One Night Stand

by Corina Eichholz

  “I just can’t tonight,” he told me, ending the topic for the rest of the night, as we lay in bed listlessly and watched mind numbing television until we fell asleep. I felt bored to tears.

  The next morning, I made us breakfast and then Chris took off back to his place. It left me the rest of my Sunday to finish up my papers, do a little yoga and then head out to the campus to do some relaxing stretches. That was my idea of a great day off. The only problem was that no matter what I did, I couldn’t get Axel out of my head. It didn’t help that I’d had a sex dream about him the night before. I found myself drawing his piercing green eyes in my sketchbook instead of the school grounds, after I’d finished my stretching.

  Why did he have to reappear in my life? Of all the one night stands I could have had in a different country, thousands of miles away, I had to choose him? What were the chances! I thought, feeling cursed as thoughts of him plagued me. Get a grip on yourself Leah, I inwardly chastised. It was just a one night stand. There was no deeper connection and I probably kept fantasizing about him because I was sexually deprived. I just needed to get laid and these thoughts about him would disappear, or so I hoped. To my discredit, there had been more than a few times that I’d pictured it was Axel making love to me instead of Chris as we fucked, something I would take to the grave with me. Damn Axel and his amazing green eyes and killer body.

  Axel

  IT HAD BEEN A WEEK since I’d seen Leah and I hadn’t heard a word from her, to my surprise and displeasure. She’d been all I could think about since I’d seen her gorgeous brown eyes and smoking body. I hoped that I’d see her again tonight, like I had the week before and I had even spent more time getting ready, just in hopes of seeing her pretty face.

  It was already one a.m. now and she was nowhere in sight. The regulars flocked in and out and I’d given up hope of seeing Leah tonight. A group of my regulars were leaving now; they came every Friday night and sometimes also on a Thursday or Saturday night as well.

  “Catch you later, Axel,” Lloyd said, the soberest of the bunch. I nodded and slapped a few of their hands back.

  “See you next week,” I told them, knowing I would. I watched them walk off to the cabs that were already waiting for them. These guys were rich, my parents were pretty well-off but these guys, the lot of them had way too much money to burn. They were living the college partying lifestyle to the limits: they were constantly partying, drinking alcohol like it was water and, breezing through women. Basically, everything I’d been doing before I met Leah. I looked at them and the women they had their arms slung around tonight. Always a different one every week, sometimes they left with girls that I had taken home before and sometimes I had left with girls they taken already. The girls tonight, were girls I had never been with and wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. They were trashy and cheap, they slept with anyone who bought them a drink and I’d seen one of them go off and have sex in the bathroom with one guy, only to leave with another man not thirty minutes later to fuck. That was just looking to catch an STI and I didn’t want anything to do with that. I was 100% clean. I had never caught anything and got checked regularly, I didn’t mess around with that.

  “Axel, baby,” Marguerite said, wrapping her arms around me in a hug, clearly drunk.

  “Hey Marge,” I said, lightly pushing her off me.

  “When do you finish?” she asked, her eyes drooping closed from far too much alcohol. “I want to fuck.” She smiled cattily at me. Marge and I were on and off fuck buddies. Whenever it had been awhile I’d fuck her. We had an understanding and it was just sex; no feelings, the way I liked it. Usually I would agree to this strawberry blonde little tart but now I was waiting for my beautiful brunette minx, even if I was horny as fuck. I looked back down at Marge and her jean mini-skirt and five-inch stilettos. She was trying hard not to lose her footing and face plant. There was nothing tempting about her to me anymore.

  “Nah Marge. I’m not down,” I told her honestly, she merely shrugged her shoulders and stumbled back into the bar to find someone else willing to fuck her tonight. I didn’t care in the least; I’d seen her leave with many different guys, just as she’d seen me leave with many other women. We both knew how it was, I’d been clear with her from the beginning, after the lesson Leah had taught me and Marguerite was fine with that. We just used each other when it was convenient to scratch the itch. Leah had ruined me. Sex with anyone else didn’t compare and now that I knew there was a chance with her being so close, I didn’t even want the meaningless lays I could so easily get. This wasn’t me, Leah had changed me from the moment she looked back at me with those stunning brown eyes and I figured there was no going back, even if she didn’t feel the same about me. I got back to my apartment around three-thirty a.m. and turned into the sack exhausted. I was alone tonight; a rare thing on a Friday night and I wondered when I’d see Leah again. Oh, I hoped it would be soon.

  I woke up in the late afternoon around two p.m., showered, ate, did some errands, messaged the folks back home, and then got ready for another night of work. I was working full-time at the moment. I worked at Duke’s bouncing from Thursdays to Sundays and then on Wednesdays I worked as a security guard for a private company. It paid well and was easy work, especially for someone of my size. Usually guys would calm down when I showed up to break up a fight just from intimidation. I had a bit of a reputation from my rugby years and people knew I didn’t mess around. My plan was to make as much money as I could and eventually open up my own private security business. I already had a degree in business and lots of experience from security over the years, so now it was just about saving up, trying to make connections in the industry and planning my future.

  “Hey Axel,” a few girls giggled as I handed them bracelets and let them in. I nodded, ushering them onward so I could get the next group in.

  “Back so soon?” I greeted Lloyd and the guys. I hadn’t expected them back until next week, after they had all left the night before with a girl on their arm.

  “Yeah, we are hoping for better tonight,” Mathers chuckled.

  “Those girls were sloppy,” Lloyd confirmed, scrunching his nose in distaste. I had known they would be just by looking at them.

  “Well, good luck men, happy hunting,” I joked, getting a round of laughs.

  “Always is.” Rhodes grinned. They entered the bar, on the prowl for fresh meat tonight and a good time. I looked forward to having a good night out with my boys. It had been a while and I wanted to tell them that I had seen Leah and she was here. They all knew about my mystery woman but no one knew I’d seen her again; it was something I wanted to tell them in person and not through a text. Some of them still had doubts about this mythical woman’s existence.

  EXAMS WERE FINALLY SLOWING DOWN and I had finished up all my papers and now there was nothing to distract me from thoughts of Axel and our magnificent night in Munich. I hadn’t seen him since that night at Duke’s over two weeks ago and I was going crazy. His number still lay tucked away, burning a hole through my night table. But there was nothing I could do; I was with Chris after all. The only thing between Axel and I was one earth shattering night of passionate sex, and that hadn’t even lasted that long. I was probably just hyping it up in my head because I was so sexually frustrated, it had been almost a month since Chris and I had last had sex and I was slowly dying inside, especially with naughty dreams of Axel plaguing me every night.

  I decided to head home for the weekend to escape and distance myself from any ideas of going back to see Axel. Chris was fine with me skipping out on our Saturday night sleepover, he’d skipped out the week before because he wanted to go out and party and I’d needed to study. With me gone this weekend he got to party some more. I didn’t mind that he liked to party, he told me he needed to get it out of his system before we settled down and eventually got married. I would rather him have his fun now than ten years down the line. I took the train to my parents, it only took forty-five minutes and then a short ten-min
ute walk to my family home.

  I loved coming back home, no matter how long I was away, everything was always the same at home. I could smell Mom’s home cooking as I opened the door. She was a fantastic cook and her home cooked meals were always my favorite part about being home. I walked into the kitchen where Mom was stirring a pot of tomato sauce, while Dad sat at the kitchen table reading the paper. Just like always, they were never far from each other.

  “Hi!” I called out and gave them both hugs. They hugged me back warmly, taking their time. I loved my parents and we were pretty close.

  “I’m so happy you decided to come by,” Mom gushed. It had been a month since I’d been back home. I really did miss my parents but what with school, clinical and Chris, I didn’t have much time to visit.

  “Me too,” I told them, taking a spoon and sampling Mom’s homemade sauce. Amazing as always.

  “Hey Little One,” Jackie said, walking into the kitchen.

  “Hey,” I said back, we weren’t close and often I wished we were. We used to be super close until Jackie turned fifteen and didn’t want anything to do with her eleven-year old little sister, tagging along with her everywhere. Jackie was very popular in high school and became a real girly girl, whereas I kept mostly to myself with few exceptions and got really into sports and sciences. I hung out with the nerds or the jocks, not the kind of groups Jackie would hang out with or even consider cool. We had next to nothing in common besides the blood running in our veins. She called me Little One as a nickname, because for a very long time I was really small for my age but now I’d caught up and was only an inch shorter than her, when she wasn’t wearing her heels which wasn’t often.

  “How’s it going?” she asked, as we all sat down at the table to eat dinner together, something we did every night growing up, dinner was family time.

  “Good, I’ve just about finished all my midterms and I’ve done all my papers for the meantime,” I told them.

  “And how’s Chris?” Mom asked brightly. “It’s a shame he couldn’t make it tonight.” They didn’t know what had happened between Chris and I over the summer. Just that we’d taken a short break and we were back together and better than ever, or so I let on. Mom was just waiting for grandkids and with Jackie not being able to maintain a stable relationship for more than a few months, Mom was counting on me to give her grandchildren. I had always been the reliable and stable one out of the two of us, or the boring one, as Jackie would say.

  “Yeah, he still has exams,” I lied, covering for him. Chris didn’t mind my family but he preferred to go out with his friends than come home with me on family visits.

  “What are you up to?” I asked Jackie, turning the conversation around to her. She was twenty-three and still living at home with my parents. She had dropped out of college a few years back and now drifted between different jobs, looking for one to stick.

  “Nothing much.” She shrugged. “Same thing different day,” she said bored.

  “That’s not true,” Mom cut in. “Tell her about the program you applied to,” she said excitedly. I looked over at Jackie who rolled her eyes at Mom. I was suddenly interested.

  “I’m applying to a makeup and hair school,” she confessed, not looking up from her plate.

  “That’s awesome, you love all that stuff.” I really thought it would be a good fit for Jackie. She spent enough time doing her hair and makeup that she knew what she was doing. Not only that, she was actually really good at it and more importantly, she liked it. “It sounds great!” I exclaimed, happy for her.

  “Yeah, we’ll see,” she said, not sounding overeager, which made me think that maybe she was nervous and downplaying it. Dinner went smoothly after that and I watched a movie in the living room with my parents before bed. Jackie’s long time high school friend, Ashley, came over and they decided to go out to a bar, forgoing our family movie time.

  “Hey Ash,” I greeted. I’d known her since I was eleven and she felt almost like another big sister to me.

  “Hey Lee,” she said ruffling up my hair, like I was still a little kid, an annoying habit of hers. She was looking ready to go out, her tits pushed up high and hanging out, thanks to her push-up bra and low-cut tank top and her booty shorts plastered against her ass. Not to mention her perfectly curled hair and full-face makeup, from her smoky eyes down to her ruby red lips. This girl clearly meant business. She looked good but like she was trying just a little too hard. Jackie had also changed and done herself up, adorning a short blue dress and a pair of silver strappy stilettos.

  “You girls are looking good,” I complimented them. “Fish to fry?” I asked, it was our little term for going after guys.

  “You know it, Little One.” Ashley winked. “I’m going to get me a much-needed dosage of tall, blond, and handsome,” she said, licking her lips. I laughed, thinking how I wanted the same thing. Even being home, I still thought of Axel and how I wanted another night of pure unadulterated sex.

  “Ash is obsessed with this guy, it’s been five months and she won’t get over him,” Jackie informed me.

  “If you’d had a roll in the sheets with him, Jack, you’d be as crazy as me,” Ash smirked seriously. “Now I am going to get fucked senseless. Catch you later Lee,” Ashley called, heading out the door with Jackie for their wild night out on the town. I got cozy in my PJs and joined Mom and Dad on the couch. There was nowhere I’d rather be than here, except for maybe in a bed with Axel but that wasn’t a good idea or going to happen.

  “How was your night?” I asked Jackie when she came down from her slumber after a late night out. It was one p.m. now and she was pulling out a cereal bowl for breakfast, I’d been up since eight a.m. and had already eaten lunch by now.

  “Long,” she said, putting her head on her hand for support, clearly hungover. I got up and went to the medicine cabinet and handed her two ibuprofen and a glass of orange juice. She took it gratefully. “You’re a lifesaver,” she said, gulping them down swiftly.

  “No problem. How’d it go for Ashley?” I asked, curious after their exit. Jackie waved her hand away.

  “No go. Now she’s crazier than ever,” she updated me. Poor Ash. She had trouble falling for people too quickly and she’d gotten hurt a lot in the past because of it.

  “That’s too bad,” I said, feeling sorry for Ashley.

  “C’est la vie,” Jackie said, the one sentence she knew in French and liked to use whenever she could.

  “I’m going to head back to campus soon but I wanted to say good luck with your beauty school, I think you’re going to be great,” I told her honestly, trying to give her some extra confidence. Even though we weren’t super close and she was often kind of a bitch to me, I loved my big sister and wanted her to be happy.

  “Thanks Lee. You take care of yourself.” She smiled at me and I left to catch the next train back to my dorm.

  “LEE,” CHELSEA CRIED OUT, POUNCING on me from behind and scaring the crap out of me. I froze in surprise, the shock having stunned me momentarily.

  “Don’t do that Chelsea!” I scolded her, she loved to catch me off guard, even though she knew how much I hated it.

  She giggled at me and my seriousness. “You’re too funny, Lee,” she laughed, amused.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, bewildered, as I caught my breath.

  “I’ve come to take you out,” she told me. Of course she had.

  “And where to? May I ask?” I asked, dreading the thought.

  “You’ll see,” she said cryptically.

  “How about we just stay in?” I bargained. I really didn’t want to go out; especially if there was a chance I might run into Axel. That was a recipe for disaster.

  “Stop being such a hermit!” Chelsea reprimanded me. “It’s been weeks since you’ve gone out!” she exclaimed in horror. “Now tonight, we are going out! Chris goes out every Friday and you can go out too. Live a little, Lee,” she went on. I guess one night out couldn’t hurt.

  “F
ine but I want to be home by twelve,” I warned her.

  “One a.m. latest,” she promised.

  “Fine,” I agreed. “But not Duke’s, it wasn’t fun,” I lied, trying to avoid any possibility of seeing Axel again.

  “Fine,” she said disappointed but agreed. We got ready at my place as usual. Chelsea wore a black, skin tight mini-dress and I wore a dark green long sleeve shirt that showed off just the right amount of cleavage and a pair of dark blue jeans. I felt comfortable yet sexy at the same time. I put on my signature mascara and lip gloss combo and I was ready to go.

  “Looking good, Mamacita,” Chels complimented, looking beautiful as ever.

  “Back at you.” I winked. Chelsea drove us down the winding streets of downtown. There were lots of people out everywhere, now that mid-term exams were over and everyone was taking advantage to celebrate. We drove by a few bars that already had long lines out the doors.

  “This sucks,” Chelsea groaned in frustration. “Can we just go by Duke’s and see how it is?” she asked warily. No, I did not want to go back there! But before I knew it, she was driving by the front door. I nearly ducked down to hide, until I noticed it was a tall lanky brunet at the door and not Axel. Maybe he wouldn’t be there, I thought positively. It was a risk but with Chelsea’s constant groaning it looked like I didn’t have many options.

  “Fine,” I sighed in defeat. She let out a little shout of excitement, clearly happy to have won this one. We got out of her sleek Audi and made our way to the entrance. The bouncer took one look at us and barely even checked our fake IDs. So far, I was feeling lucky tonight. With a drink in my hand and a plate of chicken wings out in front of me, I was feeling good and actually having a good time.