One Night Stand

by Brooks, Sarah J.

  “Here’s to hoping I’ll never need to, right?” I grinned, and she flashed me a smile back.

  “Here’s to hoping,” she agreed, and we continued to unpack the boxes, starting in on the gossip from our social group that I had missed the last couple of days; most of it was just people cutting Fred out of their lives after what he had done to me, which I found supremely satisfying. I would never have thought that people would choose me over him, but it seemed like everyone had just been acting nice to his face while waiting for me to get the nerve to kick him to the curb the first chance I got. I would probably be seeing more of everyone now they didn’t have to contend with hanging out with him too.

  Just as we paused to make ourselves a coffee and take a break, Ant’s phone rang. She answered it at once; she always had to be on call for her brother and her niece. I watched her as she took the call, and I could tell at once that she was being called up for babysitting duties.

  “Yeah … yeah … yeah, no, of course. I don’t mind at all,” she replied, and I felt my heart sink as I considered having to do the rest of the unpacking without her company.

  “I’m actually in the same building as you already,” Ant told the person on the other end of the line. “My friend, Nina, she just moved into a new apartment, and I’m helping her unpack. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

  As soon as those words came out of her mouth, I felt my stomach drop as I put two and two together in my head. There was no way that it was Logan on the other of the line … No, no way—I would have recognized him, wouldn’t I? I racked my brain to try and remember if I had ever actually seen Ant’s brother before. I must have come across a photograph, right? Ant must have posted something with him on her social media profiles, something I’d smiled at and hit like over, but now that I thought of it, I couldn’t think of one time I had actually laid eyes on him. I wouldn’t know him from Adam. Which meant that there was a chance … a very good chance. How many guys named Logan could be living in this building?

  “I’ll be up as soon as I can,” she promised him. “I’ll see you soon, alright?”

  She hung up and turned to me—and as soon as she did, she furrowed her brow. “Hey, are you alright?” she asked, concerned. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Yeah, just a little tired from all the unpacking.” I offered her a reassuring smile. “Who was that?”

  “It’s my brother,” she held up her phone and sighed apologetically. “He’s been called in to work at the last minute, and he’s asked me to go up and look after Erin for a few hours. I’m really sorry, but I’m going to have to bail on you for now.”

  “No, no, it’s fine,” I assured her quickly. Dread was creeping up the back of my neck. I had a bad, bad feeling about this, but I didn’t know whether I should jump in right then and there and do damage control or just let things unfold naturally. I silently tried to send signals upstairs, just in case, letting him know that a big-ass storm was about to come crashing down in front of him and that he would likely want to be ready for it.

  “Hey, you want to come up and join me?” she suggested. “Could be fun. You could finally meet my niece after all this time …”

  “You know I’m no good with kids.” I sidestepped the question as best I could.

  “Come on, it’s my family, it’ll be different,” Ant pressed hopefully, but I shook my head and lowered my gaze.

  “I still have so much unpacking to do,” I protested weakly. “I don’t have time to help you babysit.”

  “Alright, no need to be like that about it.” She held her hands up and looked a little upset. “I just wanted you to meet my family, that’s all.”

  I wished I could tell her that I had already gotten up close and personal with her family the day before, but for one thing I didn’t even know if that was true—and for another, I didn’t want her finding out like this, with me blurting it out like an idiot before I had a chance to stop myself. I ran my hands through my hair, tried my best to play it casual.

  “What’s your brother’s name again?” I wondered aloud, and she glanced at me, brow furrowed.

  “Logan,” she replied. “I’m sure I’ve told you that before.”

  “Yeah, it just must have slipped my mind,” I replied weakly. I wanted to kick myself. How could I have been so spectacularly stupid as to think that the man I had slept with actually came with no strings? Even when I tried to pull off the one-time fun hook-up shit, it backfired on me in the most comically ridiculous way. How the fuck was this always happening to me? I couldn’t seem to catch a break when it came to guys.

  “Well, I guess I better get up there and do my aunt duties,” she said with a grin. She was quick to anger but quick to forgive as well. “If he makes it back from work at a reasonable time, I’ll come down and give you a hand getting everything together, alright?”

  “Don’t worry about that,” I replied quickly. “Really. You just take care of your niece, I’ll be fine.”

  Ant paused in the doorway, and she slowly turned to plant her gaze on me. I felt like I was going to burst into flames beneath it. She knew me better than anyone else in the world, and so she could always see through me when it came to me trying to keep shit from her. She narrowed her eyes and peered at me for a long moment, and I shifted my weight from foot to foot, praying for a reprieve.

  “You’re acting funny,” she told me. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” I assured her. “Just restless, that’s all.”

  “I know when I’m not wanted.” She waved her hand at me and headed for the door. “I’ll stop by on my way out, alright? I’ll text you when he’s coming back; have a glass of wine ready for me.”

  “I will,” I promised her. “I’m sorry I’m being weird; I’m just feeling a little out of it, you know, with everything that’s happened.”

  “I think you’re allowed to get a pass for at least the next month,” she assured me, and I smiled at her gratefully.

  “Thanks, Ant.” I gave her a quick hug before she left. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “Be a functioning member of human society, probably,” she teased, and she planted a swift kiss on my cheek as she pulled away and headed for the door. “Good luck with the rest of your unpacking!”

  “Thanks,” I called after her weakly, and she closed the door behind her and left me standing in the middle of the apartment all by myself again. The chaos in those boxes around me seemed like a pretty decent representation of the chaos that was going down inside my head right then, as I tried to come to terms with the fact that I had very probably spent yesterday afternoon hooking up with my best friend’s brother. The very brother that she’d been trying to keep away from me all these years, who she’d been convinced would just fall into bed with me as soon as he laid eyes on me. Turned out she had been right.

  I sank down onto the couch, suddenly feeling a little dizzy. Had Logan figured it out yet? Would he tell her? I suddenly felt the urge to sprint up there and stop her, to throw myself down the stairs or something crazy that meant she couldn’t leave me alone for the rest of the day and therefore couldn’t see her brother to discuss what had happened. But her niece needed her and, much as I might have hated kids, that didn’t mean that I wanted Erin to go without. I closed my eyes, let out a long sigh, and let my head sink back into the pillow behind me. I had been here all of two days, and I had already driven a potential wedge between me and my best friend, as well as her and her brother. So far, so fucking terrible.

  Chapter 4

  Logan

  “Alright, alright, alright,” I muttered under my breath as I swiftly gathered all the stuff I would need for work. Whites, watch, phone charger, water, something that wasn’t cast-off fries to eat. It was going to be a long shift, especially because I hadn’t even been planning to spend my night at the kitchen, and all I wanted was to get there, get it over with, and take the overtime to pay the rest of the bills this month.

  Thank God
Ant had been nearby when I had called her up. She said she was helping her friend move into her apartment—I had been so distracted that I hadn’t even bothered to ask which friend or where they were moving in, but it must have been close because a few moments later she came sweeping through the door.

  “Ant!” Erin raced towards her aunt, tossing her arms around her waist. Ant gave her a tight hug, and I tried to remember the last time I had carved out time for the two of them to see each other. It had been a long while, that was for sure—things had been crazy at the restaurant, and Ant had been busy at her own job, and so we had just slipped through the cracks one too many times.

  “Hey, brother.” She gave me a hug when she saw me, gently removing Erin from around her waist and taking her hand. “How long do you think you’re going to be out tonight?”

  “I have no idea right now.” I shook my head. “Won’t be less than three hours. Is that alright?”

  “Sure it is.” Ant smiled at me, glancing down at Erin. “We’re going to have a great time, aren’t we?”

  “Yeah!” Erin exclaimed excitedly. “Ant, I have to show you some of the pictures they let me take home from school …”

  “I’d love to see them,” she replied with a grin. “Do you mind if I just speak with your daddy a minute first?”

  “Sure,” Erin nodded seriously, and she wandered off down the hall to her room to grab the pictures that she’d been saving to show her aunt. I turned to Ant expectantly; I didn’t have much time to stand around chatting with her, no matter how much I might have liked to.

  “What’s up?” I asked quickly, and she planted her hands on her hips.

  “For one, I’m going to need more notice if you need me to look after her in the future,” she replied firmly. “I’m not always going to be just downstairs when you need help.”

  “Right, right.” I nodded, and then I froze on the spot. “Wait, you were downstairs?”

  “Yeah, that’s the other thing,” she replied, running her hand through her hair and suddenly looking exhausted, as though she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks. “My friend Nina just moved in downstairs. She split up with her boyfriend a couple of weeks ago—he was a jackass, but still—she could use some kid gloves these next few months while she comes back to the real world.”

  “Yeah?” I swallowed heavily, trying to keep my voice neutral. How obvious was it that I was freaking out? I did my best to quell the racing of my heart, but it wasn’t working. Ant knew me well enough that she could see something was amiss, and she narrowed her eyes at me and cocked her head.

  “Is something going on with you?” she asked. “I’m not saying you have to go down there and marry her, just—”

  “No, I wouldn’t marry her,” I blurted out. “I wouldn’t do anything with her. Uh, I mean, sure, I’ll look out for her. Thanks for letting me know.”

  “No problem.” She still looked a little suspicious, as though she could see straight through me and knew something was off. I stared her down for a long moment, waiting for her to back off, and after a moment she shrugged and seemed satisfied.

  “Fine.” She sighed and turned down the hallway to go join Erin. “I’ll be waiting here when you get back, alright? Have a good shift at work.”

  “Yeah, thanks.” I nodded to her; usually, I would have been more effusive in my gratitude, but all I could think about was hitting the fucking bricks before I blurted out something else that gave her a reason to second-guess me. I headed for the door, calling goodbye to Erin as I went, and was glad as soon as I shut it behind me.

  Had she figured it out too? If she had been with Ant when I made the call, she had to have put the pieces together. How did she not know who I was? I had met almost all of Ant’s friends over the years, one way or another, and yet this one managed to move in downstairs from me, and I never laid eyes on her before in my life. This was ridiculous. There was no way this could be happening. It had to be someone else … No. Like it or not, I had fucked one of my sister’s friends, and somehow my sister still didn’t know anything about it. Which meant I was just in time for some serious damage control.

  I glanced at my watch—I didn’t have long, but this was worth being a few minutes late for. I hesitated for a moment outside her door, remembering how I felt yesterday when I walked out of the place. I had been dead certain she would never want to lay eyes on me again after I pulled the ultimate ungentlemanly move and left right after we had sex, but she was just going to have to suck it up and deal with it because we needed to straighten this out before it got out of control.

  I banged on the door. She had to be in there unless she’d hired another moving van and fled across the city when she found out what she had done; Ant had a hell of a temper on her, and if she even remotely thought that she or someone close to her was being fucked around, then there would be trouble. We had to put a pin in this now.

  A moment later, she opened the door—and a mixture of relief and panic passed over her face when she saw that I was the one standing behind it.

  “Hey,” she glanced around, making sure that Ant wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “I think we need to talk—”

  “We do,” I told her urgently. “But I have to be at work in twenty minutes, and I don’t have a lot of time. Let’s cut to the chase, huh?”

  “So you figured it out too?” She pulled a face, and I couldn’t help noticing that she looked even better than yesterday—that said, I had caught her in the middle of moving, and nobody looked their hottest then. She was a good night’s sleep and a hot shower away from the last time I’d seen her, and she looked smoothed-out around the edges, even cuter than before. Her blonde-red hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and her green eyes flashed in the light.

  “Yeah, I didn’t get your name when she was on the phone, but I figured it out when she came up,” I told her. “I really had no idea who you were, I swear. I wasn’t trying to pull some game with you or something.”

  “Me neither,” she agreed hurriedly. “If I’d known you were Ant’s brother …”

  I knew what she was going to say, and I nodded along in agreement—but looking at her right then and there, I wasn’t sure that I could honestly say I wouldn’t have gone for it anyway. In fact, even standing here right now, knowing that my sister and my daughter were just a few feet above us, I had to fight the urge to lean in and kiss her again, just to see what she would do.

  “We can’t do it again.” She shook her head. “Agreed?”

  “Agreed.” I stuck my hand out to her, and she slipped hers into mine. As soon as our skin connected, I felt a jolt of electricity pass from her skin to mine, as though someone had run a live wire up my arm. She pulled back quickly, as though she had felt it too, and she swiftly lowered her gaze to the ground.

  “And she can’t find out about this,” she mumbled. “If she does, she’d kill me.”

  “Uh, kill you? No, she’d come straight after me, and you know it,” I corrected her.

  “You want to bet?” She glanced up at me, her eyes lighting up playfully, and I found myself lingering in that doorway longer than I planned to.

  “Don’t tempt me,” I replied. I glanced at my watch and knew that I couldn’t stick around any longer without seriously landing in danger of losing my job, and that was the last thing I needed.

  “I have to go.” I stepped away from her reluctantly. “But let me know if there’s anything … uh, if Ant starts to catch on or anything.”

  “Will do,” she saluted me. “And thanks for the heads-up with her. Always good to know what I’m dealing with.”

  “I’ll see you later,” I replied without thinking and wanted to slap my hand to my forehead and scurry away. She raised her eyebrows at me, looking amused by the slip.

  “Oh, will you?” she teased, and I ducked and walked away before I found any more excuses to hang around and flirt with her a little longer. I needed to get to work.

  I hurried down there, making the last train before they s
topped running for the night, and rushed through the door at my job just a minute after I was due to start.

  “You’re running late,” Elijah, my boss, remarked.

  I shrugged at him. “In my defense, you called me in an hour ago,” I pointed out. No need to tell him that I had been handling a convoluted personal drama.

  “Yeah, fair enough.” He shrugged. “Thanks for covering for us. I would leave Oliver to cover service tonight, but he seems a little—”

  “Logan?”

  The voice came from behind me, and I turned to find Oliver standing right there. I wondered how much he’d heard. He never seemed to take criticism that well—not that anyone in this industry did—and he wasn’t my biggest fan. He arrived at the restaurant a few months after me and was a bit resentful that I had made friends and got the good shifts before he did.

  “I didn’t think you were going to make it in,” he remarked, in what I assumed he thought was a joking tone.

  I cocked an eyebrow. “Hoping to get the kitchen to yourself?” I remarked, and he smiled, a little weakly.

  “Haha,” Oliver replied, and it sounded like he was precisely spelling out those letters.

  Elijah and I exchanged a brief glance, and I turned to get cleaned up and changed for the night. But as I washed my hands and pulled on my whites, I couldn’t help finding my mind straying back to that conversation I had with Nina, right before I’d left—the grin on her face, the flirtation in her voice like she didn’t want me to forget just what it was we had shared that day together. As if I ever could.

  Chapter 5

  Nina

  Honestly, I had it set in my mind that it was never going to happen again.

  Especially after the conversation we had together when we both made it pretty clear that neither of us wanted to fuck up our respective relationships with Ant, so it was just best all-around if we left it where it was. It had been nothing but a one-off, and it was clear that he intended to keep it that way. And I did too, of course. Obviously. I didn’t want this. Did I?