met with a serial killer and not another blast from my past. I wasn’t that lucky.

Standing before me, looking exactly like he did two years ago, was Danny Minor. His muscled football arm was resting against the doorjamb, and he looked a hell of a lot calmer and relaxed than I did.

He stood straighter. “Hey.”

My phone dinged from the couch with Ryan’s reply, but I didn’t go to check it. The absurdity of the moment didn’t let me. I hadn’t seen either one for years, and now both came back into my life within a week of each other.

Anger surged inside me, and I lost control of my mouth. “Fucking hell. Tell the ghost of boyfriends past to fuck off when you see him, okay?”